north-west of Ireland, able to put into the field a strong army with a Gallowglass basis, Tyrconnell mounted a serious challenge to Tyrone's domination of the north of Ireland: Clandeboye and Iveagh saw this as an opportunity to assert more independence for themselves. As part of this complex patchwork of alliances, which spread throughout all of Ireland, there was a wider implication for geopolitics in the British Isles and indeed European politics, in the context of the Hundred Years' War; one faction made alliances with the Plantagenet Kingdom of England, the other with the Stewart Kingdom of Scotland (and thus, by implication of their Auld Alliance; the Kingdom of France). Thus, when Richard II of England visited Ireland and gained the "submission" of a number of Gaelic Irish and Gaelicised chiefs in 1395, there were a few notable absences: the O'Donnells of Tyrconnell (friends of Stewart Scotland) and their Irish allies such as the O'Neills of Clandeboye, Burke of Mayo and O'Connor Ruadh of Roscommon, who never submitted. Despite being a relatively junior kingdom, Clandeboye was able to hand military defeats to ostensibly stronger powers which tried to invade them during the reigns of the brothers Murtagh Roe O'Neill and Hugh Boy II O'Neill, closely guarding their autonomy. For example, Eoghan O'Neill, King of Tyrone, invaded Clandeboye in 1444 but was defeated. His son Éinri (Henry) O'Neill, the King of Tyrone, tried the same again while invading Clandeboye in 1476, but he too was defeated. Meanwhile, during the reign of Conn O'Neill, when the Anglo-controlled Lordship tried to revive its colony in Ulster, appointing Patrick Savage of Lecale as the Seneschal of Ulster, he was captured in 1481 by the Clandeboye forces and was subsequently "blinded and castrated in captivity", making him unfit to carry on his duties. 16th century: weakening and decline The Kingdom of Clandeboye had been divided in the early 16th century into "Lower Clandeboye" and "Upper Clandeboye", following a decline in power of the last undivided King of Clandeboye, Murtagh Dulenagh O'Neill. His nephews from two of his older brothers, who had also been Kings of Clandeboye (Phelim Bacagh O'Neill and Niall Oge O'Neill), took advantage of their uncle's weakness and established themselves. This situation was recognised as such and reported by Thomas Cusack, the Lord Chancellor of Ireland in his letter to the Duke of Northumberland on the current state of Ireland in March 1552.