He was created
Earl of Tyrone by the Queen; but disliking this servitude, and wishful
to liberate his country from the English yoke, he entered into a
correspondence with Spain; procured from thence a supply of arms and
ammunition; and having united many of the Irish chiefs in a dependence
upon himself, he began to be regarded as a formidable enemy.
[Illustration: TYRONE'S BED, NEAR ROCHDALE.
_Drawn by G. Pickering. Engraved by Edw^d Finden._]
The English found much difficulty in pursuing the rebels into the bogs,
woods, and other fastnesses to which they retreated. Sir John Norris,
who commanded the English army, was rendered thereby more willing to
hearken to the proposals made by Tyrone, and the war was spun out by
these artifices for some years. Sir John dying, as was reported, of
vexation and discontent, was succeeded by Sir Henry Bagnall. "He
advanced to the relief at Blackwater, then besieged by the enemy, but
was surrounded in disadvantageous ground. His soldiers, discouraged by
part of their powder accidentally taking fire, were put to flight; and
though the pursuit was stopped by Montacute, who commanded the English
horse, fifteen hundred men, together with the general himself, were left
dead upon the spot.
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