Faithless Empires: Pirates, Renegadoes, and the English Nation

The English experience of piracy has usually been glorified as the proleptic wanderings of a future imperial power--piracy as the vanguard of the Empire. Under Elizabeth, England pursued a highly aggressive para-naval policy towards Spain; in the 1570s and 80s, piracy became England's belated answer to Spain's imperial expansion. Long before war became open in 1588, the Queen was giving her not-so-tacit approval to privateering expeditions that ostensibly sought new channels for English trade but in fact consisted mainly of attacks on Spanish colonies in the New World. 1 Glorified with the name of "privateers," Englishmen such as Francis Drake plundered Spanish colonies and enriched England's treasury. I would like to complicate this narrative of heroic exploits by analyzing how piracy proves a constant source of tension and embarrassment for the Jacobean state as it focuses on trade as a means to empire. As piracy grows uncontrollably, mimicking the English state in ruling the seas, it poses a challenge to the very powers who had authorized it.