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All About History Books

The Chronicle of Geoffrey le Baker of Swinbroke. Baker was a secular clerk from Swinbroke, now Swinbrook, an Oxfordshire village two miles east of Burford. His Chronicle describes the events of the period 1303-1356: Gaveston, Bannockburn, Boroughbridge, the murder of King Edward II, the Scottish Wars, Sluys, Crécy, the Black Death, Winchelsea and Poitiers. To quote Herbert Bruce 'it possesses a vigorous and characteristic style, and its value for particular events between 1303 and 1356 has been recognised by its editor and by subsequent writers'. The book provides remarkable detail about the events it describes. Baker's text has been augmented with hundreds of notes, including extracts from other contemporary chronicles, such as the Annales Londonienses, Annales Paulini, Murimuth, Lanercost, Avesbury, Guisborough and Froissart to enrich the reader's understanding. The translation takes as its source the 'Chronicon Galfridi le Baker de Swynebroke' published in 1889, edited by Edward Maunde Thompson. Available at Amazon in eBook and Paperback.

Biography of Shane O'Neill 1530-1567

In or before 1530 [his father] Conn O'Neill 1st Earl Tyrone (age 49) and Alice Fitzgerald Countess Tyrone were married. She the daughter of Gerald Fitzgerald 8th Earl of Kildare and Alice Fitzeustace Countess Kildare.

Around 1530 Shane O'Neill was born to Conn O'Neill 1st Earl Tyrone (age 50). His mother is unclear; either Alice Fitzgerald Countess Tyrone or Sorcha O'Neill, daughter of Hugh Oge O'Neill, chief of the O'Neills of Clandeboye.

Chronicle of Greyfriars. 1542. And this year came in the Earl of Desmond and the great [his father] O'Neill (age 62), and was created Earl of Tyrone and his son (age 12) Baron of Dungannon.

In 1559 [his father] Conn O'Neill 1st Earl Tyrone (age 79) died.

Henry Machyn's Diary. 4th January 1562. The iiij day of January cam to the c[ourt the] yerle of Kyldare (age 37), and browth the grett O'Nelle (age 32) of Yrland, for he had the charge of hym [to bring] hym to the quen.

Note. P. 274. The great O'Neill of Ireland. This person, whom our Diarist in the next page takes the liberty to call "the wild Irishman," was John or Shane O'Neill, eldest son of Connac O'Neill, created earl of Tyrone by Henry VIII. in 1542. After a career the turbulence of which fully justifies Machyn's epithet, he was slain in the year 1567, by Alexander Oge MacConnell.

Henry Machyn's Diary. 14th January 1562. The xiiij day of January cam rydyng in-to [Cheap-] syd (blank) John Onelle (age 32), the wyld Yrys-man, and [went] and dynyd at the sant John('s) hed at master Daneell['s the] goldsmyth; the wyche was the sune of the [his father] erle of (Tyrone).

Henry Machyn's Diary. 14th February 1562. The xiiij day of Feybruary dyd rune at the rynge John Onelle (age 32) beyond sant James in the feld.

On 2nd June 1567 Shane O'Neill (age 37) was assassinated at Castle Cara.