The Pirates Own Book:
Authentic Narratives of the Most Celebrated Sea Robbers

THE DANISH AND NORMAN PIRATES

The Saxons, a people
supposed to be derived from the Cimbri,
uniting the occupations of fishing and
piracy, commenced at an early period their
ravages in the German Ocean; and the shores
of Gaul and Britain were for ages open to
their depredations. About the middle of the
fifth century, the unwarlike Vortigern, then
king of Britain, embraced the fatal
resolution of requesting these hardy
warriors to deliver him from the harassing
inroads of the Picts and Scots; and the
expedition of Hengist and Horsa was the
consequence. Our mention of this memorable
epoch is not for its political importance,
great as that is, but for its effects on
piracy; for the success attending such
enterprises seems to have turned the whole
of the northern nations towards sea warfare.
The Danes, Norwegians, and Swedes, from
their superior knowledge of navigation, gave
into it most; and on whatever coast the
winds carried them, they made free with all
that came in their way. Canute the Fourth
endeavored in vain to repress these lawless
disorders among his subjects; but they felt
so galled by his restrictions, that they
assassinated him. On the king of Sweden
being taken by the Danes, permission was
given to such of his subjects as chose, to
arm themselves against the enemy, pillage
his possessions, and sell their prizes at
Ribnitz and Golnitz. This proved a fertile
nursery of pirates, who became so formidable
under the name of "Victalien Broders," that
several princes were obliged to arm against
them, and hang some of their chiefs.

Even
the females of the North caught the epidemic
spirit, and proudly betook themselves to the
dangers of sea-life. Saxo-Grammaticus
relates an interesting story of one of them.
Alwilda, the daughter of Synardus, a Gothic
king, to deliver herself from the violence
imposed on her inclination, by a marriage
with Alf, the son of Sygarus, king of
Denmark, embraced the life of a rover; and
attired as a man, she embarked in a vessel
of which the crew was composed of other
young women of tried courage, dressed in the
same manner. Among the first of her cruises,
she landed at a place where a company of
pirates were bewailing the loss of their
commander; and the strangers were so
captivated with the air and agreeable
manners of Alwilda, that they unanimously
chose her for their leader. By this
reinforcement she became so formidable, that
Prince Alf was despatched to engage her. She
sustained his attacks with great courage and
talent; but during a severe action in the
gulf of Finland, Alf boarded her vessel, and
having killed the greatest part of her crew,
seized the captain, namely herself; whom
nevertheless he knew not, because she had a
casque which covered her visage. The prince
was agreeably surprised, on removing the
helmet, to recognize his beloved Alwilda;
and it seems that his valor had now
recommended him to the fair princess, for he
persuaded her to accept his hand, married
her on board, and then led her to partake of
his wealth, and share his throne.

Charlemagne, though represented as naturally
generous and humane, had been induced, in
his extravagant zeal for the propagation of
those tenets which he had himself adopted,
to enforce them throughout Germany at the
point of the sword; and his murders and
decimations on that account disgrace
humanity. The more warlike of the Pagans
flying into Jutland, from whence the Saxons
had issued forth, were received with
kindness, and furnished with the means of
punishing their persecutor, by harassing his
coasts. The maritime towns of France were
especially ravaged by those pirates called "Normands,"
or men of the North; and it was owing to
their being joined by many malcontents, in
the provinces since called Normandy, that
that district acquired its name.
Charlemagne, roused by this effrontery,
besides fortifying the mouths of the great
rivers, determined on building himself a
fleet, which he did, consisting of 400 of
the largest galleys then known, some having
five or six benches of oars. His people
were, however, extremely ignorant of
maritime affairs, and in the progress of
having them taught, he was suddenly called
to the south, by the invasion of the
Saracens.

Awilda, the Female Pirate.

Another division of Normans, some years
afterwards, in the same spirit of
emigration, and thirsting, perhaps, to
avenge their injured ancestors, burst into
the provinces of France, which the
degeneracy of Charlemagne's posterity, and
the dissensions which prevailed there,
rendered an affair of no great difficulty.
Louis le Debonnaire had taken every means of
keeping on good terms with them; annually
persuading some to become Christians, and
then sending them home so loaded with
presents, that it was discovered they came
to be baptized over and over again, merely
for the sake of the gifts, as Du Chesne
tells us. But on the subsequent division of
the empire among the undutiful sons of
Louis, the pirates did not fail to take
advantage of the general confusion; braving
the sea almost every summer in their light
coracles, sailing up the Seine, the Somme,
or the Loire, and devastating the best parts
of France, almost without resistance. In
845, they went up to Paris, pillaged it, and
were on the point of attacking the royal
camp at St. Dennis; but receiving a large
sum of money from Charles the Bald, they
retreated from thence, and with the new
means thus supplied them, ravaged Bordeaux,
and were there joined by Pepin, king of
Aquitaine. A few years afterwards, they
returned in great numbers. Paris was again
sacked, and the magnificent abbey of St.
Germain des Prés burnt. In 861, Wailand, a
famous Norman pirate, returning from
England, took up his winter quarters on the
banks of the Loire, devastated the country
as high as Tourraine, shared the women and
girls among his crews, and even carried off
the male children, to be brought up in his
own profession. Charles the Bald, not having
the power to expel him, engaged the
freebooter, for 500 pounds of silver, to
dislodge his countrymen, who were harassing
the vicinity of Paris. In consequence of
this subsidy, Wailand, with a fleet of 260
sail, went up the Seine, and attacked the
Normans in the isle of Oiselle: after a long
and obstinate resistance, they were obliged
to capitulate; and having paid 6000 pounds
of gold and silver, by way of ransom, had
leave to join their victors. The riches thus
acquired rendered a predatory life so
popular, that the pirates were continually
increasing in number, so that under a
"sea-king" called Eric, they made a descent
in the Elbe and the Weser, pillaged Hamburg,
penetrated far into Germany, and after
gaining two battles, retreated with immense
booty. The pirates, thus reinforced on all
sides, long continued to devastate Germany,
France, and England; some penetrated into
Andalusia and Hetruria, where they destroyed
the flourishing town of Luni; whilst others,
descending the Dnieper, penetrated even into
Russia.

A Priest thrown from the Ramparts of
an Abbey.

Meanwhile the Danes had been making several
attempts to effect a lodgment in
England; and allured by its fertility, were
induced to try their fortune in various
expeditions, which were occasionally
completely successful, and at other times
most fatally disastrous. At length, after a
struggle of several years, their success was
so decided, that king Alfred was obliged for
a time to abandon his kingdom, as we all
know, to their ravages. They immediately
passed over to Ireland, and divided it into
three sovereignties; that of Dublin fell to
the share of Olauf; that of Waterford to
Sitrih; and that of Limerick to Yivar. These
arrangements dispersed the forces of the
enemy, and watching his opportunity, Alfred
issued from his retreat, fell on them like a
thunderbolt, and made a great carnage of
them. This prince, too wise to exterminate
the pirates after he had conquered them,
sent them to settle Northumberland, which
had been wasted by their countrymen, and by
this humane policy gained their attachment
and services. He then retook London,
embellished it, equipped fleets, restrained
the Danes in England, and prevented others
from landing. In the twelve years of peace
which followed his fifty-six battles, this
great man composed his body of laws; divided
England into counties, hundreds, and
tithings, and founded the University of
Oxford. But after Alfred's death, fresh
swarms of pirates visited the shores, among
the most formidable of whom were the Danes,
who spread desolation and misery along the
banks of the Thames, the Medway, the Severn,
the Tamar, and the Avon, for more than a
century, though repeatedly tempted to desist
by weighty bribes, raised by an oppressive
and humiliating tax called Danegelt,
from its object; and which, like most
others, were continued long after it had
answered its intent.

About the end of the 9th century, one of
the sons of Rognwald, count of the Orcades,
named Horolf, or Rollo, having infested the
coasts of Norway with piratical descents,
was at length defeated and banished by
Harold, king of Denmark. He fled for safety
to the Scandinavian island of Soderoe, where
finding many outlaws and discontented
fugitives, he addressed their passions, and
succeeded in placing himself at their head.
Instead of measuring his sword with his
sovereign again, he adopted the wiser policy
of imitating his countrymen, in making his
fortune by plundering the more opulent
places of southern Europe. The first attempt
of this powerful gang was upon England,
where, finding Alfred too powerful to be
coped with, he stood over to the mouth of
the Seine, and availed himself of the state
to which France was reduced. Horolf,
however, did not limit his ambition to the
acquisition of booty; he wished permanently
to enjoy some of the fine countries he was
ravaging, and after many treaties made and
broken, received the dutchy of Normandy from
the lands of Charles the Simple, as a fief,
together with Gisla, the daughter of the
French monarch, in marriage. Thus did a mere
pirate found the family which in a few years
gave sovereigns to England, Naples, and
Sicily, and spread the fame of their talents
and prowess throughout the world.

Nor was Europe open to the depredations
of the northern pirates only. Some Asiatic
moslems, having seized on Syria, immediately
invaded Africa, and their subsequent
conquests in Spain facilitated their
irruption into France, where they pillaged
the devoted country, with but few
substantial checks. Masters of all the
islands in the Mediterranean, their corsairs
insulted the coasts of Italy, and even
threatened the destruction of the Eastern
empire. While Alexis was occupied in a war
with Patzinaces, on the banks of the Danube,
Zachas, a Saracen pirate, scoured the
Archipelago, having, with the assistance of
an able Smyrniote, constructed a flotilla of
forty brigantines, and some light
fast-rowing boats, manned by adventurers
like himself. After taking several of the
surrounding islands, he established himself
sovereign of Smyrna, that place being about
the centre of his newly-acquired dominions.
Here his fortunes prospered for a time, and
Soliman, sultan of Nicea, son of the grand
Soliman, sought his alliance, and married
his daughter, about AD. 1093. But in the
following year, young Soliman being
persuaded that his father-in-law had an eye
to his possessions, with his own hand
stabbed Zachas to the heart. The success of
this freebooter shows that the Eastern
emperors could no longer protect, or even
assist, their islands.

Maritime pursuits had now revived, the
improvement of nautical science was
progressing rapidly, and the advantages of
predatory expeditions, especially when
assisted and masked by commerce, led people
of family and acquirements to embrace the
profession. The foremost of these were the
Venetians and Genoese, among whom the
private adventurers, stimulated by an
enterprising spirit, fitted out armaments,
and volunteered themselves into the service
of those nations who thought proper to
retain them; or they engaged in such schemes
of plunder as were likely to repay their
pains and expense. About the same time, the
Roxolani or Russians, became known in
history, making their debut in the character
of pirates, ravenous for booty, and hungry
for the pillage of Constantinople--a longing
which 900 years have not yet satisfied.
Pouring hundreds of boats down the
Borysthenes, the Russian marauders made four
desperate attempts to plunder the city of
the Caesars, in less than two centuries, and
appear only to have been repulsed by the
dreadful effects of the celebrated Greek
fire.

England, in the mean time, had little to
do with piracy; nor had she any thing worthy
the name of a navy; yet Coeur de Lion had
given maritime laws to Europe; her seamen,
in point of skill, were esteemed superior to
their contemporaries; and King John enacted
that those foreign ships which refused to
lower their flags to that of Britain should,
if taken, be deemed lawful prizes. Under
Henry III., though Hugh de Burgh, the
governor of Dover Castle, had defeated a
French fleet by casting lime into the eyes
of his antagonists, the naval force was
impaired to such a degree that the Normans
and Bretons were too powerful for the Cinque
Ports, and compelled them to seek relief
from the other ports of the kingdom. The
taste for depredation had become so general
and contagious, that privateers were now
allowed to be fitted out, which equipments
quickly degenerated to the most cruel of
pirates. Nay more: on the disputes which
took place between Henry and his Barons, in
1244, the Cinque Ports, who had shown much
indifference to the royal requisitions,
openly espoused the cause of the revolted
nobles; and, under the orders of Simon de
Montfort, burnt Portsmouth. From this,
forgetful of their motives for arming, they
proceeded to commit various acts of piracy,
and considering nothing but their private
interests, extended their violence not only
against the shipping of all countries
unfortunate enough to fall in their way, but
even to perpetrate the most unwarrantable
ravages on the property of their own
countrymen. Nor was this confined to the
Cinque Port vessels only; the example and
the profits were too stimulating to the
restless; and one daring association on the
coast of Lincolnshire seized the Isle of
Ely, and made it their receptacle for the
plunder of all the adjacent countries. One
William Marshall fortified the little island
of Lundy, in the mouth of the Severn, and
did so much mischief by his piracies, that
at length it became necessary to fit out a
squadron to reduce him, which was
accordingly done, and he was executed in
London; yet the example did not deter other
persons from similar practices. The
sovereign, however, did not possess
sufficient naval means to suppress the
enormities of the great predatory squadrons,
and their ravages continued to disgrace the
English name for upwards of twenty years,
when the valor and conciliation of the
gallant Prince Edward brought them to that
submission which his royal parent had failed
in procuring.

Those "harum-scarum" expeditions, the
Crusades, were perhaps influential in
checking piracy, although the rabble that
composed the majority of them had as little
principle as the worst of the freebooters.
From the time that Peter the Hermit set
Europe in a blaze, all ranks, and all
nations, streamed to the East, so that few
vessels were otherwise employed than in
conveying the motly groups who sought the
shores of Palestine; some from religious
zeal; some from frantic fanaticism; some
from desire of distinction; some for the
numberless privileges which the crusaders
acquired; and the rest and greater portion,
for the spoil and plunder of which they had
a prospect. The armaments, fitted in no
fewer than nine successive efforts, were
mostly equipped with such haste and
ignorance, and with so little choice, that
ruinous delays, shipwrecks, and final
discomfiture, were naturally to be expected.
Still, the effect of such incredible numbers
of people betaking themselves to foreign
countries, advanced civilization, although
vast means of forwarding its cause were
buried in the East; and those who assert
that no benefit actually resulted, cannot
deny that at least some evils were thereby
removed. Montesquieu says, that Europe then
required a general shock, to teach her, but
the sight of contrasts, the theorems of
public economy most conducive to happiness.
And it is evident, that notwithstanding
these follies wasted the population of
Europe, squandered its treasures, and
infected us with new vices and diseases,
still the crusades diminished the bondage of
the feudal system, by augmenting the power
of the King, and the strength of the
Commons; while they also occasioned a very
increased activity in commerce: thus taming
the ferocity of men's spirits, increasing
agriculture in value from the safety it
enjoyed, and establishing a base for
permanent prosperity.