Posted on 09/19/2012 1:34:48 PM PDT by Alex Murphy
Books on Mediterranean piracy, especially during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, are often devoted to Barbary corsairs. But these rogues weren’t the only pirates preying on merchant ships. The Knights of St. John, also known as the Knights of Malta, and the Knights of St. Stephen also prowled, and they didn’t just attack “infidel” ships. They targeted vessels belonging to or carrying goods of Greek merchants. What Greene explores in this book is whether these were legitimate corso attacks or not.1 In conducting her research, she discovered that unlike others who suffered such plundering, the Greeks sought justice against these seizures.
Local merchants often deemed Catholic pirates as the most fearsome, and the white cross on the red flag terrified them the most. The Knights of Malta, who sailed from the 1570s into the 1700s, saw their attacks not as acts of piracy, but as legitimate attacks against Islam.
While other histories concentrate on commerce, Greene focuses on Greek Orthodox victims, rather than pirates or the state, to examine the “realities of traveling across the sea and the norms and customs that structured such crossings.” She incorporates perspectives of “the French, the Vatican, Ottoman merchants, and Catholic pirates,” to provide a well-rounded look into this historic period.
The material covers the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Chapter 1 (Subjects and Sovereigns) focuses on how and what the Ottomans and Venetians forged to facilitate trade between these nations, while Chapter 2 (The Claims of Religion) examines how the Knights of Malta challenged this established arrangement. The third chapter (The Age of Piracy) discusses Mediterranean piracy during the latter half of the seventeenth century, with particular emphasis on Catholic sea raiders. Chapters 4 through 7 (The Ottoman Mediterranean, The Pursuit of Justice, At the Tribunale, and The Turn toward Rome, respectively) shows how Greek victims fought back through legal means against these pirate attacks.
Using court records from the Tribunale degli Armamenti, Greene reconstructs this maritime world. The introduction clearly states her premise, while the conclusion succinctly sums up her findings. She also includes illustrations, extensive notes, a bibliography, and an index. If there is a drawback to this book, it is that she sometimes quotes from documents in their original language without benefit of an English translation. This makes it difficult for readers unfamiliar with those languages to better grasp the point she tries to make.
Greene’s examination deftly demonstrates how the maritime world changed for Greek merchants during these two centuries. In the sixteenth, they were subjects of Venice or the Ottoman Empire. Although they practiced Greek Orthodoxy, religion mattered little either legally or diplomatically. The Knights of Malta, however, saw everyone as Christian, Muslim, or Jew, and in the seventeenth century, the Maltese also attacked Greek merchants because of their relations with the Ottoman Empire. The difference between this particular group and other piracy victims is their Christianity allowed them channels of recovery not available to others, which Greene ably proves.
Of particular importance is Greene’s adeptness at showing that piracy was a global problem, not one confined to the Caribbean during a time period often considered part of the age of pirates. Catholic Pirates and Greek Merchants is a fascinating, scholarly account that brings a fresh perspective to the maritime world of the Mediterranean.
1While we tend to call those who plunder enemy ships during war “privateers,” this practice in the Mediterranean was known as “corso.” The difference, though, was that while privateers preyed until peace was declared, corso continued. It didn’t require formal declarations of war because of the ongoing struggle between Christianity and Islam.
Local merchants often deemed Catholic pirates as the most fearsome, and the white cross on the red flag terrified them the most. The Knights of Malta, who sailed from the 1570s into the 1700s, saw their attacks not as acts of piracy, but as legitimate attacks against Islam. While other histories concentrate on commerce, Greene focuses on Greek Orthodox victims, rather than pirates or the state, to examine the “realities of traveling across the sea and the norms and customs that structured such crossings.” She incorporates perspectives of “the French, the Vatican, Ottoman merchants, and Catholic pirates,” to provide a well-rounded look into this historic period....
....Greene’s examination deftly demonstrates how the maritime world changed for Greek merchants during these two centuries. In the sixteenth, they were subjects of Venice or the Ottoman Empire. Although they practiced Greek Orthodoxy, religion mattered little either legally or diplomatically. The Knights of Malta, however, saw everyone as Christian, Muslim, or Jew, and in the seventeenth century, the Maltese also attacked Greek merchants because of their relations with the Ottoman Empire. The difference between this particular group and other piracy victims is their Christianity allowed them channels of recovery not available to others, which Greene ably proves.
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The Greeks had unfortunate and way too complicit “relations” with the Ottoman Empire and probably were carrying Western European slaves or soon-to-be slaves.
Let’s talk about French and English Protestant piracy on the coasts of Spain and Portugal, and how they would sack the churches and burn the priests alive in them, sometimes with as many members of the faithful as they could capture, and how they made 60 Jesuit missionaries walk the plank (except for the ones they killed by other means) when they captured a missionary ship bound for Brazil off the coast of the Azores. This essentially destroyed the missionary efforts of the Church in Brazil and left Brazil entirely open to the slavers and exploiters.
And then let’s talk about Catholic St Augustine, Florida in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries under the Spanish, where British Protestant pirates swept in and sacked and burned the city more than once. In one night-time raid on this then tiny town, they left more 60 dead in the streets, including women and children who were simply trying to flee.
Sorry to spoil your anti-Catholic fantasy.
And then let’s talk about Catholic St Augustine, Florida in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries under the Spanish, where British Protestant pirates swept in and sacked and burned the city more than once. In one night-time raid on this then tiny town, they left more 60 dead in the streets, including women and children who were simply trying to flee.
You could post a whole thread about it, if you'd like. It is "Talk Like A Pirate Day", after all.
I don’t post things attacking Protestants. Justified though it may be.
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