Under the Bloody Flag (30 page)

The threat from overseas predators during the mid-1570s diverted attention away from the persistence of domestic piracy within the waters around the British Isles. At the same time it provided favourable conditions for the maintenance of varied forms of localized depredation. While the plunder of English shipping provoked retaliation against the Spanish, French or Dutch, the disruption to commerce may have helped to swell the number of available recruits among unemployed seafarers. The prolonged lawlessness at sea in north-west Europe thus created an environment in which piracy, privateering and sea roving flourished under conditions of undeclared war. The inability of the Elizabethan regime to regulate or repress the disorder, and the opportunities available to aggressive adventurers, were reflected in the activities of men such as Captain Sawyer of Rye, who was sent out by the council on an intelligence-gathering mission to the coast of Spain in 1576, during which he spoiled a French vessel.
⁹⁴
In these circumstances the spread of English depredation into the Caribbean had profound implications for the future development of piracy and privateering, though in the short term it was the resurgence of local piratical enterprise, particularly in south-west England and Wales, which appeared more threatening.

Notes

  
1.
  
APC 1558
–
70
, pp. 337–8, 366–7;
Tudor Proclamations
, II, pp. 339–41.

  
2.
  
CSPS 1568
–
79
, pp. 235, 245–6, 250.

  
3.
  
CSPS 1568
–
79
, p. 245.

  
4.
  
CSPS 1568
–
79
, p. 482.

  
5.
  
CSPS 1568
–
79
, p. 329.

  
6.
  
CSPS 1568
–
79
, pp. 288–9, 325.

  
7.
  Dietz, ‘Huguenot and English Corsairs’, pp. 284–5;
CSPS 1568
–
79
, pp. 75–6, 253; Quinn,
Explorers and Colonies
, pp. 130, 258–9.

  
8.
  
CSPS 1568
–
79
, pp. 235, 242–3, 250, 258.

  
9.
  
CSPS 1568
–
79
, pp. 243, 263.

10.
  
CSPS 1568
–
79
, pp. 263, 267.

11.
  
CSPS 1568
–
79
, p. 290.

12.
  
APC 1558
–
70
, pp. 386, 395;
CSPF 1569
–
71
, p. 471;
CSPS 1568
–
79
, p. 361.

13.
  
CSPS 1568
–
79
, pp. 231, 243, 245;
Calendar
, p. 33.

14.
  
CSPS 1568
–
79
, p. 277;
APC 1558
–
70
, p. 389.

15.
  
CSPS 1568
–
79
, pp. 283, 288–9.

16.
  
APC 1558
–
70
, p. 409; A. Spicer,
The French
–
Speaking Reformed Community and their Church in Southampton 1567
–
c.1620
(Southampton Record Series, 39, 1997), p. 131.

17.
  
CSPS 1568
–
79
, pp. 351–2, 399; D.B. Quinn and A.N. Ryan,
England’s Sea Empire, 1550
–
1642
(London, 1983), pp. 41–2.

18.
  
CSPS 1568
–
79
, p. 329.

19.
  
CSPS 1568
–
79
, pp. 283, 338, 347.

20.
  
CSPS 1568
–
79
, p. 286;
APC 1558
–
70
, pp. 368–9, 385–6, 391–2. For the loss to customs referred to in this paragraph see C. Wilson,
Queen Elizabeth and the Revolt of the Netherlands
(London, 1970), p. 25.

21.
  
CSPS 1568
–
79
, pp. 291, 292, 305, 364.

22.
  
CSPS 1568
–
79
, pp. 296, 341, 347, 376;
Tudor Proclamations
, II, pp. 357–8.

23.
  
CSPS 1568
–
79
, pp. 385, 490; V. von Klarwill (ed.),
The Fugger News
-
Letters 1568
–
1605
(London, 1926), pp. 13–4.

24.
  
CSPS 1568
–
79
, p. 457.

25.
  
CSPF 1572
–
74
, p. 259;
CSPS 1568
–
79
, pp. 456, 459, 470–1, 476.

26.
  
CSPS 1568
–
79
, pp. 459, 465.

27.
  
CSPS 1568
–
79
, p. 476.

28.
  
CSPS 1568
–
79
, pp. 429–30, 464.

29.
  
APC 1571
–
75
, pp. 64–5, 77–9;
Select Pleas
, II, pp. 149–50. A fleet was also despatched to scour the Channel for pirates, Williamson,
Hawkins
, pp. 273–5.

30.
  
APC 1571
–
75
, pp. 85, 107, 110, 114, 256.

31.
  
CSPF 1572
–
74
, p. 454.

32.
  
APC 1571
–
75
, p. 187.

33.
  
APC 1571
–
75
, pp. 191, 230;
CSPS 1568
–
79
, pp. 482, 486;
Calendar
, pp. 39–41. Dutch rebel rovers also remained based in English ports, such as captain David of Flushing who was based in Dover for at least four years,
Pays
–
Bas
, VII, pp. 40–1, 50, 146–7, 161–2, 451.

34.
  
APC 1571
–
75
, pp. 102–3, 110, 113, 116–7 301. And for Ireland see M. O’Dowd (ed.),
Calendar of State Papers Ireland: Tudor Period 1571
–
1575
(Dublin, 2000), pp. 11, 292, 296, 298.

35.
  
CSPF 1572
–
74
, p. 454. V. W. Lunsford,
Piracy and Privateering in the Golden Age Netherlands
(New York, 2005), p. 115.

36.
  
APC 1571
–
75
, pp. 150, 160, 176, 213, 222–3, 333;
CSPF 1575
–
77
, p. 151;
CSPF 1572
–
74,
pp. 511, 515, 520.

37.
  
APC 1571
–
75
, pp. 253, 275–6;
CSPF 1572
–
74
, p. 537.

38.
  
CSPF 1572
–
74
, pp. 511, 531. Clashes with the French persisted along the coast of Spain, Andrews, ’Thomas Fenner’, pp. 313–4.

39.
  
CSPF 1572
–
74
, pp. 522, 525–7, 530–3; Bain et al. (eds.),
Calendar of State Papers relating to Scotland
, V, pp. 8–10, 14–5, 24–8.

40.
  
CSPF 1572
–
74
, pp. 522–3, 536–7, 540–1, 544;
APC 1571
–
75
, p. 293.

41.
  
CSPS 1568
–
79
, p. 477.

42.
  
CSPS 1568
–
79
, pp. 480–2.

43.
  K.R. Andrews,
Drake’s Voyages: A Re
–
assessment of their Place in Elizabethan Maritime Expansion
(London, 1967), pp. 29–42; K.E. Lane,
Pillaging the Empire: Piracy in the Americas 1500
–
1750
(Armonk, 1998), pp. 39, 44–6.

44.
  Andrews,
Spanish Caribbean
, pp. 134–46;
NAW
, II, pp. 575–84.

45.
  I.A. Wright (ed.),
Documents concerning English Voyages to the Spanish Main 1569
–
80
(Hakluyt Society, Second Series, 71, 1932), pp. xviii–xxii, 16–7; Lane,
Pillaging,
pp. 33–4; Wernham,
Before the Armada
, pp. 349–50. On the lack of experienced English pilots for the Caribbean see Rodger,
Safeguard of the Sea
, p. 244.

46.
  Andrews,
Drake’s Voyages
, pp. 32–5. The most comprehensive treatment of Drake remains J.S. Corbett,
Drake and the Tudor Navy
, 2 vols. (London, 1898, repr. Aldershot, 1988). Recent studies include H. Kelsey,
Sir Francis Drake: The Queen’s Pirate
(New Haven, 1998).

47.
  Wright (ed.),
Voyages
, pp. 40, 46.

48.
  Ibid., p. 265;
PN
, X, p. 76.

49.
  Wright (ed.),
Voyages
, p. 298.

50.
  Wright (ed.),
Voyages
, p. 298.

51.
  Ibid., pp. 71, 73, 326. The actual amount of plunder from the voyage is unknowable.

52.
  Ibid., p. 62.

53.
  Ibid., p. 72.

54.
  Ibid., pp. 93–4, 96, 98; Williamson,
Hawkins
, pp. 297–9.

55.
  Wright (ed.),
Voyages
, pp. 100, 123.

56.
  And for the rest of this paragraph,
PN
, X, pp. 82, 84, 87–8.

57.
  Wright (ed.),
Voyages
, pp. liii, 110–11, 171–2.

58.
  Ibid., p. 121.

59.
  Ibid., pp. 152, 166–7, 176, 187–8.

60.
  Ibid., pp. 174–5. On defence see Andrews,
Spanish Caribbean
, pp. 99–107, 151–6 and H. Kamen,
Spain’s Road to Empire: The Making of a World Power 1492
–
1763
(London, 2002), pp. 257–64.

61.
  Wright (ed.),
Voyages
, pp. 13, 61; Quinn and Ryan,
England’s Sea Empire
, pp. 30–2.

62.
  Wright (ed.),
Voyages
, p. 7.

63.
  Ibid., p. 68.

64.
  Ibid., p. 50.

65.
  Ibid., pp. 101, 117, 120, 187.

66.
  Ibid., pp. lxiii, 217, 235, 240.

67.
  These crude estimates are based on figures in Wright (ed.),
Voyages
, pp. 7, 36, 48, 100, 172, 196–7, 253, 327.

68.
  Wright (ed.),
Voyages,
pp. 172, 254.

69.
  Ibid., pp. xlix, 112–3, 203–6, 213, 228.

70.
  Ibid., pp. 174, 254.

71.
  Ibid., pp. 102–5.

72.
  
PN
, X, p. 86; Wright (ed.),
Voyages
, p. 105.

73.
  Ibid., p. 118.

74.
  Ibid., p. 265.

75.
  
PN
, X, p. 81.

76.
  
CSPF 1575
–
77
, pp. 1–2, 67–8, 134–5. On Rogers’ mission see also
Pays
–
Bas
, VII, pp. 526–9, 531–4, 575–8.

77.
  
CSPF 1575
–
77
, pp. 72–4;
CSPD 1547
–
80
, pp. 502–4.

78.
  
CSPF 1575
–
77
, pp. 215–6.

79.
  
Tudor Proclamations
, II, p. 395.

80.
  
CSPF 1575
–
77
, pp. 57, 168, 190;
Pays
–
Bas
, VII, pp. 505–6.

81.
  
Tudor Proclamations
, II, pp. 396–7.

82.
  
CSPF 1575
–
77
, pp. 128, 227–8, 309, 400–1, 491–2, 501, 518, 607–8;
CSPF 1577
–
78
, p. 3.

83.
  
CSPF 1575
–
77
, pp. 259, 263–6, 269–70, 305, 310–1, 336–7, 341–2, 352–3, 370–1.

84.
  
CSPF 1575
–
77
, pp. 414, 432–5, 468.

85.
  
APC 1575
–
77
, pp. 172, 174, 181–3, 189.

86.
  
APC 1575
–
77
, pp. 200–1, 204, 231.

87.
  
CSPF 1575
–
77
, pp. 386, 388–9, 406, 408.

88.
  
CSPF 1577
–
78
, p. 72.

89.
  
CSPF 1577
–
78
, pp. 123, 135, 147.

90.
  
CSPF 1577
–
78
, p. 457.

91.
  
CSPF 1577
–
78
, pp. 468, 472, 507, 532–3.

92.
  
CSPF 1577
–
78
, p. 519.

93.
  
CSPF 1577
–
78
, pp. 517–20;
CSPF 1579
–
80
, pp. 13–4.

94.
  
CSPD 1547
–
80
, p. 523.

The growing ambition of English pirates and sea rovers was strikingly demonstrated by the contrasting experiences of the period from the mid-1570s to the outbreak of the war with Spain in 1585. Localized piracy remained an endemic problem. Its prevalence and persistence encouraged a greater degree of organization among pirate groups under the leadership of professionalized rovers, such as John Callice or his associate Robert Hicks. Operating under uncertain, but favourable, international conditions, these pirates plundered a varied range of overseas shipping, usually in an opportunistic and haphazard manner. By contrast, deep-sea plunder was increasingly and insistently anti-Spanish in focus. The threat to Spain was alarmingly revealed by Drake’s ‘Famous Voyage’ from 1577 to 1580, when he became the first Englishman to circumnavigate the globe. This remarkable expedition, which went ahead with covert support from the monarchy, indicated the immense riches to be had from oceanic plunder. Foreshadowing a new phase in the development of English depredation, it was accompanied and followed by a rash of anti-Spanish projects that linked predatory ambitions with visions of settlement in North America. Among a small, but vocal group of Protestant warriors and colonial promoters, the plunder of Spain was projected as a patriotic duty, as a means of defending the Protestant cause while weakening the ‘great whore of Babylon’.
¹
In these circumstances deep-sea depredation merged with wider political and religious goals.