A common occupation in the 16th and 17th centuries, privateering was, more or less, an acceptable form of pirating. To be known as a privateer, a person must have possessed his own armed ship, including his crew, which would then have been commissioned by the monarch of the time to attack and plunder enemy ships.
The crew of a privateering vessel was not paid a salary by the monarch or captain, but was instead given a percentage of the profits of the voyage. In Elizabethan England, one-third of the plunder was divided among the crew, while the remaining two-thirds was given to the commissioning party, be it the monarch or a government official.
Letters of Marque
Without proof that the crew had the monarch’s permission to attack enemy vessels and settlements, though, the privateers would have run the risk of being arrested and executed. It is for this reason that privateers almost always ensured that they had in their possession at all times a letter of marque.
Obtained by the commissioning party on behalf of the captain of a privateering vessel, a letter of marque was a licence granting permission to obtain an armed vessel and use it to commit crimes that would normally have been considered acts of piracy. In England, the country most well-known for its privateers, the practice of commissioning privateers began first with Henry III in 1243, then was continued by Edward I, who issued the first letter of marque in 1295, allowing his privateers to act against Portugal.
While these letters usually gave the privateers immunity from punishment, this was not always the case. If the privateering vessel was caught by another nation, the captors were not guaranteed to accept the letter of marque as justification for their actions. Therefore, captured privateers were often immediately tried and executed for piracy even when in possession of a letter of marque. Furthermore, if the commissioning monarch made peace with the nation against whom the privateers had been acting, the monarch may be forced to punish the men in order to maintain their truce.
Why Were the Privateers Useful?
It was often in a monarch’s best interest to commission numerous privateers, as they could provide invaluable services. Queen Elizabeth I was well-known for employing many men to raid, pillage, and plunder in her name, including the infamous Sir Francis Drake. Drake could boast of having done much for his country, including seriously damaging numerous Spanish ports and villages in the New World, and contributing to England’s defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588.
Drake also brought to England thousands of pounds of treasure plundered from the Spanish. After one particularly lucrative voyage, Drake gave to Queen Elizabeth at least £300,000. To put this into perspective, the Queen’s annual revenue was normally only about £200,000 – Drake more than doubled it for that year.
Privateering remained popular for many years, and is even still legal in some countries today, but eventually privateering became less common. By the end of the eighteenth century, it had become uncommon for letters of marque to be issued other than in times of war, and the rule-free privateering way of life slowly died out.
Sources:
Ferguson, Niall. Empire: The Rise and Demise of the British World Order and the Lessons for Global Power. New York: Basic Books, 2003.
Oxford English Dictionary Online.
Bawlf, Samuel. The Secret Voyage of Sir Francis Drake, 1577-1580. Toronto: Douglas & MacIntyre, 2003.
Sara McCleary - A long-time resident of beautiful Northern Ontario, I am the proud owner of an honours B.A. in History from Algoma University and an M.A. ...
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