How a Pirate Queen Came to Meet the Queen of England
And the making of an Irish folk legend
Sailing down the Thames was a bold move. The chances were that this wasn’t going to end well. She’d likely be arrested, thrown into a jail cell, not for the first time, given something of a trial and then hanged by the neck until dead. But she had no other option.
This is the story of how a legendary woman met one of England’s most famous queens.
First, let’s set the scene.
In the early 16th century, Ireland was under the control of a mixture of Gaelic and Irish clans led by chieftains, except for Dublin and the surrounding areas. The city, its neighbouring counties and coastal areas were under English rule. It was all Henry VIII could afford to take when he declared himself king of Ireland, sent in his men and introduced the Protestant Reformation.
The subject of our story is a woman named Gráinne Ní Mháille (Grace O’Malley) who was born around 1530 on the west coast of Ireland. She was the only child of a chieftain, Owen Dubhdara Uí Máille, and unlike the surrounding clans, they made their living from both the land and the sea.
The early years of a pirate queen
Owen Dubhdara Uí Máille was a trader, ferryman and fisherman, but he was also an opportunistic pirate and his daughter joined him on his ship from an early age.
It’s no wonder that Gráinne would become a legend of Irish folklore; she was clever and strong-willed even as a child.
The story goes that when Gráinne asked her father if she could join him on an expedition to Spain, he refused, blaming her long hair that would get caught in the ropes. Another version of the tale is that it was her mother who refused, claiming that the ship was no place for a girl. Either way, Gráinne cut off her hair and earned herself the nickname of Gráinne Mhao, which translates to Bald Grace.
While she was still young, Gráinne was married to the chieftain of a neighbouring clan. Dónal-an-Chogaidh O’Flaherty didn’t have a good reputation. He was quick-tempered, prone to bursts of rage and continuously feuding with other clans. If this bothered Gráinne, it’s not mentioned in any of the stories about her. As his wife, she had two sons and a daughter, and won the hearts of his clan, reportedly acting as chieftain and earning the loyalty of her people who considered her husband “inept”.
Under Irish law, women were allowed to keep their property after they were married, which was good news for Gráinne as Dónal was killed during a feud. She didn’t take his death lying down and either led or repelled a raid (depending on the source you read) on Cock’s Castle in Lough Corrib, attacking his killers. She won and the people renamed the castle Hen’s Castle after her.
Meanwhile, the clan was inherited by Dónal’s brother and Gráinne moved to Clare Island, taking the most loyal of her men, three galleys and a number of small boats with her.
Growing her wealth, her reputation and her family
So begins tales of Gráinne’s building wealth and growing reputation as a fierce cutthroat as she attacked unprotected English ships, demanding tolls from others and kidnapping aristocratic heirs.
Everything was going well but back in England, Henry VIII’s daughter, Queen Elizabeth I, had decided to finish what her father had started. She was going to take over Ireland and she would do it by dividing and conquering, sending in her men with the express orders to negotiate with the clans individually, turning them against one another.
This wouldn’t directly affect Gráinne for a while yet. In 1567, she married her second husband, Richard-na-Iarainn Bourke. It seems Richard was Gráinne’s equal when it comes to fiery tempers. A year into their marriage, he returned home to find his belongings packed and the doors locked on him. Depending on which sources you read, this was either their divorce or one big marital argument.
Either way, they continued to act as husband and wife until his death in 1583. She even accompanied him as he was made a lord, making her Lady Bourke.
Being a lady didn’t slow Gráinne down or turn her away from piracy. She even gave birth to their son aboard one of her galleys. The legend has it that soon after the birth, the ship was attacked. Gráinne rose from her bed as her crew struggled to fight off the attackers, throwing herself into the fray, pushing the attackers back, taking their ship and the spoils.
Don’t anger the pirate queen
A year after her second husband passed away, Gráinne’s world began to tumble.
Queen Elizabeth had put Sir Richard Bingham had been put in charge of Gráinne’s local area, Connacht, with the instructions of putting the area under English rule. He’s recorded as saying, “The Irish were never tamed with words but with swords.”
Good to his word, by the following year, he had captured Gráinne’s two older sons and brother-in-law. Then, in a catalytic moment, one of her older sons, Owen, was killed.
As you can imagine, Gráinne became enraged. She fought back, rebelling against Bingham, but he met her attacks. He destroyed her wealth, ravaging her lands and property, leaving her penniless and unable to rebuild. She escaped to her ships but Bingham eventually caught up with her and threw her into a jail cell. She was 56 years old by this point but far from giving up. Somehow, she escaped the hangman’s noose and this was the time she made her first plea to Queen Elizabeth.
Gráinne sent a petition to the queen, describing herself as a poor widow who had lost everything, including her son, to the hands of Sir Richard Bingham. She asked Elizabeth for protection and a “maintenance” to survive in return for her allegiance. It led to Bingham being reprimanded but all this did was slow him down.
Bingham wasn’t finished with Gráinne or her family, and arrested her youngest son, charging him with treason.
Which was why Gráinne Ní Mháille set sail for London, risking her life, to demand to meet with Queen Elizabeth.
The pirate queen meets the Queen of England
As you can imagine, Bingham wasn’t happy about this. He protested to the Queen but she seemed to ignore him, agreeing to meet with Gráinne. It’s easy to see why Elizabeth would be intrigued by this self-made Irish pirate queen. Gráinne was equally clever, independent and fierce as Elizabeth and the atmosphere in that meeting room must have been electric.
Annoyingly, we don’t know what happened when the Irish pirate queen met the Queen of England, although some sources claim that Gráinne refused to bow, stating that Elizabeth was not her queen.
All we have of their meeting is a wood cut commemorating their discussion and records of what happened next.
Queen Elizabeth agreed to help Gráinne. Her son was released and Gráinne would have land and be protected, all she had to do was retire from her life of crime and swear her allegiance to the English crown.
By the time Gráinne returned home, her son was safe but Ireland’s Gaelic ways of life were falling apart. The era of clans and chieftains was ending, and so Gráinne retired to her castle at Rockfleet.
The making of a legend
Yet, in 1600, the captain of an English warship reported that he had fought with a galley belonging to the fearsome pirate, Grace O’Malley.
Just what was Gráinne ordering behind her closed castle doors in her supposedly retirement?
Gráinne died in her early 70s, in 1603, the same year that Elizabeth I died. A year when the world lost not one clever, independent and fierce queen, but two. Elizabeth went down in history as a formidable monarch but Gráinne Ní Mháille became a national folk hero, a legend of Irish history. The pirate queen who fought for her children, survived the hangman’s noose on more than one occasion, brought fear to the hearts of English sailors, and risked her life to sail up the Thames and demand to see the Queen of England to save her son’s life.
Sources:
Pirate Women: The Princesses, Prostitutes, and Privateers Who Ruled the Seven Seas by Laura Sook Duncombe
