This is a biography of Randall MacDonnell, 1st marquis of Antrim (1609-1683), an important Irish statesman of Scottish extraction who was a Caroline loyalist, Catholic confederate, Cromwellian collaborator and Restoration pragmatist. It focuses on Antrim's political career between his marriage to the duchess of Buckingham in 1635 and his restoration to his County Antrim estates in 1665. Antrim's extraordinary career highlights three important truths about early modern Ireland. It illustrates the elastic nature of the concept of 'patriotism' in the turbulent years of the mid-seventeenth century; it demonstrates that Ireland was and must be viewed as part of the triple monarchy of the Stuart kings; and, finally, that Ireland - at least in the 1640s - was seen as, for the first and last time before 1922, part of the European state system. This is the only book which examines these issues from a primarily Irish stance.