In "Ports, Piracy, and Maritime War" Thomas K. Heebøll-Holm presents a study of maritime predation in English and French waters around the year 1300. Following Cicero, pirates have traditionally been cast as especially depraved robbers and the enemy of all, but Heebøll-Holm shows that piracy was often part of private wars between English, French, and Gascon ports and mariners, occupying a liminal space between crime and warfare. Furthermore he shows how piracy was an integral part of maritime commerce and how the adjudication of piracy followed the legal procedure of the march. Heebøll-Holm convincingly demonstrates how piracy influenced the policies of the English and the French kings and he contributes to our understanding of Anglo-French relations on the eve of the Hundred Years War.
Author(s): Thomas K. Heebøll-Holm
Series: Medieval Law and Its Practice, 15
Publisher: Brill
Year: 2013
Language: English
Pages: XVI+296
Preface ix
Abbreviations xiii
A Note on Currency x
1. Introduction 1
2. The Anatomy of Medieval Piracy 33
3. Ports and Wine 55
4. Guerra Maritima 83
5. The Laws of the Sea and the Principles of Reprisal 127
6. The Sea, The March and Sovereignty 161
7. Peace and Piracy Containment 191
8. Crime and Lack of Punishment? 229
9. Conclusion 245
Appendix 1: Chronology 249
Appendix 2: Maps 251
Appendix 3: The Seneschal Rostand de Soler's Report to Edward I on the Norman Depredations in Saintonge in 1293 259
Appendix 4: Answer of the Men of the Cinque Ports and Bayonne to Charges of Piracy during the Maritime War of 1292–93 269
Bibliography 277
Index 287
