7. Cornwall’s Pirate Queen
Mary Wolverston, better known as Lady Killigrew (circa 1525 – circa 1587), was an English gentlewoman who led a double life as a pirate. She preyed on passing near Cornwall’s rocky coast – a region that had long been home to smugglers, wreckers, and pirates. Back then, piracy was something of an English pastime, often abetted or outright encouraged by the authorities. Particularly during the Elizabethan era’s wars against Catholic Spain, when the line between English pirates and the English navy was often indistinguishable. It could even be said that piracy was in Mary’s blood, as her father, Phillip Wolverton, Lord of Wolverton Hall, had been a gentleman pirate for years.
She was married and widowed at a young age, and was then remarried to Sir John IV Killigrew, becoming Lady Killigrew. Like her father, Mary’s second husband also dabbled in piracy. However, unlike her father, who had retired, Sir John Killigrew was still an active pirate. In itself, that was not too problematic, as the Elizabethan authorities encouraged piracy on the high seas, as a form of economic warfare against the country’s enemies. So long as it was conducted far away and in a manner that allowed the English government plausible deniability, piracy was not much of a problem. However, Lady Killigrew and her husband did not prey solely upon enemy shipping in the high seas, but also engaged in piracy in English waters, against foreign and English ships.
