JAMES II IN PURSUIT OF A PIRATE AT MALTA D.F.ALLEN AMONGST the British Library's many manuscripts which describe Britain's long involvement with Malta and the Mediterranean, Add. MS. 19306 is interesting for several reasons. 'Wood's Journal' is evidence of how the Royal Navy's Mediterranean squadron supported and protected from piracy that English trade to the Levant which had been growing in volume under Charles II and James II. It also contains a description of the Maltese islands and their distinctive institutions under the Knights Hospitallers of St John of Jerusalem, at the very moment when James II was negotiating secretly in Rome to restore the Order of Malta in the British Isles. In particular, Wood's depiction at Malta ' of some of the Wonderfull Miracles which at this day is said to bee upon that Island' (f. i) and his prominent mention of the Inquisition in Malta set apart his own survey of Malta in 1687 from other seventeenth-century reports ofthe island. The provenance of Add. MS. 19306 is speculative, particularly how and when it came to be acquired by the Annesley family at Arley Castle in Staffordshire.^ The front and back covers of the manuscript bear a coronet and initial 'V which might be that of George Annesley, Viscount Valentia and second Earl of Mountnorris, who lived between 1770 and 1844. Valentia (who was so-styled, 1793-1816) himself might have acquired this manuscript for he was F.R.S., F.S.A. and F.L.S. besides being a noted traveller of whom Byron wrote: Let vain Valentia rival luckless Carr And equal him whose work he sought to mar. Alternatively this manuscript of naval interest might have come into the Annesley family via Valentia's daughter-in-law, Frances Cockburn Sims, niece of Admiral Sir George Cockburn. However acquired, it was included in lot 1078 ofthe Arley Castle sale on 6 December 1852, when Valentia's Annesley heirs sold the castle to Robert Woodward. This manuscript was one of a group purchased through the agency of Boone by the British Museum, Add. MSS. 19276-19350. The related date of 8 January 1853 probably refers to the approval of this purchase by the British Museum trustees on that date. Add. MSS. 19418-19429 also came from the Arley Castle sale, purchased from Boone by the British Museum on 9 April 1853. Nothing is known about the author of Add. MS. 19306 beyond his name and occupation.^ G. Wood had been servant and clerk to Captain Henry iog Kilhgrew smce 1677 aboard the Royal Oak and the Mary in the Straits. Wood continued captain's clerk aboard the Dragon when, in January 1687, Killigrew was ordered from Gibraltar to seek out and punish the Marquis de Fleury, 'a Savoyard prince that had turned pirate'. What follows of this expedition's history is based upon Wood's journal as well as upon other archival material in Malta, Rome and the Public Record Office in London. For centuries before the Marquis de Fleury adopted it for himself in 1686, corsairing had been one of the oldest professions in the Mediterranean. A corsair was a private individual licensed by his sovereign to fight his sovereign's enemies in time of war. The holy war between Christian and Muslim was an eternal war and so was fought every year in the Mediterranean long before the Siege of Malta in 1565 or the Battle of Lepanto in 1571 and long after the official truce between the Ottoman and Spanish empires in 1580. In fact the corsairs' wars in the Mediterranean continued throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and lasted until the early nineteenth century when France occupied Algeria. Increasingly throughout the seventeenth century those smaller Christian rulers in the Mediterranean who licensed corsairs - such as the Viceroy of Sicily, the Grand Duke of Tuscany or the Grand Master of Malta - had to reckon with the naval forces of greater Christian powers such as France and Britain. And especially so if these northern sailing ships had been chartered by Muslims to carry their own cargoes within the Mediterranean. The Christian corsairs' traditional tactic of demanding the right to search any vessel suspected of carrying 'Turkish' goods was less readily insisted upon when a French or British ship had been chartered by the Muslim owners of such cargoes. The corsairs licensed by the Grand Master of Malta had received a setback in the 1660s after a French Knight of Malta had arrested a French ship, the Saint Barthelemy, which had been carrying sixty Muslims and their goods between Alexandria and Constantinople. Although the Saint Barthe'lemy was brought into Malta as 'lawful prize' for sale and dispersal, Louis XIV was angered by the damage to his reputation and ordered the resident French merchants in Malta to pay damages to the Muslim owners to the tune of more than 50,000 pieces of eight. After this display of the French monarch's displeasure, French ships carrying Muslim cargoes came and went from Malta and were left unmolested by the Maltese corsairs.^ With this warning in mind, the Marquis de Fleury held back from attacking French ships in the Mediterranean once he had been licensed a corsair by the King of Poland. Instead he arrested an English ship and so incurred the wrath of James II rather than that of Louis XIV. The irony was that this courtier of Duke Victor Amadeus II of Savoy had sailed in the Straits with the English admiral Sir Thomas Allin in 1668 and had been complimented by Allin for his knowledge ofthe coast between Livorno and Genoa. And it was from neighbouring Villefranche, the tiny Savoyard port, that de Fleury sailed aboard his Dutch-built ship of 54 guns, the St John, on his corsairing cruise in 1686.^ About 100 miles off Alexandria, he encountered three English ships, the Jerusalem, the John and Francis and the Ann, from each of which this 'Polish' admiral claimed the right no Fig. I. Mediterranean corsairs. Edmund Dummer, 'A Voyage into the Mediterranean seas...', 1682-4; BL, King's MS. 40, f 79V (detail) of search, suspecting all these English ships of carrying 'Turkish' cargoes. Thomas Daniel, the English master o^iht. Jerusalem, refused to be searched and produced his pass from James II as well as his bill of lading at Livorno. De Fleury rephed by firing his guns into the sails of the Jerusalem, which was indeed carrying between sixty and eighty Muslim passengers of no less importance than the Bey of Tripoli and his suite, including his wife and eight other women together with goods valued in all at 200,000 pieces of eight. These had been well protected in their cabin at the stern o[ the Jerusalem during de Fleury's battery. They were soon discovered, however, when twenty-five of de Fleury's crew went aboard the English ship despite Captain Daniel's protests. No such 'Turks' were to be found aboard the Ann or the John and Francis, whose master had a criminal record in the City of London and who was sailing without a pass from James II at the same time as he carried the King of England's colours.^ Having no pretext for detaining any longer the Ann and the John and Francis, de Fleury brought the Jerusalem alone into Malta, within nine days of this seizure, sometime in early November 1686. Before putting into quarantine at Malta, de Fleury had agreed with the Bey of Tripoli the terms of his ransom. This was to be 30,000 pieces of eight, payable within twelve months. A penalty of 10,000 pieces of eight was to be added if the Bey failed to deliver the ransom within the twelve months agreed. Once the ransom had been paid, the Bey agreed to pay a further 6,000 pieces of eight for every year he would III continue as governor of Tripoli. Soon after arrival in Malta, the Bey was released by de Heury to organize his ransom in Tripoli, leaving behind his wife and retinue as hostages. But first affidavits had to be sworn before the Notary Public in Malta by the principal aaors in this drama and in the presence of the so-called English consul. In fact, this official was never English but was appointed by the Grand Master, with the result that he was not formally recognized by London. Although not English, Consul Alfonso Desclaus was indebted to the Duke of Norfolk's patronage." These affidavits sworn by dc Fleury, by members of his crew and by Captain Daniel (who was now permitted to go free) were accompanied by an inventory ofthe Bey's goods. These comprised, besides gold and precious objects, fine linen cloths, shirts, handkerchieves, carpets, 561 pairs of shoes, wax and sugar. The Bey's standards, drums and flutes were returned to him before his journey to Tripoli.' These affidavits were sent by the English consul at Malta to James II's Secretary of State in London at the same time as they were being sent by the Grand Master of Malta to the Cardinal Secretary of State in Rome. So when James II soon tried to 'order' Innocent XI to arrest de Fleury in Malta or wherever else he might be in the Mediterranean, the Pope already had his own, alternative briefing on this diplomatic imbroglio. Also from Malta Innocent XI was being kept informed by his Apostolic Delegate and Inquisitor, whose authority was often disputed on the island by the Grand Master and his Knights.^ James II and his minister Sunderland, who were dependent on the 'English' consul in Valletta, never realized that Innocent XI had better intelligence from Malta than they had.