Owen Roe O'Neill Owen Roe O'Neill (Irish: Eoghan Ruadh Ó Néill), c. 1585 – 6 November 1649, was a Gaelic Irish soldier and one of the most Owen Roe O'Neill famous of the O'Neill dynasty of Ulster in Ireland. O'Neill left Ireland Eoghan Ruadh Ó Néill at a young age and spent most of his life as a mercenary in the Spanish Army serving against the Dutch in Flanders during the Eighty Years' War. Following the Irish Rebellion of 1641, O'Neill returned and took command of the Ulster Army of the Irish Confederates. He is known for his victory at the Battle of Benburb in 1646. O'Neill's later years were marked by infighting amongst the Confederates, and he led his army to seize power in the capital of Kilkenny. His troops clashed with rival forces of the Confederacy, leading to O'Neill forming a temporary alliance with Charles Coote's English Parliamentary forces in Ulster. He initially rejected a treaty of alliance between the Confederates and the Irish Royalists, but faced with the Cromwellian invasion he changed his mind. Shortly after Litograph copy of a contemporary agreeing an alliance with the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Ormond, in painting of O'Neill. which he was promised an Earldom, he died on Tuesday, 6 November 1649. Born 1585 County Armagh, Kingdom of Ireland Contents Died 6 November 1649 Cloughoughter Early life Castle, County In Spain Cavan, Kingdom of Return to Ireland Ireland Campaigns of 1643-45 Resting The Abbey, Cavan, place Ireland Battle of Benburb Nationality Irish Campaigns of 1647 Other names Owen Roe O'Neill Factionalism and disillusionment Occupation Mercenary, Soldier Death and legacy Commemoration Known for Irish General Citations Title Commander of the Ulster Army References Predecessor Sir Phelim O'Neill Further reading Successor Bishop Heber External links MacMahon Spouse(s) Rosa O'Neill Early life Parent(s) Art MacBaron O'Neill O'Neill was the illegitimate son of Art MacBaron O'Neill, a son of Matthew O'Neill, 1st Baron Dungannon and younger brother of Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone (the Great O'Neill), who held lands in County Armagh. His alleged great-grandfather was Conn O'Neill, 1st Earl of Tyrone, the most powerful figure in Ulster and the first O'Neill to take a title from the Crown as part of the surrender and regrant policy of the Tudor era. Through Conn, he was descended from Thomas FitzGerald, 7th Earl of Kildare, the leading Anglo-Irish noble of the era, member of the Earls of Kildare, who more or less ruled Ireland in the 15th and early 16th centuries. His year of birth is unknown but was likely to have been around 1585. It is also not certain exactly where he was born, but it was probably near Loughgall in County Armagh where his father's estates were and where O'Neill spent much of his youth.[1] His mother was the daughter of Aodh Conallach O'Raghallaigh, lord of Breifne O'Reilly in County Cavan. O'Neill was educated by Franciscan monks who not only educated him in Latin but also in the art of war. He later fought against the English in the Nine Years' War, with the Irish war effort led by his great uncle Hugh O'Neill. He would have been only a teen at the time and it is unknown what his role would have been, but it may have fueled his deep hatred for the English later in his life.[2] Several of his elder brothers also took part in the rebellion, some of whom died fighting. Another, Brian MacArt O'Neill, was hanged for manslaughter in 1607. One of his nephews was Daniel O'Neill, a Protestant who became a noted Cavalier in England during the 1640s. Another of his nephews, Hugh Dubh O'Neill fought in the Confederate Wars and famously inflicted massive casualties on Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army during the Siege of Clonmel in 1650.[3] In Spain As a young man O'Neill left Ireland (likely in 1607 during the Flight of the Earls).[4] He grew up in the Spanish Netherlands and served for 40 years in the Irish regiment of the Spanish army. Most of his combat was in the Eighty Years' War against the Dutch Republic in Flanders and against the French in the Franco- Spanish War. He distinguished himself notably at the Siege of Arras in 1640, where he commanded the Spanish garrison and held out for 48 days with 2,000 men (many of whom were fellow Irishmen), against a French army of 35,000.[5] Throughout his career O'Neill was known to be an expert in defensive warfare. Like many Irish officers in Spanish service, O'Neill was very hostile to the English Protestant invasion of Ireland. In 1627, he was involved in petitioning the Spanish monarchy to invade Ireland using the Irish Spanish regiments. O'Neill proposed that Ireland be made a republic under Spanish protection to avoid in- fighting between Irish Catholic landed families over which of them would provide a prince or king of Ireland. This plan came to nothing.[6] However, in 1642, O'Neill planned to return to Ireland with 300 veterans to aid the Irish Rebellion of 1641, apparently at the invitation of one of the organizers of the rebellion Rory O'Moore. He was given money by the Pope, with which he bought a frigate, the St. Francis, and also purchased weapons and canons to arm the ships. The ship, often described as the flagship of the Confederate naval forces during the war, was the first to fly the Confederate flag. He was joined by several of his countrymen and his sons. They managed to evade several English vessels which were specially deployed to intercept O'Neill. Upon landing in Ulster he was met by Sir Phelim O'Neill who escorted him to the Irish-held fort of Charlemont.[2] Twelve more ships from Continental Europe carrying experienced Irish officers along with weapons and supplies for the Irish war effort would land in Ireland later, reviving the rebellion, and adding considerable knowledge and experience to the Catholic ranks, which would prove extremely valuable.[7] Return to Ireland The rebellion had broken out in Autumn 1641, with the rebel leaders issuing the Proclamation of Dungannon declaring their aim of enhancing Catholic rights while declaring their continued loyalty to King Charles I. Despite a failed attempt to seize Dublin Castle, the rebels enjoyed success across Ulster and the uprising spread to other parts of the country. However, the rebels then suffered several defeats to the Royal Irish Army and the Scottish Covenanter Army in Ireland and by the time Owen Roe arrived the rising was increasingly in trouble. The subsequent war, known as the Irish Confederate Wars, was part of the Wars of the Three Kingdoms – civil wars throughout Britain and Ireland. Because of his military experience, O'Neill was recognised on his return to Ireland, at Doe Castle in County Donegal on 8 July 1642,[8][9] as the leading representative of the O'Neills and head of the Ulster Irish. Sir Phelim O'Neill resigned the northern command of the Irish rebellion in Owen Roe's favour and escorted him from Lough Swilly to Charlemont. Upon arrival in Ireland, he received a letter from an English parliamentarian general by the name of Leslie, telling O'Neill that The Green harp flag, stated as being used he was sad O'Neill, as an experienced officer, was committing by O'Neill in 1642. himself to such a cause and that he should return to Spain. O'Neill responded that his cause in Ireland was far more honourable than an English general fighting against his own King.[7] But distrust between the kinsmen was complicated by differences between Owen Roe O'Neill and the Catholic Confederation which met at Kilkenny in October 1642. Phelim professed to be acting in the interest of Charles I; O'Neill's aim was complete Independence of Ireland as a Catholic country, while the Old English Catholics represented by the council desired to secure religious liberty and an Irish constitution under English rule.[10] O'Neill wanted the Plantation of Ulster overturned and the recovery of the O'Neill dynasty's lands. The majority of Confederate military resources were directed to Thomas Preston's Leinster Army. Preston, an Old English Catholic, was also a Spanish veteran but he and O'Neill had an intense personal dislike of each other. Mainly because Preston had been given the available military resources, O'Neill was outnumbered by the Scottish Covenanter army that had landed in Ulster in 1642. He did, however, have a large number of experienced officers who had travelled with him from Flanders.The Irish Ulster Army was poorly trained and undisciplined, so O'Neill set out to transform the army into a respectable force. Following a defeat at the Battle of Clones, O'Neill had to abandon central Ulster and was followed by thousands of refugees, fleeing the revenge of the Scottish soldiers who inflicted terrible attacks on Irish civilians, persuaded by British propaganda alleging atrocities against Protestants in the rebellion of 1641.[11] To O'Neill the devastation of Ulster made it look, "not only like a desert, but like hell, if hell could exist on earth". O'Neill stopped the killings of Protestant civilians, for which he received the gratitude of many Protestant settlers. From 1642–46 a stalemate existed in Ulster, which O'Neill used to train and discipline his Ulster Army.