Pirate Queen (13 page)

Granuaile is glad to be back in Rockfleet, but she does not sleep well. Her bed has grown damp in her absence. In the morning she spreads her linen sheets on the parapet to dry in the wind. Although it is late summer, she also builds a fire in the bedchamber.

As she stands watching the flames, she wonders if there is any timber at Burrishoole. The English are
sending
tons of oak back to England for shipbuilding. The woodlands beyond Belclare are almost destroyed.

It is important,
Granuaile thinks,
that Toby has enough timber to keep the fires going this winter, now that he and Maude are expecting a child.

She invites her son to Rockfleet to discuss the future.

When Toby arrives, Granuaille tells him about the rebellion of the princes of Ulster. Toby’s immediate
reaction
is concern for his own property. He has been granted Burrishoole by the English. If his mother is involved in a
conspiracy he could lose everything. ‘Everything you wanted for me!’ he reminds her.

Granuaile cannot help comparing her son to young Red Hugh O’Donnell. Tibbott’s gaze is guarded. He speaks slowly, weighing every word.

I have made him too cautious,
Granuaile thinks sadly.
In my eagerness to keep him safe I have crippled his spirit. In my heart I really want a son like Red Hugh. That dauntless boy…I wish I had the prince of Donegal here in Connacht. Together we could drive the English out.

Tibbott sees his mother’s attention wandering. She is getting old, he believes. Soon she will forget this
dangerous
nonsense about rebelling.

‘What are you thinking about?’ he asks.

Granuaile merely smiles.

In the autumn of 1587, the lord deputy, Sir John Perrot, is ordered to extend English control into Tyrconnell. He
demands
that O’Donnell give him hostages of good conduct. When the old man refuses, Perrot sends a merchant ship to Tyrconnell, ostensibly loaded with French wine for
Donegal
Castle. Red Hugh is invited on board to inspect the merchandise before it is delivered. The young prince
accepts
the invitation and brings three of his friends.

They are seized by the English and put in chains. The ship promptly weighs anchor and makes for Dublin.

The Eagle of the North, the bold lad with a merry laugh and hair like flame, is caged in Dublin Castle.

Hugh Dubh O’Donnell does all he can to recover his son. He writes letter after letter to Perrot, who forwards them to London. But Elizabeth’s privy council decides the young prince is too valuable to be released.

Red Hugh remains in Dublin Castle. He is not even permitted to send a letter to his father.

O’Donnell’s attitude hardens. He begins preparing for rebellion and orders his Scots mercenaries into the field. For the sake of his son he is willing to bathe Ireland in blood.

Granuaile makes the journey to Dublin in one galley, with no fleet at her back. She does not want to look dangerous. She goes as a helpless old woman, pleading.

With gritted teeth.

The bright blue skies of June arch over the deep blue
waters
of Clew Bay. A single galley, with the flag of the white seahorse, is making for Clare Island.

The woman who stands tall in the prow is returning home. Her weather-lined face is a study in mixed
emotions
: triumph and anxiety.

Granuaile is carrying a letter signed by Sir John Perrot and dated 4 May, 1588. On behalf of Elizabeth of
England
, the document pardons Granuaile and her family for all past misdeeds, except murder, debt or intrusion on land belonging to the Crown. The royal pardon comes too late for Owen, but Murrough, Margaret and Toby should be safe from the fate that has befallen Red Hugh
O’Donnell.
This is Granuaile’s triumph.

The source of her anxiety is the news she brings. As her followers crowd around her, she tells them what she learned in Dublin. ‘King Philip of Spain has undertaken the invasion of England. A great armada, estimated as almost two hundred ships, has set sail from Lisbon. The
English fear the Spanish may use Ireland as a staging point, or at least seek to re-supply themselves there. Therefore Elizabeth is sending Richard Bingham back to Connacht to deal with the threat. Even as I speak to you, he is on his way to Galway.

‘Bingham’s return is a disaster. As you know from past experience, the man is exceptionally arrogant and cruel. Even Perrot was glad when Bingham went to
Flanders
. Now he returns. I have no doubt he will come after me. He may respect the queen’s pardon in relation to the rest of my family, but not to me. The battle between Richard Bingham and myself will not be over until one of us dies.

‘We must expect an attack on Umhall Ui Mhaille,’ she warns. ‘Fight with guns or swords or spears or bare hands, but fight. Do not surrender one more cow, one more horse, one more clod of earth, to the English!

‘As for me, I will not allow Bingham to trap me and seize my ships.’ Granuaile doubles her hands into fists. Her eyes blaze. ‘If necessary I shall burn the galleys myself, keeping out one so I can make a break for freedom.’

The Spanish Armada is met with a stiff defence in the English Channel. Elizabeth’s warships carry fewer men, but they are lighter and faster and their artillery is better. They do considerable damage to the clumsy Spanish
vessels
, but cannot overcome them. Gales in the Channel
finally
force the invaders back to Northern Spain, where they refit their ships.

In July the Armada sets forth again.

English and Dutch warships are waiting for the invaders at the mouth of the Channel. They launch
fireships
into the heart of the Spanish fleet, breaking its
formation
. In the battle that follows, a number of Spanish ships are sunk, damaged or scattered among the Channel Islands. The English harry them like hounds. The
Spaniards
are in danger of being driven aground. All hope of victory is lost. They try to escape, but the combination of pursuing warships and a strong wind forces them to sail north up the Channel, rather than south.

The English are forced to turn back by a shortage of supplies. What remains of the Armada reaches clear water in the North Sea. They round northern Scotland and chart a course down the west coast of Ireland, heading wearily home.

Meanwhile a huge storm has been brewing in the Atlantic. When the fleeing ships reach the west coast of Ireland they are battered by terrible winds. They struggle on. Their sails are torn from the masts. Helpless, they are driven onto the rocks. As the bulky warships break up, their timbers cry out like dying animals.

Aristocratic Spanish officers and common seamen are plunged together into the violent ocean. Those who can, swim desperately for shore.

Heartsick, Granuaile prowls a coast littered with broken ships’ timbers and dead bodies.

Her son-in-law, The Devil’s Hook, has managed to rescue a few of the Spaniards. He has given them refuge in his stronghold on Achill Island. But between six and eight thousand men have died on the shores of Connacht.

Half buried in the sand, Granuaile finds an elegant dagger with fine gold wire wrapped around the hilt. It has just been uncovered by the receding tide. Granuaile stoops to pick it up. An officer’s weapon, most likely. For all its beauty, the weapon shows signs of hard use. When Granuaile holds the weapon up to the sun, the blade does not gleam. It is badly nicked and covered with dark stains. The stains are not rust.

The Spanish have given me something after all,
she thinks. She thrusts the dagger into her belt.

Word comes from Ulster. Clan O’Donnell has
rescued
a number of Armada survivors from ships wrecked off the coast of Donegal. They have been fed and clothed, and their injuries tended. But they are not yet on their way home. The O’Donnell has surrendered thirty
Spanish
officers to the English, pleading for the release of Red Hugh in return.

Once again Elizabeth’s privy council refuses the request. They also replace Sir John Perrot with a new lord deputy for Ireland, a man called Sir William Fitzwilliam. He promises not to be so ‘generous’ with the Irish.
Bingham’s
way of dealing with them suits him very well.

Richard Bingham orders that any Spaniards caught on the west coast are to be hanged at Galway. So are those who give them shelter.

When she learns of this Granuaile goes to warn The Devil’s Hook, who has added the Spanish men he rescued to his own warrior band. ‘Bingham will kill you if he finds out,’ she tells her son-in-law.

‘He will find out nothing,’ The Devil’s Hook
reassures
her. ‘My people are totally loyal to me, as yours are to you. The Spaniards are safe with us. I can protect you as well. Why do you not stay here for a while and enjoy your grandchildren?’

The invitation is impossible to refuse. Granuaile feels old age creeping into her joints like mildew. She wants nothing more than to sit by the fire and let her
grandchildren
play around her feet.

Bingham takes an army into Ulster to put down
rebellion
there. Fitzwilliam, the new lord deputy, considers any Scottish presence in the north as dangerous. Bingham orders that all Scottish gallowglasses are to be shot on sight.

Granuaile brought most of those men to Ireland in her galleys. She prays that she has not delivered them to their deaths.

While Bingham savages the north, his policies in Connacht are enforced by his sheriffs. Hangings, torture, unfair taxes, land seizures – they can only have one result. Connacht will rebel too.

‘So be it,’ says Granuaile grimly. ‘Let us see how many fires Richard Bingham can put out at once.’

On a bitterly cold January morning, signal fires blaze around the rim of Clew Bay. In his stronghold at Curraun, The Devil’s Hook makes preparations.

The English-born sheriff of Mayo, John Browne, has recently received a message from Richard Bingham, ordering him to take the notorious Granuaile into custody. The sheriff’s informers tell him that she is with her
son-in-law
on Achill Island.

But Granuaile has informers of her own. She knows Browne’s intention before he sets out from Galway.
Quietly
, in the night, she leaves Achill and returns to Rockfleet.

Next day the signal fires report Browne’s approach. The Devil’s Hook is waiting for him on Achill Island.

The sheriff and his men are slain on the strand at Curraun.

Their blood seeps into the soil of Ireland.