Speaker 1: Happy Saturday. We talked about the Mughal Empire and the
Speaker 1: British East India Company in our recent episodes on Dean Mohammad,
Speaker 1: and that reminded me of our previous episode on pirate
Speaker 1: Henry every who carried out a raid on a Mughal
Speaker 1: Empire convoy in sixteen ninety five. At the time, the
Speaker 1: Mughal emperor was Arnzeb, who also came up in our
Speaker 1: episodes on Dean Mohammad. So that is today's Saturday classic.
Speaker 1: This originally came out May ninth, twenty eighteen, so enjoy.
Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you missed in History Class, a production
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Hello, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Tracy V.
Speaker 1: Wilson and I'm Holly Pryne. Well. I don't think we've
Speaker 1: talked about pirates on the podcast in a while. It's
Speaker 1: been a little bit, you know, We've they've had passing
Speaker 1: mentions in maybe unearthed episodes or other random stuff, but
Speaker 1: we have not had an actual whole episode about pirates
Speaker 1: in more than a year and a half, which is
Speaker 1: a long time. I mean, I feel like if you
Speaker 1: look hard enough, any show could become about a pirate. Sure,
Speaker 1: So today we're going to talk about Henry Every. He
Speaker 1: was also known as Henry Avery, and as Benjamin Bridgeman
Speaker 1: and as long ben Avery. And he's been on my
Speaker 1: short list for a while. And it just said Henry
Speaker 1: Every and then in parentheses pirate. And I did not
Speaker 1: write any other indication of what prompted me to put
Speaker 1: it on there. So it's a mystery why why it
Speaker 1: caught my attention in the first place. It was not
Speaker 1: Uncharted four because I have not played that game, but
Speaker 1: I do know that he figures into that game. And
Speaker 1: in case folks are thinking of writing us to say
Speaker 1: he was in Uncharted four, that was not where He did, though,
Speaker 1: carry out what's been described as the most profitable pirate
Speaker 1: raid in history. And it was also, to be clear,
Speaker 1: a particularly brutal and horrifying raid in its treatment of
Speaker 1: the women and the men aboard the rated ship. But
Speaker 1: I did not know until I got into the research
Speaker 1: for this that it also became a massive international incident,
Speaker 1: with Britain later trying to repair its relationship with the
Speaker 1: Mughal Empire. It's the target of this raid in a
Speaker 1: highly publicized kind of weird series of trials. So we
Speaker 1: know very little about Henry Every's early life, except that
Speaker 1: he was probably English. He was born sometime in the
Speaker 1: sixteen fifties. He might have spent some time in the
Speaker 1: Royal Navy, but sources conflict on whether or not that's
Speaker 1: actually the case. But he did start working in the
Speaker 1: slave trade in the early sixteen nineties under a commission
Speaker 1: from the British Royal Governor of Bermuda. After at least
Speaker 1: a couple of years as a slave trader, Every was
Speaker 1: hired as first mate aboard the English vessel Charles the
Speaker 1: Second in sixteen ninety three. The Charles the Second was
Speaker 1: a privateering vessel, and it had been commissioned to attack
Speaker 1: French ships and colonies in the Caribbean. If you need
Speaker 1: a refresher on privateering, these were basically pirates, but pirate
Speaker 1: it's operating with government authority to do this piradical work.
Speaker 1: By May of sixteen ninety four, though the Charles the
Speaker 1: Second still had not left the coast of Europe and
Speaker 1: the crew had not been paid for any of their
Speaker 1: work so far. Naturally, the crew wasn't happy about this situation,
Speaker 1: and when the ship stopped for supplies at the Spanish
Speaker 1: port of La Carugna, every let a mutiny. Afterward, the
Speaker 1: remaining crew elected him their captain. Every renamed the Charles
Speaker 1: the second as the Fancy, which is often spelled with
Speaker 1: a pH and sometimes with an ie, and documents from
Speaker 1: the time they set a course for Madagascar, following a
Speaker 1: sailing route that was known as the Pirate Round, which
Speaker 1: was popular among English pirates starting in the sixteen nineties.
Speaker 1: Most pirates came into the Pirate Round from the Caribbean
Speaker 1: and headed southeast, so they were kind of joining in
Speaker 1: with it from the coast of Europe instead. Once it
Speaker 1: approached Africa, the route shifted south to pass the Cape
Speaker 1: of Good Hope, and then it took north again toward
Speaker 1: Madagascar before turning east to cross the Indian Ocean. The
Speaker 1: Fancy's first paradical encounter was with three English ships, which
Speaker 1: they caught near the Cape Verde Islands off the coast
Speaker 1: of West Africa. The Fancy continued down the African coast
Speaker 1: from there, capturing and plundering ships from France and Denmark.
Speaker 1: It was sixteen ninety five by the time Every and
Speaker 1: the Fancy reached Madagascar, and by then the Fancy had
Speaker 1: a crew of about one hundred and fifty men. A
Speaker 1: whole other collection of other mostly English pirates, were in
Speaker 1: the area. When they got there, they were looking for
Speaker 1: a fleet that was reported to be nearby. This fleet
Speaker 1: belonged to the Mughal Empire. Now the Mughal Empire ruled
Speaker 1: parts of the Indian subcontinent from the early sixteenth century
Speaker 1: into the mid eighteenth century. Sometimes the endpoint is marked
Speaker 1: a little later than that. By sixteen ninety five, its
Speaker 1: territory covered most of what's now India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan,
Speaker 1: and Nepal. The Mughal dynasty was wealthy, and its emperor
Speaker 1: in sixteen ninety five was arag Zeb, also known as
Speaker 1: Muhi al Din Muhammad or as Emperor Alamgir. It was
Speaker 1: during arg Zeb's reign that the Mughal Empire reached its
Speaker 1: peak in terms of size and power. Rang Zeb's rule
Speaker 1: of the empire and the role he played in its
Speaker 1: history is its own complicated story that we're not going
Speaker 1: to get into here, but in short, he had a
Speaker 1: reputation for ruthlessness and for religious persecution of non Muslims
Speaker 1: in the later part of his reign. The fleet that
Speaker 1: the pirates were looking for was a large one and
Speaker 1: included twenty five ships, and among them were merchant vessels
Speaker 1: and escort vessels. Several of the ships were carrying Muslim
Speaker 1: pilgrims who were returning from the haj and some of
Speaker 1: the ships in the fleet belonged to the Emperor himself.
Speaker 1: The fleet was far too large and powerful for any
Speaker 1: one pirate ship to take on the loan, which is
Speaker 1: why this collection of mostly English pirates was working together.
Speaker 1: One of the other parties involved was Thomas Two, who
Speaker 1: was from a prominent Newport, Rhode Island family. Two is
Speaker 1: often described as a pioneer of the pirate round, and
Speaker 1: like Henry every he had turned pirate after some time
Speaker 1: as a privateer. He had legitimately bought a share of
Speaker 1: a ship called the Amity in sixteen ninety one, and
Speaker 1: when it was tasked with taking a French factory in
Speaker 1: West Africa, he proposed to the crew that it would
Speaker 1: be a lot more profitable to turn to piracy than
Speaker 1: to attack a factory that had no booty to plunder.
Speaker 1: It was really that simple. He was like, you know what,
Speaker 1: this whole thing or we're supposed to be attacking this factory,
Speaker 1: it's not going to be it's not going to make
Speaker 1: so much money. We can make a lot more money.
Speaker 1: We attacked other ships instead. Let's stop working for the
Speaker 1: man was very much like and this hole, let's stop
Speaker 1: working for the man. Where this is going to come
Speaker 1: up later. It was one of the reasons that people
Speaker 1: had a lot of sympathy for pirates, not necessarily people
Speaker 1: being attacked by them, but other people had a lot
Speaker 1: of sympathy for pirates. So Two's turn to piracy did
Speaker 1: not stop officials from working with him, though when this
Speaker 1: raid on the Mughle fleet took place, he was sailing
Speaker 1: under a letter of mark from the governor of Bermuda.
Speaker 1: When the pirates finally spotted a ship from the Mughal fleet,
Speaker 1: they learned that the rest of the fleet was farther
Speaker 1: away than they had thought. The first ship they took
Speaker 1: turned out to be part of the rear guard, so
Speaker 1: the fastest pirate ships, which included every and the Fancy,
Speaker 1: raced ahead. Every encountered the Fath Mamamadi, which was part
Speaker 1: of the fleet's escort, and this ship surrendered after a
Speaker 1: brief firefight, and the Fancy came away with about fifty
Speaker 1: thousand British pounds worth of gold and silver. This didn't
Speaker 1: seem like that great of a haul once it was
Speaker 1: divided up among the fancy's entire crew, so every decided
Speaker 1: to keep going and to try to find a bigger
Speaker 1: prize among the rest of the fleet. He and two
Speaker 1: other pirate ships spotted the Ganji Sawai on September seventh.
Speaker 1: So you'll sometimes see the Ganja Zawi anglicized as the
Speaker 1: guns Way in documents from the time and also in
Speaker 1: uncharted four that historical I don't expect uncharted forur to
Speaker 1: be historically accurate, by the way, so when I make
Speaker 1: that joke, I'm not criticizing. No, it was the largest
Speaker 1: ship in the fleet. It was possibly the largest ship
Speaker 1: in the entire Mughal Empire, and it was owned by
Speaker 1: the emperor himself. The emperor also had at least one
Speaker 1: relative aboard. All those sources disagree about whether it was
Speaker 1: his daughter or his granddaughter. These were all relatives who
Speaker 1: were traveling back from Mecca. And we're going to talk
Speaker 1: about every's encounter with this ship. After we first paused
Speaker 1: for a little sponsor break. The Ganji Sawai was well
Speaker 1: crewed and well armed, with about four hundred riflemen and
Speaker 1: several cannons. It had more soldiers and armaments than the
Speaker 1: three pirate ships that were after it, possibly even more
Speaker 1: than the entire pirate fleet did before. Every and the
Speaker 1: fastest ships out distanced the rest of them, but every
Speaker 1: got lucky. The Fancy fired on the Ganji Sawai and
Speaker 1: at the very start of the destroyed its main mast.
Speaker 1: When the Ganji Sai tried to return fire, one of
Speaker 1: its artillery pieces exploded. The resulting fire and chaos gave
Speaker 1: the Fancy time to move in and board the Ganji Sawai,
Speaker 1: which was captured after some intense hand to hand combat.
Speaker 1: So just this would have been enough to draw the
Speaker 1: ire of Emperor arn Zeb and the rest of the
Speaker 1: Mughal Empire. But after taking the ship, the crew of
Speaker 1: the Fancy also brutalized the people on board. I cannot
Speaker 1: exaggerate this is horrifying. They stayed with the ship for
Speaker 1: about a week as they searched for as much plunder
Speaker 1: as they could possibly holloway. During that week, the pirates
Speaker 1: tortured the men aboard to try to get information about
Speaker 1: where their valuables were. They also assaulted and raped many
Speaker 1: of the women aboard. A British colonial agent for the
Speaker 1: Mughal Emperor reported that several women aboard the ship took
Speaker 1: their own lives rather than be raped. Once the crew
Speaker 1: of the Fancy finally left the Ganji Sai, they had
Speaker 1: taken on an immense hall of gold, silver and jewels.
Speaker 1: It had an estimated worth of three hundred twenty five
Speaker 1: thousand to six hundred thousand British pounds at the time,
Speaker 1: which would be well into the millions today. And then
Speaker 1: they followed the pirate round back to the Caribbean, where
Speaker 1: they headed for New Providence Island in the Bahamas, which
Speaker 1: is home to the Bahamian capital of Nassau. They'd heard
Speaker 1: from other pirates that its governor, Cadwalader Jones would be sympathetic.
Speaker 1: When they got to New Providence Island in March of
Speaker 1: sixteen ninety six, though Jones was no longer the governor.
Speaker 1: The new governor was Nicholas Trot, and like its predecessor,
Speaker 1: fortunately for these pirates, he was very willing to look
Speaker 1: the other way if the price was right. So every
Speaker 1: bribed Trot to make them welcome on the island, and
Speaker 1: otherwise they didn't really advertise who they were, or what
Speaker 1: they had done. They masqueraded as slave traders, and they
Speaker 1: traded the fancy for a load of ivory. Trot might
Speaker 1: have been a little less willing to deal with every
Speaker 1: if he had known what the pirates had done, or
Speaker 1: if he had any idea that he was now caught
Speaker 1: up in an international incident, but he almost certainly didn't.
Speaker 1: Word reached the Mughal Empire long before it reached Britain
Speaker 1: or any of its colonies. What had happened. The Ganji
Speaker 1: Sawai struggled into harbor at Surret without most of its
Speaker 1: cargo and several of its former passengers about a week
Speaker 1: after the pirate attack. So people in the empire were
Speaker 1: outraged when they learned Whatevery and the other pirates had done.
Speaker 1: Riots spread throughout the city of Surret. Many of these
Speaker 1: riots targeted the offices of the East India Company. There.
Speaker 1: A mob tried to break in and kill the forty
Speaker 1: or so EICE agents who were working inside, but the governor,
Speaker 1: It's Himad Khan, intervened and stopped them. Although the East
Speaker 1: India Company employees' lives were spared, Khan had them all arrested.
Speaker 1: He also arrested at least three captains from East India
Speaker 1: Company ships and all the other British subjects that he
Speaker 1: could find in Surret. It's possible that he thought that
Speaker 1: the attack on the Ganji Sawai was a conspiracy and
Speaker 1: that the EIC was somehow behind it. He would not
Speaker 1: be the only person to think this, which we will
Speaker 1: talk about him a little bit more in a bit so.
Speaker 1: From prison, the British captives wrote to Sir John Gehar.
Speaker 1: Gayor was a representative of the East India Company and
Speaker 1: the governor of Bombay, which is now known as Bumbai.
Speaker 1: Bombay was south of Surret and had been captured by
Speaker 1: Portugal in fifteen thirty four. It came under British control
Speaker 1: in sixteen sixty two when Charles the Second of England
Speaker 1: married Portuguese Princess Catherine of Braganza. The East India Company
Speaker 1: was renting it from the monarch and had built its
Speaker 1: Indian headquarters there. That came up in our tea episode
Speaker 1: as well it did. He could do a little Venn
Speaker 1: diagram of the overlapping stuff of this episode. In that one,
Speaker 1: Geyor wrote to the Lords of Trade saying that British
Speaker 1: subjects had been clapped in irons and were being imprisoned
Speaker 1: in rooms with boarded up windows. He also reported that
Speaker 1: one english Man had died of injuries he sustained in
Speaker 1: the initial melee. So it took a long time for
Speaker 1: messages to get anywhere at this point in history, and
Speaker 1: it would be months before Heyer's communication actually got to London.
Speaker 1: In the meantime, Emperor Auringzeb shut down four East India
Speaker 1: Company factories. He ordered an attack on Bombay. Now, if
Speaker 1: he had done this, an attack probably would have been
Speaker 1: disastrous for Bombay and for the East India Company as
Speaker 1: a whole. The IC and the Mughal Empire had been
Speaker 1: at war just a few years before, in a conflict
Speaker 1: known as Child's War, and during that time Bombay had
Speaker 1: been under siege and partly destroyed. Fortunately for the EIC,
Speaker 1: an official named Samuel Annesley was able to negotiate a ceasefire.
Speaker 1: But it was obvious that the Emperor would be more
Speaker 1: than happy to force the British completely out of India,
Speaker 1: which would have been catastrophic for British colonies and trading
Speaker 1: relationships in Asia and the Pacific. So Annesley made the
Speaker 1: Emperor several promises. He promised that Britain would compensate the
Speaker 1: Emperor for all his lost property, and that the East
Speaker 1: India Company would begin providing escorts for all Indian ships
Speaker 1: headed toward Mecca for the Hajj, and most importantly, he
Speaker 1: promised that Henry Every would be brought to justice. So
Speaker 1: this is enough for the Emperor to agree not to
Speaker 1: attack Bombay, but he also said that he would not
Speaker 1: allow trade with Britain by the Mughal Empire to resume
Speaker 1: until Every was captured, which is a serious economic situation.
Speaker 1: Extremely Sir John Gayer's letter detailing Henry Every's attack on
Speaker 1: the Mughal fleets, the riots, and the arrests of British
Speaker 1: subjects in surret finally reached London in December of sixteen
Speaker 1: ninety five. Other letters from Gayer, Annesley and others arrived
Speaker 1: even later in January and May of sixteen ninety six.
Speaker 1: By the time those last letters arrived, Every had already
Speaker 1: gotten to New Providence Island and unloaded the fancy. The
Speaker 1: Lords of Trade had also been succeeded by the Lord's
Speaker 1: Commissioners of Trade and Plantations, also known as the Board
Speaker 1: of Trade. They were faced with what to do about
Speaker 1: every in the situation with the Mughal Empire at their
Speaker 1: very first meeting in May of sixteen ninety six. So
Speaker 1: as Holly just said, this was a serious problem. It
Speaker 1: was more than just the fact that Henry every had
Speaker 1: attacked a ship belonging to the Mughal Emperor, or that
Speaker 1: he and his men had plundered the ship and brutalized
Speaker 1: its passengers and the crew. It was also that Emperor
Speaker 1: Aurangzeb was well convinced that England was a nation of pirates,
Speaker 1: and histories from the time reflect that belief. In the
Speaker 1: early eighteenth century, Persian historian Kafi Khan wrote that the
Speaker 1: East India Company's holdings in Bombay were insignificant and that
Speaker 1: quote the source of the remaining unstable income of the
Speaker 1: English is the plunder and capture of the ships going
Speaker 1: to the House of God at intervals of one to
Speaker 1: two years. They attacked these ships, not at the time
Speaker 1: when loaded with grains they proceed to Mecca and Jetta,
Speaker 1: but when they return bringing gold, silver, ibraheim and rials.
Speaker 1: And there was some truth to the Emperor's belief that
Speaker 1: England was a nation of pirates. Although the British Empire
Speaker 1: wasn't plundering the Mughal Empire's ships in an official capacity.
Speaker 1: A lot of the pirates that were plundering in the
Speaker 1: Caribbean and along the Pirate round were English and for
Speaker 1: the most part, those pirates left English ships alone. On
Speaker 1: top of that, multiple British colonial governors had made a
Speaker 1: habit of either tolerating pirates or actively working with them.
Speaker 1: So authorities in Britain needed to figure out not only
Speaker 1: how to repair their relationship with the Mughal Empire, but
Speaker 1: also how to send a signal to the rest of
Speaker 1: the world that the nation would not tolerate piracy. So
Speaker 1: and then all of this was tied together in the
Speaker 1: dire economic consequence of the Emperor not allowing the East
Speaker 1: India Company to operate in his territory anymore. So Britain
Speaker 1: couldn't do anything as dramatic as, for example, summarily executing
Speaker 1: people suspected of piracy. That probably would have satisfied some
Speaker 1: of the criticism, but that would also violate British law.
Speaker 1: So they started with a proclamation issued by the Lord
Speaker 1: Justices of England on July seventeenth, sixteen ninety six. This
Speaker 1: proclamation stated that they had received information that Henry every Quote,
Speaker 1: under English colors, acted as a common pirate and robber
Speaker 1: upon the high seas, and hath presumed under such colors
Speaker 1: to commit several acts of piracy upon the seas of
Speaker 1: India or Persia, which may occasion great damage to the
Speaker 1: merchants of England trading into these parts. That's the end
Speaker 1: of the quote. This proclamation went on to say that
Speaker 1: every had stolen the ship known as the Charles from
Speaker 1: the port in Spain, and the proclamation commanded admirals, captain's
Speaker 1: governors and the like to capture him, offering a reward
Speaker 1: of five hundred pounds. Another proclamation followed on August tenth,
Speaker 1: which included a lot of the same information and also
Speaker 1: said that every may now be going under the name
Speaker 1: Henry Bridgeman. The second proclamation named a number of other
Speaker 1: alleged pirates as well, and it said that the men
Speaker 1: may have left the Caribbean and come to Ireland. Yet
Speaker 1: another proclamation followed on August eighteenth, sixteen ninety six, this
Speaker 1: one from the monarch William the Third, also known as
Speaker 1: William of Orange. It was a proclamation quote for apprehending
Speaker 1: Henry every alias Bridgeman and sundry other pirates. It called
Speaker 1: Every and those sundry other pirates quote open and villainous transgressors,
Speaker 1: and it ordered essentially every sort of law enforcement and
Speaker 1: military in existence to seek out and apprehend them. The
Speaker 1: bounty offered for Every was still five hundred pounds sterling,
Speaker 1: and for the other pirates named it was fifty pounds.
Speaker 1: This proclamation also indemnified all royal subjects from any quote
Speaker 1: hazard of slaughter, mutilation, or other acts of violence that
Speaker 1: they might commit against Avery and his accomplices, and it
Speaker 1: advised to anyone sheltering or assisting any of the pirates
Speaker 1: was doing so upon their highest peril. These proclamations made
Speaker 1: it a point of naming colonial governors among the people
Speaker 1: compelled to seek out and capture Every, because although it
Speaker 1: was well known among pirates that a number of colonial
Speaker 1: governors could be bribed or would otherwise work with them,
Speaker 1: authorities in London were only starting to become fully aware
Speaker 1: of how extensive this problem was. The proclamations did, not, however,
Speaker 1: name Thomas tu As one of the wanted pirates. Apart
Speaker 1: from the amity being too slow to keep up with
Speaker 1: the ships, that assaulted the Ganji Sawai, meaning he was
Speaker 1: not involved with that. He had been shot and killed
Speaker 1: while trying to take a different ship in that same
Speaker 1: Mughal convoy. A handful of men from Every's crew were
Speaker 1: captured in Ireland, and even though every wasn't among them,
Speaker 1: this at least gave the Crown someone to put on trial.
Speaker 1: We're going to talk about that trial after we pause
Speaker 1: for a sponsor break. Henry Every's captured crew members were
Speaker 1: tried at the Central Criminal Court aka the Old Bailey
Speaker 1: in October of sixteen ninety six, and this trial was
Speaker 1: weird Number one. Even though it was being tried at
Speaker 1: the Old Bailey, which is the place that has come
Speaker 1: up before when we've been talking about criminal activity and
Speaker 1: written during this point, it wasn't being tried under English
Speaker 1: common law. It was being tried under the jurisdiction of
Speaker 1: the Admiralty and this is because common law didn't really
Speaker 1: cover nautical piracy. Number two. The reason they decided to
Speaker 1: hold a trial under the jurisdiction of the Admiralty at
Speaker 1: the Old Bailey rather than through the Admiralty Court was
Speaker 1: so that the British citizenry would have the same access
Speaker 1: to the proceedings as they would for any other criminal matter.
Speaker 1: Since part of the purpose was to send a message
Speaker 1: that the British Empire would not tolerate piracy, they needed
Speaker 1: public proceedings and public interest, not a closed door session
Speaker 1: of the Admiralty Court. They also needed the Mughal Emperor
Speaker 1: to hear all of the details of the conviction and
Speaker 1: execution of the pirates. Even with the Admiralty's involvement, though,
Speaker 1: everything was operating a lot like any other trial at
Speaker 1: the Old Bailey. The prosecutors were all legal professionals, but
Speaker 1: the defendants were all on their own in terms of representation.
Speaker 1: The trial opened on October nineteenth, and Henry Every was
Speaker 1: named in the indictment, even though he was still at large.
Speaker 1: Two witnesses, who were former members of Every's crew, provided
Speaker 1: extensive detail about the incident, but the questioning also went
Speaker 1: well beyond just what had happened with the Mughal fleet.
Speaker 1: This trial was an opportunity for authorities to learn more
Speaker 1: about the practice of piracy, and a lot of the
Speaker 1: testimony was more about that than about the Ganji Sawai.
Speaker 1: It was basically like they said, Okay, you know what
Speaker 1: would be great is if we could get a better
Speaker 1: handle on what all's going on with these pirates. So
Speaker 1: let's try to establish a whole narrative of the pirate
Speaker 1: situation rather than just investigating this one thing. So this
Speaker 1: testimony demonstrated unequivocally that the men on trial had all
Speaker 1: committed piracy. But when the jury returned a verdict they
Speaker 1: acquitted all of them. That didn't go how they were hoping. Nope,
Speaker 1: not at all. This was a problem and it was
Speaker 1: a complete shock to the various authorities involved. On top
Speaker 1: of failing to deliver a guilty verdict to try to
Speaker 1: satisfy the Mughal Emperor, the proceedings also publicly aired a
Speaker 1: lot of evidence that multiple British colonial governors were actively
Speaker 1: working with and harboring pirates. So this whole, carefully choreographed
Speaker 1: trial at the Old Bailey just something of a pr move.
Speaker 1: Had done the opposite of what it was supposed to do.
Speaker 1: It did not send the message that Britain wouldn't tolerate pirates.
Speaker 1: It created a public record that in fact they did.
Speaker 1: It was also a good example of how the people
Speaker 1: were responsible for this proceeding were pretty out of touch
Speaker 1: with the ordinary British citizenry. Basically, people really liked pirates.
Speaker 1: Some of this was because of privateers like Sir Francis
Speaker 1: Drake and Sir Henry Morgan, who had official and unofficial
Speaker 1: support of the Crown and their harassment and plundering of
Speaker 1: Spanish ships and colonies. Spain considered both of these men
Speaker 1: to be pirates, but in Britain both of them had
Speaker 1: been knighted, Drake by Queen Elizabeth the First and Morgan
Speaker 1: by King Charles the Second. In the public eye, they
Speaker 1: had set an example of pirates as noble patriots who
Speaker 1: only targeted Britain's enemies. But it wasn't just about people
Speaker 1: like Drake and Morgan. Henry Every himself had also become
Speaker 1: a folk hero. Not long after he commandeered the Charles
Speaker 1: the Second, someone had written a broadside ballad about it,
Speaker 1: first published by Theophilis Lewis in sixteen ninety four. The
Speaker 1: ballad was framed as something that every had written himself
Speaker 1: and then sent back to shore with one of the mutineers.
Speaker 1: That is certainly a fanciful fabrication, but the details in
Speaker 1: the ballad are close enough to the historical record that
Speaker 1: it's likely that whoever wrote the ballad heard about the
Speaker 1: mutiny from someone who was actually therease ballad was not obscure.
Speaker 1: Some of the wives of sailors aboard the Charles A
Speaker 1: Second had filed a complaint against James Holblin, the merchant
Speaker 1: who owned the ship. This was way back before it
Speaker 1: was turned into a pirate ship. They claimed that he
Speaker 1: was traitorously enslaving their husbands, and in the case that
Speaker 1: came up before the Privy Council on August sixteenth of
Speaker 1: sixteen ninety four, Hobland submitted a copy of this broadside
Speaker 1: ballad as part of the documents in his defense. Like
Speaker 1: this was not a thing nobody had ever heard of,
Speaker 1: people were singing the song a lot. It was also
Speaker 1: a pretty clear sign of how popular opinion viewed Henry Every.
Speaker 1: In a sixteen ninety four printing, it's titled a copy
Speaker 1: of Verses composed by Captain Henry Every Lately gone to
Speaker 1: sea to seek his fortune, And it starts, Come, all
Speaker 1: you brave boys whose courage is bold? Will you venture
Speaker 1: with me? I'll glut you with gold. Make haste unto Corona.
Speaker 1: A ship you will find that's called the Fancy Pleasure.
Speaker 1: Your mind Captain Evrey is in her and calls her
Speaker 1: his own. He will box her about boys before he
Speaker 1: is done. French, Spaniard and Portuguese. The heathen likewise, he
Speaker 1: has made a war with them until that he dies
Speaker 1: after ten more, versus of very high spirited promises of
Speaker 1: all the far off places that every plans to see
Speaker 1: and plunder if necessary. It ends quote, Now this is
Speaker 1: the course I intend for to steer my false hearted
Speaker 1: nation to you. I declare I have done thee no wrong.
Speaker 1: Thou must meet forgive. The sword shall maintain me as
Speaker 1: long as I live. So with all that in mind,
Speaker 1: in hindsight, it is not really all that surprising that
Speaker 1: the jury acquitted Every's crew members. They were pirates, and
Speaker 1: in the public eye, pirates were somewhere on a spectrum
Speaker 1: between folk hero and noble patriot. There's also some romanticism
Speaker 1: in the whole thing I have. The jury also was
Speaker 1: not particularly sympathetic to the Mughal Emperor, who was a
Speaker 1: Muslim foreigner on the other side of the world. So
Speaker 1: the Admiralty, the British East India Company, and the British
Speaker 1: government were all terrified that the Emperor was going to
Speaker 1: learn about the pirate's acquittal and that it would just
Speaker 1: confirm his suspicion that England was a nation of pirates.
Speaker 1: So they turned to Sir Charles Hedges, chief Justice of
Speaker 1: the High Court of the Admiralty, to arrange another trial
Speaker 1: on a second set of charges, this time relating to
Speaker 1: the mutiny aboard the Charles the Second rather than the
Speaker 1: attack on the Mughal fleet. This was great because he
Speaker 1: would allow them to try the men again, but it
Speaker 1: was not ideal because the Emperor definitely wasn't going to
Speaker 1: be satisfied with a conviction for mere mutiny, of which
Speaker 1: he was not the victim. So in this second trial,
Speaker 1: the prosecution, again in a very carefully choreographed proceeding, tried
Speaker 1: to establish the legal idea that mutiny was theft, and
Speaker 1: that theft on the high seas was piracy, so therefore
Speaker 1: mutiny was piracy, but that the men were being tried
Speaker 1: for me utiny, not piracy, so this was not an
Speaker 1: issue of double jeopardy. This was some mental gymnastics, and
Speaker 1: it's even reflected in the official court record from this
Speaker 1: second trial, which ends the summation of the previous trial
Speaker 1: with quote the jury, contrary to the expectation of the
Speaker 1: court brought in all prisoners not guilty, whereupon the session
Speaker 1: was adjourned to Saturday, the thirty first of October, and
Speaker 1: the prisoners were committed upon a new warrant for several
Speaker 1: other piracies. In the second trial, the prosecution talked to
Speaker 1: the jury a lot about how bad piracy was and
Speaker 1: how Britain looked to the rest of the world. In
Speaker 1: that moment. Chief Justice Hedges also described what would happen
Speaker 1: if the pirates were acquitted once again. Quote, the barbarous
Speaker 1: nations will reproach us as being a harbor, receptacle and
Speaker 1: a nest of pirates, and our friends will wonder to
Speaker 1: hear that the enemies of merchants and of mankind should
Speaker 1: find a sanctuary in this ancient place of trade. Nay,
Speaker 1: we ourselves cannot but confess that all kingdoms and countries
Speaker 1: who have suffered by English pirates, may, for want of redress,
Speaker 1: in the ordinary course, have the pretense of justice and
Speaker 1: the color of the laws of nations to justify their
Speaker 1: making reprisals upon our merchants wheresoever they shall meet them
Speaker 1: upon the seas. In case you missed it, the Chief
Speaker 1: Justice just called the Mughal Empire a barbarous nation in court,
Speaker 1: And even after this whole speech that was clearly designed
Speaker 1: to sway the jury, he went on to say that
Speaker 1: he was in fact not trying to sway the jury.
Speaker 1: So this time the jury convicted all of the men
Speaker 1: and they were all hanged on November fifteen, sixteen ninety six.
Speaker 1: And with that done, and with a lot of reparations paid,
Speaker 1: the Emperor of the Mughal Empire reluctantly allowed the East
Speaker 1: India Company to resume its activities in its territory. The
Speaker 1: proceedings of the trials were collected and printed at seven
Speaker 1: Stars of Luodgar, which was owned by one of London's
Speaker 1: largest printers and booksellers, the Everinghams. There are still copies
Speaker 1: of it in more than forty libraries. Although it was
Speaker 1: very widely distributed and widely read, it did not really
Speaker 1: shift public opinion on Henry every or in fact of
Speaker 1: pirates in general. Having this thing printed and widely distributed
Speaker 1: was part of the plan from the beginning. They were like, Okay,
Speaker 1: we're gonna have this trial. It's gonna be very public trial.
Speaker 1: They're going to totally condemn all of these pirates, and
Speaker 1: then we're going to print all of the stuff from
Speaker 1: the trial so that everyone can read it whenever they want.
Speaker 1: It didn't really go quite as planned. Instead of everybody
Speaker 1: deciding that Henry every was a terrible, notorious pirate that
Speaker 1: had brutalized a whole lot of people on a ship
Speaker 1: that he had rated, he continued to be the hero
Speaker 1: in a number of works of fiction. There was The
Speaker 1: Life and Adventures of Captain John Avery by a pseudonymous
Speaker 1: Captain Adrian von Brooke in seventeen oh nine. Seventeen thirteen
Speaker 1: saw the play The Successful Pirate, written by Charles Johnson
Speaker 1: and performed in London for several years. The King of Pirates,
Speaker 1: being an account of famous enterprises of Captain Avery, the
Speaker 1: mock King of Madagascar with his Rambles and Piracies, wherein
Speaker 1: all the sham accounts formerly published of him are Detected,
Speaker 1: was written in seventeen nineteen. It's often attributed to Daniel Dafoe.
Speaker 1: Snappy title. Avery is also unsurprisingly a prominent feature in
Speaker 1: a General History of Pirates, which came out in seventeen
Speaker 1: twenty four under the name Captain Charles Johnson, but is
Speaker 1: also often attributed to either Daniel Dafoe or Nathaniel Misst.
Speaker 1: This colossally popular book on pirates is cited in many
Speaker 1: biographies and histories, but it is definitely not an authoritative
Speaker 1: work of nonfiction. We talk a little bit more about
Speaker 1: it in our past episode on Anne Bonnie and Mary Reid.
Speaker 1: Henry Avery is the first pirate that's discussed in it,
Speaker 1: and that ballad that we talked about and read parts
Speaker 1: of earlier survived through oral folks singing for more than
Speaker 1: two hundred years. I mean there were print copies of
Speaker 1: it still. You can still find very old copies of
Speaker 1: that original broadside. But the way that people were passing
Speaker 1: it was by singing for two hundred years. In spite
Speaker 1: of an international manhunt, Henry Every was never seen again.
Speaker 1: No one knows exactly what happened to him. Most of
Speaker 1: these works of fiction contend that he married the Mughal
Speaker 1: emperor's daughter and established his own kingdom in Madagascar. It's
Speaker 1: more likely that he made his way back to England
Speaker 1: to try to hide himself from that international manhunt and
Speaker 1: died there in poverty. And Britain's very public announcements of
Speaker 1: a crackdown on piracy didn't have that much of an
Speaker 1: effect on piracy either. The Golden age of piracy, which
Speaker 1: this incident happened kind of in the middle of, continued
Speaker 1: on for more than thirty years, and this was also
Speaker 1: a temporary blip in the East India Company's activities in
Speaker 1: what's now India. The EIC went on to seize huge
Speaker 1: amounts of territory on the Indian sub continent, and it
Speaker 1: operated until eighteen seventy four. A bunch of those later
Speaker 1: events have come up in other podcasts on the show,
Speaker 1: most recently and are one about the East India Company
Speaker 1: stealing tea secrets from China to then grow the tea
Speaker 1: in India. Oh, East India Company. Yeah, in the middle
Speaker 1: of a lot of problems, a lot a lot of problems.
Speaker 1: When I started this whole thing with the idea of
Speaker 1: litt we'll do a pirate. We haven't talked about a
Speaker 1: pirate in a while. I was not expecting a weird,
Speaker 1: convoluted legal pr move to be in the third act
Speaker 1: of the show. Yeah, that's kind of the best part
Speaker 1: of the story. I mean, the whole It's tragic because
Speaker 1: I want to acknowledge that horrible things were done, but
Speaker 1: I love the idea that they cooked up this whole thing,
Speaker 1: not thinking for a minute that people would behave counter
Speaker 1: to how they anticipated. Right, Like, there was no plan
Speaker 1: be there. They were totally away. We're going to believe
Speaker 1: we're going to convict these pirates, and the cherry was
Speaker 1: going to be like you guys, thanks so much for
Speaker 1: joining us on this Saturday. Since this episode is out
Speaker 1: of the archive, if you heard an email address or
Speaker 1: a Facebook RL or something similar over the course of
Speaker 1: the show, that could be obsolete now. Our current email
Speaker 1: address is History Podcast at iHeartRadio dot com. You can
Speaker 1: find us all over social media at missed Indistory, and
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