At the height of Clotworthy’s intrigue for the confirmation of his lease Lord Donegall reached London, being wafted across the Channel in a royal frigate. He soon realised at Whitehall that those whom he regarded as the “King’s enemies” had grown to influence and had supplanted many of the “King’s friends.” Still he believed that olden services would not go unrewarded, and he knew that the Duke of Ormonde would stand by him. He and his father had hidden away Strafford’s Patent for twenty years, unenrolled. To obtain a new grant which should include Lough Neagh and the Bann was the wish of his heart. He came to Court, not merely to pay homage to Charles II., but to seek redress for the surrender forced on his family by the Minister of Charles I. Lord Donegall knew the favour shown to Clotworthy by Cromwell, and it roused his ire to think that the son of an old subordinate should carry off the fisheries which he looked on as a perquisite of the Chichesters. Were there gratitude in kings, he thought, Cromwell’s gift must be recalled and bestowed on himself. Yet his lordship found his rival as highly esteemed by Charles II. as he had been by the Lord Protector. Nor did the support of the Duke of Ormonde countervail his influence. All that their joint exertions effected was to delay Clotworthy’s triumph. When the “famous paper” begot the new lease Lord Donegall was almost in despair, but he did not give up the struggle. The obstacles in his path which the lease created, not to speak of the royal engagement to the London Corporation to restore the Bann, seemed insurmountable. A tussle with Sir John at Whitehall taught him that it was hopeless to think of winning anything from that stout fighter. Still harder was it to prevail against the Londoners. He found the influence of his opponents overpowering, and their claims blocked his hopes. Lord Donegall, therefore, cast about for some indirect means of gaining his ends.