Sir Nicholas Bagenal
Nicholas Bagenal was born into a wealthy merchant and politically active family in Newcastle-under-Lyme in Staffordshire. His father, John Bagenal, was mayor of the town on several occasions and his mother came from the Whittingham family, which were based in the important commercial city of Chester. However, in 1539, Bagenal had to flee to Ireland after having been accused of killing a man in a brawl.
Nicholas Bagenal sought refuge in Ulster with Con Baccagh O’Neill, 1st earl of Tyrone but benefited from O’Neill’s improving relations with the English government and gained a pardon in 1543. He subsequently spent several years as a mercenary in France before returning to Ireland. The English government recognised Bagenal’s knowledge of Gaelic Ulster and military abilities by appointing him Marshall of the Army in 1547. He was knighted in 1551 and was granted the former estates of the Cistercian abbey at Newry, along with lands in Mourne and Carlingford, in 1552. Bagenal’s estates were in a strategically-important location to enable the extension of English government and settlement into Ulster.
Subsequently, Bagenal began to develop his estates around Carlingford Lough as a basis for English authority in the area. This was fundamental to extending English government into Ulster and strengthening the security of the Pale around Dublin. He set about re-developing the medieval settlement in Newry not only by introducing English and Welsh settlers into the area but by also encouraging the existing Gaelic artisan and merchant class to develop along English lines. Bagenal retained the medieval streets (now known as High Street and North Street) in Newry and developed the main part of the town around his castle which he had built by the 1570s. He also built a new Protestant church and sought a grant for the walling of the town.
The economic base provided by his estates in such a strategic location coupled with the political authority given to him in his offices of Marshall of the Army, and from 1567, as Commissioner of the North, enabled him to exert greater influence in Ulster. This was especially true with regard to the Gaelic lords. Nicholas Bagenal had achieved a close relationship with Con Bacagh O’Neill, the nominal Gaelic overlord of south Ulster. However, the defeat of Con Bacagh by Shane O’Neill in 1559 upset this political balance. Shane, who was hostile to Bagenal’s presence in Ulster, put severe military pressure on the settlement at Newry. The position of Shane O’Neill was eventually weakened by campaigns against him by the Lord Deputies of Ireland, in which Bagenal assisted, and by the hostility of the O’Donnells. He was eventually defeated by the O’Donnells and murdered in June 1567.
In the aftermath of the death of Shane O’Neill, Sir Nicholas Bagenal was able to increase his authority in Ulster and re-establish good relationships with the Gaelic lords. He also bolstered his authority over neighbouring septs such as the O’Hanlons of Orior and Magennises of Iveagh. In the face of the rise of Turlough Luineach O’Neill, he was able to form a coalition of anti-Turlough septs in south Ulster including the young Hugh O’Neill, baron of Dungannon, until a peace treaty was reached in 1570.
Bagenal’s achievements in Ulster were recognised by him becoming Chief Commissioner of Ulster, a member of the Irish Council and serving as MP in the Irish Parliament for Newry in 1585. When he died in October 1590, the importance of his settlement at Newry was maintained by his son, Henry, who succeeded him as Marshall of the Army and also his position on the Irish Council and as Chief Commissioner of Ulster.
Sir Nicholas Bagenal had married Elianora, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Edward Griffyth, a Welsh landowner. They had nine children, most of whom married into Old English gentry families in the Pale. Their youngest daughter, Mabel, famously entered into an ill-fated marriage with Hugh O’Neill, Earl of Tryone in 1591, a marriage which was probably an attempt by O’Neill to neutralise Henry Bagenal’s power in Ulster. Henry Bagenal was eventually killed at the Battle of Yellow Ford in 1598.
The Bagenal family line came to an end in 1712, and the estate was divided between distant relatives Edward Bayley, who received land in county Louth, and Robert Nedham, who received the estates in counties Down and Armagh, including Newry.
