Anglo-Turkish piracy or theAnglo-Barbary piracy was the collaboration betweenBarbary pirates andEnglishpirates againstCatholic shipping during the 17th century.[1][2][3]
The Protestants and theMuslimTurks, more precisely theBarbary pirates, collaborated during that period against their common enemy,Catholic Europe.[2][4] This collaboration has to be seen in the context of thewars of religions and the ongoing mortal battle betweenProtestantism andCatholicism.[2] At that time,Spain,Portugal, andFrance, which were implementing anti-Protestant policies, were the target of this Anglo-Muslim collaboration.[2]Elizabethan Sea Dogs had been active againstSpain until 1603 when the new KingJames I ordered the termination of privateering while negotiations with Spain began. The now former English privateers were still inclined to continue the fight against the Spanish, although under the protection of a different state, to the embarrassment of theEnglish Crown.[4][5]
Piracy in the ranks of the Muslim pirates of Barbary was also a way to find employment, after KingJames I formally proclaimed an end to privateering in June 1603. Further, abandoning England as well as their faith was often a way to financial success, as fortunes could be made by attacking Catholic shipping.[6]
In August 1604, English Corsairs attempted to pillage the Spanish and Portuguese coasts with two ships, including afusta. Duringan action off Cadiz however, two Spanishgalleons commanded byAntonio de Oquendo took one ship and forced the other to flee.[7]
By 1610, the wealth of Englishrenegade pirates had become so famous as to become the object of plays, and the king offered royal pardon to those who wished to return.[6]
Not only the English corsairs participated to this collaboration, but also theDutch, who shared the same objectives.[2] Catholic ships were attacked and the crew and passengers taken toAlgiers, modern dayAlgeria, or other places of theBarbary Coast to be sold as slaves.[2] The number of these English pirates was significant.[4]Jack Ward,[4]Henry Mainwaring,[4]Robert Walsingham andPeter Easton were among such English pirates in the service of thedeys of the Barbary Coast. Some of the most famous Dutch pirates wereZymen Danseker,Salomo de Veenboer andJan Janszoon.[2] Some of them, such as Ward and Danseker, were renegades who had adoptedIslam.[2][4] Mainwaring attacked the Spanish preferentially, and claimed that he avoided English shipping, but generally ships of all nationalities seem to have been attacked.[4] Walsingham is known to have freed Turkish captives from Christiangalleys, and to have sold Christian captives on the North African slave market.[2] Janszoon led long-ranging raids such as theTurkish Abductions inIceland to sell his slaves on theBarbary Coast.[8]
A contemporary letter from an English writer complained:
"The infinity of goods, merchandise jewels and treasure taken by our English pirates daily from Christians and carried toAllarach,Algire andTunis to the great enriching of Mores and Turks and impoverishing of Christians"
— Contemporary letter sent from Portugal to England.[4]
Beyond the shared religious antagonism towards Catholicism, the Barbary States probably offered economic advantages as well as social mobility to Protestant pirates, as the Barbary States were a very cosmopolitan environment at that time.[9]
France, which hada tradition of alliance with the Ottoman Empire, placed a formal protest with theOttomanSultan Ahmed I in 1607, complaining that English and Dutch pirates were allowed to use North African harbors as bases to raid French shipping.[2] For France, it was a clear conspiracy against Catholicism, described at the time as "Turco-Calvinism".[2]
In order to curb these actions, Spain made a proclamation against piracy and privateering in 1615.[4]
England probably became ambivalent about this sort of piratical collaboration as it attacked Algiers in 1621 in order to free Christian captives there.[2] In 1629,Louis XIII attackedSalé to free 420 French captives.[9]Louis XIV also later bombardedAlgiers in retaliation.[9] Catholic religious orders, especially theTrinitarians and theLazarists underSaint Vincent de Paul, himself a former slave, accumulated donations to ransom and liberate Christian slaves.[9] It is estimated that the missionaries liberated 1,200 slaves until the death of Saint Vincent de Paul in 1660, for a total of 1,200,000livres.[9]
