“Pirates, Robbers and Other Malefactors”
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“Pirates, robbers and other malefactors” The role played by violence at sea in relations between England and the Hanse towns, 1385 – 1420 Submitted by William Marcus Edward Pitcaithly to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Maritime History, February 2011 This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgment. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. Signed: 1 ABSTRACT The period 1385 – 1420 was an eventful and significant one in Anglo-Hanseatic relations. At its beginning, the English mercantile presence in the Hanse towns was only a few years old, and no real basis for a trading and diplomatic relationship had been arrived at, when an English act of aggression brought into play the issue of piracy and other violence at sea, which would henceforth be one of vital importance in Anglo- Hanseatic relations; it saw the heyday of several notorious pirates, and new policies for their suppression on both sides of the North Sea. Hitherto these years have been treated in this context only as part of examinations of much longer periods. I approach the subject thematically, with some chronological divisions within chapters, examining separately violence by English, Hansards, and third parties, non- violent reprisals, regional and social divisions within England and the Hanse, the Vitalienbrüder, the role of the law, and other factors. This thesis will argue that the impact of specific phenomena, particularly the activities of the Vitalienbrüder, on Anglo-Hanseatic relations has been not only neglected but misunderstood, and that attention to English sources can help flesh out our understanding of the Vitalienbrüder’s history. The thesis will further argue that the most important factor in determining the nature of both violent incidents and the response to them, and the broader tenor of Anglo-Hanseatic relations, was the political and economic rise of the English merchant class in the decades following the Black Death. I propose that the two principal issues in Anglo-Hanseatic relations, reciprocity of resident merchants’ rights and piracy, were inextricably entwined with the fact that the group principally affected by both wielded, in this period, greater political influence 2 than ever before. Hence, the study of piracy’s role in Anglo-Hanseatic relations is a window into the wider social, political, and economic history of the period. 3 CONTENTS List of tables p. 6 Abbreviations p. 7 Word count p. 7 Summary p. 9 Introduction p. 13 Chapter I: Violence committed by Englishmen against Hansards p. 52 Chapter II: Violence committed by Hansards against Englishmen p. 95 Chapter III: Violence committed by or against third parties p. 110 Chapter IV: The Vitalienbrüder p. 137 Chapter V: Internal divisions p. 177 Chapter VI: The role of the law and the courts p. 207 Chapter VII: Non-violent reprisals for violent incidents p. 231 Chapter VIII: Other factors p. 248 Chapter IX: 1420 and after p. 274 Conclusion p. 287 Appendix p. 296 Bibliography p. 299 4 “… to assemble and man all ships, barges and boats of [town’s name], and proceed with them and others willing to join them for the purpose of attacking, arresting and committing to prison, pirates, robbers and other malefactors who have assembled and in divers vessels put to sea to lie in wait for merchants and have pursued them from port to port, wounding, killing, robbing and imprisoning until ransom made.” ~ Commission to groups of leading citizens in various English ports to deal with the menace of the German Vitalienbrüder, 13th May 1398.1 1 Calendar of Patent Rolls of the Reign of Richard II (London, 1905, 6 vols plus Supplement), Vol. VI, p. 366; see pp. 162-63. 5 List of tables 1 Map p. 8 2 Family tree p. 138 3 Incidents in 1394, from the 1405 complaint p. 146 4 Incidents 1395 – 1401, from the 1405 complaint pp. 153-55 5 Incidents 1402-05, from the 1405 complaint p. 171 6 Subsidies collected at Boston, 1377 – 1412 pp. 297-98 6 Abbreviations Some commonly cited titles have been abbreviated after their first appearance in the footnotes. Full publication details for each of these titles will be found in the Bibliography. C.Ch.R. Calendar of Charter Rolls C.C.R. Calendar of Close Rolls C.L.B. Calendar of Letter Books Preserved Among the Archives of the Corporation of the City of London at the Guildhall C.P.R. Calendar of Patent Rolls O.D.N.B. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography E.H.D. English Historical Documents HR Hanserecesse H.U.B. Hansisches Urkundenbuch T.N.A. The National Archives P.R.O.M.E. The Parliament Rolls of Medieval England, 1275 – 1504 Word count (excluding Bibliography and footnotes) 76,263 7 Table 1: MAP 8 Summary It is my intention in this thesis to examine the part which violence committed on the seas played in diplomatic relations between England and the towns of the German Hanse, in the period between the Zwijn incident of 1385 and the peace concluded between England and France in 1420. This includes not only violence committed by one relevant party against the other, but any violence committed at sea during this period which can be shown or plausibly surmised to have had an influence on these relations, or to have been influenced by them. The Introduction deals with the reasons for examining this period in particular. Matters such as the nature of the Hanse, and the specific conditions which contributed to Prussia’s unique status in relation to England, are sketched. A summary is provided of relations between England and the Hanse towns before and up to 1385, followed by a brief narrative overview of the changing state of those relations within the period under examination. I go on to outline the nature of the available primary evidence, and the reasons why the available evidence is of this nature. I then provide a sketch of contemporary attitudes to violence at sea and the circumstances surrounding it, and finish with an overview of secondary writing on the subject. Chapter I deals with violence committed by Englishmen against Hansards. This falls into two main categories: violence which was officially sanctioned, and that which was not. The former is subdivided, dealing with: 1) English naval policy and its effects: both direct, as when royal ships deliberately attacked Hanseatic vessels, and indirect, e.g. the effect which English success or failure in keeping the sea at different points in this period had on the incidence of piracy. 9 2) Letters of marque and reprisal: although only one is known to have been issued in this entire period with specific reference to Hanseatic prizes, many were sufficiently vague in their wording to allow the taking of such. 3) The diplomatic crisis of 1402-05, and its effects on violence at sea. Chapter II addresses the hitherto neglected area of violence (official and unofficial) committed by Hansards against English, not including attacks by the Vitalienbrüder. Chapter III covers the part played by the violence of third parties (not including Vitalienbrüder) against both English and Hanseatic victims. In particular, this refers to violence arising from the conflicts between the Danish-Norwegian and Mecklenburg- Swedish monarchies, and between England and France. Other parties are also addressed (e.g. Scotland, whose seamen appear to have been blamed for some attacks of which the English and Hansards suspected each other). Chapter IV deals with the pirates who came to be known as the Vitalienbrüder. The chapter is subdivided chronologically into sections dealing with the periods before the war between Denmark and Sweden ended in 1395; between that peace and their suppression in 1401; and after 1401 (the activities of surviving Vitalienbrüder, if any). The first two sections are further divided to address the impact of Vitalienbrüder attacks on English, Hanseatic, and third-party shipping respectively. The relevance of the first is obvious, as the Vitalienbrüder often sailed from Hanseatic ports; the second is important because of its effect on the Hanseatic economy, which in turn influenced international relations; and the third because of its effect on European geopolitics. Chapter V falls into two sections, addressing respectively rivalries between English towns, and rivalries between Hanse towns. The former influenced the foreign trade of the individual towns, and their approach to such issues as the arrest of 10 Hanseatic goods; the latter is of a more demonstrably immediate importance, as the Hanse towns had considerable independence and often displayed striking disunity in their attitude to commercial and diplomatic relations with other powers, including England. Chapter VI focuses on the role of court proceedings and the law in both England and the Hanse towns. This covers such issues as the arrest of goods and persons, orders of restitution, trials for acts of piracy (which was not a specifically defined crime in English law at this period, but could and sometimes did breach extant laws), and related issues. Chapter VII addresses non-violent reprisals for violent injuries committed by Hansards against English or vice versa. This includes the great majority of such reprisals in this period. Chapter VIII deals with factors other than violence at sea or matters directly related to it (such as legal action and other reprisals), which are nevertheless relevant: it is impossible to form a full understanding of the occasions on which violence was resorted to, and the reasons for it, without examining the cases in which it was not.