Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone

Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone (c. 1550–1616), was the leading Gaelic Irish lord in the Nine Years' War against Elizabeth I. Raised in the English Pale, he built up power in Ulster, secretly backing rebellion in the 1590s. He adopted firearms and continental tactics before his 1595 revolt, storming the Blackwater Fort.

Victory at the Yellow Ford in 1598 won him much of Ulster, but Spanish aid ended in defeat at Kinsale in 1601, and he submitted under the Treaty of Mellifont in 1603. He fled in the 1607 Flight of the Earls and died in Rome in 1616.