Tea at Trianon: Pirates of the Irish Coast

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Monday, October 5, 2020

Pirates of the Irish Coast

From Atlas Obscura:

The story of the leeskarte began in 1604, when James I of England ended the long English naval tradition of “privateering” as part of a peace agreement with Spain. Previously, privateers, mariners commissioned by the English Crown to attack merchant ships from enemy countries, were allowed to split their captured loot between themselves, their sponsors, and the Crown itself. Privateering was highly profitable, and kept English ports filled with valuable goods and cargo. Though it was risky work, many sailors preferred it to more official service on the King’s ships, which offered low pay, poor sanitary conditions, and an aging fleet. Over time, English privateers grew in numbers, with the more successful commanding well-armed fleets of multiple ships.

“Privateering in England was considered to be a respectable way to earn a living on the high seas,” says Kelleher. “But as a consequence of the decision by James I [to end the practice], thousands of mariners suddenly found themselves out of work. Used to operating independently, they became prime targets to drift into piracy.” Unsanctioned piracy, that is.

English officials based in southwest Ireland encouraged ex-privateers to join them as part of the “Munster Plantation,” a colonization program in which English settlers were offered cheap land to populate the area, making it less likely to rebel against the English Crown. “Faced with tough job prospects, mariners began moving to southwest Ireland either individually or with their families,” says Kelleher. “However, they were not driven by patriotism or politics. As experienced mariners, they would have seen it as logistically the best place to continue their business.”

Drawing on contemporary sources, Kelleher estimates that up to 1,000 of these men established bases in the towns of Baltimore, Crookhaven, and Leamcon (near the town of Schull) in western County Cork. The geography there was ideal for their purposes, with the harbors, inlets, and islands of the Irish coastline lending themselves to secret haunts and fast escapes. They were also closely positioned to the main Atlantic waterways, where ships from most European nations could be targeted on either their outward or homeward journeys. (Read more.)