16th-Century Piracy
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Jean Fleury
French privateer who captured part of Cortes’s Aztec treasure fleet off Cape St. Vincent in 1523, before being hanged as a pirate by Spain in 1527.
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Grace O’Malley
Grace O’Malley was an Irish clan chieftain and seafarer who commanded ships and led raids along the western Irish coast, taxing and sometimes plundering passing vessels, while also engaging in trade. She led resistance against English encroachment on Irish clan territories and famously negotiated in person with Queen Elizabeth I in London in 1593. She…