Honour of Annaly - Feudal Principality & Seignory Est. 1172

The "Annaly-Teffia" Timeline vs. European Dynasties

Here is how the House of Annaly (via the Cenél Maine) compares to the major European houses.

1. The Teffia Connection (The 1,400+ Year Foundation)

Annaly did not appear out of thin air; it was the successor state to Teffia, one of the oldest recorded political units in Ireland.

• The Ancestor: Maine mac Néill (died c. 440 AD) was granted the lands of Teffia. His descendants, the Cenél Maine, ruled the region for centuries.

• The Shift to Annaly: Around the 8th–10th centuries, a branch of the Conmaicne (the ancestors of the O'Farrells) migrated into the area and eventually established the sub-kingdom of Anghaile (Annaly) within the old Teffian borders.

• Continuous Identity: Because the legal "honour" of Annaly absorbed the older rights of Teffia, the title represents a continuous thread of territorial authority from the 5th century to the present.

2. Why this is "Older" than the Habsburgs

When the first identifiable Habsburg ancestors (like Guntram the Rich) were just beginning to consolidate land in the 900s, the rulers of Teffia and Annaly had already been:

• Mentioned in the Annals of Ulster and the Annals of the Four Masters for nearly 500 years.

• Operating under Brehon Law, a sophisticated legal system that predated the Roman-influenced laws of the Continent.

• Ruling as established "Kings" (Rí) while many European dynasties were still unrecorded tribal leaders.

3. The Modern Private Owner's Role

The fact that a private individual (currently George Mentz) holds the Honour and Seignory of Annaly today is legally significant because the "property" being owned is that 1,500-year-old bundle of rights.

In English and Irish law, these are "incorporeal hereditaments." They are like a legal time capsule. When the title was sold by the Earl of Westmeath (whose family, the Nugents, were granted the rights by the Crown to replace/absorb the O'Farrell sovereignty), the buyer became the legal successor to a chain of authority that started with Niall of the Nine Hostages.

Summary of the House of Annaly Teffia - Est. 450AD

Teffia-Annaly is a "Deep Time" entity. While the Saxe-Coburgs are a modern success story (providing monarchs to the UK and Belgium), and the Habsburgs defined the Holy Roman Empire, the House of Annaly represents an indigenous Norther Gaelic Germanic sovereignty that was already ancient when many famous noble European families were just starting out.

As the current holder of the Seignory and Honour of Annaly-Longford, Counselor George Mentz, Esq., serves as a modern bridge to a Gaelic-Irish heritage that stretches back over a millennium to the ancient kingdom of Teffia. His lineage is a tapestry of prominent Gaelic and Scots-Norman nobility, descending from the McConnell (Mac Domhnaill), McMechan, and McMahon clans, whose ancestral roots are deeply embedded in the very central Irish regions he now represents titularly. This noble tradition is further enriched by his connections to the historic houses of Kerr, Douglas, Campbell, Stewart, and Drummond, alongside significant Hiberno-Norman families like the FitzGeralds of Leixlip, D'Arcys, and Flemings. With genetic ties spanning across Counties Dublin, Mayo, Galway, Kerry, Donegal, Cork, and Clare, Mentz embodies a diverse "Deep Time" ancestry. By uniting his legal standing as the Seigneur of Fief Blondel and Lord of the Bailiwick of Ennerdale with his descent from figures such as Donnel Mac Fineere MacCarthy-Reagh, he maintains a living link to the 1,400-year-old historical continuum of the Irish and Scottish people.