4 ms·
If it wasn’t for Uncharted on PlayStation, I’d probably never have learned about Sir Francis Drake’s piracy on behalf of Queen Elizabeth I. https://www.britann
by dade_ 5y ago
If it wasn’t for Uncharted on PlayStation, I’d probably never have learned about Sir Francis Drake’s piracy on behalf of Queen Elizabeth I. https://www.britannica.com/biography/Francis-Drake https://www.britannica.com/biography/Francis-Drake
He gave half the value to the Queen, which she used to pay off the country’s debt. The other half made him a very wealthy man.
I can’t wait for the movie this Friday!
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1464335/ https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1464335/
- tim333 5y agoI was going to say the royal family delegated their piracy thus. Also it gets called privateering rather than piracy if the monarch backs it.
- gerikson 5y agoPrivateering was legal, and generally only applied towards enemies of the country issuing letters of marque. Piracy was always illegal. Of course the difference wasn't always clear, especially as privateers generally favored attacking the enemy's commerce shipping rather than their warships. So it was seen as cowardly as well as profitable.
- Simon_O_Rourke 5y agoI doubt their many victims over the centuries were comforted by this legal subtlety.