Today we are going to look at the political landscape of Tudor Ireland in the 1590s.

It's full of men writing letters, plotting strategies, and accusing each other of treachery.

But tucked inside that storm is a story that everybody at the time was talking about,

usually with outrage or disbelief.

The moment when Mabel Baganel, the youngest daughter of a

powerful English military family, decided that she was done being managed. She walked away from

her brother's control and married Hugh O'Neill, the Earl of Tyrone, one of the most influential Gaelic lords in Ireland.

It wasn't a quiet decision. It shocked her family. It irritated the government in Dublin.

And it added fresh fuel to the tensions that were already close to exploding.

The more you look at the sources, the clearer it becomes that Mabel wasn't confused or manipulated.

She made a deliberate choice and it impacted lives far beyond her own short life.

Settle in, get cozy, grab a drink, because today we are talking about a woman who wasn't going to be managed by the men around her.

Mabel Baganel.

Hey friend, welcome back to the YouTube channel for the Renaissance English History podcast.

I am your host, Heather, and I am, as always, just delighted

that you are here with me on a very rainy, snowy, icky day to talk about a woman that I think is

pretty awesome. Let's get into it. If you were to list the women in Tudor, Ireland, who upended

politics simply by following their own judgment

and their own heart, Mabel Baganel would be really right up there at the top. She was born into

one of the most staunchly English families in Ireland. The Baganals weren't just settlers. They were

military administrators, Protestant loyalists,

and deeply invested in building an English-controlled Ulster. Her father, Sir Nicholas Baganal,

...