Privateering as a language of international politics: English and French privateering against the Dutch Republic, 1655–1665

In the period 1655–1665, between the First and Second Anglo-Dutch Wars, French and English privateers with Swedish and Portuguese commissions preyed on the shipping of the Dutch Republic. In this article, it is proposed that this activity was employed by the English and French governments as a language of international politics. In their toleration and, on occasion, defence of the use of foreign letters of marque by their subjects against a nominally neutral state, Mazarin, Cromwell, Louis XIV and Charles II deliberately and flagrantly violated the conventions of international law or religion. Their purpose was to make clear to the States General and Grand Pensionary John de Witt their discontent with Dutch policy, diplomacy or trading practices. Temporary or permanent bans on the practice served to communicate a message of benevolence and friendship, or were aimed at creating détente. These signals, however, were generally misunderstood by the receiving party. Employing as their frame of reference for interpreting these messages their own republican traditions, their decentralised governmental structure and Grotius's writings on international maritime law, the Dutch authorities perceived English and French attitudes towards privateering with foreign commissions as symptomatic of monarchical arbitrariness and/or mercantilist jealousy. It was the absence of international consensus regarding the legal boundaries of privateering that encouraged its use as a language of international politics; at the same time, however, it also contributed to fundamental misunderstandings between the parties.