Owen Roe O'Neill

Owen Roe O'Neill
A Victorian-era impression of O'Neill
Born	c.1585 County Armagh, Kingdom of Ireland
Died	6 November 1649 Cloughoughter Castle, County Cavan, Kingdom of Ireland
Nationality	Irish
Other names	Eoghan Ruadh Ó Néill
Occupation	Mercenary, Soldier
Title	Commander of the Ulster Army
Predecessor	Sir Phelim O'Neill
Successor	Bishop Heber MacMahon
Spouse(s)	Rosa O'Neill
Parent(s)	Art MacBaron O'Neill

Owen Roe O'Neill (Irish: Eoghan Ruadh Ó Néill; c. 1585 – 6 November, 1649) was a seventeenth-century soldier and one of the most famous of the O'Neill dynasty of Ulster in Ireland. O'Neill left Ireland 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 enjoyed mixed fortunes over the following years but won a decisive victory at the Battle of Benburb in 1646. Large-scale campaigns to capture Dublin and Sligo were both failures.

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 agreeing an alliance with the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland Ormond, in which he was promised an Earldom, he died in December 1649.