Shiver me timbers and pieces of eight... garrr..! No it's not "Talk like a pirate Day", it is a very special guest to Hoydens and Firebrands this week, 17th century passionista, Francine Howarth on the subject of Pirates and Plunder and a look at one of the greatest privateers of his day - Henry Morgan. Terrific post, Francine!
Hi, I’m Francine, and first, may
I say a big thanks to Hoydens and Firebrands for letting me loose on this fab
blog of theirs. The archives hereabouts are a veritable 17th century
treasure trove.
17th
century piracy and plunder!
The above words, alone, convey
the atmosphere of tall ships fully-rigged, canting to the wind, their gunwales
kissing the water. It’s all too easy to envisage one vessel given to the chase,
the other in flight. Let’s not forget the white skull and crossed bones
emblazoned upon a black flag, the very quintessence of a pirate ship one sees
at the movies.
When you stop to
think, truly think in terms of strategy and the ultimate goal of a buccaneer-cum-pirate
captain, it stands to reason that if a pirate ship weaves back and forth across a
trading route, it will, eventually, encounter a ship or two, and maybe the
captain and crew will strike lucky on worthwhile booty. Ha, all sounds a bit hit ‘n’ miss, though, does it not? And
yet, small fleets of pirate ships plying plotted courses often caused mayhem on
the Spanish Main. But who were the original buccaneers?
The name itself is a loose term applied to pirates in general, and authors
across the centuries have attributed the title to almost any man who sailed the
seas and plundered ships, ports, and ran the gauntlet in the face of Navy
vessels hunting them down.
The original buccaneers
(boucaniers) were the native inhabitants of the West Indies, who, over the
centuries had discovered they could preserve meat by roasting it on a barbecue
and curing it with smoke. The barbecue consisted of a fire pit and grating (a
buccan), the meat thus referred to as boucan. Over time, escaped slaves,
criminals and indentured servants formed clans of likeminded souls who were hell-bent
not only on survival but revenge on past masters. The Caribbean & Bahamas
became their base, from which they gained prominence any-which-way they could.
Robbery, murder and mayhem on a quayside brought forth fortune with stolen
ships and wares, and once they had set sail they sought their own havens amidst
the scattered islands. And so the buccaneer had come of age.
On the other
hand, the privateer, was indeed a very different kind of pirate, and in some
respects, the name pirate was insulting to his self-esteem. He was a man who
owned, or had loan of a heavily armed ship, itself manned by officers who were
equally commissioned by governments and by kings and queens for war service. Whether
as a reader or movie buff - have you ever thought how much plotting, planning,
intrigue and spying truly occurred within the world of the privateer? Hence, some
pirates and privateers were more successful than others.
In getting away from the extremely
famous Elizabethan privateers/buccaneers (Sir Francis Drake et al) and the
later notorious 18th century pirates (Blackbeard etc), I’ve always
been a little intrigued by the likes of those who were plying the oceans
throughout the period of the English Civil Wars and the early years of The
Restoration: this being my favoured period in history.
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| Tredegar House |
To name but one - of wealthy lineage
- Henry Morgan (Sir), one might assume the knighthood bestowed by Charles II
was Sir Henry Morgan’s only claim to sense of wealth and status. After all, he
was but a privateer: a pirate! Well, yes, that’s true, but he came from a
distinguished family known as the Tredegar
Morgans’. It is said the Morgans’ were more of a clan and had cadet
branches all over South Wales.
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| Henry Morgan |
Now, is that not a
handsome young man of his day?
Indeed, methinks Henry Morgan cut
a dash with the best of his ilk. So, let’s start at the beginning with a bit of
the Tredegar Morgans’ history. There were once three brothers, Thomas, Robert
and Edward: the family thus torn apart by the English Civil Wars.
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| Kinnersley |
Henry Morgan’s Uncle Thomas,
became Major-General Sir Thomas Morgan, 1st Baronet (1604–79). He served as a
Commonwealth/Parliamentarian officer English Civil War (1642-49). He was
appointed Governor of Gloucester in 1645. He fought in the Low Countries, and
when wounded 1661 he retired to his estate at Kynnersley, Hertfordshire. He was
also instrumental in the restoration of Charles II. In 1665 he was recalled by
Charles II to become Governor of Jersey, he died at St Helier in April 1679.
Henry Morgan’s father, Robert, (born
circa 1615) was the Squire of Llanrhymny, (now Rhymney) which lies three miles
from Tredegar. Someone had to run the family firm! Or maybe being the
piggy-in-the-middle brother, Robert Morgan couldn’t decide which side of the
divide was for him and instead sat on the fence.
Henry Morgan’s
Uncle Edward, became Colonel Edward Morgan (born circa 1616) Edward served as a
Royalist officer during the English Civil Wars (1642-49). He was Captain
General of the Kings forces in South Wales. After the King's arrest and
execution, he fled into exile along with Charles II and the royal court.
Many families were torn asunder
by the English Civil Wars, sometimes father, sons and brothers were on opposing
sides. Henry Morgan was born around 1635, thus by 1650 he was 15 yrs old. His
virgin voyage was to Barbados in 1655 as a junior officer of an expeditionary
force sent there by Oliver Cromwell. But when did Henry first enlist with the
Parliamentarian forces, and was he influenced to do so by his Uncle Thomas, or
was he a Royalist spy under the influence of his Uncle Edward (Cavalier)? Well,
it seems he enlisted as a Pikeman. He once said in the writings of an official
report when serving as privateer under marque from Cromwell and later Charles
II: “I have been more used to the pike
than the book".
Whatever his ultimate aim, at the
time of his enlistment and exploits at sea, he learned fast from his masters,
the likes of Venables (General) and Christopher Mings (Commodore). Morgan was a
soldier first before becoming a master of the seas. As time passed Morgan found
his feet as a captain and was clearly a strategist. Spies became key to
successful missions, and let’s be honest Cromwell’s spy network bettered that
of the Elizabethan spy network, hence Thurloe (Cromwell’s spymaster) always
seemed as though one step ahead of Royalist thinking.
And so it was, after the taking
of Jamaica and many other less noted ventures, along with a flotilla of
privateers, Santiago (Cuba) was plundered. Morgan also commanded a vessel in
the attack on the Mexican coast 1663: their target Campache. In the raid 1100
men who were described as privateers, buccaneers and volunteers sailed more
than 1000 miles. Campache was a town defended by two forts and a regular garrison
of Spanish troops. The town fell after a day of fighting and fourteen Spanish
ships were sailed away from the port.
Henry had his failures, too,
embarrassing ones, and his life did indeed seem charmed whilst ashore and
threatened when at sea. He often turned disaster into triumph, and being a
soldier first over that of his role as a sea captain, he once yomped men 50
miles across land to sack a town, only to return to his ships to discover the
Spanish had captured them. Undaunted, he captured two Spanish ships and four
coastal canoes and continued on his epic voyage of 500 miles of exploration and
plunder. He had one ship blown from beneath him by crewmen who either lit
candles or were smoking too close to the gunpowder store, and another ship he
lost on a reef.
The above is a scant example of
Morgan’s daring adventures. After the sacking of Panama he was recalled to
England to account for his actions, re a peace time atrocity. Fortunately, for
Henry, Charles II slapped him on the shoulder with a sword and Henry walked
away as Sir Henry Morgan.
And of course, ending on a
romantic note: after the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Henry's uncle
Edward was sent to Jamaica as lieutenant governor. By then, already famous in
Jamaica, Henry courted and married his uncle's oldest surviving daughter, Mary
Elizabeth. Henry remained faithful to his wife until his death in 1688. They
never had children.
ABOUT FRANCINE
Francine is
an avid book reader and one-time professional book reviewer for a Sunday
supplement. In her own words: "I started reading and writing at an early
age, but you see, the family library became akin to an Aladdin’s cave, where
delights abounded, and the higher I could reach the more delights I discovered
until old enough to climb the library steps and not get caught reading adult
material. From Greek classics to raunchy French novels, the art was in finding
the latter, secreting them away and then reading the very naughty ones with a
torch in bed: under the bedcovers! In the 1990s I partnered a book publishing
enterprise alongside an equestrian business, and now, I'm merely an
ex-mainstream erotic/romantic suspense author turned self-publisher of
historical romances: by choice, literally. Half my output consists of
Georgian/Regency romantic historical murder mysteries. The other half are
novels set within the English Civil Wars and the reign of Charles II, referred
to as the Royal Series. I prefer
penning fiction where my imagination can run wild alongside real-time past
events. But again, mystery, suspense and intrigue are part and parcel of the
Civil War novels. Of course, it could be said the first book sets the scene for
a series of five books, but it’s more than that, it’s about divided loyalties and
the trauma of betrayal. The first three are completed and published, the fourth
part written, the fifth in draft outline". So that's moi, reader and
writer in a nutshell. Other than my writing life, my private life is very
private.
Find Francine's books
at Amazon
