Randal MacDonnell, marquess and 2nd earl of Antrim

Randal MacDonnell, marquess and 2nd earl of Antrim (born June 9, 1609—died February 3, 1682, Ballymagarry, County Antrim, Ireland) was a prominent Roman Catholic Royalist during the English Civil Wars who later turned against King Charles I and was employed by Oliver Cromwell.

A grandson of the noted Irish chieftain (of Scottish ancestry) Sorley Boy MacDonnell, he married (1635) the widow of the 1st Duke of Buckingham, a close friend of Charles I. On the outbreak of the Bishops’ Wars in 1639, MacDonnell planned an attack on Argyll in Scotland; this project was abortive, as were numerous later schemes by which he hoped to assist the king against Parliament. In May 1643 MacDonnell was captured in County Down by Parliamentary forces and was found to be carrying papers that concerned a planned rising in Scotland by the 5th Earl of Montrose with support from Ireland. MacDonnell escaped after several months’ captivity and, on Jan. 26, 1644/45, on Montrose’s recommendation, he was created Marquess of Antrim.

He was employed on various missions in Ireland and on the European continent until 1647, when he ceased to support the king’s cause. Angry that the 12th Earl of Ormonde was reappointed in 1648 to the lord lieutenancy of Ireland, a position that Antrim had wanted for himself, Antrim offered his services to Cromwell and later served with Parliamentary forces in the sieges of Ross (now New Ross, County Wexford) and Carlow. On going to England in December 1650, he was given a pension in lieu of his confiscated estate.

At the Restoration (1660), Antrim was imprisoned in the Tower of London on a charge of treasonable correspondence (1640–45) with the Confederate Irish Roman Catholics; but through the influence of the queen mother he was pardoned in 1663, and his estates were restored to him in 1665. Upon his death, the marquessate expired, but the earldom of Antrim devolved on his brother.