Randal MacDonnell, 1st Marquess of Antrim (1645 creation)

The Marquess of Antrim
The Marquess of Antrim
Born	1609
Died	3 February 1683 (aged 74) Dunluce, Ireland
Resting place	Bonamargy Friary, Ballycastle
Nationality	Irish
Occupation	chief of Clan MacDonnell, politician, military contractor
Spouse(s)	Katherine Villiers, Duchess of Buckingham (1st) Rose O'Neill (2nd)
Parent(s)	Randal MacDonnell, 1st Earl of Antrim Alice O'Neill

Randal MacDonnell, 1st Marquess of Antrim (1609 – 3 February 1683) was a Roman Catholic landed magnate in Scotland and Ireland, son of the 1st Earl of Antrim. He was also chief of Clan MacDonnell of Antrim. He is best known for his involvement, mostly on the Royalist side, in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms.

He was born in Ireland in 1609, the son of Randal MacDonnell, 1st Earl of Antrim and Alice (sometimes written as Ellis) O'Neill. Through both his parents he was related to many of the leading Gaelic Irish families of Ulster. His maternal grandfather was Hugh O'Neill, Earl of Tyrone, the leader of Tyrone's Rebellion who had fled into exile in 1607.

Through his father Antrim was descended from the Twelfth Century Scottish warlord Somerled and a later anscestor was Alexander MacDonald, 5th of Dunnyveg, a Scottish-Irish magnate who had been driven out of Scotland by James IV and had fled to Ulster where the family was already powerful through a series of marriages. Their former Scottish territory was taken over by their rivals the Clan Campbell, although MacDonalds continued to inhabit the lands and instinctively looked towards the MacDonnell family for leadership. Recovering these former lands in Scotland remained a major objective of Antrim throughout his life.