Grace O’Malley
The Irish chieftain who commanded her own fleet, defied the crown, and still sat down face to face with the queen who wanted her gone.
Grace O'Malley, known in Irish as Gráinne Mhaol, was born around 1530 into the Ó Máille clan, a seafaring family on the west coast of Ireland in what is now County Mayo.
She led her family's fleet herself, trading, raiding and controlling the waters around Clew Bay. She was a powerful local chieftain at a time when England was tightening its control over Ireland.
When the English governor of Connacht, Sir Richard Bingham, seized her lands and imprisoned her son and half-brother, she took her case straight to the top. In 1593 she sailed to England and met Queen Elizabeth I in person at Greenwich.
The meeting worked. Her relatives were released, at least for a time. Grace O'Malley died around 1603, the same year as Elizabeth, and is remembered in Ireland as a symbol of independence and defiance.
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