Early Modern Piracy: A Matter of Perspective

Well…. that was not quite right. Unlike the later ‘Golden Age’ pirates of the Caribbean, a large proportion of Elizabethan pirates were, in fact, Queen Elizabeth’s pirates. In the ongoing tension and war with Spain, and – especially in the start of her reign – with very few ships to call her own, Queen Elizabeth started issuing letters of marque (also known as letters of reprisal) to captains who wanted to raid Spanish ships. The legal argument for letters of marque was based on a sort of ‘tit-for-tat’ attempt to regain any English goods captured by the Spanish, although I personally find it hard to imagine that English ships were often carrying treasure equal to the gold and silver that the Spanish were exporting from their brutal exploitation and mining in the Americas. In fact, the famous Spanish ‘Plate Fleet’ that brough precious metals back from the Americas was a particularly coveted prize by these new ‘privateers’ as the English called them.

The Spanish, naturally enough, referred to them as ‘pirates’.

There were also many famous names among the list of Queen Elizabeth’s privateers/pirates. Sir Francis Drake and Sir Walter Raleigh both sailed under letters of marque, and both the Earl of Essex and the Earl of Southampton were part of an (unsuccessful) attempt to capture the Plate Fleet. Of course, many less well-known captains and sailors tried their luck. Not all of them stuck to raiding and capturing Spanish ships. There are multiple Proclamations issued by Queen Elizabeth warning privateers to stop attacking her ‘friends’ like Venetian merchants. It seems that once they started attacking the wrong people they magically transformed into pirates. Privateers also had to pay financial due to the Queen when they captured Spanish ships, and other Proclamations reprimand sailors for taking goods off of ships before the financial due to the Queen had been paid. Still, despite their sometimes lawless behavior, it is clear that these privateers were valuable to the Crown. There are records of outlaw pirates being offered pardons to come over to the side of privateering and operating under letters of marque rather than independently. Exactly how many were converted this way is somewhat unclear, but I loved the idea of an instantaneous transformation from outlaw to upright citizen, from pirate to privateer.

As a final note, the English also referred to the ships of other nations that were operating under letters of marque as ‘pirates’ even though they were using the exact same legal framework as their own ‘privateers’. A matter of perspective, indeed.

So, in Antonio a pirate or a privateer? Perhaps he is one, or perhaps the other. Perhaps he moves about from one state to the other, transformed by these letters of marque. Whatever decision we make regarding his legal status, it is undeniable that this time at the Folger has vastly enriched his world – and mine.