Felim O'Neill of Kinard

Sir Felim O'Neill of Kinard (also Phelim O'Neill , Irish Feidhlim Rua Ó Néill , † 1652 ) was an Irish nobleman who led the Irish Rebellion in Ulster , which began on October 22, 1641. He was a member of the Confederate Ireland during the Wars of the Three Kingdoms . In the wars he fought under the command of his relative Owen Roe O'Neill . During the conquest of Ireland by Oliver Cromwell , he was captured and executed in 1652.

background

Felim O'Neill came from the important O'Neill family and was grandson of Henry Oge O'Neill ( Éinrí Óg Ó Néill ). This was one of the O'Neills who had stayed in Ulster after the escape of the Counts , although the subsequent expropriations caused difficulties. The O'Neill family came from a sideline of the O'Neill clan and were best known for having allied themselves with the English during the Nine Years War against their chief Hugh O'Neill. As a reward for their service, Felim O'Neill's family retained some of the lands around Kinard , County Tyrone . O'Neill was a Member of the Irish Parliament in the 1630s . He learned the legal profession at the Kings Inn in London .

On March 17, 1639 he was raised in Dublin by the Lord Deputy of Ireland, Viscount Wentworth , as a Knight Bachelor ("Sir") in the personal nobility.

rebellion

Along with many Irish Catholics and Gaelic Irish, O'Neill felt threatened by the Protestant English government in Ireland. They were particularly upset that Catholics were permanently banned from public office. In addition, land expropriations from Catholics continued. During the late 30's and early 40's of the 17th century it became known that the English minister Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford , was planning the establishment of new plantations . This was the height of discontent in Ireland. The situation became critical when the English Long Parliament and members of the Scottish Assembly (Scottish Covenanters ) thus threatened to invade Ireland to eliminate permanently to the Irish Catholicism.

In this situation, out of fear and paranoia , Felim O'Neill took part in a plot by Gaelic-Irish Catholics from Ulster. They planned to bring Dublin and other important cities in Ireland under their control in one stroke . After that they intended to demand guarantees from the king of Irish autonomy under the crown and equality for Catholics. O'Neill was to take cities and fortifications in the north of the country. However, the plan to take Dublin failed because the two conspirators Connor Maguire and Hugh Oge MacMahon were captured by the authorities. O'Neill set about implementing his part of the plan and started the uprising in the north. However, he quickly discovered that he could not control the Irish rural population he had incited. Many of these people had been driven from their farms by the Ulster plantation policy. Their anger resulted in massacres of Protestant Scottish and English settlers, for whom the uprising is notorious. O'Neill then marched with Rory O'Moore to Dublin, where he defeated a government force at the Battle of Julianstown . However, his attempt to take Drogheda failed.

Civil war career

The uprising quickly spread to all of Ireland. At the beginning of spring 1642 there were only a few fortified places around Dublin, Cork and Derry, which offered resistance on the part of the Protestants. King Charles I sent a large army to Ireland that would presumably have put down the rebellion. But then the English Civil War broke out. The Catholic upper class used the resulting respite to unite to form the Irish Catholic Confederation. This acted as a de facto independent government of Ireland until 1649. Felim O'Neill was a member of the Confederation Parliament, the "General Assembly". In the leadership of the government, however, he was marginalized by wealthier large landowners. He also lost military influence after another member of his clan, the professional soldier Owen Roe O'Neill, was appointed general of the Confederate Ulster Army. Felim O'Neill was the commander of the cavalry in this force and fought a Scottish army that had landed in Ulster for most of the next six years. He took part in the Battle of Benburb , which was victorious for his army .

In Confederation politics, O'Neill advocated a moderate course. He campaigned for a compromise with Charles I and the English royalists in order to win the battle against the English Parliament and the Scottish Covenanters. In 1648 he voted for such a compromise, which meant the Second Peace of Ormonde . Over this he fell out with Owen Roe O'Neill, who, like most of the Ulster Army, was against this peace. In the summer of the same year, the confederate armies fought one another; finally the royalist forces prevailed.

execution

However, working with the royalists could not prevent Ireland from being retaken by Oliver Cromwell's New Model Army between 1649 and 1653. The well-trained parliamentary troops crushed the resistance of the Confederation and the royalists and imposed harsh peace conditions on the Catholics. The Ulster Army was wiped out at the Battle of Scarrifholis in 1650 . Felim O'Neill escaped from the battlefield. After that he was on the run for the rest of his life. Anyone who took an active part in the rebellion of 1641 was held responsible for the massacre of Protestant civilians and executed. So O'Neill could hardly count on mercy. In 1652 he was placed and arrested at Roughan Castle by William Caulfeild, 5th Baron Caulfield of Charlemont . In October 1652 O'Neill was sentenced to death by a court of the Cromwell government in Dublin for high treason and executed by hanging, disembowelling and quartering .

Marriage and offspring

In November 1649 he married Lady Jean Gordon († after 1668), daughter of George Gordon, 1st Marquess of Huntly (1562-1636) and widow of Claud Hamilton, 2nd Baron Hamilton of Strabane (around 1606-1638). With her he had at least one son, Gordon O'Neill († 1704), who fought on the side of the House of Stuart during the War of the Two Kings and then made a career as a general in French services in the Palatinate War of Succession .

Literature and web links

• Alfred Webb: O'Neill, Sir Felim. In: Compendium of Irish Biography. MH Gill & Son, Dublin 1878, pp. 416-418 ( archive.org ).
• Sir Phelim 'Ruadh' O'Neill on thepeerage.com

Individual evidence

1. ^ William Arthur Shaw: The Knights of England. Volume 2, Sherratt and Hughes, London 1906, p. 206.