Description: Privateering was legal whereas piracy was illegal. That much everyone knows. But what exactly was privateering? Answering this question turns out to depend not so much on the relationship between privateering and piracy as on the relationship between privateering and other forms of maritime raiding that had been considered legal long before the word 'privateering', or the practice it denoted, came into existence. This book clarifies all these relationships and explains how privateering emerged as a new legal category in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The subject is approached from a British perspective, in the light of developments elsewhere, including the movement towards a new understanding of the law regulating relations between nations.
Review Quotes: "...voor liefhebbers van de ontwikkeling van het maritiem recht (ofwel op het gebied van piraterij en kaapvaart, dan wel op het gebied van 'privaat' maritiem recht) is dit een absolute must read." - Gijs Dreijer, in: Tijdschrift voor Zeegeschiedenis 43/2 (2024), p. 83