Pirate Queen (14 page)
Authors: Morgan Llywelyn
My dear Toby,
The rebellion I expected has begun. Almost every clan in Connacht is supplying warriors. If I were a little younger I would be in the forefront of the battle with a pistol in my hand. At least I can use my fleet as a weapon. My ships are transporting fighting men up and down the coast, wherever needed.
Examine your stores, my son. Be certain you have enough food to last for at least six weeks if you are besieged. Although there is a good spring at Burrishoole, order your servants to fill every container with fresh water as well.
Your armoury is well stocked with the muskets and pistols I imported. Inspect them thoroughly. Be certain each one is in working condition in case you are attacked.
When Bingham returns to Connacht he will find that we have repaid him in full measure for his cruelty. He has sown seeds of hatred. From them grows a tree of fire and fury.
Always,
Granuaile
The rebellion that erupts in Connacht alarms the new lord deputy. He had been assured that the province was submissive. This will not look good on his record. Soon the rebels hold not only Mayo but also parts of Sligo, Roscommon and Galway.
Fitzwilliam, the lord deputy, orders Richard
Bingham
to arrange a truce. Reluctantly, Bingham does so.
The Bourkes refuse to accept the truce. Advised by Granuaile, they demand that Richard Bingham be removed as governor of Connacht. A Book of Complaints against him is drawn up. He is charged with many acts of extreme cruelty.
Accompanied by Tibbott, Granuaile sails to Dublin to present the Book of Complaints to Fitzwilliam. The tall woman who strides into the lord deputy’s chambers brings with her the scent of the sea. Her face might have been carved from the oaks of Ireland. Fitzwilliam’s
attendants
shrink away from her as from a wild animal.
Fitzwilliam personally takes the book from Granuaile’s hands. ‘Her Majesty and I appreciate your
informing us of Richard Bingham’s … shortcomings,’ he says through an interpreter.
‘Richard Bingham is a monster,’ Granuaile replies flatly. ‘Hang him.’
Then she and Tibbott go on to Scotland – to import more gallowglasses.
The queen’s privy council orders Fitzwilliam to determine if Richard Bingham is guilty of the charges brought against him. Various witnesses, all carefully selected, give statements to the lord deputy. Bingham is cleared. In January of 1590 he is instructed to put down the rebellion by any means necessary. No measure is too severe
Bingham and his soldiers pursue a scorched earth policy. Rebel families are put to the sword and their homes and property destroyed. Irish men and women who have taken no part in the rebellion suffer the same fate. This turns them against the rebels, whom they blame for their misfortune. Even the most valiant Irish warriors cannot fight both the English and their own people.
By the end of March the rebellion is over.
To Granuaile’s disgust, she learns that her second son, Murrough O’Flaherty, took the field on Bingham’s side during the rebellion. For some time she refuses to believe this, but many people saw him. ‘I do not know whether my son acted out of cowardice, or out of malice toward me,’ she tells her followers.
The result is the same either way. She must respond.
Taking several galleys, she sets sail for Bunowen. Murrough returns from a cattle fair just in time to find his mother with a torch in her hands, burning one of his
outbuildings
. ‘If I cannot defeat Richard Bingham,’ she shouts at him, ‘at least I can teach my own flesh and blood not to defy his mother!’
She is no longer the mother Murrough remembers. He hardly recognises her, this savage creature who is ordering her men to plunder his lands. If she were anyone else he would fight back. But something stops him.
Murrough O’Flaherty is afraid of Granuaile.
Connacht can now be described as submissive once more, and Fitzwilliam can boast that he has pacified most of
Ireland
. Pockets of resistance keep appearing, and battles are fought here and there with mixed results, but the wild Irish have been brought to heel, the lord deputy assures Elizabeth.
Richard Bingham does not believe for a moment that his troubles with Granuaile are over. He is well aware that she possesses a pardon in the queen’s name. She has very carefully not broken the provisions of the pardon. Although Granuaile’s fleet was sailing up and down the coast during the rebellion, she herself did not take part in any fighting. She did not trespass on Crown property. She murdered no one.
The only attack she has led has been on her own son.
Bingham dare not hang her. His actions as governor of the province will be closely watched from now on. He cannot risk another Book of Complaints.
Sourly, Bingham writes of Granuaile, ‘She is a notable traitoress and nurse to all rebellions in the province for forty years.’
My dear Toby,
Richard Bingham is doing all he can to destroy me without laying hands on me. Bit by bit, he has reduced those I hold dear to poverty – except yourself. I have just learned that my daughter Margaret and her husband have hardly more than forty cows. Forty cows is a goodly number on Achill Island, but if the winter is a hard one, or if Bingham sends more soldiers seeking provisions, they could find themselves without meat. He would not
hesitate
to take away the last of their herds.
As long as I have my galleys, they will not starve. Even the ships are in danger, though. Bingham has given orders that no one in Galway is to sell me material for repairing them. Here in Mayo there is no leather for the curraghs, no timber for the galleys. The last of our forests were burned by the English to prevent the Irish from hiding in them during the rebellion.
I shall have to watch my beloved ships rotting on the strand, as I once saw the O’Flaherty ships.
When I was a child I went hunting with my father. I remember Dubhdara’s hounds catching hares. When the hares felt the jaws closing down on them it seemed that there was nothing they could do.
But there must be something we can do, Toby. There must be.
Always,
Granuaile
Hugh Dubh O’Donnell, earl of Tyrconnell, is in failing health. The old man knows he will not live to see an
Ulster
victory over the English. But Red Hugh might,
leading
the warriors of Tyrconnell. For that the young prince must be free.
O’Donnell seeks help from the earl of Tyrone. On behalf of his fellow chieftain, Hugh O’Neill writes urgent letters to people in London whom he can trust.
Bribes are quietly and skilfully arranged.
On Christmas night, 1591, the supposedly
trustworthy
men guarding Red Hugh O’Donnell remove his shackles. Then Red Hugh and two companions are allowed to walk unobserved in the yard of Dublin Castle. They promptly clamber up a wall, slide down a drainpipe on the outside and flee.
Their escape route lies across the Wicklow
Mountains
, where help has been arranged for them with one of the local chieftains. The weather is bitterly cold and the
rain is bucketing down. One of the lads becomes
separated
from the others in the darkness. A second dies of cold and weakness before they can be rescued. But Red Hugh is soon on his way home to his father.
When he arrives, The O’Donnell resigns the
leadership
of the clan in his son’s favour.
Granuaile is exultant. ‘With a vigorous new chieftain to lead them, the men of Tyrconnell will join with Tyrone and defeat Elizabeth’s forces!’ she joyfully predicts.
Unfortunately, Red Hugh’s long imprisonment has
damaged
his health. It will be many months before he can take an active part in any uprising. He writes to the
Spanish
nobility, urging their aid for the Irish cause. He points out the ties of trade and religion between the two countries. The Armada is lost, he writes, but Spain and Ireland can still unite against the common enemy of England.
While rebellion simmers below the surface, Granuaile’s personal horizon seems to be shrinking. Her ships lie abandoned. She has no herds. Her immense vitality is no use to her now. But she cannot give up. She has fought back so many times, and she must do so again. Yet how? How? What weapons has she to use against her arch-enemy, Richard Bingham?
Only her mind. Her clever, well educated mind.
My dear Toby,
I need you to compose a petition in the English language, addressed to the queen. The document must not go through the lord deputy’s hands. Fitzwilliam and Bingham are cut from the same piece of hide. I shall send the petition to my old friend, the duke of Ormond, and ask him to deliver it to Elizabeth in person. Black Thomas has become a favourite of hers, I understand.
In my petition, you are to describe me as Her Majesty’s loyal and faithful subject, Grania O’Malley of Connacht.
Tell Elizabeth that I am an old woman, but one who is devoted to her. Explain that Richard Bingham has deliberately ruined both my ships and my livelihood. The property of my late husband, your father, has been taken from me. I retain only Rockfleet Castle, and I fear Bingham means to drive me out of this too. Ask Elizabeth to protect me from him. Further ask her to allow me a portion of Richard Bourke’s property to maintain myself. Also beseech the queen to grant me the liberty to attack, with sword and fire, her enemies, wherever they shall be.
If she agrees to this she will have to give me my ships back.
Always,
Granuaile
