O'Neill, Daniel (c.1612?–1664), royalist politician and soldier, was the son of Con MacNiall MacBrian Faghartach O'Neill, lord of Clandeboye in Co. Antrim, and his wife Eilis, daughter of Art MacBaron O'Neill, older brother of Hugh O'Neill (qv), 2nd earl of Tyrone (Art was born outside marriage). Daniel had two brothers, Aodh and Conn, and one sister, Catherine. There is some confusion as to his year of birth, c.1603 or c.1612, though the latter seems more likely. Daniel O'Neill's lineage meant that he was not only descended from the Gaelic lords of Tyrone, he was a nephew to Owen Roe O'Neill (qv) and cousin to Randal MacDonnell (qv), marquis of Antrim.
Daniel O'Neill's family had once owned a considerable estate, comprising of Upper Clandeboye and the Great Ards. Yet by 1619, the year of his father's death, much of it had been lost, mainly due to the latter's involvement in the Nine Years War, as well as many years of bad financial management. Over the 1620s what was left fell into the hands of neighbouring landowners, most notably James Hamilton (qv), later Viscount Claneboye, and Viscount Montgomery of the Ards (qv); by 1635 all that was left to Daniel and his brother Con out of an estate that had consisted of some 66,000 acres, with a value of £12,000 a year, was a joint annuity worth just £160 a year. His father's death in 1619 offered Dublin Castle the opportunity to make Daniel a ward of chancery; he was therefore sent to England, where he was raised as a protestant.
Early military and political involvement
When he attained his majority, and without any immediate prospects in Ireland, Daniel travelled to the United Provinces, probably sometime in the early 1630s, where he joined English troops serving the prince of Orange against the Spanish. While there he became a protégé of Lord Conway of Kiltullagh, and associated with the exiled ‘winter court’ and the palatinate family. The seasonal nature of warfare also gave O'Neill the opportunity to attend the English royal court during the winter, where he became a well known figure. Here again, he made powerful allies, including Archbishop Laud and Thomas Howard, earl of Arundel. These friendships encouraged O'Neill to travel to Ireland in spring 1635 to seek the aid of the lord deputy, Thomas Wentworth (qv), in recovering his lost inheritance. Unsuccessful, he renewed his appeal in spring 1636. Throughout this process he had the support of his allies at the English court. Laud wrote to Wentworth on a number of occasions, as did Arundel (who even recommended O'Neill for the post of master of the Irish mint), the elector palatine, and, in 1636, Charles I himself.
Despite Wentworth's promises to Laud in 1636 that he would help, O'Neill's suit once again failed, partly because Montgomery and Viscount Clandeboye mounted a strong defence of their interests. The lord deputy's lack of sympathy is likely to have been another contributory factor, as O'Neill seems to have alienated him by pursuing his suit through London rather than in Dublin. His kinship to, and close friendship with, Antrim, whom Wentworth distrusted intensely, proabably did not help him either. The disinherited young gentleman was therefore obliged to continue his career as a soldier. Consequently, in 1637 he was back in the Netherlands, where he was part of the Dutch forces besieging the Spanish-held fortress of Breda. During this siege, in early September, he was wounded and was obliged to return to England to recuperate.
In late 1638, as hostilities between Charles I and the Scottish covenanters seemed imminent, O'Neill was given a command in a troop of horse in the king's army. When peace was signed at Berwick in June 1639, O'Neill took the opportunity to return to the United Provinces, where he wintered in Breda. Once again, he came into contact with the ‘winter court’ while there, having been entrusted with the task of delivering letters to Elizabeth of Bohemia. In 1640 rising tensions between Charles I and the Scottish covenanters brought O'Neill back to England in March. The following month he made a brief trip to north-east Ulster. By this time he had been assigned an annuity of £400 a year by Randal MacDonnell. By the beginning of the campaigning season O'Neill was back in England. He took part in the battle of Newburn on 28 August, where he distinguished himself in a rearguard action which allowed the English army to escape. Captured by the victorious Scots, he was held prisoner in Newcastle until the end of September, when he was released at the start of negotiations between the king and the covenanters. During his imprisonment he was treated with great consideration, being in the care of officers with whom he had previously served in the Netherlands.
His release from imprisonment marked the beginning of a new conspiratorial phase in O'Neill's career. During the winter of 1640–41 he was involved in the moves against Wentworth, which eventually culminated in the latter's execution in May 1641. This led to Charles I having a certain distrust of him. Despite this, O'Neill, with the king's knowledge, became involved in the so-called ‘army plots’ of mid 1641. He did so in return for an annuity of £500 from the revenue of Ireland and the promise of the post of groom of the king's bedchamber. These plots began as an effort to persuade officers of the king's army to promise to protect the king if the English parliament attempted to curtail the monarch's prerogatives or purge the bishops from the house of lords. It later developed into a design to have the English army march on London and intimidate the parliament. During these months Daniel became associated with another, more obscure plot, involving his brother, Conn, and his uncle, Owen Roe O'Neill. This ‘colonels’ plot’ sought to have Charles I place Wentworth's Irish army under the command of catholic officers. When word of the army plots was leaked to the English parliament, O'Neill was examined before the house of commons on 8 June, and a warrant was issued for his arrest on charges of high treason six days later. By then he was in northern England, from where he made his escape to the Netherlands.
O'Neill returned to England in September and surrendered to parliament, seemingly in the mistaken belief that the recently passed act of oblivion would lead to the dropping of the charges against him. He was impeached for high treason by the commons on 6 December, and the articles for impeachment were sent to the house of lords on 23 December. When his health suffered he petitioned the lords in January 1642 to be moved to more comfortable quarters. He was consequently moved to the Tower of London, from where he escaped on 6 May 1642, fleeing to Brussels. A contemporary pamphlet, Oneales escape out of the Tower of London . . ., claimed that he had dressed as a woman to effect his escape.
Civil war
Once again, O'Neill's sojourn on the Continent did not last long and in July 1642 he was back in England, where he joined the king's court at York. A major commanding an infantry company when the English civil war broke out in August, he later moved to the cavalry, which was under the command of Prince Rupert, becoming lieutenant-general in the prince's personal regiment. Between then and January 1644 O'Neill was an active soldier in the first English civil war, fighting in many of the major engagements: Powicke Bridge (September 1642), Edgehill (October 1642), the failed attempt to relieve Reading, in which he was wounded (April 1643), and the first battle of Newbury (September 1643). During the winters, when the military campaigning season was suspended, he based himself at the royal court, where he acquired a firm friend and patron in Lord Digby.
In the wake of parliament's alliance with the Scots, the royalist side sought a means to divert covenanter forces away from the conflict in England. In January 1644 a scheme was advanced by the earls of Antrim and Montrose at court, under which the former would raise 10,000 men on his estates in Ulster, who would be sent to Scotland and be added to a force commanded by Montrose there. For the scheme to succeed it would need the support of Ormond in Ireland, who was on bad terms with Antrim. It was also feared that the Ulster army of Owen Roe O'Neill would not approve of the shipping of men out of the country. At the suggestion of Digby, Daniel O'Neill, as kinsman to both Antrim and Owen Roe, and as someone whom Ormond valued highly, was ordered to join with Antrim to bring the scheme to fruition. This he did, and in return was at last granted the office of groom of the king's bedchamber.
O'Neill and Antrim arrived in Kilkenny in February 1644. They immediately sought to persuade the supreme council of the confederate catholics to grant logistic and military support both to the royalists in England and to Antrim's scheme, holding out the promise that this would help confederate commissioners in England obtain better terms from Charles I. They were partially successful; aid was obtained for Antrim's scheme and a body of some 1,600 men was sent to Scotland in late June. O'Neill then set out for England to rejoin the campaign there. His return coincided with the disastrous royalist defeat at Marston Moor. He took part in the king's campaign in the west; including the reduction of Lostwithiel (September 1644), and the second battle of Newbury (October 1644). But his involvement in Irish affairs was not over, and during this period he acted as a lobbyist for Ormond at the court.
By summer 1645, with the king's plight now desperate, O'Neill was sent back to Ireland to prepare for the hoped-for shipping of soldiers to England. He was subsequently employed by Ormond to convince Owen Roe O'Neill to make peace, but his efforts in this regard proved fruitless. Despite this setback, O'Neill continued in his efforts to reconcile his uncle with Ormond; but, faced with continuing failure to do so, the surrender of Dublin to parliament by Ormond, and the rejection by Rinuccini (qv) of his appointment as commandant of the Connacht army, O'Neill eventually decided to quit Ireland for France, where he arrived in autumn 1647. He remained there until October 1648, only leaving when Ormond returned to Ireland, where they both arrived on 29 October 1648.
From late autumn 1648 O'Neill was again employed as an intermediary between Owen Roe O'Neill and Ormond. His initial efforts were unsuccessful. In February 1649, with Rinuccini's departure, there was a renewed possibility of success, but again Owen Roe rejected an alliance. O'Neill continued in his efforts and in September 1649 he arrived at the camp of his ailing uncle to find that Owen Roe, in the wake of the defeat of Ormond by Michael Jones (qv) at Rathmines and the arrival of Oliver Cromwell (qv) in Ireland, had decided to join forces with Ormond. An accord was reached between the sides in late October.
O'Neill's efforts on behalf of the royalist cause were duly recognised. He was appointed to the Irish privy council by Charles II, and when Owen Roe O'Neill died (early November 1649) it was Ormond's wish that Daniel O'Neill should succeed his uncle as commander of the Ulster forces. His candidacy was not popular among the catholic clergy, and he was opposed by the catholic bishop of Clogher, Heber MacMahon (qv). As a compromise, O'Neill himself advanced the case of his cousin, Hugh Dubh O'Neill, to succeed as commander. MacMahon, nonetheless, eventually succeeded in being elected in March 1650, after he promised to stand down in Daniel O'Neill's favour if the latter converted to catholicism. O'Neill would not convert, and consequently it was the bishop of Clogher who commanded the Ulster army when it was soundly defeated at the battle of Scariffhollis in June 1650.
Following Scariffhollis, O'Neill went into exile once more. Prior to departing, he got the permission of Henry Ireton (qv) to transport 5,000 troops to the Continent for the service of either Spain or the United Provinces. He initially took passage to Scotland so that he could join Charles II and his engager allies there. He was turned away by the Scots, however, who were unwilling to allow persons with political and religious opinions with which they disagreed access to the king. From there he travelled onto The Hague. When the political and military condition of Charles II and his allies in Scotland became more desperate, the Scots relaxed their prohibition against untrustworthy councillors, and O'Neill rejoined his monarch later in 1651. He subsequently fought at the battle of Worcester (September 1651). After defeat there he escaped to the United Provinces, arriving there in November.
Courtier in exile
Throughout the 1650s O'Neill frequently moved between the former Stuart kingdoms and the Continent as royalist plots and conspiracies arose in Britain. He seems to have returned to Britain whenever there was even a slim chance that some blow against the interregnum regimes could be struck. In the course of the 1650s he travelled to England three times, playing a not insignificant part in bringing about the royalist rebellion of 1655. He again acted as a liaison between the exiled court and the would-be rebels in England in 1657–8, with both himself and Ormond travelling to England at that time. O'Neill was the more enthusiastic of the two for the scheme, as by early 1658 Ormond believed that adequate preparations had not been made in England. O'Neill's enthusiasm meant that senior courtiers such as Edward Hyde maintained an interest in the plan before it was abandoned.
O'Neill's trips to England were not just to foment rebellion. It is also clear that he was involved in fund gathering for the exiled court. These activities caught the attention of the Cromwellian regime. In a speech to the parliament of 1655, Oliver Cromwell revealed that royalist letters, with privy seals of the kind that O'Neill had been involved in distributing, had been issued to prominent persons in order to collect money. Such activities were vital to the exiled court and its adherents. Many of the banished royalist elite were in a state of relative poverty, in which they found it difficult to maintain themselves in a manner befitting their station. O'Neill was no different in this regard.
His activities for the royalist cause were not limited to Britain and Ireland. Like many others who associated themselves with Charles II's household in the 1650s, O'Neill held multiple posts. He continued in the court office of groom of the bedchamber to the king and was reported to be a member of Charles II's secret inner council. He likewise acted as royalist ambassador to the court of Mary, princess of Orange, at which he resided in the early 1650s. While there, he became very closely associated with two of the most important figures in Princess Mary's household, Lord Heenvliet and his English wife, Anne. The latter had previously been married to Henry, Lord Stanhope.
He carried out these roles with considerable diplomatic skill – so much so, that Lord Chancellor Hyde described him as ‘infallible subtle’. This led to his being a particularly valued friend of Ormond and Hyde, though other influential royalists, most notably Sir Edward Nicholas, did not regard him so highly. O'Neill frequently aided Ormond and Hyde in caring for their families. In 1655, when Ormond's wife and sons were in England, he carried letters and news to them on Ormond's behalf. He also helped Hyde's daughter, Anne, to secure a post in the household of Princess Mary of Orange as a lady-in-waiting.
The restoration: power and influence
At the restoration of the monarchy in 1660 O'Neill benefited greatly for his loyalty to the royalist cause over the previous two decades, gaining considerable power and wealth in Ireland as a result of the crown's generosity. For instance, in 1661 he was rewarded with the wardship of Robert Persons of Co. Dublin, the grant of lands previously forfeited by Phelim O'Neill (qv) and Turlough O'Neill, the tenancy of lands in Co. Louth and the baronies of Dundalk and Cooly, the right to tonnage duty collected on French vessels for twenty-one years, and the grant of a pension worth £500 a year from the Irish revenues. This latter stipend was a renewal of the grant that Charles I had made to him in 1641. It was not to be paid to O'Neill for some years after 1661, as it was decided at first that he should be granted lands in lieu of money (though this plan was later abandoned in mid 1664). He was also elected an MP for Down in the Irish house of commons in 1661, though he did not take any active role in the business of the house. The office of postmaster general of all the king's dominions was bestowed on him in 1663, an appointment that carried great financial reward and also gave him considerable powers of patronage throughout the Stuart realms, including Ireland. More importantly, O'Neill was a groom of the bedchamber to Charles II in the fullest sense in these years; a position that gave him great influence and led to his being greatly involved in advancing the business of the government of Ireland in Whitehall. His position at court meant that Ormond and others regularly dealt with him on Irish affairs; Ormond regularly corresponded with him on the question of the land settlement.
His influence on Irish affairs at this time is most evident in the examination of his cousin Randall MacDonnell, marquis of Antrim, who was facing accusations of treason in 1660–61. As one of those charged with examining Antrim, he took advantage of this appointment and of his position of influence close to the king to help ensure that Antrim was cleared of the charges brought against him. This assistance did not come free, however. In cooperation with Viscount Massereene (qv), who had gained part of Antrim's estate as an adventurer in the 1650s, O'Neill ensured that he received lands which had formerly belonged to Antrim in the barony of Dunluce.
This acquisition of power and influence in Ireland was paralleled in England. He became MP for St Ives in the English parliament and acquired considerable lands and fiscal privileges there. Among these were assignations of rent on the Hanseatic League's steelyard in London. He further added to his wealth by marriage. In 1660 he married the by-now-widowed Anne Henfleet, giving him access to her properties in Kent. This union also brought added social status, as she had acquired the title Lady Chesterfield immediately after the restoration, on the strength of her first marriage to Lord Stanhope. By 1664, as a result of these acquisitions and favours, O'Neill was rumoured to be one of England's wealthiest men.
Yet, even with all this wealth and influence, O'Neill did not have it all his own way in the early 1660s, and there were limits to what he could achieve. In mid 1663, for instance, he attempted to appoint one Robert Ward to the office of postmaster for Ireland. Yet Ormond backed the efforts of one Samuel Bathurst, the interregnum-era incumbent, to retain this post. Consequently, Ward was effectively delayed from taking up his appointment and O'Neill's attempt to dispense patronage came to nothing. This matter combined with disputes over the bill of settlement to create bad blood between O'Neill and Ormond in early 1664 (Carte MS 49, ff 255–6). The lord lieutenant even accused O'Neill of misusing his position as groom of the bedchamber to interfere in Irish affairs. This falling out between the two men did not last long, however, even though the disagreement over the appointment to the office of postmaster continued. It was still not resolved by the time of O'Neill's death.
Daniel O'Neill died 24 October 1664, survived by his wife. He was buried at Boughton Malherbe in Kent, the seat that he had acquired through marriage. His passing was mourned by Charles II, who regretted having lost such a good servant.