Bagenal, Mabel (c. 1571–1595)
Bagenal, Mabel (c. 1571–1595)
Irish noblewoman. Born around 1571; died at Dungannon in December 1595; daughter of Marshal Bagenal, leader of the army in Ireland; sister of Henry Bagenal (c. 1556–1598); married Hugh O'Neill (1550–1616), 3rd Baron Dungannon and 2nd earl of Tyrone, in August 1591.
When Henry Bagenal, marshal of the army in Ireland, refused to allow his 20-year-old sister Mabel to marry the twice-married Hugh O'Neill, she and the 41-year-old O'Neill defied him and eloped in August 1591. Henry then set out to prove that O'Neill was not legally severed from his first wife, whom O'Neill had divorced in 1574 (his second wife died in 1591). For two years, Henry held back Mabel's dowry left to her by her father. Early historians often made Mabel Bagenal the cause of ill will between O'Neill and Bagenal, calling her the "Helen" of the Elizabethan Bagenal wars, though this simplistic theory has been discredited. When O'Neill, in his own words, "affected two other gentlewomen," the marriage quickly disintegrated. Mabel left him and entered a complaint to the Council. When she died in December of 1595, O'Neill married his fourth wife Catherine Magennis .