Peter Earle (1937–2024)

Brilliant, old-fashioned history about a fascinating King, the very last Stuart King who absconded and fled in the face of William of Orange’s silent invasion. A brave, stubborn and pious Catholic soldier, commander of the Royal Navy and a weak, ruthless King, who managed to make enemies everywhere with his naive and open Catholicism in a protestant nation that was slowly set on course to revive Rome under the diplomatic leadership of Charles II, brother to James. When Charles suddenly dies in 1685, James II takes over and despite having a lot going in his favour, manages to dither, vacillate and alienate and thus squander his rule to William III, who is married to his daughter. I read it in two days. Lots of interesting stuff about contemporary geopolitics and three Anglo-Dutch wars as key ingredients.… (altro)

Earle describes the events leading up to the destruction of the city of Panamá by Henry Morgan and his huge contingent of pirates -- er, privateers. Since these were large scale assaults on well defended fortresses and cities, the book reads more like a military history than a typical pirate book.

New to me was the Spanish side of this story, which the author includes at frequent intervals, citing sources from various archival court documents in Spain. One of the themes in this book is the nationalistic antagonism between the Spanish and English colonials, the latter of which were employed as pirates to harrass Spanish shipping throughout the Caribbean. I never really thought of pirates as having a patriotic streak, but the evidence in this book shows that their willingness to go to sea was driven by more than just a desire for plunder.

This is the story of pirates and some of their most brazen adventures. If that sounds like the kind of thing that would interest you, then you'll enjoy The Sack of Panamá as much as I did.… (altro)