Granuaile: Ireland's Pirate Queen Grace O'Malley c.1530-1603 by Anne Chambers

I was looking for the SteelBonnets, the story of Anglo-Scottish Border Reivers in the Half-Price in Skokie. I was fortunate and found it.

But in addition, I found Granuaile, Ireland’s Pirate Queen, Grace O’Malley c. 1530-1603, written by Anne Chambers.

For others more familiar with history and the women who shaped it, Grace O'Malley is probably old hat but for me?

As the old James Brown song goes, “It’s a Man’s World.” So when I see something that says, “Hey, in a time and era where women were not expected to be pirate queen’s, here we go!”, I was intrigued to say the least.

I’d never read any work by Anne Chambers before. This one read easy. It’s broken up into chunks of Grace’s life, her family’s life and history, and more importantly, the context of the time.

Grace’s family motto was “powerful by land and sea”. They were “lords of the seas around Ireland.” This included ‘the right to levy tolls for safe passage and the right to sell fishing rights to foreign fleets.”

Anne notes that “unlike most coastal families, the O’Malleys were themselves intrepid seafarers, whose seafaring was not confined to Ireland.” By having this skill set, the O’Malleys are already a step above many others who only use their coastal rights to set charges. They are in the action.

Being so in the action, the “plundered as far as Spain and Scotland.” Being so far afield from home sets a precedent that comes into play later. If one can get to Spain and Scotland from Ireland, one’s reach and grasp are further than those lords who only know Ireland itself.

I like books like this when the author gives the reader a bit of an idea of what people were doing. Here we see “Herring was the principal species caught, with hake, cod, ling, turbot, salmon, and shellfish. The fish was usually salted, sometimes dried and packed in wooden barrels for export. Hides, tallow, freize cloth, deer and sheepskins, furs such as pinemarten, considered a highly fashionable accessory in the sixteenth century, coney, fox and otter were other important commodities from the west of Ireland which found a ready market abroad.”

That’s a lot to take in, but provides a huge swatch of information at the same time. It was no simple thing that the O’Malleys did.

The tone of the book, in its era, in its time, reminds me of another time and another place.

In the late 14^th century, Italy was no whole country. It was a collection of independent city-states. This made the country easy pickings for Spain and France, among others, who sought to conquer Italy and even sacked the Holy City of Rome.

The Ireland that Granuaile inhabits, is much the same. There is no collective so powerful that it rules the country entire. Being a pirate queen, one who’s known to have visited Spain and Scotland, she is reputed to have sought out mercenaries and allies from those places. Dangerous charges indeed.

Due to Ireland having no central government capable of fully resisting the might of England, the country falls over the course of Grace’s life. She goes from suffering mightily under the hands of one of England’s lords, one Richard Bingham, to eventually serving Queen Elizabeth.

Anne Chambers wastes few words in discussing the similarities and differences between the two. Granuaile physically taller, but not possessing the same level of sophistication as Elizabeth.

Elizabeth, proud queen and ruler, but no husband. The ‘Virgin’ Queen. Grace? Two husbands and children.

Both women in an era and time that did not allow women to seize such destiny unless they were of bold nature and cunning wit.

Both proved to have it.

In Grace's case though, Anne argues that the Pirate Queen hasn't received her due for numerous reasons. The first of which, is she was not a 'patriot' of Ireland. In a time where only very recently have relations between England and Ireland been 'civil', to capitulate to England during the start of the takeover must have seemed traitorous at best.

Folklore and mythology mixed with oral history didn't let that tradition or information die out though.

Anne also makes a comparison between Grace and her ancient ancestors, suggesting that women had a much larger and more prominent role in Ireland, indeed, in much of the world, before the spread of Roman civilization which brought with it Christianity. 

And Christianity pushed those other goddesses to the back along with the leadership roles that women had.

I'm not a historian, not even an armchair one, but that's an idea that on its surface, seems to have merit and is well worth looking into (as I'm sure many have already done.)

In addition to the text, Anne includes numerous aids for the reader. These include the following:

·          a map of Ireland circa 1530 broekn up by principal lordships,

·         a O’Mally Coat of Arms,

·         an image of a regular galley, as well of one of Granuaile’s,

·         a map of Ireland 1609.

·         Map of Galway City 1611

·         Numerous black and white paintings

·         Photographs including Clare Island Castle, Kildawnet Castle, Howth Castle, Carraigahowle Castle, 

a     among others.

The appendixes are full of great tools to immerse the reader into the time of Grace including poems, paperwork, and other bits that provide a unique look into the life of someone who lived from 1530-1603.

Anyone looking for an example of how even in ‘history’, one can push against the tides and accomplish great deeds needs look no further than Granuaile.

To Shield the Queen by Fiona Buckley

Here it is, 2015, and I'm still pretty much doing the same thing.

Still reading.

Still employed.

Still taking care of a sickly mother. Sigh.

I'm reading a few books right now. One of them, Black Swan, a book about highly unlikely events/things/happenings, is a book I've been reading on and off for months now. Another one, the Design of Everyday Things, was recommended by +Scott Rehm aka the Angry DM. It's an interesting book so far and good reading.

In terms of fiction, I just finished reading To Shield The Queen, a book set in Queen Elizabeth I's court. Written by Fiona Buckley, this is the first novel in a series of mysteries that introduces Ursula Blanchard, a woman of the court. There are over ten books in the series so far but alas, most of them go past my 'impulse buy' threshold in kindle format. They range from $5.99 to $15.99.

This is another of my $1 finds off the spinner racks of #HalfPriceBooks. It's another one that my mom initially read and I decided to snag it before returning it to the used bookstore. I figure might as well get the full dollar worth out of it.

What I'm going to say may sound contradictory but I found this an excellent example of a book written in the "tell not show" methodology. The good news though, is that the author has a good writing 'voice' if you will. Even when the author is telling us what the main character is telling the reader, it still moves quickly.

It's done in a way that prevents this 300+ page book from becoming a 400-500+ page book.

I will, if Half-Price willing, or Amazon Kindle hits up with the $1.99-$3.99 sales, be reading more of the series.

The author also includes her own research material into the era, which is always a nice tool to have for those trying to recreate the feel of a particular book they've read.

For those wondering about any gaming things I might have yanked from it as I read:

1. Female Main Character: I hate to say it, but I can recall too many conversations that tried to sideline female characters based on the pseudo historical context of a campaign setting. It's one of the reasons I'm always interested in seeing 'women warriors/queens' and other bits in that fields to show that there are always exceptions to the rules and when talking about player characters, they are by default the exceptions.

2. Multiple-Priorities: The main character, Ursula, is loyal to Queen Elizabeth. She is loyal to England. She is a woman in love. Her love is against the things she is loyal to. Ursula walks a fine line between defending the things she loves and the man she loves. While in the end she is true to queen and country, she is still tied to her love through binds of marriage as well as actual love. Fiona does a solid job of providing an antagonist that the protagonist doesn't want to kill but wants to overcome.

3. Family Live: I've mentioned it before, but the more hooks a character has in the campaign, the more ways the character can be drawn into the setting. In this instance, Ursula has a daughter, Meg, and relatives that 'took care' of her when she was young and her own parents dead. These elements come into play several times and work as not only active elements, such as when Ursula must save Meg, but as background elements as Ursula seeks a better future for herself in part to provide for her daughter. It's also a good way of siphoning off funds that don't involve the latest and great magic item or castle creation.

4. Religion: Always a touchy subject when it concerns real world religion, the degree to which people will go, then as in now, to spread their religion, is devastating to those who just want to go about their day to day business of survival. In some ways though, it's one of the problems with fantasy settings that have a pantheon. It's hard to picture an schism like that of Catholics and Protestants, especially when it was happening, occurring in a fantasy setting. While the Forgotten Realms did make a passing effort at such with the Dawnlord, as one deity of dozens of deities, the rest of the setting pretty much kept going the way it was going previously.

5. Henchmen: Ursula is a lady of court. As such, she is expected to have her own maid. She also has her own manservant. Both of these characters provide abilities and well, bodies in places when needed, to do the things that Ursula can't do because she's busy elsewhere. While the original Advanced Dungeons and Dragons is reknown for it's use of disposable henchmen, and the excellent adventures of +Brian Patterson and his webcomic d20 Monkey have brought us many an amusing illustration of disposable henchmen, here they are minor characters in their own right.

6. Investigation: Despite the era, despite death by smallpox to Ursula's husband before the story starts, despite her manservant being killed on the road by 'robbers', violence in and of itself is almost a secondary thing that happens in To Shield the Queen. Indeed, much of the action Ursula takes is to prevent violence. When looking at the arcs characters go through, are there any that can be designed on finding things out, rather then killing the orc to take his pie?

To Shield The Queen takes a historical event and twists it on its edge to give us a different look at how things might have rolled out.