Who was Charlotte de Berry?

When I had decided to become a lady pirate, I remember that Charlotte de Berry actually had more name recognition than the likes of Anne Bonney, Mary Read or (reverent pause) Grace O'Malley.  Now that I have been a professional pirate for 12 years, I seldom hear the name Charlotte de Berry in pirate circles.  What made me return to researching this Charlotte's story was when I encountered her name and a brief account in John Mathews' book Pirates Most Wanted.   Charlotte's story eclipse's Anne Bonney and Mary Read's in Mathews' book, which made me want to find out more about her.  Here is a snapshot of what Mathews tells...

Charlotte was born in England in 1636.  When she was 18, Charlotte fell in love with a sailor and in order to stay by his side she dressed as a man and signed on to the ship he was sailing.  Charlotte fought by her true love's side for 6 battles.  An officer, who discovered her secret and who took a shine to her, had her true love accused of mutiny and sentenced him to death by flogging.  When the ship returned to port, Charlotte bought 2 pistols and waited for the officer to walk into a dark alley on one of his frequent routes.  She shot the officer dead and then robbed his pockets of his money.

This account of Charlotte's life is in agreement with other storytellers, but the rest of her life is a little muddy.  According to History of the Pirates by Edward Lloyd, Charlotte remained at that port town working at the local tavern.  One day, a Captain of a merchant ship took a fancy to Charlotte, abducted her and forced her to marry her.  This captain treated Charlotte quite roughly.  Apparently the captain mistreated his crew too, for when they were on their way to Africa Charlotte convinced the crew to mutiny.  According to Lloyd, Charlotte cut off her husband's head and the crew named her captain.  Charlotte sailed under the name of Captain Rudolph.

My research hit a snag, when I discovered via Wikipedia that Edward Lloyd published penny dreadfuls, which were cheap adventure stories published in the 1800's.  Could it be that Charlotte's story is just a story to thrill young readers?  The same way The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi thrilled young readers of our time (myself included)?

I am apparently not the only lady pirate stumped by the mystique of Charlotte's story for in researching Charlotte de Berry aka Captain Rudolph, I have encountered 3 other lady pirate bloggers in addition to myself and we all have the same question...Who was Charlotte de Berry?