Earl Hugh continued to use his title abroad, and it was recognized by Spain and the Vatican. He died in Rome, in 1616; the life in the seventeenth century had already killed several of his sons, and the others died young. His last surviving son, Shane O'Neill continued to call himself Earl of Tyrone, and to organize raids against Stuart Ireland, until his death in January 1641; his will, written before he went to command his regiment (the Tyrone regiment) in the Spanish siege of Barcelona, then held by the French and the Catalans in the Catalan Revolt, largely deals with the descent of the title and the family estates in Ireland.