Posts: 297 Location: Indiana
Thu 10 Sep, 2009 5:33 am
We tend to think of pirates as being scruffy ruffians on the fringes of society, but there were also
privateers, pillaging the merchant ships of the enemy, who were part of the nobility. One excellent example (who is very relevant to this website) is
George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland. He was famed for his exploits in the Carribean, wreaking havoc on Spanish shipping and briefly capturing the fort at San Juan, Puerto Rico. You can call him a privateer, buccaneer or pirate, but the man had class:
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He was appointed Queen's Champion after the retirement of Sir Henry Lee, and his
Greenwich armour survives today as one of the finest examples of English garniture in existence.
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The armour of a pirate!