The Pirate History Podcast

This is the story of the French Zenith, through the lens of foreign policy and war. King Louis XIV came into his majority and almost immediately began a series of wars that made him the most powerful and influential monarch in Europe. It's good to be the king.

Today we're talking about the second Fronde, which was a formative political event in the lives of many young sailors who would go on to sail west and become buccaneers.

In our lead up to the Nine Years War, we're talking about France. This is the early reign of King Louis XIV. That means the power struggles within the Bourbon Dynasty, Cardinal Richelieu, Cardinal Mazarin, a host of powerful women, and the Fronde.

This is the end of our story on the French Buccaneers involved with the Second Pacific Adventure. They were on the home stretch, but not without significant obstacles on their journey home.

The aftermath of a battle is a time for reflection on merit, the afterlife, and the giving of thanks. However, when you have to fight another battle and then run from 1,000 very angry enemies, some of that can fall by the wayside.

The pirates arrived at the city of Segovia on 11th January, 1688. Their arrival in the region marked the time time for a final confrontation between the pirates and the Spanish.

The French Buccaneers had a Spanish Armada and a Spanish Army hunting them down, but they used the tactics that defined pirates and piracy to prevail. However, the Spanish had learned many of those same tactics, and used them against the pirates.

It's a fast paced, swashbuckling pirate story with ships taken, battles at sea, and imminent danger. However, it turns into an old fashioned spaghetti western with Spanish church shootouts and beautiful maidens in riding behind our anti-heroes on their horses.

It's the end of the Second pacific Adventure, and the beginning of a new era in piracy. Today we discuss the old buccaneers and the new breed of pirates: Americans, colonials, provincials, who have no allegiance to a king, or a flag, or an ideology.

It's an old story from a new perspective today. We're talking about Francois Groignet & Raveneau de Lussan as they embark on the Second Pacific Adventure. French pirates in his fleet will command the stage for this next chapter in pirate history and push us into The Nine Years War and the shift toward the Red Sea.

We're covering almost a year in Dampier's life, and that of the Cygnet. It was a somewhat uneventful year, yet it brings us to the end of Dampier's career as a pirate.

The Cygnet now had a fleet of three ships, and were prepared to terrorize the East Indies. However, foul weather and internal tensions conspired to create very real problems.

At this moment in our story the pirate crew of Cygnet had a large number of Spanish captives. How they chose to deal with those captives, who many would consider natural enemies of the English crew, shows us much about the pirates in the Age of Sail.

We're talking about ideas today. Concepts that were integral to pirates, pirate life, and the pirate code. In truth, these intertwined ideas served as a cornerstone - a Golden Rule - for the pirates. The Rule of the Sea.

We're setting out with the crew of the Pirate ship Cygnet on their first real cruise in the East Indies. Their first weeks proved to be a productive time, but they ran into certain complications that they did not foresee.