History , and also the world of cinema, has always led us to think that piracy is one of those hard jobs reserved exclusively for men, but the truth is that there were also female pirates who were great adventures at the time and sometimes also quite feared. Let’s meet now, the most famous and fearsome pirate women in history.
The most famous and fearsome pirate women in history
Throughout the centuries many pirates have sailed the seas far and wide under the black flag. Among them, there were also adventurous women who went down in history as pirates, being even more feared than some men. Women who did not hesitate to command boats, command others, fight and kill, drink and even swear as perfect buccaneers. These are some of the names of those pirate women:
Reina Teuta de Iliria
The queen of the Illyrians took power in present-day Albania after the death of her husband Agron. The fact of being a woman in a typically patriarchal society limited the effective power of Queen Teuta, in addition the poverty of the territory and the little arable land had made it practically necessary for the Illyrians, for their own survival, to continue piracy . They continually harmed those leaving Italy and carried out expeditions and looting off the shores of Greece . But the idea of developing a new kingdom was shipwrecked with the arrival of the Romans. Polybius presents Teuta as an unfriendly woman who greets Roman ambassadors with an “arrogant and proud” attitude.
Awilda
Awilda is one of the first pirates to command a Viking ship . She was originally from southern Sweden. To escape the arranged marriage with Alf, son of the King of Denmark, he commanded a ship with a crew of young unmarried pirates who did not want to marry, storming far and wide the shores of the Baltic Sea. When Alf decided to attack Awilda’s pirate ship, the fighting was tough. After a battle in which almost the entire crew died, Awilda was captured by the prince who proposed to her. She agreed, got out of piracy, and became Queen of Denmark.
Jane de Belleville
Jeanne de Clisson or Jane de Clisson, also known as Jane de Belleville was a French noblewoman who turned against her country when her beloved husband was beheaded by the French as a spy. With revenge in her heart, Jane de Belleville sided with the British in 1345 in the invasion of Britain. He bought and prepared three ships with the money from the sale of his assets. It is said that she was ruthless both at sea and on land, and no ship or city near the Normandy coast was safe from her wrath. With a burning torch in one hand and a sword in the other, legend has it that he burned entire villages to the ground.
Grace O´Malley
Grace O’Malley, an Irish revolutionary born in 1530, also famous as the Connemara Queen of the Sea, was the widow of her first husband when at age twenty, she took command of her paternal fleet , attacking Irish ports controlled by other clans or governors. English. The O’Malleys controlled much of the region now known as Murrisk Barony in southwestern May County. She is still remembered in Ireland as a hero in the fight against British rule.
Mary Read
Before embarking on a career as a pirate, the mother of Mary Read (1690-1721) did not hesitate to choose the life of a man for her, disguising it in men’s clothing after the death of a son and her husband, something that allowed her to fight in the ranks of the English Navy . After boarding her ship, Mary Read embraced the life of the pirates of the Caribbean by fighting bravely and impetuously on Jack Rackham’s ship, known as Calico Jack, and earning the respect of the other pirates on the ship. His history as a pirate ended in 1720, when the ship he was traveling on was captured by a military ship and he passed away a year later.
