Privateering as a language of international politics: English and French privateering against the Dutch Republic, 1655–1665

Abstract

In the period 1655–1665, between the First and Second Anglo-Dutch Wars, French and English privateers with Swedish and Portuguese commissions preyed on the shipping of the Dutch Republic. In this article, it is proposed that this activity was employed by the English and French governments as a language of international politics. In their toleration and, on occasion, defence of the use of foreign letters of marque by their subjects against a nominally neutral state, Mazarin, Cromwell, Louis XIV and Charles II deliberately and flagrantly violated the conventions of international law or religion. Their purpose was to make clear to the States General and Grand Pensionary John de Witt their discontent with Dutch policy, diplomacy or trading practices. Temporary or permanent bans on the practice served to communicate a message of benevolence and friendship, or were aimed at creating détente. These signals, however, were generally misunderstood by the receiving party. Employing as their frame of reference for interpreting these messages their own republican traditions, their decentralised governmental structure and Grotius's writings on international maritime law, the Dutch authorities perceived English and French attitudes towards privateering with foreign commissions as symptomatic of monarchical arbitrariness and/or mercantilist jealousy. It was the absence of international consensus regarding the legal boundaries of privateering that encouraged its use as a language of international politics; at the same time, however, it also contributed to fundamental misunderstandings between the parties.

Keywords:

• privateering
• diplomacy
• language
• Dutch republic
• England
• France
• Portugal
• Sweden
• international law
• miscommunication

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Roger Downing for his constructive comments on a previous draft of this article.

Notes

1. See, for example, Villiers, Les corsairs du littoral; Starkey, British privateering enterprise; Starkey, de Moor and van Heslinga, eds., Pirates and privateers; Francke, Utiliteyt voor de gemeene sake; Baetens, ‘Organization and effects of Flemish privateering’; Van Loo, ‘Kaapvaart, handel en staatsbelang’; Sicking, ‘State and non-state violence at sea’; Van Vliet, ‘Privateering as an instrument of economic and naval warfare’; Mabee, ‘Pirates, privateers and the political economy of private violence’; Braddick, State formation in early modern England; Murdoch, Terror of the seas?; Barazzutti, ‘Pour une histoire économique et sociale de la course zéelandaise et de son impact sur l'economie locale de 1672 au début de la decennie 1720’; ´t Hart, ‘Kaapvaart en staatsmacht’; Thompson, Mercenaries, pirates and sovereigns; Murdoch, Little and Forte, ‘Scottish privateering, Swedish neutrality and prize law’; Rommelse, ‘English privateering against the Dutch Republic’; idem, ‘Political agendas and the contestable legality of privateering.'

2. There are exceptions of course. See, for example, Lunsford, Piracy and privateering in the Golden Age Netherlands.

3. See, for example, Burke, What is cultural history?

4. Rodger, Command of the ocean, 24–9; Capp, Cromwell's Navy; Rowen, Princes of Orange, 105–6; Troost, William III the Stadholder-King, 30–1.

5. Bruijn, Varend Verleden; Oudendijk, Johan de Witt.

6. Rommelse, ‘Political agendas and the contestable legality of privateering’; Downing and Rommelse, A fearful gentleman, 52–68.

7. Jones, Anglo-Dutch wars, 145–55; Pincus, Protestantism and patriotism, 195–270; Japikse, De verwikkelingen tusschen de Republiek en Engeland; Rowen, John de Witt, 513–97.

8. Downing and Rommelse, A fearful gentleman.

9. Levillain, Vaincre Louis XIV, 76–100; Godée-Molsbergen, Frankrijk en de Republiek der Vereenigde Nederlanden, 194–205; Rowen, John de Witt, 465–90; Rommelse, Second Anglo-Dutch War, 27–30, 76–8, 108–11, 117–19, 132–4, 143–8; Boogman, ‘De raison d’état politicus Johan de Witt.'

10. Rommelse, ‘Political agendas and the contestable legality of privateering’; TNA, SP 84/163 fo 1a, Willem Nieupoort to the Council of State, 1660; DNA, States General 12589.111, Willem Nieupoort to the States General, 20 Feb. 1660.

11. DNA, States General 12587.155, Willem Boreel to Louis XIV, 6 Jan. 1660; States General 3266, resolution of the States General, 28 Aug. 1660; States General 6778, Dutch embassy to the States General, 8 Apr. 1661.

12. DNA, States General 3266–7, resolutions of the States General, 8 Sep. 1660, 15 Dec. 1660 and 14 Jan. 1661.

13. DNA, States General 6778, Dutch embassy to the States General, 8 Apr. 1661; Louis XIV to the States General, 22 June 1663, in Browne, Letters and negotiations of the Count d'Estrades, 135–6.

14. DNA, States General 3269, resolution of the States General, 6 Nov. 1663; States General 6781, Willem Boreel to the States General, 20 Mar. 1665.

15. For example, BL, Althorpe MS C13, Denzil Holles to William Coventry, 23 Sep. 1665 and 21 Oct. 1665; Bodleian Library, Rawlinson MS D924, fos 225–6, Answer to a French memoire.

16. DNA, States General 4566, secret resolution of the States General, 18 June 1659; TNA, SP 84/163 fo 1a, Willem Nieupoort to the Council of State, 1660; DNA, States General 12589.111, Willem Nieupoort to the States General, 20 Feb. 1660, 19 Mar. 1660 and 30 Apr. 1660; Council of State to the Commissioners of Customs, 19 Feb. 1660, in Green, Calendar of State Papers, vol. 13, 352.

17. BNA, SP 84/163, fo 39, City of Amsterdam to Charles II, 8 Sep. 1660; fos 40, 66a and 71, States General to Charles II, 10 Sep. 1660, 15 Oct. 1660 and 20 Oct. 1660; DNA, States General 3266, resolutions of the States General, 4 Oct. 1660 and 29 Oct. 1660.

18. DNA, States General 3266, resolutions of the States General, 28 Aug. 1660 and 15 Dec. 1660.

19. DNA, States General 3267, resolutions of the States General, 1 Feb. 1661, 4 Feb. 1661, 19 Feb. 1661, 24 Feb. 1661 and 20 July 1661; States General 5904 I, Dutch embassy to the States General, 7 Oct. 1661; States General 6778, Willem Boreel to the States General, 24 Nov. 1661.

20. TNA, SP 84/164, fos 90 and 235, Dutch embassy to Charles II, 16 July 1661 and 12 May 1662; DNA, States General 5904 II, Dutch embassy to Charles II, 5 May 1662 and 30 June 1662; 12589.118, Dutch embassy to the States General, 22 May 1662.

21. TNA, SP 84/165, fo 280, De Miranda to John Rutherford, 23 May 1662; DNA, States General 3268, resolution of the States General, 24 May 1662; States General 12563.41, Sir George Downing to the States General, 24 May 1662; Dutch embassy to Clarendon, May 1662, in Ogle, Bliss, Macray and Routledge, Calendar of the Clarendon State Papers, vol. 5, 211–2.

22. DNA, States General 12589.118, Dutch embassy to the States General, 22 May 1662; Edward Nicholas to the Dutch embassy, 28 June 1662; States General 3268, resolution of the States General, 14 June 1662; TNA, SP 84/165, fos 278 and 325, Dutch embassy to the States General, 2 June 1662 and 22 June 1662.

23. De Winter, Sources concerning the Hospitallers of St John, 142–8; TNA, SP 84/164, fo 105, Friedrich of Hessen-Darmstadt to Charles II, 7 Aug. 1661.

24. DNA, States General 5904 II, Dutch embassy to the States General, 2 Dec. 1661; TNA, SP 84/164, fo 136 Reply to a Dutch memoire, 30 Oct. 1661.

25. TNA, PC 2/56, fo 7, 18 June 1662; SP 84/165, fo 282, Abraham de Wicquefort to Joseph Williamson, 12 June 1662; BL, Egerton MS 2538, fos 71–2, Sir George Downing to Edward Nicholas, 16 June 1662; DNA, States General 3268, resolutions of the States General, 15 June 1662 and 6 July 1662; States General 5904 II, Dutch embassy to the States General, 28 Apr.1662; States General 12589.118, Dutch embassy to the States General, 9 June 1662 and 23 June 1662.

26. BL, Add. MS 22919, fo 219, William Coventry to Sir George Downing, 23 June 1662.

27. Sir George Downing to Clarendon, 7 July 1662, in Ogle, Bliss, Macray and Routledge, Calendar of the Clarendon State Papers, vol. 5, 232.

28. On the Dutch republicans’ perception of Charles's power politics, see Geyl, Orange and Stuart; Jones, Anglo-Dutch Wars; Rommelse, Second Anglo-Dutch War; Rowen, John de Witt; Japikse, Verwikkelingen.

29. For example, DNA, States General 3269, resolution of the States General, 26 Jan. 1663; TNA, SP 84/169, fo 32, States General to Charles II, 26 Jan. 1664.

30. See on this: Downing and Rommelse, A fearful gentleman.