Speaker 1: Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of I Heart Radio
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Speaker 1: this is Danish War. Its just a quick reminder before
Speaker 1: the episode begins. My book Immortality, a Love Story is
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Speaker 1: let's dive into the episode. When you think of a
Speaker 1: rival queen from the British Isles standing up to Queen
Speaker 1: Elizabeth the first, I'm sure a certain someone comes right
Speaker 1: to mind. Well, forget about Mary, Queen of Scott's for
Speaker 1: the next thirty or so minutes, and travel southwest to
Speaker 1: Ireland with me. There we will meet grannyoel or Granja Whale,
Speaker 1: or Granny and Email or Grana Wally. But among the many,
Speaker 1: many variations of her name, the two that have stuck
Speaker 1: most prominently in today's popular culture our Grace O'Malley and
Speaker 1: the Pirate Queen. Grace may not have been a queen
Speaker 1: in the same literal monarchical sense as Mary and Elizabeth,
Speaker 1: but that didn't make her any less of a powerful force.
Speaker 1: At one point, she led an army of two hundred
Speaker 1: men and captained a sizeable fleet of galleys, those big
Speaker 1: pirate ships with the oars on the side. That's enough
Speaker 1: to be impressive. But Grace is perhaps most famous for
Speaker 1: her historical meeting with Queen Elizabeth at Greenwich Palace, at
Speaker 1: which she petitioned against the mistreatment of her family at
Speaker 1: the hands of one of the Queen's governors in Ireland.
Speaker 1: Hearing that today you might be thinking WHOA, let's go
Speaker 1: girl boss hashtag shiro. I'm a little nauseous just saying
Speaker 1: that you might be imagining that she instantly became a
Speaker 1: celebrated folk hero. But in the fifteen hundreds, when Grace
Speaker 1: was active, her subversion of the times Gaelic ideals of
Speaker 1: both heroism and womanhood would mean that you would be
Speaker 1: all but left out of recorded Irish history. Instead, much
Speaker 1: of what we know about Grace's life and her adventures
Speaker 1: comes from English sources, due in large part to her
Speaker 1: contentious relationship with the Tutors during a pivotal moment in
Speaker 1: English Irish history. Still, Grace was cemented in Irish history
Speaker 1: through folklore traditions, and in more recent years, the Irish
Speaker 1: canon has adopted Grace as an iconic, even nationalist figure.
Speaker 1: Even on an international scale, Grace is held up today
Speaker 1: as an icon of, perhaps anachronistic but still inspiring feminism.
Speaker 1: The story of Grace O'Malley has all the elements that
Speaker 1: can make one an icon, resilience, charisma, defiance of social stigma,
Speaker 1: and at the end of the day, being a really
Speaker 1: cool lady pirate, i'm danis Schwartz and this is noble blood.
Speaker 1: Grace's connection with the sea began with her birth as
Speaker 1: a member of the O'Malley clan, and notably their sole air.
Speaker 1: She was expected to live by their motto terameric potents,
Speaker 1: or powerful by land and sea. The O'Malley's were unique
Speaker 1: among the major Irish clans for making much of their
Speaker 1: money from the sea, which might seem surprising considering Ireland
Speaker 1: is surrounded by water. When the King would go to
Speaker 1: see he would use O'Malley fleets and exchange, documented in
Speaker 1: Irish records, Each year, the O'Malley's would pay taxes of quote,
Speaker 1: one hundred milk cows, one hundred hogs, and one hundred
Speaker 1: casks of beer and quote in exchange for the King's
Speaker 1: annual gift of quote five shi, five horses, five swords
Speaker 1: and five corselets and quote. The sea provided the O'Malley's
Speaker 1: with four major sources of income, fishing, trading, mercenary work,
Speaker 1: and of course pirt ing, all of which Grace would
Speaker 1: involve herself in. Fishing is self explanatory. The coast off
Speaker 1: the O'Malley territory was known as a particularly great spot,
Speaker 1: but trading has a more complex history. Recent research confirms
Speaker 1: that from the Middle Ages on sea trade routes were
Speaker 1: established between Ireland and England, France and Spain. Trading abroad
Speaker 1: was actually more profitable for the O'Malley's than trading in
Speaker 1: their own country, thanks to taxas in major cities like
Speaker 1: Galway that were placed on outsiders or non city folk.
Speaker 1: For Grace, this meant that unlike her peers, she grew
Speaker 1: up in a home furnished with four in luxury goods
Speaker 1: and furniture. Mercenary work also deserves some contexts. Hired mercenaries
Speaker 1: played a big role in the history of Gaelic warfare,
Speaker 1: and according to documentation in the Irish Annals, O'Malley ships
Speaker 1: and crews were near constantly being hired by warring chieftains.
Speaker 1: Grace and her sons would take up that arm of
Speaker 1: the family business. And then, of course there's the history
Speaker 1: of pirate ng Every civilization in history has had them,
Speaker 1: and in Irish history, pirate and O'Malley go hand in hand.
Speaker 1: A quote from the Ancient Annals Rates quote owen o
Speaker 1: Wallya went with the crew of three ships against chile
Speaker 1: Bega or Killie Begs in County Donegal. Quote in the
Speaker 1: night they raid and burned the town and take many
Speaker 1: prisoners end quote. Fun fact the galley, the pirate ship,
Speaker 1: the O'Malley's and most face. Miss Le Grace sailed is
Speaker 1: thought to derive its design from the long skips or
Speaker 1: longships of the Vikings, who established their footholds in Ireland
Speaker 1: in part due to pirrat ng. This was the life
Speaker 1: Grace was born into, but at the time of her
Speaker 1: birth around fifteen thirty, Ireland was on the cusp of
Speaker 1: a major change. The country hadn't seen much change since
Speaker 1: the Anglo Norman invasion of the twelfth century. Ireland had
Speaker 1: a total population of around seven hundred thousand people, living
Speaker 1: in a land still densely occupied by thriving forests and woodlands,
Speaker 1: pastoral fields and bogs and marsha's, with very little in
Speaker 1: the way of bridges and roads to traverse the ecosystem.
Speaker 1: This landscape protected the Irish from English interference for a
Speaker 1: long time, but that would change in the sixteenth century,
Speaker 1: especially once Ireland began to become properly mapped. When Grace
Speaker 1: was born, the current English king Henry the Eighth already
Speaker 1: held the title of Lord of Ireland, and the Crown
Speaker 1: had imposed a policy referred to as quote surrender and
Speaker 1: re grant, in which they hoped to obtain Ireland through
Speaker 1: willing participation instead of military action. But with their claws
Speaker 1: in the land, the tutors enter. Their conquest of Grace's
Speaker 1: homeland will come more into play during her adolescence and
Speaker 1: eventually adulthood. Her father was Owen or black Oak O'Malley,
Speaker 1: chief of his name and ruler of uwal Oughta. Notably,
Speaker 1: he was one of the few Gaelic chieftains of the
Speaker 1: time who refused to submit to the English crown. Grace's mother, Margaret,
Speaker 1: was also in O'Malley, a cousin of her husband. Like
Speaker 1: her husband, she was a property owner in Ule. She
Speaker 1: inherited lands from her mother, which she hoped would pass
Speaker 1: down to her daughter. Irish law allowed for women to
Speaker 1: possess land, which directly opposed English law which stated all
Speaker 1: property went to husband's fathers and sons. Earlier, I mentioned
Speaker 1: Grace was the sole heir of the O'Malley's, but that
Speaker 1: information comes with a caveat. Grace had an illegitimate brother, Donald,
Speaker 1: who lived in O'Malley Castle, but did not inherit the
Speaker 1: lands or the title. Everything went to Grace. Still Donald
Speaker 1: existed and he would play an important role in her life.
Speaker 1: Grace's childhood is pretty much undocumented, not uncommon for Gaelic
Speaker 1: children of the age. I also noted earlier that while
Speaker 1: Grace wasn't formally documented in Irish history, she remained in
Speaker 1: the culture through folklore traditions. The story behind her name
Speaker 1: is said to derive from an incident as a child
Speaker 1: in which she wanted to join her father on an expedition,
Speaker 1: but she was told she couldn't go because her long
Speaker 1: hair would catch in the ship's ropes. In defiance, she
Speaker 1: chopped off her hair so he wouldn't have an excuse
Speaker 1: to exclude her, earning her the nickname Granuel or Grace
Speaker 1: with the chopped hair, the former being the name she's
Speaker 1: best known by an Irish culture. There are some more
Speaker 1: academic etymological explanations for the name, but I think that
Speaker 1: one's a lot more fun folklore aside. It's likely Grace
Speaker 1: had her sight set on seafaring from an early age,
Speaker 1: but as a woman, she had a more important obligation
Speaker 1: to the O'Malley clan. Marriage. Grace's first marriage happened when
Speaker 1: she was only sixteen, in fifteen forty six. Her husband
Speaker 1: was Donald O Flattery, son of the chieftain of the
Speaker 1: senior ruling branch of the oh Flattery clan, a titled
Speaker 1: Donald himself would gain by the time of the marriage,
Speaker 1: not Donald our half brother, a different Donald. The O'Malley
Speaker 1: and o'flarity clans were neighbors and allies in war, so
Speaker 1: political marriages between them made perfect sense. We don't have
Speaker 1: any specifics of what her married life was like, but
Speaker 1: based on all we know of Grace, we can imagine
Speaker 1: she wasn't content with the role of dutiful housewife, but
Speaker 1: her husband seemed like the man who wouldn't want a
Speaker 1: woman threatening his power. Still, the couple had three children,
Speaker 1: two boys and a girl, Margaret, after Grace's mother. When
Speaker 1: it comes to Grace's husband, we know two main things
Speaker 1: about Donald. He was eager to war with neighboring plans,
Speaker 1: and he was bad at his job when he was
Speaker 1: picking fights with the Joyce clan over castle ownership. Grace
Speaker 1: had plans at home over a century before Catherine the
Speaker 1: Great Wood, Grace O'Malley usurped her husband's position as chieftain,
Speaker 1: albeit probably less dramatically than Catherine the Great did it.
Speaker 1: We don't have any more details as to the how
Speaker 1: and why of this power transfer, but we know most
Speaker 1: of the klansmen supported her, even electing to leave their
Speaker 1: home and live under her authority in mail. It's after
Speaker 1: she's chieftain that we finally get the first stories of
Speaker 1: Grace's pirate escapades. Which she and her crew were essentially
Speaker 1: doing was disrupting cargo carrying ships with their galleys, scamming
Speaker 1: Galoway merchants that made their way into her territory into
Speaker 1: paying a tax for safe passage home fair payback for
Speaker 1: the taxes Galway merchants placed on those in coastal territories
Speaker 1: wanting to trade. As described by Anne Chambers in her
Speaker 1: Rich O'Malley biography quote laden with the agreed or extracted spoil,
Speaker 1: Granuel and her men disappeared into one or other of
Speaker 1: the numerous uncharted days along the identified coastline. Frustrated merchants
Speaker 1: took their complaints to the English Council in Dublin, complaints
Speaker 1: that were recorded as such quote the continuing roads used
Speaker 1: by the O'Malleys and aflaritys with their galleys along our coasts,
Speaker 1: where there have been taken sundry ships bound for this
Speaker 1: poor town, which they have not only rifled to the
Speaker 1: utter overthrow of the owners and merchants, but also have
Speaker 1: most wickedly murdered divers of young men, to the great
Speaker 1: terror of such as would willingly traffic end quote. Grace
Speaker 1: was already proving herself to be a strong, competent leader,
Speaker 1: the kind of person a crew would get behind. In
Speaker 1: fifteen sixty four, Ireland found itself embroiled in a new
Speaker 1: conflict that would have a large impact on Grace's life.
Speaker 1: A minor chieftain of the Auflarity sought to expand his territory,
Speaker 1: and in his campaign he attacked two earls to the crown.
Speaker 1: Queen Elizabeth the first, at this point, could not ignore.
Speaker 1: To resolve the fighting, The Crown decided that they would
Speaker 1: grant A Flaherty Kinsman overlordship over the territory and elected
Speaker 1: Donal of Flarherty, Grace's husband, as deputy, when he thought
Speaker 1: he should have had the primary position. The arrangement temporarily
Speaker 1: satisfied the warring chieftain, but created a major new problem.
Speaker 1: The territory already had a legitimate chieftain before England came in,
Speaker 1: and just decided who would be in charge. While Elizabeth's father,
Speaker 1: Henry may have stuck to a policy of surrender and
Speaker 1: re grant, Queen Elizabeth preferred divide and conquer, in which
Speaker 1: English laws sought to break up the existing Gaelic order.
Speaker 1: New wars inevitably broke out among clans, and in one skirmish,
Speaker 1: Grace's husband, Donald was mortally wounded. We're getting into the
Speaker 1: blurrier lines of folklore again, but tradition says that the
Speaker 1: Joyce is the foremost of Donald's many enemies took the
Speaker 1: opportunity to take his castle, which they nicknamed Cox Castle
Speaker 1: after their opinion of its leader. What they didn't account
Speaker 1: for was his far more competent wife's defenses, who apparently
Speaker 1: showed such strength that they decided to rename the castle
Speaker 1: yet again, Hen's Castle. Unfortunately for Grace, Gaelic law didn't
Speaker 1: have as high an opinion of her, or of women
Speaker 1: in general. She couldn't legally inherit the title of chieftain,
Speaker 1: so after her husband died, Donald's cousin was officially given
Speaker 1: the position that she had been in for years. What's more,
Speaker 1: she couldn't inherit his lands, and so she returned to
Speaker 1: her birthplace of Oul, bringing along her children any of
Speaker 1: her a flatterymen who wished to continue as part of
Speaker 1: her crew, three galleys and a collection of aller boats.
Speaker 1: This would be the place where the legend of the
Speaker 1: Pirate Queen would truly be born. Back in Uel, Grace
Speaker 1: settled on Claire Island as a base. It's stronghold, a
Speaker 1: tower castle perfect for seafarers, is today known as Growl Castle.
Speaker 1: We don't have documentation as to how she spent her
Speaker 1: time here, but from a collection of external sources, we
Speaker 1: know that she continued and expanded the practices she had
Speaker 1: begun with the a Flits in her own territory. She
Speaker 1: also built alliances with a number of clans, the O'Malley's,
Speaker 1: the Burkes, the o Flattery's, the McCormack's, the McNally's, the Conroys,
Speaker 1: and the Cladonnels. It's testament to her leadership that this
Speaker 1: many men agreed to follow a woman in a time
Speaker 1: and place when she couldn't officially become a chieftain. To
Speaker 1: get a picture of the power that she garnered in
Speaker 1: the years after turning back to Ull, take a quote
Speaker 1: from Sir Henry Sydney, Lord Deputy of Ireland in fifteen
Speaker 1: seventy seven, thirteen years after Grace's husband died. Quote, there
Speaker 1: came to me a most famous feminine sea captain named
Speaker 1: Granny Imally, with three galleys and two hundred fighting men,
Speaker 1: either in Scotland or in Ireland. She brought with her
Speaker 1: her husband, for she was well by sea and by land,
Speaker 1: well more than Mrs Mate with him. This was a
Speaker 1: notorious woman in all the coasts of Ireland. End quote.
Speaker 1: You might be thinking, husband, I thought her husband was dead.
Speaker 1: You are correct. Sydney is actually referring to surprise husband
Speaker 1: number two, to whom Grace married in fifteen sixty seven.
Speaker 1: This husband was let me take a deep breath here,
Speaker 1: Richard on ironren Burke, chieftain of the step of Ulrich
Speaker 1: of Burswool and Cara. He was a wealthy, well connected,
Speaker 1: and most importantly man who was fine with Grace continuing
Speaker 1: business as usual during their marriage. Unlike Donald, it seems
Speaker 1: Richard was less bothered by having a powerful wife, evidenced
Speaker 1: by Sydney's declaration that she was more than missus mate
Speaker 1: with him and his usually being referred to as quote
Speaker 1: Grace O'Malley's husband in English sources. Still, there are a
Speaker 1: number of legends of spats during their marriage, including one
Speaker 1: in which Grace locks Richard out of his own castle
Speaker 1: and shouts from the top of the tower, declaring divorce.
Speaker 1: I wonder if this legend served to make Grace seem
Speaker 1: powerful or hysterical, but either way, in reality, the couple
Speaker 1: never divorced. Legend also tells that their only son, Theobald,
Speaker 1: whom the couple had the same year they married, was
Speaker 1: born at sea. The next day, Algerian pirates attacked the ship,
Speaker 1: and Grace rose from bed to fight, apparently declaring quote
Speaker 1: take this from an unconsecrated hands end quote, referring to
Speaker 1: the old Catholic custom that women who had recently given
Speaker 1: birth could not participate in ceremonies. Legends also make up
Speaker 1: most of Grace's pirrating stories from this time. She saved
Speaker 1: the wealthy son of a merchant from the wreckage of
Speaker 1: a ship, and he became her lover when he was
Speaker 1: killed by the McMahons of Juna Castle. She seized it
Speaker 1: out of vengeance. Apparently she kidnapped the grandson of an
Speaker 1: earl after he was inhospitable to her. What we know
Speaker 1: as truth is that her leadership skills, along with the
Speaker 1: skills of her second husband, would be put to the
Speaker 1: test in the fifteen seventies. That quote from Henry Sidney
Speaker 1: about his meeting with Grace was not just a chat
Speaker 1: over coffee. He and his son, the poet and soldier,
Speaker 1: Sir Philip Sidney were making the round two active get
Speaker 1: Irish lords to submit their lands to them, and Grace
Speaker 1: and her husband Richard were facing increasing pressure to do
Speaker 1: the same. The extended version of that quote from Sydney
Speaker 1: actually reads quote there came to me also a most
Speaker 1: famous feminine sea captain named Granny Mallie, and offered her
Speaker 1: services unto me wheresoever I would command her with three
Speaker 1: galleys and two hundred fighting men end quote. Grace knew
Speaker 1: that if power had to be exchanged, she had something
Speaker 1: to bargain with. Offering an ally ship instead of a
Speaker 1: surrender of her lands was a shrewd move, one that
Speaker 1: Sydney accepted. He asked Grace if she could show him
Speaker 1: the seaside from one of her galleys, which she accepted
Speaker 1: if he paid for the trip. A few weeks after
Speaker 1: her encounter with Sydney, Grace set out on a routine
Speaker 1: plundering mission to Munster, the lands of the Earl of Desmond,
Speaker 1: but for the first time in her life, her mission
Speaker 1: failed and she and three crew members were captured by
Speaker 1: the Earl's people. Desmond was desperate for political power, and
Speaker 1: he thought imprisoning the famous Irish pirate would appeal to
Speaker 1: Queen Elizabeth. It would be a long confinement. In fifteen
Speaker 1: seventy eight, the English President of Munster would write correspondence
Speaker 1: to Sydney describing the Earl's prisoner as quote a woman
Speaker 1: that hath imprudently passed the part of womanhood and been
Speaker 1: a great spoiler and chief commander and director of thieves
Speaker 1: and murderers at sea to spoil this providence end quote.
Speaker 1: As we often see with condemnations of women who transgress,
Speaker 1: there are two crimes. Grace is supposedly guilty of pirating
Speaker 1: and not fulfilling her designated role as a woman. A
Speaker 1: year and a half after her initial confinement. She was
Speaker 1: taken in chains to Dublin Castle, where she was imprisoned
Speaker 1: again and her three companions were executed. We don't know
Speaker 1: why Grace was released in early fifteen seventy nine, but
Speaker 1: she was and she resumed her life at Carrigloy Castle.
Speaker 1: By March. Thinking her vulnerable, the Galway merchants, anxious about
Speaker 1: the inevitable return of her less than legal taxes, attacked
Speaker 1: her castle, but they were swiftly defeated. The next short
Speaker 1: period of Grace's life was largely political, though she and
Speaker 1: her husband's combined forces were now about two thousand men,
Speaker 1: Richard gained the position of the mac william one of
Speaker 1: the most powerful and prestigious chieftaincies, as the leader of
Speaker 1: the Burks or Mayo Burk's. This new level of power
Speaker 1: put them in closer proximity with the English, and Richard
Speaker 1: ended up signing a surrender and re grant agreement, but
Speaker 1: one that uniquely let him retain autonomous control of his
Speaker 1: lands in County Mayo. Still there are stories of Grace
Speaker 1: and Richard refusing English taxes, threatening messengers never to return.
Speaker 1: Grace and Richard were well matched, but in Fife, Richard
Speaker 1: died of natural causes at fifty three. Grace was yet
Speaker 1: again a widow. This time, however, she refused to lose
Speaker 1: what she had gained during her marriage, and she gathered
Speaker 1: her followers to reside in his castle. This apparently worked
Speaker 1: out well for her, as she retained Richard's assets and
Speaker 1: her own even after his death. Life wasn't slowing down, though,
Speaker 1: and Grace was soon embroiled in a new rebellion. In
Speaker 1: fifteen eighty four, an Englishman named Sir Richard Bingham was
Speaker 1: appointed provincial president of connect which included Grace's Mayo. Bingham
Speaker 1: preferred a violent approach when it came to taking Ireland,
Speaker 1: and he particularly singled out Grace as a potential threat.
Speaker 1: He kidnapped her son, Theobald and held him hostage for
Speaker 1: a year. After a series of other violent transgressions, the
Speaker 1: Burks rose up against Bingham. In the fighting, Bingham ordered
Speaker 1: his brother to seize the land of Grace's son, Owen.
Speaker 1: Grace later testified that Owen had offered hospitality, but he
Speaker 1: ended up quote cruelly murdered, having twelve deadly wounds end quote.
Speaker 1: As you can imagine, Grace was infuriated and eagerly joined
Speaker 1: the rebellion against Bingham. In one of the most shocking
Speaker 1: stories from the time, Grace learned that her second son,
Speaker 1: still from her first marriage, had allied out of personal
Speaker 1: gain with the man who had killed his brother. She
Speaker 1: did not hesitate to attack. A letter from Bingham describes
Speaker 1: the conflict, which reads his referring to her second son
Speaker 1: AfOR said mother. Granny, being out of charity with her
Speaker 1: son for serving her mate, manned out her navy of
Speaker 1: galleys and landed in balan Heansee, where he dwelleth, burned
Speaker 1: his town and spoiled his people of their cattle and goods,
Speaker 1: and murdered three or four of his men which offered
Speaker 1: to make resistance. Remember, her oldest son had been murdered
Speaker 1: and her youngest kidnapped. Her middle son was a traitor,
Speaker 1: and so she didn't hesitate to turn against him. By
Speaker 1: the late fifteen eighties, Elizabeth the First replaced Bingham with
Speaker 1: a man who she ordered to make peace with the Burkes. Together,
Speaker 1: she and the new Lord Deputy presented a list of
Speaker 1: crimes against Bingham. He was tried and acquitted in fifteen ninety,
Speaker 1: but that wasn't the end. Of Bingham's involvement in Grace's story,
Speaker 1: nor is it the end of Elizabeth's. Bingham wanted vengeance,
Speaker 1: and he blamed his downfall on Grace. On his return
Speaker 1: to Ireland, now demoted as a mere governor, he devastated
Speaker 1: Grace's lands while she was at sea, and when her
Speaker 1: son Theobald tried to stage another uprising against him, he
Speaker 1: impounded Grace's fleet and further plundered her territory, leaving her
Speaker 1: with nothing. Theobald was forced to surrender and was once
Speaker 1: again captured and imprisoned by Bingham. With Grace's fleet destroyed
Speaker 1: and her resources massively depleted, she decided her best course
Speaker 1: of action in this case would be diplomacy. In a
Speaker 1: letter dated Fife, she goes for a strategic emotional appeal.
Speaker 1: She argues that everything she has done has been in
Speaker 1: self defense, as Queen Elizabeth would do against her own enemies.
Speaker 1: Knowing that Queen Elizabeth the First was a similar age
Speaker 1: to her sixty three, Grace asked quote in tender consideration
Speaker 1: whereof and in regard of her great age, to grant
Speaker 1: her some reasonable maintenance for the little time she hath
Speaker 1: to live. Grace also appealed for sympathy as a widow
Speaker 1: who was never granted her proper compensation from the government.
Speaker 1: The real meat of the letter is, of course, the exchange.
Speaker 1: She proposes the release of her son in exchange for
Speaker 1: her Lands, along with the pledge of her services seafaring.
Speaker 1: She would, in other words, become a pirate on Elizabeth's behalf.
Speaker 1: It might seem like Grace was submitting to English rule,
Speaker 1: but as she did with Sir Sidney years earlier, she
Speaker 1: was playing a complex political game. The English takeover of
Speaker 1: Ireland seemed imminent to Grace, but she could use her
Speaker 1: Lands as a bargaining chip in the meantime to win
Speaker 1: back something she cared about more her son. It's also
Speaker 1: not forget how bold it was for her to appeal
Speaker 1: directly to the Queen of England. While Grace was a
Speaker 1: noble daughter in Ireland and a powerful political force, you
Speaker 1: couldn't exactly call her a peer in terms of on
Speaker 1: paper status. While the petition was en route to London,
Speaker 1: things went from bad to worse. Theobald was named as
Speaker 1: a conspirator against England and was to be tried for treason.
Speaker 1: At the same time, Grace's half brother Donald, remember him,
Speaker 1: was arrested by Bingham. Legend says that at this point
Speaker 1: Grace took matters into her own hands and set sail
Speaker 1: for London. Without an official response, we know that she
Speaker 1: was at court from June to September of that year,
Speaker 1: and during that time the Earl of Ormond, a cousin
Speaker 1: and favorite of Queen Elizabeth the First, introduced Grace to
Speaker 1: the Chief adviser to the Queen, Lord Burgley. Burgley sent
Speaker 1: O'Malley eighteen articles of interrogatory to investigate her life, basically
Speaker 1: a Q and a intake form, which Grace answered and returned.
Speaker 1: Despite Bingham's protests, Elizabeth agreed to sit down with Grace
Speaker 1: and hear her petition. The two would officially meet over
Speaker 1: the summer in Greenwich Palace. As you can imagine, there
Speaker 1: are a number of bits of folklore that are associated
Speaker 1: with this meeting. Some legends tell that Grace carried a
Speaker 1: concealed dagger under her finery. Some believe she dressed in
Speaker 1: traditional Irish costume instead, or walked barefoot. Other stories are
Speaker 1: that you refused to bow before the Queen. My personal
Speaker 1: favorite is an anecdote in which Grace was offered a
Speaker 1: noble woman's lace handkerchief. After using it, she threw it
Speaker 1: into the fireplace, to the horror of the court. Elizabeth
Speaker 1: explained that the handkerchief was meant to be placed back
Speaker 1: into her pocket, but Grace explained that in Ireland handkerchiefs
Speaker 1: are not reused on the basis of cleanliness. While we
Speaker 1: don't know what exactly happened in that meeting room, Elizabeth's
Speaker 1: own letter detailing her reactions paints the clearest picture. The
Speaker 1: Queen speaks of Grace with respect, and when it comes
Speaker 1: to her transgression, Elizabeth writes that simply quote she hath
Speaker 1: in times lived out of order and quote a simple
Speaker 1: way to put it. Elizabeth felt compassion as Grace described
Speaker 1: the mistreatment of her family. In fact, the only thing
Speaker 1: Queen Elizabeth was unsettled by was the way Grace spoke
Speaker 1: without remorse of the way she attacked her traitorous middle son.
Speaker 1: Elizabeth even heard the pirate queen out as she argued
Speaker 1: that she wanted to be reinstated to her work in
Speaker 1: as Elizabeth put it, quote maintenance by land and see
Speaker 1: quite the euphemism for piracy. Elizabeth saw Grace as a
Speaker 1: valuable asset and additionally agree on the basis that it
Speaker 1: quote might yield to her some maintenance for her living
Speaker 1: the rest of her old years end quote. Grace had
Speaker 1: played her cards quite well. She may have been considered
Speaker 1: quite old at the time, but with Elizabeth's permission, she
Speaker 1: was ready to head back to see. The fruit of
Speaker 1: Grace's efforts was Elizabeth ordering an investigation into Richard Bingham
Speaker 1: and an explanation for his extreme actions. Towards the end
Speaker 1: of September, the Queen ordered the release of theobold and
Speaker 1: Donald for Grace herself. With regards to what Elizabeth described
Speaker 1: as quote having not, by the customs of the Irish
Speaker 1: any title to any livelihood or position or portion of
Speaker 1: her two husband's land, now being a widow end quote,
Speaker 1: the Queen ordered for portions of the taxes the Crown
Speaker 1: would collect from her son's lands to be devoted to
Speaker 1: Grace instead. Satisfied, Grace returned home, where Bingham initially refused
Speaker 1: to act in accordance to the Queen's orders. Grace threatened
Speaker 1: him that she would call upon the Queen once again,
Speaker 1: and ultimately he complied. Bingham, of course, wasn't done, though,
Speaker 1: and once again sought to deplete Grace's resources. She sailed
Speaker 1: back to London one more time in fifteen ninety five,
Speaker 1: where her claims were once again investigated. Bingham, fearing more
Speaker 1: charges in Ireland, fled back to England, where he was arrested.
Speaker 1: The closest I think we've ever come to a happy
Speaker 1: ending in one of these episodes. The last record we
Speaker 1: have of Grace's pirrating comes in sixteen o one, when
Speaker 1: the captain of an English warship came into contact with
Speaker 1: one of her galleys, and he named her as the
Speaker 1: ship's owner. This means that upon Grace's death in sixteen
Speaker 1: o three, she might have been still sailing up until
Speaker 1: the very end. That's the story of Grace O'Malley. But
Speaker 1: keep listening after a brief sponsor break to hear a
Speaker 1: little bit more about her legends. Grace O'Malley was a
Speaker 1: fascinating figure and remains an icon to this day. Though
Speaker 1: she was long dismissed by official Irish sources, she's a
Speaker 1: local legend and her meeting with Elizabeth is held up
Speaker 1: as a symbol of Irish strength in a desperate time
Speaker 1: for the country. Her cultural preservation is an odd mixture.
Speaker 1: English sources documented her as a nuisance, Irish folklore mystifies
Speaker 1: her as an enigma, and feminist texts wouldn't even come
Speaker 1: into conversation with her until long after Grace was gone.
Speaker 1: As Anne Chambers points out in her book Grace O'Malley,
Speaker 1: The Biography of Ireland's Pirate Queen. Before the influence of
Speaker 1: the Church, Ireland was once a matriarchal culture in which
Speaker 1: most of the deities were women. The name of Ireland
Speaker 1: itself is derived from the mother goddess Ireu or Eric,
Speaker 1: who was believed to be one of the three legendary
Speaker 1: goddesses who ruled the country. Ireland's official sources may have
Speaker 1: long dismissed that, but folklore never did. As Chambers argues
Speaker 1: quote by the time of Granue in the sixteenth century,
Speaker 1: an analogy for an independent woman ruler could be found
Speaker 1: only in myth and legend. In turn, this caused the
Speaker 1: life of Granuel herself to be relegated to myth rather
Speaker 1: than acknowledged that a woman could you, sir, What had
Speaker 1: by then come to be accepted as the exclusive role
Speaker 1: of men. Noble Blood is a production of I Heart
Speaker 1: Radio and Grimm and mild from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood
Speaker 1: is hosted by me Danish Wartz. Additional writing and researching
Speaker 1: done by Hannah Johnston, hannah's Wick, Mirra Hayward, Courtney Sunder,
Speaker 1: and Laurie Goodman. The show is produced by rema Il Kayali,
Speaker 1: with supervising producer Josh Thane and executive producers Aaron Mankey,
Speaker 1: Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from I
Speaker 1: Heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. H