Early European Pirates

"Following the Barbarian Invasions, Europe was plunged into the period known as the Dark Ages. Raiders brought maritime commerce to a virtual standstill, and any resurgence was ended by the Viking attacks of the late eighth century. For the next 300 years Scandinavian raiders dominated the waters of northern Europe, and in their wake came Norse Settlers. While the 10th and 11th centuries saw the adoption of the feudal system, Scandinavian traders establihed fortified posts that gradually developed into ports by the 12th century. An increase of maritime trade also brought piracy.

During the early medieval period, piracy formed part of everyday life, as Norse raiding parties reached as far afield as Russia and the Mediterranean. By the 1200s, national and city identities led to more selective attacks, and the feudal rulers of Europe tried to harness piracy for their own ends.

The Plantagenet kings of England and parts of France did their best to suppress piracy. In 1228 William de Briggeho became the first recorded pirate executed for his crimes in England, evidence of a tougher stance against piracy. The growing importance of towns and the revenues they produced for their feudal protector meant that piracy impeded political and national growth.

One of these pirates was a renegade cleric knwon as Eustace the monk. This Flemish pirate operated in the English Channel and enjoyed the protection of the English crown, as long as he confined his attacks to French ships. His assaults on English shipping forced him to flee to France, where the French king engaged him as a mercenary sea captain. Eustace led a French raiding force against the English coast in 1217, but was intercepted off Dover. In the ensuing battle, the English used lime as a form of early chemical weapon, then captured the French raiders. The monk was summarily executed.

In 1241 the Baltic German cities of Lubeck and Hamburg combined to form the Hanseatic League, a merchant guild that supervised maritime trade and the suppression of piracy. Other free (i.e. non-feudal) cities joined, until by 1300 this trading fellowship incorporated 19 ports. The Hanse had become a major force, and took the lead in combating piracy in northern European waters. Similar organizations we to follow, although on a smaller scale.

In England, the League of the Cinque Ports was established in the early 14th century to protect the English Channel from pirates and to encourage trade from its ports, which included Dover and Hastings. While the Hanseatic League remained true to its ideals, the English equivalent degerated in a semi-legal piratical organization, where it protected its own shipping but attacked that of everybody else.

Almost continuous warfare in Eurpoe in the late 124th and early 15th centuries encouraged a rise in piratical activity. In the Baltic several German pirates formed a band known as the Victual Brothers and waged war against the Hanse. They attacked the Norwegian Hanse port of Bergen in 1392, threatening the survival of the Hanseatic League. The pirates were caught in 1402 by a fleet of Hanse ships from Hamburg, and pirate leader Stertebeker and his followers were executed in Hamburg.

In the waters of the English Channel, the prevalence of piracy was influenced by the almost constant state of warfare between England and France. English seamen such as John Hawley of Dartmouth in Devon and Henry Pay from Poole in Dorset frequently attacked French and Spanish shipping, inviting reprisal attacks from foreign pirates such as Pero Nino of Castille and Frenchman Charles de Savoisy. The right of "Reprisal," issued by a monarch to ship owners who had suffered losses, encouraged this form of national raiding, and the system developed into the "Letter of Marque" licenses that allowed private vessels to plunder enemy ships. Peace with France and reestablishment of order brought an end to widespread piracy byt the late 15th century, although random piratical attacks continued in northern European waters in the following century. "