of Ireland in the mid 1500s.

The stories surrounding this badass, swashbuckling mother

of four are legendary, from giving birth to a child

and immediately fighting a battle at sea,

to being a staunch defender of Ireland's independence.

Grace O'Malley was a badass mother.

Today, we're just talking about the life of Grace O'Malley,

Ireland's pirate queen.

But before we dive in, click on that Like and Subscribe button

and let us know in the comments below what

other historical women you would like to hear about next.

All right, we're off to the Emerald Isle.

Grace, unlike some pirates, was born

into a life of relative comfort in County Mayo, Western

Ireland, and not into some gnarly group of ragtag pirates,

but upper middle class pirates, if there were such a thing.

Her father, Owen Blackoak O'Malley,

perhaps the most Irish name ever spoken,

was the chieftain of her family's clan

and had a reputation for being quite the seafarer.

Their family motto, a thing families

had back in those days, was terra marique putens,

or valiant by sea and land.

Grace was technically carrying on the family business

of pirating, since most of the family's coin

came from pillaging and plundering.

With Grace's family really being into sailing and taking

things that didn't belong to them,

Grace learned how to navigate the seas at quite the young age

and grew into an important position within her clan.

Long before Channing Tatum classic and Best Picture Oscar

snub She's the Man told us that women can sometimes

cosplay as a man to accomplish a task,

Grace O'Malley was pulling the same move

as Amanda Bynes just wanting to play soccer with the guys.

Rumor has it that Grace developed a taste for the sea

so intense she insisted her father allow her

on his voyages at sea, but her parents, being good parents,

refused to let her go on account of children traditionally

not belonging on dangerous sea voyages.

Grace, a rebellious spirit at heart,

didn't take no for an answer.

According to legend, she chopped off her hair

and disguised herself as a dude and snuck onto the ship.

Even pirates had to find some way

to rebel against their parents.

Pirates are people too, everybody.

This move gave Grace a new nickname, Grace the Bald.

Being born into a family who already had wealth and power,

it sure didn't stop her from marrying

men who would prove to be beneficial to her legacy

and increase her power.

In fact, since Grace was the daughter of a chieftain,

she was the one who brought money into the relationship.

Grace was first married at the old age of 15

to Donal O'Flaherty, a man with many ships, which she would

acquire when O'Flaherty was killed

at sea while fighting, the leading cause of death for most

pirates.

A widow at only 23 years old, Grace

found herself with a fleet of ships, a castle, and a cavalry

of loyal followers that she brought back with her

to her hometown of Mayo.

She was living large.

In their eight years of wedded bliss,

Grace birthed three children with Donal, two girls

and a boy, but she wasn't a regular mom.

She was a fierce fighter and a respected widow,

one who picked up on the sea traits of her husband.

In 1566, Grace married for a second and final time

to Richard Burke, a strategic move on Grace's part

since Iron Burke was a talented land fighter with yet

another castle for Grace.

Grace and Burke were only married for a year

before legend has it Grace screamed

out the window, Richard Burke, I dismiss you.

Which, no, was not a legal way to end a marriage,

even in those days.

The two remained legally married according to English law.

The two remained friendly exes and allies

and co-parents to their son Tibbot na Long,

or Toby of Ships.

We get it, Grace.

You really liked ships.

Speaking of Toby Ships, his legendary birth story

is one for the books, and certainly one any good mother

would bring up no less than four times a day

if Toby were to give her any crap.

In 1566, Grace was at sea with her fleet

when Toby decided now was the time

to make his grand entrance.

The birth of her son was the second most eventful thing

to happen to her that day.

Soon after her ship was attacked by corsairs.

But did Grace sit this one out due to the very credible

medical excuse of I just pushed out a baby?

She tucked the baby away safely, went full mama bear,

and led her men to victory.

Maternity leave, nah, Grace likes

to get right back into the workforce.

When Grace lost her father, Owen O'Malley in 1553,

she took over as chieftain of the O'Malley

clan, a rarity in that era to have a female leader.

Grace took over her father's ships, diving headfirst

into the family business, but it wasn't the only thing

family gave her.

Her marriage to Donal O'Flaherty in 1546

was also the beginning of a crucial family alliance,

and she was so respected by her husband's men,

they continued to loyally fight for her

after the death of Donal.

Sure, the daughter from a family of well-known seafarers

inherited a little piracy when she took over for her father

as chieftain, but once she took the helm,

she went pirate heavy on England in response

to them taxing the hell out of Ireland.

The English had raised taxes on the goods her company traded,

so Grace decided two could play at that game,

turned around and imposed her own sea tax on passing ships.

Her castles were built in strategic locations

where her eyes could rear window the seas

and monitor for passing ships.

If she saw one, she'd lead her ships

to overtake the passing ships and explain that safe passage

costs money now.

If the ship was non-compliant, they'd raid the ship.

That's textbook pirate stuff right there.

She didn't stop at English ships though.

Any ship that passed through was susceptible to Grace's raids,

whether Irish, Spanish, or Turkish.

If that ship was passing, that ship was paying.

Though little is known about her formal education,

we do know that Grace was a well traveled youth and most

likely spoke several languages.

Historians agree Latin was her second language.

She used it in her interactions with Queen Elizabeth.

It's also believed she spoke some Scottish gaelic, Spanish,

English, and French as well.

In 1593, Grace sought the help of another badass woman

in power over some issues she was

having with Richard Bingham.

She traveled the Irish sea to London

to petition Queen Elizabeth, one of our favorites,

to help her with Sir Richard Bingham, who

was the English governor of Western Ireland,

and in whose head Grace O'Malley lived rent free.

Richard was being a real Dick ever since he grew paranoid

that Grace was attempting to resist Irish rule.

After a rebellion in Western Ireland in the 1580's, Sir

Richard took some of Grace's property

and threw her into a prison.

None of this was great, and surely she

was unhappy being a prisoner with confiscated land.

However, when Richard took her sons as captives,

he officially crossed the line.

O'Malley chose to forgo the formal greeting

of bowing before an English queen

since she didn't recognize her authority.

Despite this petty slap in the face,

the queen granted her request to intervene with the governor,

so long as Grace swore not to rebel against the crown.

Grace was a loyal woman not to be messed with,

so when somebody came for her man,

she came back for them in full force.

In the 1560s, she took on a lover.

She rescued a survivor from a shipwreck

and the two started a passionate love affair,

as one does in times of crisis.

O'Malley's whole pirate thing began

to alienate and anger a bunch of rival Irish clans,

including the pesky MacMahons.

When they learned that Grace had taken on a lover,

the MacMahons saw an opportunity.

They tracked him down when he was out on a hunting trip

and murdered him.

Grace was understandably extremely pissed,

but because this was Grace O'Malley,

writing a stern letter or sulking quietly in a corner

was just not her style.

She tracked down the men who slaughtered her boo

and slaughtered those jerks right back.

After she was done, she seized the MacMahons' Donna Castle.

Sir Richard Bingham didn't stop being a thorn in Grace's side

after her meeting with Queen Elizabeth.

If anything, things escalated, pretty brutally.

He started targeting her explicitly,

because in his mind, he saw her as someone fueling

the rebellion in Ireland.

He took things way too far, however,

when his brother John somehow lured

Grace's son Owen out of his castle to steal his cattle.

Amazingly, this situation got very out

from under John, who tied Owen up and eventually murdered him.

Despite Sir Richard Bingham's brother straight up murdering

her son, she still had to work with the English

from time to time, if it made political sense.

England and Ireland have a complicated history,

which by the 16th century had reached a bit of an apex.

England was super into Ireland at that point for hundreds

of years, and the Tudor administration only

saw the clingy controlling ways grow exponentially.

Grace wasn't a fan of their interference

and sought out independence from the English constraints,

but O'Malley was also shrewd in her ways, lending ships and men

to England in 1577.

Despite her hesitance to bend to English rule,

she wasn't completely unreasonable

when it came to offering some assistance to the English crown

if it somehow benefited her.

In 1577, she offered three galleys and 200 men

to Lord Deputy Sir Henry Sidney, who

reflected on this later in a letter

to the Queen's secretary in 1583,

calling her a famous, feminine sea captain, which was probably

meant as a compliment.

He said she offered her galleys and her fighting men

if he commanded them to Scotland or Ireland.

So what do you think?

Would you want to square off against Grace?

Let us know in the comments below, and while you're at it,

check out some of these other videos from Our Weird History.