Michel de Granmont

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Michel de Granmont (also: Grammont, Grandmont , * around 1650; † probably April 1686) was a French pirate on a privateer in the Caribbean .

The early years of the Chevalier de Granmont's life are unclear. He allegedly had to leave Paris because of a dueling scandal in which he killed a royal officer and lover of his sister at the age of 14. He entered the Navy under a false name, was in command of a frigate at the age of 24 and made several voyages in the Caribbean . Then he left the navy and settled in Tortuga (1678).

He led four great raids by allied pirates against Maracaibo , Gibraltar , Trujillo and La Guaira (1678), Cumaná (1680), Veracruz (1683) and Campeche (1685). His first attempt against Maracaibo was a failure. The Spaniards got their property back in a bloody battle. But Granmont's reputation was still good because of personal bravery, and he was extremely cruel to prisoners. Together with the Dutch pirates Nicholas van Hoorn and Laurent de Graf, among others, he attacked Veracruz in 1683 , which at the time was the second strongest of all Spanish port cities in America. His people came into town with a ruse, looted it within 24 hours and disappeared before a strong Spanish army arrived. They took away 1,500 Spaniards who had not paid their ransom.

When Granmont was appointed governor of Santo Domingo by the French king , he left Tortuga to take up his post. His death is as unclear as his birth. He went on a search for newly stranded shipwrecks off Matanzas , was separated from the other ships in the storm even on Florida Street (1686) and did not arrive anywhere.

literature

  • Cruz Apestegui: Pirates in the Caribbean , Barcelona 2001
  • Heinz Neukirchen : Pirates, pirates on all seas , Berlin 1989

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Granmont, Michel de
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Grammont, Michel de
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French pirate and pirate driver
DATE OF BIRTH 17th century
DATE OF DEATH around 1686