[MR] Piracy in period

[Richard Mowbray]

Hi,
 
Please bear in mind that i do not have my books here at work, so this is off the top of my head...
 
During the Hundred Years War, Thr King of France induced captains from Spain and Italy to raid the english coast and shipping in the Channel. The rovers burned coastal towns and harrassed shipping until the English mounted several specific naval expeditions against them. The foreigners were deemed "pirates" by the English who did not hesitate to hang or throw overboard these men when they were caught. Executions were often summary and done at sea..
 
Because there was almost never an offer to submit or a means to flee attack, and the unfortunately common abuse of prisoners, sea raiders were often given the harshest treatments and soundly condemned for their abuses. This, of course, was still the time when formal agreements to battle in specific places and dates were often arranged. The less formal and sometimes downright viscious methods of raiders were strictly against these "rules of war".
 
It should be remembered that the English King (Edward III) and his noble commanders (Knights of the Garter - epitomes of chivalry) committed the chevauchee in France against peasants and property. Alot like land pirates.
 
In the end, the tactics were oten criticized by gentlemen who used the same devices under slightly different circumstances.
 
Often, the designation pirate was enough to elicit a visceral response all by itself. I personally always invision ropes and dancing criminals when i hear the word.
 
As to gunpowder weapons on the high seas, i think they first appear in the Med. I'm not so sure about Asia, not my field. Galleys coming north to raid or support french efforts would bring their use to English eyes, but in my time and earlier the missile weapons were bows and crossbows.
 
Syr Richard
gimp, atlantia's Own
 




--- On Thu, 12/31/09, Richard Fitzgilbert <RichardFitzgilbert at jcsussman.org> wrote:


From: Richard Fitzgilbert <RichardFitzgilbert at jcsussman.org>
Subject: Re: [MR] Piracy in period
To: atlantia at atlantia.sca.org
Date: Thursday, December 31, 2009, 4:32 PM


I'm confused, what is your contention?  Is it your contention that piracy is
period?  That is true without a doubt.  Piracy is a problem in the
Mediterranean at least as far back as the Roman Empire.  

Or, is it your contention that the Hollywood pirate persona is period? That
is an entirely different (insert silly pirate cliché of your choice here)..

In particular, I'd love to see an indication that a 16th century pirate (of
any nationality or religion) used a gun powder weapon of any sort.

Richard Fitzgilbert 

-----Original Message-----
From: atlantia-bounces at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org
[mailto:atlantia-bounces at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org] On Behalf Of David
Chessler
Sent: Thursday, December 31, 2009 2:28 PM
To: atlantia at atlantia.sca.org
Subject: [MR] Piracy in period

Despite the popularity of pirate persona, it is generally recognized 
that the great period of Caribbean piracy was in the late 17th C, and 
into the 18th C--that is, definitely "out of period."  However, this 
is not  to say that there were no pirates in the 16th C. Indeed, for 
most of her reign, Queen Elizabeth used piracy as a source of income 
and as a tool of foreign policy. Only at the very end of her reign 
did she have enough of a national navy so that she could phase out 
the letters of marque and the great English pirates.

Moreover, during most of the 16th C, the Dutch and Portuguese used 
piracy against the Spanish. Many of these pirates were Jewish, or 
Jewish merchants provided "intelligence" to the actual raiders, some 
of whom were also Jewish.

A couple of sources (available in the Montgomery County, MD public library):

Edward Kritzler
Jewish Pirates of the Caribbean: How a generation of swashbuckling 
Jews carved out an empire in the New World in their quest for 
treasure, religious freedom--and Revenge
New York, Doubleday, 2008
ISBN   978-0-685-51398-2
$26.00

Susan Ronald
The Pirate Queen: Queen Elizabeth I, her Pirate Adventurers, and the 
dawn of Empire
New York, Harper Collins, 2007
ISBN 978-0-06-082066-4
$26.95

Btw, the phrase "the British Empire" was first used by Dr. John Dee, 
in "The Petty Navy Royal," from "General & Rare Memorials," August 1577

--

YIS

Davitt il Bigollo da Pisa
Erudit de l'Academie de Espee de Atlantia
Storvik (rapier)
Roxbury Mill (other things)  
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