The Pirates Own Book (2 page)

The Saxons, a people supposed to be derived from the Cimbri, uniting the
occupations of fishing and piracy, commenced at an early period their
ravages in the German Ocean; and the shores of Gaul and Britain were for
ages open to their depredations. About the middle of the fifth century,
the unwarlike Vortigern, then king of Britain, embraced the fatal
resolution of requesting these hardy warriors to deliver him from the
harassing inroads of the Picts and Scots; and the expedition of Hengist
and Horsa was the consequence. Our mention of this memorable epoch is
not for its political importance, great as that is, but for its effects
on piracy; for the success attending such enterprises seems to have
turned the whole of the northern nations towards sea warfare. The Danes,
Norwegians, and Swedes, from their superior knowledge of navigation,
gave into it most; and on whatever coast the winds carried them, they
made free with all that came in their way. Canute the Fourth endeavored
in vain to repress these lawless disorders among his subjects; but they
felt so galled by his restrictions, that they assassinated him. On the
king of Sweden being taken by the Danes, permission was given to such of
his subjects as chose, to arm themselves against the enemy, pillage his
possessions, and sell their prizes at Ribnitz and Golnitz. This proved a
fertile nursery of pirates, who became so formidable under the name of
"Victalien Broders," that several princes were obliged to arm against
them, and hang some of their chiefs.

Even the females of the North caught the epidemic spirit, and proudly
betook themselves to the dangers of sea-life. Saxo-Grammaticus relates
an interesting story of one of them. Alwilda, the daughter of Synardus,
a Gothic king, to deliver herself from the violence imposed on her
inclination, by a marriage with Alf, the son of Sygarus, king of
Denmark, embraced the life of a rover; and attired as a man, she
embarked in a vessel of which the crew was composed of other young women
of tried courage, dressed in the same manner. Among the first of her
cruises, she landed at a place where a company of pirates were bewailing
the loss of their commander; and the strangers were so captivated with
the air and agreeable manners of Alwilda, that they unanimously chose
her for their leader. By this reinforcement she became so formidable,
that Prince Alf was despatched to engage her. She sustained his attacks
with great courage and talent; but during a severe action in the gulf of
Finland, Alf boarded her vessel, and having killed the greatest part of
her crew, seized the captain, namely herself; whom nevertheless he knew
not, because she had a casque which covered her visage. The prince was
agreeably surprised, on removing the helmet, to recognize his beloved
Alwilda; and it seems that his valor had now recommended him to the fair
princess, for he persuaded her to accept his hand, married her on board,
and then led her to partake of his wealth, and share his throne.

Charlemagne, though represented as naturally generous and humane, had
been induced, in his extravagant zeal for the propagation of those
tenets which he had himself adopted, to enforce them throughout Germany
at the point of the sword; and his murders and decimations on that
account disgrace humanity. The more warlike of the Pagans flying into
Jutland, from whence the Saxons had issued forth, were received with
kindness, and furnished with the means of punishing their persecutor, by
harassing his coasts. The maritime towns of France were especially
ravaged by those pirates called "Normands," or men of the North; and it
was owing to their being joined by many malcontents, in the provinces
since called Normandy, that that district acquired its name.
Charlemagne, roused by this effrontery, besides fortifying the mouths of
the great rivers, determined on building himself a fleet, which he did,
consisting of 400 of the largest galleys then known, some having five or
six benches of oars. His people were, however, extremely ignorant of
maritime affairs, and in the progress of having them taught, he was
suddenly called to the south, by the invasion of the Saracens.

Another division of Normans, some years afterwards, in the same spirit
of emigration, and thirsting, perhaps, to avenge their injured
ancestors, burst into the provinces of France, which the degeneracy of
Charlemagne's posterity, and the dissensions which prevailed there,
rendered an affair of no great difficulty. Louis le Debonnaire had taken
every means of keeping on good terms with them; annually persuading some
to become Christians, and then sending them home so loaded with
presents, that it was discovered they came to be baptized over and over
again, merely for the sake of the gifts, as Du Chesne tells us. But on
the subsequent division of the empire among the undutiful sons of Louis,
the pirates did not fail to take advantage of the general confusion;
braving the sea almost every summer in their light coracles, sailing up
the Seine, the Somme, or the Loire, and devastating the best parts of
France, almost without resistance. In 845, they went up to Paris,
pillaged it, and were on the point of attacking the royal camp at St.
Dennis; but receiving a large sum of money from Charles the Bald, they
retreated from thence, and with the new means thus supplied them,
ravaged Bordeaux, and were there joined by Pepin, king of Aquitaine. A
few years afterwards, they returned in great numbers. Paris was again
sacked, and the magnificent abbey of St. Germain des Pres burnt. In
861, Wailand, a famous Norman pirate, returning from England, took up
his winter quarters on the banks of the Loire, devastated the country as
high as Tourraine, shared the women and girls among his crews, and even
carried off the male children, to be brought up in his own profession.
Charles the Bald, not having the power to expel him, engaged the
freebooter, for 500 pounds of silver, to dislodge his countrymen, who
were harassing the vicinity of Paris. In consequence of this subsidy,
Wailand, with a fleet of 260 sail, went up the Seine, and attacked the
Normans in the isle of Oiselle: after a long and obstinate resistance,
they were obliged to capitulate; and having paid 6000 pounds of gold and
silver, by way of ransom, had leave to join their victors. The riches
thus acquired rendered a predatory life so popular, that the pirates
were continually increasing in number, so that under a "sea-king" called
Eric, they made a descent in the Elbe and the Weser, pillaged Hamburg,
penetrated far into Germany, and after gaining two battles, retreated
with immense booty. The pirates, thus reinforced on all sides, long
continued to devastate Germany, France, and England; some penetrated
into Andalusia and Hetruria, where they destroyed the flourishing town
of Luni; whilst others, descending the Dnieper, penetrated even into
Russia.

Meanwhile the Danes had been making several attempts to effect a
lodgment
in England; and allured by its fertility, were induced to try
their fortune in various expeditions, which were occasionally completely
successful, and at other times most fatally disastrous. At length, after
a struggle of several years, their success was so decided, that king
Alfred was obliged for a time to abandon his kingdom, as we all know, to
their ravages. They immediately passed over to Ireland, and divided it
into three sovereignties; that of Dublin fell to the share of Olauf;
that of Waterford to Sitrih; and that of Limerick to Yivar. These
arrangements dispersed the forces of the enemy, and watching his
opportunity, Alfred issued from his retreat, fell on them like a
thunderbolt, and made a great carnage of them. This prince, too wise to
exterminate the pirates after he had conquered them, sent them to settle
Northumberland, which had been wasted by their countrymen, and by this
humane policy gained their attachment and services. He then retook
London, embellished it, equipped fleets, restrained the Danes in
England, and prevented others from landing. In the twelve years of peace
which followed his fifty-six battles, this great man composed his body
of laws; divided England into counties, hundreds, and tithings, and
founded the University of Oxford. But after Alfred's death, fresh swarms
of pirates visited the shores, among the most formidable of whom were
the Danes, who spread desolation and misery along the banks of the
Thames, the Medway, the Severn, the Tamar, and the Avon, for more than a
century, though repeatedly tempted to desist by weighty bribes, raised
by an oppressive and humiliating tax called
Danegelt
, from its object;
and which, like most others, were continued long after it had answered
its intent.

About the end of the 9th century, one of the sons of Rognwald, count of
the Orcades, named Horolf, or Rollo, having infested the coasts of
Norway with piratical descents, was at length defeated and banished by
Harold, king of Denmark. He fled for safety to the Scandinavian island
of Soderoe, where finding many outlaws and discontented fugitives, he
addressed their passions, and succeeded in placing himself at their
head. Instead of measuring his sword with his sovereign again, he
adopted the wiser policy of imitating his countrymen, in making his
fortune by plundering the more opulent places of southern Europe. The
first attempt of this powerful gang was upon England, where, finding
Alfred too powerful to be coped with, he stood over to the mouth of the
Seine, and availed himself of the state to which France was reduced.
Horolf, however, did not limit his ambition to the acquisition of booty;
he wished permanently to enjoy some of the fine countries he was
ravaging, and after many treaties made and broken, received the dutchy
of Normandy from the lands of Charles the Simple, as a fief, together
with Gisla, the daughter of the French monarch, in marriage. Thus did a
mere pirate found the family which in a few years gave sovereigns to
England, Naples, and Sicily, and spread the fame of their talents and
prowess throughout the world.

Nor was Europe open to the depredations of the northern pirates only.
Some Asiatic moslems, having seized on Syria, immediately invaded
Africa, and their subsequent conquests in Spain facilitated their
irruption into France, where they pillaged the devoted country, with but
few substantial checks. Masters of all the islands in the Mediterranean,
their corsairs insulted the coasts of Italy, and even threatened the
destruction of the Eastern empire. While Alexis was occupied in a war
with Patzinaces, on the banks of the Danube, Zachas, a Saracen pirate,
scoured the Archipelago, having, with the assistance of an able
Smyrniote, constructed a flotilla of forty brigantines, and some light
fast-rowing boats, manned by adventurers like himself. After taking
several of the surrounding islands, he established himself sovereign of
Smyrna, that place being about the centre of his newly-acquired
dominions. Here his fortunes prospered for a time, and Soliman, sultan
of Nicea, son of the grand Soliman, sought his alliance, and married his
daughter, about AD. 1093. But in the following year, young Soliman being
persuaded that his father-in-law had an eye to his possessions, with his
own hand stabbed Zachas to the heart. The success of this freebooter
shows that the Eastern emperors could no longer protect, or even assist,
their islands.

Maritime pursuits had now revived, the improvement of nautical science
was progressing rapidly, and the advantages of predatory expeditions,
especially when assisted and masked by commerce, led people of family
and acquirements to embrace the profession. The foremost of these were
the Venetians and Genoese, among whom the private adventurers,
stimulated by an enterprising spirit, fitted out armaments, and
volunteered themselves into the service of those nations who thought
proper to retain them; or they engaged in such schemes of plunder as
were likely to repay their pains and expense. About the same time, the
Roxolani or Russians, became known in history, making their debut in the
character of pirates, ravenous for booty, and hungry for the pillage of
Constantinople—a longing which 900 years have not yet satisfied.
Pouring hundreds of boats down the Borysthenes, the Russian marauders
made four desperate attempts to plunder the city of the Caesars, in less
than two centuries, and appear only to have been repulsed by the
dreadful effects of the celebrated Greek fire.

England, in the mean time, had little to do with piracy; nor had she any
thing worthy the name of a navy; yet Coeur de Lion had given maritime
laws to Europe; her seamen, in point of skill, were esteemed superior to
their contemporaries; and King John enacted that those foreign ships
which refused to lower their flags to that of Britain should, if taken,
be deemed lawful prizes. Under Henry III., though Hugh de Burgh, the
governor of Dover Castle, had defeated a French fleet by casting lime
into the eyes of his antagonists, the naval force was impaired to such a
degree that the Normans and Bretons were too powerful for the Cinque
Ports, and compelled them to seek relief from the other ports of the
kingdom. The taste for depredation had become so general and contagious,
that privateers were now allowed to be fitted out, which equipments
quickly degenerated to the most cruel of pirates. Nay more: on the
disputes which took place between Henry and his Barons, in 1244, the
Cinque Ports, who had shown much indifference to the royal requisitions,
openly espoused the cause of the revolted nobles; and, under the orders
of Simon de Montfort, burnt Portsmouth. From this, forgetful of their
motives for arming, they proceeded to commit various acts of piracy, and
considering nothing but their private interests, extended their violence
not only against the shipping of all countries unfortunate enough to
fall in their way, but even to perpetrate the most unwarrantable ravages
on the property of their own countrymen. Nor was this confined to the
Cinque Port vessels only; the example and the profits were too
stimulating to the restless; and one daring association on the coast of
Lincolnshire seized the Isle of Ely, and made it their receptacle for
the plunder of all the adjacent countries. One William Marshall
fortified the little island of Lundy, in the mouth of the Severn, and
did so much mischief by his piracies, that at length it became necessary
to fit out a squadron to reduce him, which was accordingly done, and he
was executed in London; yet the example did not deter other persons from
similar practices. The sovereign, however, did not possess sufficient
naval means to suppress the enormities of the great predatory squadrons,
and their ravages continued to disgrace the English name for upwards of
twenty years, when the valor and conciliation of the gallant Prince
Edward brought them to that submission which his royal parent had failed
in procuring.