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I just started reading The Pirate Queen by Susan Ronald? It's interesting so far. Has anyone else read it? |
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I'm guessing this book's about Grace O'Malley? I* haven't read that particular one, but I do have one called The Wild Irish by Robin Maxwell about her which is pretty good. |
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It's about Elizabeth I, actually, and how she used the Merchant Adventurers and piracy to advance England's economy. I haven't gotten too far in it, yet, so that's a very rough summary. I'll post again when I've finished it, with whether it was any good or not. Who is Grace O'Malley, by the way? I haven't ever heard of her. |
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Grace (Granuaile or Grainne or Grania in Irish Gaelic) O'Malley was known as the Pirate Queen, which is why I assumed the book was about her. She was quite active in the Irish rebellions against the Tudors, & narrowly escaped execution at the hands of Elizabeth's lord lieutenant of Ireland, Sir Richard Bingham, who was responsible for the murder of one of Grace's sons; her daughter's husband (methinks; one of her rellies, anyhow) offered himself up as a hostage for her good behavior in exchange for her life. Eventually (in the 1590s) her youngest & favorite son, Tibbot Burke, & her brother were captured, taken to the Tower, & faced execution. Petitioning the Crown got her nowhere, so Grace went to London in person to meet with Elizabeth & beg for their release. She succeeded, speaking Latin to the queen (as her native tongue was Irish, which Elizabeth didn't speak, & Grace didn't have sufficient English). Elizabeth also promised to have the O'Malley properties Bingham had seized returned to her, but she never did get those back for years until Bingham was replaced (he hated her guts that much LOL). There's an apocryphal tale about this summit of "queens"; Grace sneezed & Elizabeth offered her own handkerchief from up her sleeve (where they were commonly kept at the time). Grace blew her nose & tossed it into the fire. Elizabeth was appalled that Grace would treat a royal gift so lightly & told her she should have put it up her sleeve & kept it, & Grace replied that the Irish apparently had better standards of cleanliness than the English than to put a soiled snotrag up their sleeve LOL Now you'd think Elizabeth would have started yelling OFF WITH HER HEAD, but she was amused by Grace's remarks & burst out laughing. Interestingly, both women died in the same year, 1603. Anyone who's read Bertrice Small's historical romance series about the fictitious Skye O'Malley, a "kinswoman" of Grace, will go O that's why that name is familiar LOL There's also supposed to be a movie coming out next year about Grace O'Malley as well  |
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