Expanded Playbill Notes
Two women. Enemies. They were the same age – each one born in 1533 and died in1603. Each one
ruled her people. Elizabeth Tudor, monarch of England. Grania Uh Mhaille, or Grace O’Malley, chieftain
of the O’Malley clan in Connaught on the northwest coast of Ireland. The women met at Greenwich
near London in 1593 when they were both about 60 years old. Listen to an iconic statement from each
of them, showing a similarity in leadership style:
Grace: “Go mhfearr léi lán loinge de cloinn Conroí agus cloinn MicAnallaidh ná lán loinge d’ór” (I would
rather have a shipful of Conroys and MacNallys than a shipful of gold.)
Elizabeth: “There is no jewel, be it of never so rich a price, which I set before this jewel, I mean your
love.”
They both loved their people. They both also loved gambling and both could swear a mean streak when
so inspired. But they lived in two different worlds.
To the English, the Irish were savage barbarians in need of the civilizing influence of English law and
customs. The Irish lived in small clans, constantly on the verge of war with each other, if not with the
English. This lack of a centralized government weakened the Irish in the face of the more powerful and
organized English monarchy. Four hundred years before Elizabeth’s reign, the majority of the Irish clans
capitulated to an invading English army, vastly superior in technology and numbers, rather than fight a
war they could not hope to win. Since that time, England had claimed lordship over all of Ireland.
To the Irish, the English were brutal invaders, intent on destroying Irish customs, laws, property and life.
Some of the “barbaric” Irish laws the English tried to eradicate included the popular election of rulers,
legal divorce and allowing married women to own their own property. And when peaceful, political
means of “civilizing” the Irish failed, more violent means were used. As Richard Bingham, the English
governor of Ireland, said, “The Irish were never tamed with words but with swords.” During Grace
O’Malley’s time, the Irish also posed a real threat to the security of England. If the Irish were to ally with
Spain, England would be threatened by invasion from both the north and the south. Ensuring Irish
loyalty, by force or otherwise, became a priority for Elizabeth.
One of the Irish clans that had not ever submitted to the English Crown was the O’Malleys. The
O’Malley clan had dominated the seas around Connaught for generations. As a poem about them says:
“They are the lions of the green sea
Men acquainted with the land of Spain
When seizing cattle from Kintyre
A mile by sea is short to the O’Malleys.”
The O’Malley Latin motto, Terra marique potens (Powerful on sea and land), is more than appropriate.
How Grace came to be their leader is unclear. During her first marriage to Donal O’Flaherty, she became
the de facto leader of her husband’s clan, probably through simply being more effective than him. After
her husband’s death in battle, his clan followed her back to her home base in Clew Bay, near her father’s
lands. Here she began in earnest the activities she euphemistically called “maintenance by sea and
land”—also known as piracy. By the time her father died, she was already a strong leader of the
O’Malleys and became the de facto leader of her father’s clan. As her clan’s ruler, she led men in land
and sea battles, commanded from three to twenty ships at various times, engaged in legitimate trade,
fishing and, of course, piracy.
For Grace to be a female leader on a cramped, wave-tossed, wooden ship crammed with fierce men,
required a special kind of hardiness and tenacity not essential for rulers in more urbanized, centrallycontrolled countries. Even on land an Irish chieftain had to be violently strong, as the Irish in general
were known to live, “only by the sword and obeyeth to no other temporal person but only to himself
that is strong. And … maketh war and peace for himself and holdeth by the sword and hath imperial
jurisdiction within his room and obeyeth to no other person, English or Irish.” If an Irish leader were not
effective in this rough and tumble world, someone stronger could take his (or her) place by force of will
and body. Maintaining leadership under these conditions would be difficult for any man. It is amazing
that a woman was able to lead in this way as well as Grace obviously did.
Grace had a unique leadership style that lives in stories and traditions held to this day. It was common
in her day for feuding lords to kidnap an enemy’s heir to hold for ransom. When Grace stopped at
Howth Castle, she asked for hospitality in accordance with Irish custom and was denied. The lord of the
castle said he was sitting down to dinner and could not be bothered. So Grace kidnapped his grandson
and took him back to Clew Bay for ransom. When the grandfather came after his heir, the ransom
required was not the usual gold. It was that the gates of Howth Castle were never to close at dinner
time and an extra place was to be set for anyone seeking hospitality. This continues as a tradition to this
day at Howth Castle.
Elizabeth’s rise to power involved less physical fighting, but was no less treacherous. During her father’s
and siblings’ reigns she was a pawn whose fortunes rose and fell according to the whims of others.
Under both her brother’s and her sister’s reigns she was threatened with imprisonment and death
largely because she was an heir to the throne. From a young age she learned how to navigate the
treacherous intricacies of Tudor court life in order to survive and inherit the throne. At her coronation,
she became queen of a floundering country that was racked with religious conflict, had a debased
currency and little to no influence in the larger world. By the end of her long 45 year reign, the economy
and military were stronger, religious conflict had not reached the bloody heights seen elsewhere in
Europe, London had nearly doubled in size, and English literature and theater were truly in a golden age.
Her reign was one of the more peaceful eras in English history. Through her effective leadership,
England became a world power both politically and culturally.
She was a successful leader through being a consummate politician, using every tool at her disposal,
including her possible marriage, to negotiate and maintain peace, both within England and with other
countries. One of the main duties of any monarch, male or female, was to produce a biological heir. So
she used her single status to negotiate tentative but effective peace with rival nations. After all, a
country could not very well go to war with another country when they were both trying to get their
leaders married. That she would never marry or bear children did not cross anyone’s mind, until she was
older. Possible reasons why she chose never to marry, though fascinating, are ultimately unanswerable.
However, she could not use this (possible) marriage tactic in Ireland because it did not have one,
unifying leader other than herself. Early in her reign, her approach to ruling Ireland followed a legalistic
path her father Henry VIII had used. Local Irish leaders would be persuaded to “surrender” their Irish
lands and titles to the English Crown and made to promise to follow English law, and then the English
Crown would “re-grant” those same lands back to the Irish leader and give that leader a new English
title. This relatively peaceful process wasn’t as effective as it might have been. Large portions of Ireland
were not mapped out and rival clans were frequently fighting over disputed lands and titles, so it was
nearly impossible for the English Crown to grant clear title to anything. No English lord wanted the
dubious honor of taming Ireland, for all efforts were likely to fail. As Elizabeth’s reign progressed, and
threats from Spain increased, the English treatment of Ireland became more militaristic, and the conflict
between England and Ireland increased.
After Grace and Elizabeth had been ruling their people for over thirty years, after they had been in one
degree of conflict or another for over thirty years, they finally met, face to face.
Grace came to Greenwich to save the life of her son, Tibbott. According to tradition, he was born
aboard ship a day before a battle with Algerian pirates, a battle in which Grace fought. The adult Tibbott
had been imprisoned and charged with treason by Richard Bingham. Known as the Flail of Connaught
for his brutal treatment of the Irish, Bingham was likely to execute Tibbott for no other reason than
being the son of Grace O’Malley. Bingham had also successfully cut Grace off from all her means of
support, including food and shelter. In these desperate circumstances for herself, her family and her
clan, she sailed straight to the heart of enemy country to appeal directly to Elizabeth.
The actual meeting of these two powerful women was very much as portrayed on our stage, right down
to the exchange in Latin (proving Grace’s surprising education) and the interlude with the handkerchief.
Why Elizabeth chose to do what she did…. Well, that is an unanswerable as why she never married.