O'Neill died in Italy in the city of Rome on the 20th of July 1616 and was interred in the church of San Pietro in Montorio. Throughout his nine-year exile he was active in plotting a return to Ireland, toying variously both with schemes to oust English authority outright and with proposed offers of pardon from London. When the former Crown loyalist Sir Cahir O'Doherty launched O'Doherty's Rebellion by the Burning of Derry in 1608 it raised hopes of a return, but the rebellion was quickly defeated. Oghy O'Hanlon was Hugh's nephew and played a leading role in O'Doherty's Rebellion. As a principal rebel leader, Oghy O'Hanlon had been stripped of his inheritance by Sir Arthur Chichester, and he may have been taken into protective custody before his exile to Sweden. O'Hanlon was pressed into Swedish military service and threatened with execution if he resisted.