If inquire to name a plagiarizer from history , many the great unwashed will mentionBlackbeardor Captain William Kidd . If pressed to name a female pirate , they might cite Anne Bonny , who terrify the Caribbean alongside Captain " Calico " Jack Rackham in the former 18th century . Anne Bonny , however , was far from the onlyfemale pirateto terrorize the seas . More than a one C before Bonny ’s giving birth , another woman find the wave , debated with Queen Elizabeth I , and sat at the head of a booming buccaneer empire . She was Grace O’Malley , Pirate Queen .
Grace With the Cropped Hair
know in Gaelic as Gráinne Ní Mháille , Grace was born in Ireland sometimearound 1530 . She was the daughter of Eoghan Dubhdara Ó Máille , swayer of the territorial dominion of Umhall and the lord of an ancient , powerful dynasty in the province of Connaught . The Ó Máille family ’s money came from the sea , raised in the form of taxes levied on anyone who fished off their stretch of the Irish coast . The phratry were also calculating traders and merchant , trading ( and sometimes plundering ) as far away as Spain . Ó Máille palace also prevail the southwest coastline of County Mayo , providing aegis from intrusion for the flush lord ’s territory . At a clock time when the Tudors in England were ramp up their conquest of Ireland , such justificatory measures were vital .
The folklore of Grace O’Malley begins in her childhood , when she supposedly begged her beginner to let her conjoin him on a trade mission to Spain . When he reject his daughter ’s request on the ground that her long pilus would be hazardous on the trilled deck of cards of a ship , she hack off her mane , earning herself the nicknameGráinne Mhaol , or " thanksgiving with cropped hair’s-breadth . "
Though niggling is known of Grace ’s early life , when she was about 16 she made a politicalmarriageto Dónal Ó Flaithbheartaigh , heir to the lands ofÓ Flaithbheartaigh . It was an splendid dynastic match , but despite bearing her hubby three baby , Grace was n’t made for housewifery . She had more challenging programme .
Soon Grace was the drive force in the wedlock , masterminding a trading web to Spain and Portugal and go foray on the watercraft that dared to sweep close to her shores . When her husband was killed in an ambush by a rival clan around 1565 , Grace retreated to Clare Island , and make a base of cognitive process with a dance band of followers . harmonise to caption , she also fall in love with a shipwrecked sailor — and for a clip life was happy . But when her fan was murdered by a fellow member of the neighboring MacMahon class , Grace led a brutal assault on theMacMahon castleat Doona and slaughtered his slayer . Her actions garner her infamy as the Pirate Queen of Connaught .
Though Grace remarry for the sake of expand her political clout , she was n’t about to become a dutiful married woman . Within a twelvemonth she was disjoint , though pregnant , and survive at Rockfleet Castle , which she ’d attain in the marriage and which became her marrow of operations . According to caption , the day after giving birth to to her X - husband ’s son aboard a ship , she leapt from her layer and vanquished attacking corsairs
Grace continued to direct raiding party from the coast and seized English vas and their consignment , all of which did little to endear her to the Tudors . She was known for her aggression in battle , and it ’s said that when her sons come out to be shirk , she shamed them into action with a call of " An ag iarraidh dul i bhfolach ar mo thóin atá tú , an áit a dtáinig tú as?"—which roughly translates as " Are you trying to hide in my butt , where you come out of ? "
In 1574 an English sashay sail for Ireland with the aim of put an end to her effort once and for all . Though they besieged Rockfleet Castle , no one knew the coastline better than Grace , and she repel them with the might of her own ship .
But Grace made history in 1593 after her Logos was enchant bySir Richard Bingham , the English regulator of Connaught . appoint in 1584 , Bingham had taken function as part of English efforts to tighten their hold on Ireland , and in 1586 his men had been responsible for the destruction of one of Grace ’s Word . Bingham also take cattle and land from Grace , which only serve to increase her thirst for revenge . Yet she was a politico as much as a warrior , and knew that she could n’t desire to outwit Bingham and the violence of the English government single - handedly .
Instead , she film the diplomatic route and go to England , where she requested an audience with Queen Elizabeth I to talk about the release of her Word and the seizure of her lands . In addition , she challenged Gaelic law that refuse her income from her husband ’s land and demanded that she receive appropriate compensation . She argued that the tumult reigning in Connacht had compelled her to " take blazonry and by force to keep [ my]self and [ my ] people by ocean and land the space of forty year preceding . " Bingham inspire the fagot to refuse the audience , claiming that Grace was " nurse to all rebellion in the province for 40 eld , " but Elizabeth brush off his entreaty . Perhaps the monarch butterfly was intrigued by this remarkable woman , because Grace ’s asking was granted , and the two adult female take on in September 1593 .
A Meeting With the Queen
Grace ’s Greenwich Palace summit with the queen has become legendary . She purportedly would n’t bow to Elizabeth , whom she did n’t recognise as the Queen of Ireland . Though dress in a magnificent night-robe that befit her status , she also carry a dagger , which she refused to relinquish . The queen , however , was glad to receive her visitor — sticker and all . The top was direct in Latin , supposedly the only tongue the two women divvy up . Ignoring the fact that they were virtually the same age , Elizabeth decided that there was only " pity to be had of this aged charwoman " whom she believed " will fight in our quarrel with all the world . "
By the end of the retentive meeting , an agreement had been get through . Bingham would be instructed to come back Grace ’s lands , devote her the funds she had demand , and free her son . In retort , Grace would withdraw her support of the Irish rebellion and attack only England ’s enemy .
Yet the triumph was short - lived . Though her boy was freed , Bingham ’s animadversion was brief , and Grace meet back none of the dominion she had lose . Grace was savage , and she soon withdrew from public life .
The last old age of Grace O’Malley are cover in enigma . It ’s believe that she die atRockfleet Castlearound 1603 — the same twelvemonth asQueen Elizabeth I. Her store lives on , not least in the Irish ballads , which call up her with these verses :
In the angry grandeur of her comportment erect and highBefore the English Queen she dauntless stoodAnd none her bearing there could scorn as rudeShe seemed well used to power , as one that hathDominion over men of savage moodAnd dared the tempest in its midnight wrathAnd thro ' opposing billows cleft her audacious path .
Additional Sources : Granuaile : The Life and Times of Grace O’Malley;Pirate Queen;Anecdotes of the Aristocracy ; " The Clarence Shepard Day Jr. the Virgin Queen bowed to the pirate ship queen,“Times of London;A Forgotten Part of Ireland ; " Gráinne Mhaol , Pirate Queen of Connacht : Behind the Legend,“History Ireland .
