WEBVTT - Meet Lady Killigrew, the Aristocratic Pirate 0:00:02.759 --> 0:00:06.440 Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shonda Land Audio in 0:00:06.519 --> 0:00:15.240 partnership with I Heart Radio. Welcome to Criminalia, where it's 0:00:15.280 --> 0:00:18.800 pirate season. We're exploring the lives and motivations of some 0:00:18.840 --> 0:00:22.200 of the most notorious freebooters throughout history. I'm Maria T. 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:27.720 Marking and I'm Holly Fry. Mary Wolverston, Lady Killigrew, was 0:00:27.760 --> 0:00:31.280 an English noblewoman. But she was also a pirate, and 0:00:31.320 --> 0:00:34.560 it is for that which she was eventually accused and convicted. 0:00:35.000 --> 0:00:38.519 That's a whole complicated story. Mary was born into an 0:00:38.560 --> 0:00:43.920 aristocratic family around possibly a few years prior. The exact 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:47.040 date is lost to the ages, as is often the case. 0:00:47.840 --> 0:00:51.240 She was the daughter of Philip Wolverston of Wolverston Hall 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:55.120 in Suffolk. Now, if you go looking, this is different 0:00:55.240 --> 0:00:59.280 from the school and events space called Wolverstone Hall in 0:00:59.400 --> 0:01:01.320 Suffolk that has two ohs and ins and an E 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:04.360 that wasn't built until the seventeen seventies, Just to avoid 0:01:04.360 --> 0:01:07.200 any confusion since that is a more well known place. 0:01:07.800 --> 0:01:10.600 But back to Mary. So, her father, Philip was a 0:01:10.640 --> 0:01:15.440 wealthy man who practiced piracy, earning himself the nickname the 0:01:15.480 --> 0:01:20.720 Gentleman Pirate. This was a term for wealthy landowner turned pirates. 0:01:20.760 --> 0:01:23.920 But don't get confused with Stave Bonnet, who we've talked 0:01:23.920 --> 0:01:26.800 about a little bit before, who was famously known as 0:01:26.880 --> 0:01:30.520 the Gentleman Pirate, again a couple hundred years later in 0:01:30.560 --> 0:01:34.520 the eighteenth century. So we know about Mary's father, but 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:38.640 then we have a pretty good gap between Mary's childhood 0:01:38.680 --> 0:01:41.040 and when we picked her story back up in her adulthood. 0:01:41.560 --> 0:01:44.199 We know she was married to a man named Henry Nivet, 0:01:44.600 --> 0:01:47.559 who she was widowed. We know that she then married 0:01:47.600 --> 0:01:51.320 Sir John Killigrew the fourth and depending on the record 0:01:51.400 --> 0:01:53.920 you look at, the couple had at least one son 0:01:54.720 --> 0:01:57.840 and possibly as many as five children. There was actually 0:01:57.880 --> 0:02:00.480 one source that I saw that had them with ten children. 0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:04.440 This is really where Mary's story begins in Cornwall with 0:02:04.520 --> 0:02:08.480 the Killer groups. So we have talked at great length 0:02:08.520 --> 0:02:11.280 this season about how it can be really difficult to 0:02:11.360 --> 0:02:14.320 narrow down the details of a person's life when you're 0:02:14.360 --> 0:02:17.959 looking back nearly five hundred years. The National Endowment for 0:02:18.000 --> 0:02:20.960 the Humanities has this great quote about basically what we 0:02:21.040 --> 0:02:23.400 have all learned about pirates so far this season, and 0:02:23.440 --> 0:02:26.160 that is a lot of what is known about pirates 0:02:26.280 --> 0:02:28.680 is not true, and a lot of what is true 0:02:28.880 --> 0:02:32.400 is not known. Mary gets caught right up in that 0:02:32.880 --> 0:02:36.680 there is information about her. She's not a complete blank slate, 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:40.080 but the story of her life is often confused or 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:44.640 blurred with another woman named Elizabeth. So who is this Elizabeth? 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:48.200 One of two things going on here. One theory is 0:02:48.240 --> 0:02:50.800 that Mary began using the name Elizabeth in the later 0:02:50.880 --> 0:02:54.840 years of her life, which, sure, maybe that doesn't always 0:02:54.840 --> 0:02:58.920 make sense when you read her history. To confuse things 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:02.520 even more, there was also an Elizabeth killer Group, the 0:03:02.560 --> 0:03:05.880 wife of John Godolphin and daughter of John Killer Group, 0:03:06.080 --> 0:03:09.480 but these people lived at the beginning of the sixteenth century, 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:14.160 not during the same time as Mary. The primary explanation 0:03:14.200 --> 0:03:16.919 here is that she's been confused with her mother in law, 0:03:17.080 --> 0:03:20.480 who is another Elizabeth, and sometimes their stories, or at 0:03:20.560 --> 0:03:22.760 least parts of their stories, are told as if these 0:03:22.800 --> 0:03:25.919 women were actually the same person. All of this means 0:03:25.960 --> 0:03:28.440 a few things for us in regard to Mary's story. 0:03:29.120 --> 0:03:32.840 Although there is some uncertainty about what the women's roles 0:03:32.880 --> 0:03:36.400 were in the family piracy business, and there are definitely 0:03:36.440 --> 0:03:40.680 some inaccuracies about Mary's life, it is certain that Mary 0:03:41.040 --> 0:03:45.000 kind of had piracy flowing through her veins. So Mary 0:03:45.120 --> 0:03:48.080 is a really interesting lady, and we'll set our scene 0:03:48.200 --> 0:03:51.040 for Lady Killigrew right now. You may know the opera 0:03:51.120 --> 0:03:54.920 The Pirates at Penzance in Cornwall. There's real piracy there 0:03:54.920 --> 0:03:58.560 and has been for centuries. Mostly it was smuggling though, 0:03:58.720 --> 0:04:02.520 and that was especially profitable. The coast of Cornwall in 0:04:02.560 --> 0:04:06.120 southwest England is rocky, with many coves, inlets and other 0:04:06.200 --> 0:04:08.920 secluded in sheltered spots for ships to hide in, which 0:04:08.960 --> 0:04:13.040 is perfect for those who want to practice viracy. Because 0:04:13.040 --> 0:04:17.920 of that, this area was notorious for pirate activity. The Carters, 0:04:17.960 --> 0:04:21.520 which was another long standing Cornish family, ran a smuggling 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:24.640 operation and carried on their affairs out of three small 0:04:24.760 --> 0:04:30.360 coves Bessie's Cove, Piskeys Cove and Port Leah known today 0:04:30.400 --> 0:04:34.560 as Prussia Cove. Coves are of course attractive to pirates 0:04:34.600 --> 0:04:38.200 because they are challenging to access, so the Carters built 0:04:38.200 --> 0:04:41.600 their houses above those coves, and each of those houses 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:46.040 were connected to the coves below through secret underground passageways, 0:04:46.320 --> 0:04:50.799 which sounds pretty cool. Mary married into the Killigrew family, 0:04:50.839 --> 0:04:54.400 who were also long established in Cornwall, and a family 0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:58.640 who were also successful pirates. The Kiligrews were wealthy and 0:04:58.800 --> 0:05:01.839 well connected. John his mother Elizabeth, was a relative of 0:05:01.880 --> 0:05:06.080 the statesman William Cecil. William Cecil, first Baron Burghley, was 0:05:06.279 --> 0:05:09.800 the chief adviser to Queen Elizabeth the First and whom 0:05:09.880 --> 0:05:13.960 she considered her most important minister. For forty years. He 0:05:14.120 --> 0:05:18.080 was Lord, High Treasurer and twice Secretary of State. So 0:05:18.120 --> 0:05:20.160 we're gonna take a quick break for a word from 0:05:20.160 --> 0:05:23.640 our sponsor, and when we return we'll be talking about when, 0:05:23.720 --> 0:05:27.520 why and how the Killigrew family became so very powerful. 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:39.559 Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's talk about how Mary's husband, 0:05:39.640 --> 0:05:44.760 John was a pirate who became the county's pirate commissioner YEP. 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:50.160 In the fifteen forties, Pendennis Castle was commissioned by King 0:05:50.200 --> 0:05:53.200 Henry the Eighth to be built on our we Nack estate, 0:05:53.720 --> 0:05:57.120 which had long belonged to the Killigrew family. They were 0:05:57.160 --> 0:06:01.000 the second owners technically. In the late fort century, Simon 0:06:01.120 --> 0:06:05.240 Killigrew married Jane Darwina, the daughter and sole heiress of 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:09.400 Robert Arenak, and the Killigrew family gained the property through 0:06:09.440 --> 0:06:13.560 that marriage. They lived there for about sixteen generations while 0:06:13.560 --> 0:06:17.279 they became really the most powerful family in Cornwall. But 0:06:17.320 --> 0:06:19.680 as our story takes place in the fift hundreds, it 0:06:19.760 --> 0:06:22.200 was still pretty early on in that occupancy, but they 0:06:22.200 --> 0:06:25.880 still had a very solid power base. Mary's father in law, 0:06:26.000 --> 0:06:28.800 John Killigrew the Third, was appointed by the King as 0:06:28.839 --> 0:06:32.080 the first governor of Pan Dennis Castle. After his death, 0:06:32.240 --> 0:06:34.920 it was then Queen Elizabeth First who appointed his son, 0:06:35.440 --> 0:06:39.239 Sir John Killigrew the Fourth as second governor. A governor 0:06:39.279 --> 0:06:42.200 in this instance likely would have been a military officer 0:06:42.320 --> 0:06:46.159 who commanded the fortifications at the castle and at sea. 0:06:46.400 --> 0:06:49.919 In these appointments from the queen, shipping in Carrick Rhodes 0:06:49.960 --> 0:06:53.279 Harbor along the south coast fell under Sir John the 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:57.320 Fourth's control and family connections made it really easy for 0:06:57.440 --> 0:06:59.720 John and his family to pray on the ships that 0:06:59.800 --> 0:07:03.919 came within his reach along the county's coastline. So John 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:09.000 was unchallenged in his jurisdiction. An unchallenged pirate. It's great, 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:12.400 I'm the pirate, cop and the pirates. This is going 0:07:12.480 --> 0:07:19.239 to work out. Just five. I'm investigating myself, not guilty. 0:07:20.240 --> 0:07:24.760 So um Mary Tudor reigned as Queen of England between 0:07:24.800 --> 0:07:28.360 Henry the eighth and Elizabeth the First. Both John the 0:07:28.440 --> 0:07:32.800 Third and John the Fourth opposed her policies. After ignoring 0:07:32.880 --> 0:07:36.240 what they didn't like, they were arrested while using their 0:07:36.240 --> 0:07:39.320 own ships to attack Spanish vessels in the English Channel. 0:07:39.920 --> 0:07:43.360 Everyone knows you don't practice piracy that close to home. 0:07:43.840 --> 0:07:46.680 They were both put in Fleet Prison in June of 0:07:46.720 --> 0:07:50.640 fifteen fifty six to quote be kept their apart in 0:07:50.760 --> 0:07:54.840 close prison. They were released after three weeks. It wasn't 0:07:54.920 --> 0:07:58.600 until Queen Elizabeth the First reigned that John we're talking about, 0:07:58.640 --> 0:08:01.280 the younger John, that is, was back in favor with 0:08:01.320 --> 0:08:04.720 the monarchy and he was commissioned by her as essentially 0:08:04.840 --> 0:08:08.200 a local magistrate. NAT put John on the path to 0:08:08.280 --> 0:08:13.520 becoming an even greater influential figure in Cornwall. Influential, yes, 0:08:13.920 --> 0:08:19.200 perhaps also notorious. John also had duties as the piracy 0:08:19.240 --> 0:08:23.600 commissioner I know right. He used his position to maintain 0:08:23.680 --> 0:08:27.400 his relationships with other pirates and to trade with them, 0:08:27.520 --> 0:08:30.640 and so he could use his influence over smugglers who 0:08:30.680 --> 0:08:35.480 frequented his coastline. John's trafficking with these pirates was absolutely 0:08:35.520 --> 0:08:38.800 not a secret. It was just kept quiet through bribery. 0:08:39.160 --> 0:08:42.800 Authorities had known of his operations since fifteen fifty two, 0:08:42.960 --> 0:08:46.800 and despite the corrupt dealings in their favor, in fifteen 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:51.160 sixty five commissioners were appointed to conduct a formal investigation. 0:08:51.800 --> 0:08:55.240 But these were the Killigrews, and they were very powerful. 0:08:55.640 --> 0:08:59.000 In fact, the family was powerful enough to evade all 0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:02.840 of the allegation against him. It wasn't until a decade 0:09:02.920 --> 0:09:05.800 later the officials resumed their interests and wrote to him. 0:09:05.960 --> 0:09:08.640 It appears they wrote to him repeatedly, actually about certain 0:09:08.679 --> 0:09:13.199 events they were concerned about, and that included his imprisoning 0:09:13.360 --> 0:09:19.079 a French merchant and his seizure of four ships. Only once, 0:09:19.120 --> 0:09:22.200 in January fifteen sixty nine can we find a record 0:09:22.280 --> 0:09:26.080 of commendation of John's behavior anywhere, and that was after 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:29.520 he and Sir Arthur Champernon had seized Spanish silver from 0:09:29.559 --> 0:09:33.120 a vessel and conveyed it to the Crown. By the 0:09:33.160 --> 0:09:36.760 time Elizabeth the First Rain began in fifteen fifty eight, 0:09:36.800 --> 0:09:39.480 piracy was already in its golden age, with thousands of 0:09:39.520 --> 0:09:42.959 pirates sailing the Atlantic and Caribbean oceans in the name 0:09:42.960 --> 0:09:47.439 of the Crown. Explorers or adventurers or privateers or pirates 0:09:47.520 --> 0:09:49.400 or whatever you want to call them. It was even 0:09:49.400 --> 0:09:51.600 the Royal Navy who was involved. They were all pretty 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:55.319 much indistinguishable from each other as they plundered their way 0:09:55.360 --> 0:09:58.520 around the world. Some were commissioned and paid for their services, 0:09:58.520 --> 0:10:01.320 but others weren't, and that was really the only difference. 0:10:01.920 --> 0:10:05.160 The British Empire had a particular interest in looting from 0:10:05.200 --> 0:10:08.360 their enemy, the Spanish, who were busy looting from what 0:10:08.440 --> 0:10:11.560 they called the New World today that refers to the 0:10:11.559 --> 0:10:15.040 Western hemisphere in particular the America's and it was just 0:10:15.120 --> 0:10:18.559 new to them. All this piracy took place with the 0:10:18.640 --> 0:10:22.320 Queen's approval, or at least she turned a blind eye 0:10:22.320 --> 0:10:25.040 to it, and she did fund many commissions, so it's 0:10:25.040 --> 0:10:27.480 hard to argue that she didn't know what was going on. 0:10:28.360 --> 0:10:32.760 Elizabethan authorities generally encouraged piracy because they saw it as 0:10:32.800 --> 0:10:37.000 a form of economic warfare against the country's enemies, and yes, 0:10:37.040 --> 0:10:39.600 at this time it was mainly Spain, but it was 0:10:39.640 --> 0:10:44.040 certainly not only Spain. Growing more powerful, the Kilogrews rebuilt 0:10:44.200 --> 0:10:49.760 Arwa Knack House around fifteen sixty seven to seventy one Ish. 0:10:50.000 --> 0:10:52.880 It was now fortified as a stronghold, and they used 0:10:52.920 --> 0:10:55.520 it to store merchandise that they had stolen in raids 0:10:55.559 --> 0:10:58.240 from ships and coastline attacks before they could fence it. 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:02.000 The house was described as quote the finest and most 0:11:02.040 --> 0:11:06.200 costly house in the country. While the Killergrew family didn't 0:11:06.240 --> 0:11:10.080 always go out on raids themselves, they definitely ran a 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:14.680 tight operation. They owned and outfitted their own ships. They 0:11:14.720 --> 0:11:18.160 assessed their own stolen goods, they took their share, gave 0:11:18.200 --> 0:11:21.160 their crews their share, and gave a percent to the crown. 0:11:22.200 --> 0:11:26.040 Very careful with the books, they also bribed authorities, probably 0:11:26.080 --> 0:11:29.920 a line item. They had allocated suns formably and pretty 0:11:30.000 --> 0:11:33.160 much had all of Cornwall in their pockets. There is 0:11:33.200 --> 0:11:35.800 a version of the Killer Grew story that suggests Mary 0:11:35.880 --> 0:11:39.360 and John would entertain guests such as naval and other 0:11:39.440 --> 0:11:43.280 ship captains, as well as other aristocratic families, as a 0:11:43.320 --> 0:11:46.720 way to learn where to find their hidden treasures. The 0:11:46.800 --> 0:11:49.040 Killer Grews were known for taking care of their cruise. 0:11:49.480 --> 0:11:51.800 It was not uncommon for them to invite their men 0:11:51.920 --> 0:11:55.400 at family meals in their home. They settled disputes, they 0:11:55.440 --> 0:11:58.400 offered protection for their crews, and one example we came 0:11:58.440 --> 0:12:02.600 across of their bound liz bribery was if one of 0:12:02.600 --> 0:12:05.360 their ships was followed by authorities. They were instructed to 0:12:05.400 --> 0:12:08.600 sail into the harbor to the Killogrew's family home, where 0:12:08.720 --> 0:12:11.640 Joan would then row out and I'm gonna air quote 0:12:11.800 --> 0:12:17.600 this word, convince the officials into looking the other way. Oh, 0:12:17.640 --> 0:12:23.439 I'm sure we can work something. We're all gentlemen here. Mary, however, 0:12:23.600 --> 0:12:26.040 it's said, preferred to be a little more hands on 0:12:26.160 --> 0:12:28.960 with the family operation, and she was known to go 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:32.679 out on raids during storms. She would send crews out 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:35.520 to raid ships that were driven into the harbor. She 0:12:35.559 --> 0:12:38.720 would ultimately be accused of praying on shipping vessels that 0:12:38.800 --> 0:12:42.360 passed along the coastline. She was known to cut deals 0:12:42.360 --> 0:12:46.240 with smugglers and then fence the goods. Historian Nevill Williams 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:51.040 described Mary as a quote tough and unprincipled businesswoman. So 0:12:51.040 --> 0:12:53.559 we're going to jump into a break for a word 0:12:53.600 --> 0:12:57.000 from our sponsor, and next let's talk about how Mary 0:12:57.240 --> 0:13:09.480 gained that description of un principle old businesswoman. Welcome back 0:13:09.520 --> 0:13:13.400 to Criminalia. Okay, Now is when we get to the 0:13:13.440 --> 0:13:18.479 moment when Mary made a big mistake. So the Kiligrews 0:13:18.520 --> 0:13:23.280 continued their business for decades, but their pirate empire was 0:13:23.360 --> 0:13:27.720 brought down in two, when Mary decided she wanted the 0:13:27.880 --> 0:13:31.800 wrong ship. Okay, so this is one of those where 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:36.120 we have multiple versions. Here's one. A Hanseatic ship sailed 0:13:36.120 --> 0:13:38.600 into the harbor during bad weather and the crew was 0:13:38.640 --> 0:13:42.280 forced to anchor there to win ashore to the Killigrew 0:13:42.480 --> 0:13:45.680 estate to find shelter and over dinner, Mary told the 0:13:45.679 --> 0:13:47.640 men that their ship would be safe if they left 0:13:47.640 --> 0:13:50.160 it in the harbor, and she suggested that they could 0:13:50.160 --> 0:13:52.120 find a place to stay through the storm in a 0:13:52.200 --> 0:13:55.480 nearby town named Penryn. There are some versions of this 0:13:55.520 --> 0:13:57.600 part of the story that suggests that the two men 0:13:57.640 --> 0:14:00.560 actually ended up staying in a guesthouse on the killer 0:14:00.600 --> 0:14:03.240 Grew land, but either way, they were not in for 0:14:03.320 --> 0:14:06.439 a good night. The Hanseatic League to take a moment 0:14:06.480 --> 0:14:09.120 to talk about who those men were. It's a part 0:14:09.160 --> 0:14:12.960 of German history. The League became a powerful network of 0:14:13.080 --> 0:14:16.640 merchants cooperating for the promotion of their trade abroad. The 0:14:16.679 --> 0:14:19.720 allegiance included areas from the east of England to the 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:22.560 heart of Russia, and at its peak, the League had 0:14:22.600 --> 0:14:26.000 the allegiance of nearly two hundred towns across northern Europe. 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:29.880 So that night, Mary gathered a crew, and they rode 0:14:29.920 --> 0:14:32.440 out to the men's ship under the cloak of darkness. 0:14:33.080 --> 0:14:36.000 They covered their oars with cloth to muffle their noise 0:14:36.040 --> 0:14:39.920 and not draw attention to their activities. John may Or 0:14:39.960 --> 0:14:43.080 may not have been part of this crew. Once on board, 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:46.680 they overpowered any crew remaining on the ship and killed them, 0:14:46.720 --> 0:14:49.880 and they helped themselves to the booty that seized cargo 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:54.080 is said to have been Holland cloth or unbleached linen fabric. 0:14:54.760 --> 0:14:57.680 The crew also stole the ship and in some versions 0:14:57.680 --> 0:15:00.720 of the story, they sailed it to Ireland and when 0:15:00.720 --> 0:15:04.760 the two men returned the next morning everything was gone. So, 0:15:04.840 --> 0:15:07.680 of course, not only are there different versions of that 0:15:07.760 --> 0:15:11.920 first story, there is a second version of the story itself, 0:15:11.960 --> 0:15:14.800 and it goes like this. Mary and her pirate crew 0:15:15.040 --> 0:15:18.560 boarded and stole treasure from the Spanish ship, the Marie 0:15:18.600 --> 0:15:22.520 of San Sebastian, which had been anchored near the Kilagrew estate. 0:15:23.040 --> 0:15:26.040 We don't know many of the details about the raid actually, 0:15:26.080 --> 0:15:30.040 but this turned out to be Mary's final heist. Authorities 0:15:30.120 --> 0:15:32.640 arrested the group and when the stolen goods from the 0:15:32.640 --> 0:15:36.680 ship were discovered in her home, receiving and fencing stolen 0:15:36.720 --> 0:15:40.080 goods were added to her charges. Mary, along with two 0:15:40.120 --> 0:15:42.440 members of her crew, were charged with the murder of 0:15:42.440 --> 0:15:45.360 a crewman on the Marie, and Mary was convicted and 0:15:45.440 --> 0:15:49.080 received a death sentence, so were the other two members 0:15:49.120 --> 0:15:53.200 of that crew. An investigation conducted by Richard Grenville the 0:15:53.240 --> 0:15:57.000 Second and Edmund Tremaine disclosed that Mary had recently shown 0:15:57.520 --> 0:16:00.800 lengths of Holland cloth to her domestic work hers, and 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:03.040 that one of her daughters had paid a debt with 0:16:03.160 --> 0:16:07.040 twenty yards of the unbleached linen. It's reported that John 0:16:07.120 --> 0:16:09.160 may have been summoned to appear in front of the 0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:12.720 Privy Council, although no details have survived all these years 0:16:13.080 --> 0:16:15.640 to tell us if he really was or if there 0:16:15.680 --> 0:16:18.440 was any punishment. The Privy Council was a group of 0:16:18.560 --> 0:16:23.040 nineteen powerful noblemen appointed by Elizabeth First, and they advised 0:16:23.040 --> 0:16:25.760 the Queen on both domestic and foreign affairs, such as 0:16:26.120 --> 0:16:28.240 how to handle threats and when to go to war, 0:16:28.680 --> 0:16:31.800 relations with foreign ambassadors and the like. They did not 0:16:31.840 --> 0:16:34.920 control her, but it's reasonable someone could have been called 0:16:34.960 --> 0:16:37.720 in front of them were they accused of piracy and 0:16:37.840 --> 0:16:42.040 of a high standing. The executions were carried out on 0:16:42.080 --> 0:16:46.920 the crew, but Mary wasn't executed. Here's where things become 0:16:47.240 --> 0:16:50.720 a little unclear and may explain why in the first 0:16:50.840 --> 0:16:53.360 version of this story she gets away more or less 0:16:53.400 --> 0:16:56.640 without incident. There are at least three versions of how 0:16:56.680 --> 0:16:59.920 Mary escaped the gallows. Some say her husband intervened on 0:17:00.040 --> 0:17:03.120 her behalf bribery, of course we know, seems to be 0:17:03.160 --> 0:17:07.720 one of his favorite things. Other reports suggest that it 0:17:07.760 --> 0:17:10.359 was Mary's son who broughted those who could secure her 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:12.919 release from prison and spare her the death sentence. She 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:15.840 was facing no big stretch on either of these. The 0:17:15.920 --> 0:17:20.560 Killergrew family had been doing this for generations. It seems 0:17:20.560 --> 0:17:24.520 both would be totally plausible. Another version is that the 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:27.960 men from the Hanseatic ship submitted a complaint to the 0:17:28.000 --> 0:17:31.959 Commission for Piracy in Cornwall. But guess who sat at 0:17:31.960 --> 0:17:34.640 the head of that commission at that time. That would 0:17:34.640 --> 0:17:39.080 have been Mary's son. Coincidentally, the commission couldn't figure out 0:17:39.280 --> 0:17:43.040 exactly who committed the act of piracy. Gosh, I don't 0:17:43.040 --> 0:17:47.400 know this. There no clues, y'all. Unsatisfied, Those two men 0:17:47.800 --> 0:17:50.680 went higher and higher on the chain of command until 0:17:50.720 --> 0:17:55.359 their complaint reached Queen Elizabeth the First herself. Whether it 0:17:55.440 --> 0:17:59.000 was a Spanish ship or a Hansiatic ship. The event 0:17:59.280 --> 0:18:03.560 threatened either way to cause a diplomatic crisis. The monarchy 0:18:03.760 --> 0:18:07.840 encouraged piracy, but such brazen acts in English waters, as 0:18:08.000 --> 0:18:11.560 Mary's raid had been, couldn't be condoned. For the sake 0:18:11.560 --> 0:18:15.199 of plausible deniability, the crown preferred it's pirates conduct their 0:18:15.240 --> 0:18:20.880 business away from England. So what exactly happened here? How 0:18:20.920 --> 0:18:24.760 did Mary escape being killed and executed for her crimes? 0:18:24.760 --> 0:18:28.040 Who pardoned her exactly? We found that it was most 0:18:28.080 --> 0:18:30.720 often reported that it was Queen Elizabeth the First who 0:18:30.760 --> 0:18:34.159 intervened issuing that pardon. And while we don't know what 0:18:34.400 --> 0:18:37.000 really went down to spare her life, Mary did end 0:18:37.080 --> 0:18:40.880 her piracy career. She died several years later, sometime after 0:18:42.240 --> 0:18:52.719 in Buddha Cornwall. And that is the life of Mary Polly. 0:18:53.520 --> 0:18:56.040 What's getting to the groggery? And see what you have today? 0:18:56.920 --> 0:19:01.760 Oh Maria? Good good stuff? Uh it is And it 0:19:01.920 --> 0:19:05.479 surprised me how much I liked it, And it got 0:19:05.520 --> 0:19:08.639 a thumbs up from my beloved who doesn't really drink 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:13.359 a surpriser. So the thing that I kept thinking about, 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:16.520 and of course this is because I am a stitcher 0:19:17.440 --> 0:19:22.240 in my life was that unbleached linen. And there is 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:24.800 actually a drink called a white linen, which is a 0:19:24.880 --> 0:19:29.040 gin cocktail. And so thinking about the unbleached linen called 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:32.159 it to mind, and I thought it would be fun 0:19:32.400 --> 0:19:36.840 to do a dirty version, since a white linen conveys 0:19:36.920 --> 0:19:42.440 like a beautiful clear beverage to you. Right, So we're 0:19:42.440 --> 0:19:44.600 doing the unbleached one. We're swapping out some of the 0:19:44.680 --> 0:19:48.520 ingredients to make it. Instead of gin. What you're going 0:19:48.560 --> 0:19:51.600 to start with is one and a half ounces of 0:19:51.640 --> 0:19:57.760 Reposada tequila. Have we used tequila before? I think once 0:19:57.880 --> 0:19:59.679 or twice, but not very often. It's not my spirit 0:19:59.680 --> 0:20:02.280 of chill ice. That's why it's a surprise. Yes, apparently 0:20:02.320 --> 0:20:04.920 we're starting out strong, like a good, a good middle 0:20:04.920 --> 0:20:09.000 grade tequila represtato. And then an ounce of lemon juice, 0:20:09.560 --> 0:20:12.800 a half ounce of vanilla syrup. You can use simple, 0:20:12.840 --> 0:20:15.120 but I highly recommend vanilla, and i'll tell you why 0:20:15.119 --> 0:20:18.640 in a moment, a half ounce of Saint Germain liqueur 0:20:19.200 --> 0:20:23.240 so a little elder flower yumminess, and then in alignment 0:20:23.280 --> 0:20:26.240 with the white linen, three cucumber slices, and you're gonna 0:20:26.280 --> 0:20:29.879 put all of that in your cocktail shaker, shake it, 0:20:29.920 --> 0:20:32.400 shake and shake and shake it. You'll have ice in there, 0:20:32.400 --> 0:20:34.959 so you want everything to get cold and incorporated, and 0:20:35.000 --> 0:20:39.720 then you will strain that. Sometimes you'll see a suggestion 0:20:39.760 --> 0:20:42.919 anytime there's a cucumber and a shaker to double strain it, 0:20:43.040 --> 0:20:45.119 or strain it with like a piece of cheese cloth 0:20:45.200 --> 0:20:47.760 or something involved. So none of the seeds slipped through, 0:20:48.600 --> 0:20:50.879 that's up to you. I don't mind them, but I 0:20:50.920 --> 0:20:53.159 also didn't have any come through, and I only strained 0:20:53.200 --> 0:20:55.919 ones and then top it with soda water, and so 0:20:56.040 --> 0:20:59.600 you get this kind of golden e yellowy drink and 0:20:59.640 --> 0:21:03.520 it is complex to the palate, but delicious. And the 0:21:03.600 --> 0:21:06.600 reason why I was adamant that you use vanilla syrup 0:21:06.640 --> 0:21:09.359 here is that more than the simple syrup version, the 0:21:09.440 --> 0:21:12.000 vanilla syrup kind of cuts the legs out from under 0:21:12.040 --> 0:21:14.760 the tequila, so you don't get that bitiness at all. 0:21:15.480 --> 0:21:18.280 You just get kind of a really full, stacked set 0:21:18.320 --> 0:21:22.119 of flavors together. The tequila interacting with the Saint Germain 0:21:22.320 --> 0:21:24.960 and the vanilla syrup does something very interesting and it's 0:21:25.040 --> 0:21:28.040 quite lovely. Even my non drinker husband was like, oh, 0:21:28.080 --> 0:21:31.600 that's nice, which I was like, that's like a five 0:21:32.400 --> 0:21:34.960 you and he was like, yeah, yeah, that is the 0:21:35.040 --> 0:21:37.440 Unbleached Linen. Now, if you want to do the mock tail, 0:21:37.480 --> 0:21:39.760 it's easy as pie. You're going to do the exact 0:21:39.800 --> 0:21:42.600 same thing. It's going to have a slightly different flavor profile, 0:21:42.640 --> 0:21:45.560 but instead of the tequila, you're gonna use ginger beer 0:21:45.600 --> 0:21:49.119 because you still want to get that golden la And 0:21:49.160 --> 0:21:53.240 then instead of the Saint Germain, uh, use a lavender syrup. 0:21:53.680 --> 0:21:56.080 I like the idea of a floral but something that's 0:21:56.119 --> 0:21:58.960 not as soft as like a rose or a chrysanthemum syrup. 0:21:59.040 --> 0:22:01.680 You want the avander, and then it makes a whole 0:22:01.720 --> 0:22:03.840 slightly different, but you still get that whoa. There's a 0:22:03.880 --> 0:22:05.679 lot of flavors going on here, but they're playing very 0:22:05.720 --> 0:22:09.399 nicely together sensation, and that is a very refreshing drink. 0:22:09.440 --> 0:22:12.359 I'm almost a little late in the season for it, 0:22:12.400 --> 0:22:16.760 like that would be a great mid July luncheon kind 0:22:16.760 --> 0:22:20.760 of beverage. It's really nice. So that's the Unbleached Linen. 0:22:20.880 --> 0:22:22.800 I'm going to tell you now, so far, of the 0:22:22.800 --> 0:22:25.200 ones we've done this season, this is my second favorite, 0:22:25.400 --> 0:22:28.560 is it. We'll see when we get to the the 0:22:28.680 --> 0:22:32.440 last episode if it stays there. But right now, that's 0:22:32.440 --> 0:22:36.959 where it's sitting, to my own shock, because it's tequila. 0:22:37.560 --> 0:22:45.320 It's tequila, and there I was. But the ginger, the 0:22:45.359 --> 0:22:48.960 ginger beer version is also very very nice. I hope 0:22:49.160 --> 0:22:53.639 that you try this, have a little unbleached linen of 0:22:53.680 --> 0:22:56.320 your own to enjoy, and we hope that we will 0:22:56.359 --> 0:22:59.119 also see you back here next week for more piracy 0:22:59.560 --> 0:23:09.440 here on Criminalia. Criminalia is a production of Shonda land 0:23:09.440 --> 0:23:13.000 Audio in partnership with I heart Radio. For more podcasts 0:23:13.040 --> 0:23:16.200 from Shonda land Audio, please visit the I heart Radio app, 0:23:16.359 --> 0:23:19.439 Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.