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MacDonnell lordship of that district. The MacQuillins, however, resisted his authority, and during the spring of 1559 Sorley Boy was busily engaged in raising troops on the Scottish coast. Early in July he landed at Marketon Bay, and finding the MacQuillins strongly posted at the foot of Glenshesk he attacked them at a place called Beal-a-faula and repulsing them with heavy loss drove them southwards. Several bloody encounters followed, but at Slieve-an-aura the MacQuillins and their allies were completely routed, and the MacDonnells re-established in possession of the Route.

The Scottish settlements along the Antrim coast had long been regarded with disfavour by the Englisn government, but the efforts made to destroy them had so signally failed that Elizabeth was quite ready to listen to certain overtures made to her by Sorley Boy shortly after her accession, to submit to her authority on condition of being confirmed in his possessions, and all the more so, probably, because she saw in the Scots a means of curbing the power of Shane O'Neill. To O'Neill the growth of a strong, independent power in the north-east was naturally as displeasing as it was to Elizabeth, but in the event of a rupture with the crown an alliance with Sorley Boy was a thing not to be despised. As for Sorley Boy there can be no doubt that his interest lay in coming to terms with the government. In 1660, when matters between the government and O'Neill were approaching a crisis, he readily consented to follow the lead of Argyll and his brother James in forming a league against Shane O'Neill, merely stipulating that as a reward for his services ne should receive letters of denization and a grant of all the lands he held as deputy for his brother. Elizabeth and her advisers appear to have regarded his claims as somewnat extravagant, but there was an evident desire on their part to arrive at some satisfactory conclusion (see particularly Cecil's own instructions to Henry Warren in State Papers, Ireland, Eliz. ii. 14). Obstacles, however, arose for which neither side was wholly responsible. As time went on and the situation of affairs altered, the government became less anxious to treat, and the murder of Alaster MacRandal Boy Macdonnell and his brother Gillaspic by Andrew Brereton in March 1563 made Sorley Boy stand on the defensive. A month or two later peace was concluded between the government and Shane O'Neill. The latter, who had been waiting his opportunity to break up the northern confederacy, thought the moment for action had arrived. Veiling his intention under the guise of loyalty, he in August 1 564 announced his determination to expel Sorley Boy and the Scots. His resolution was applauded by government and immediately put into execution. In a battle near Coleraine Sorley Boy was himself wounded and his territory afterwards laid waste with fire and sword. In the spring of the following year, 1566, O'Neill renewed his invasion, and, proceeding northward through the Glynns, destroyed as far as possible every trace of the Scottish settlements. At Ballycastle he encountered the MacDonnells, and in the battle that followed Sorley Boy and James MacDonnell were taken prisoners. A few months later James died in prison, not without suspicion that his end had been purposely hastened by O'Neill. For two years Sorley Boy remained in captivity, but early in 1667 Shane O'Neill, whose situation had become desperate, determined — acting, it is conjectured, on the advice of Sorley Boy — to make a personal appeal for assistance to the Antrim Scots. The MacDonnells had neither forgotten nor forgiven his treatment of their chief, and, without supposing his murder to have been deliberately planned beforehand, it may well have been that his presence in their midst and his arrogant demeanour provoked them beyond endurance.

To the government, however, Sorley Boy was almost as objectionable as Shane Neill, and various schemes were set on foot to compel him to abandon his Irish possessions. But Sorley Boy, who since the death of Shane had been occupied in strengthening his connection in Scotland, landed at Marketon Bay on 27 Nov. at the head of six or seven hundred redshanks, in whose presence he swore never to leave Ireland with his good-will. The news of his landing spread considerable consternation through official circles, but though Elizabeth issued peremptory orders for his expulsion, no attempt was made to execute them, and Sorley Boy, who consistently aimed at conciliation, after again urging the legal recognition of his claims, returned to Scotland, where he appears to have taken a personal part in a conflict between the Clan Donnell and MacLeans. During the year there were continual rumours of a combination between him and Turlough Luineach O'Neill, but though he was probably present at the marriage of Turlough and the widow of his brother James in Rathlin Island in the autumn of 1569, it was not till February 1571, when the air was full of the colonisation schemes of Sir Thomas Smith and others, that he deemed his presence in Ireland necessary. Leaving his son Donnell with three hundred Scots to guard the Glynns, he returned to