Henry Morgan

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Henry Morgan

Henry Morgan (* around 1635 ; † August 25, 1688 in Port Royal ) was a Welsh privateer and from 1674 Lieutenant Governor of Jamaica .

Life

origin

Little is known about the exact origin of Morgan. He is said to have given the year 1635 as the year of his birth. His father was believed to be Robert Morgan , a tenant or landowner from Wales. A contemporary record narrows its origins to Great Britain . Most sources suggest a place of birth in Wales , with Llanrhymny , Glamorgan , Penkarne and Cardiff mentioned. Alexander Winston names Llanrhymni in Glamorganshire , Penkarne in Monmouthshire and Rymney near Tredegar in Monmouth as possible birthplaces . He limits the birth of the pirate to the period between December 21, 1634 and December 21, 1635. In his opinion, Robert Morgan of Llanrhymni or Thomas Morgan of Pencarn could be considered as father. In addition, unsubstantiated speculations were published that Henry Morgan's mother was German. The daughter of the mayor of Lippstadt, Anna Petronella von Polnitz , to whom those allegations refer, was not married to Robert Morgan, but to his brother Sir Edward Morgan . Neither of their children were named Henry. This information is genealogically verifiable. Thus von Polnitz was the wife of the likely uncle Henry Morgans. After the death of his uncle Edward, Henry Morgan married his daughter Mary Elizabeth Morgan, his first cousin. Although this marriage remained childless, he took care of the family of his late uncle Edward from then on.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 Thomas Morgan
* approx. 1580 (Glamorganshire, South Wales)
 
 Catherine Herbert
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Anna Petronella from Polnitz
 
 Sir Edward Morgan
* 1610 (Glamorganshire, South Wales)
† 1665 (England or Panama)
 
 William Morgan
 
 Robert Morgan
 
       ?      
 
 five more sisters
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 John Dorian Morgan
* 1648 (South Wales, England)
†? (Essex Co, VA)
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Henry Morgan
* 1635
† 1688 ( Port Royal )
 
 Mary Elizabeth Morgan
 
 
 

The best-known representations of Morgan come from the illustrations in the reports of the Dutch doctor and adventurer Alexandre Olivier Exquemelin , who had joined Morgan's troop for a while and published about them while he was still alive. The Dutch edition of Exquemelin's adventures names Morgan as "Johan" and shows him with an admiral's baton and relatively short, very curly hair. The later English edition of 1684 dispenses with the admiralty's staff and shows Morgan with hair falling well over his shoulders.

Deeds

The sack of Puerto del Príncipe

There are no reliable reports on how Morgan came to the Caribbean, but there are several conjectures: Possibly he traveled to the West Indies with Robert Venable's army, which Oliver Cromwell dispatched against the Spanish in 1654, or he worked for a cutlery company for three years. Forget the travel expenses. According to Richard Browne, a surgeon for the privateers in 1670, Morgan could either have traveled to the Caribbean as a private citizen or been kidnapped in Bristol and transported to Barbados, where he was sold as a servant, shortly after the English conquest of Jamaica (1655). Morgan successfully appealed against the last point, namely against the Dutch doctor Alexandre Olivier Exquemelin, who had accompanied his campaigns for a while and claimed that Morgan had worked off the costs of his crossing as a slave.

From 1665 Henry "Harry" Morgan took part in robbery operations by English privateers who proceeded from British Jamaica against Spanish ships and Spanish branches in the Caribbean . Smarter than his comrades, he did not squander his share of the booty in bars and with prostitutes , but saved what he had won with the risk of his life. Morgan soon had the funds and creditworthiness to conduct piracy ventures on its own.

In July 1668, around 500 privateers under Morgan's command attacked the Spanish city of Portobelo on the Caribbean side of the Isthmus of Panama . This undertaking was apparently legalized by a letter of captivity issued by the English governor of Jamaica , Sir Thomas Modyford , the provisions of which Morgan, however, interpreted generously in his favor. In Portobelo, the privateers captured the goods stored for transport to Europe, such as gold , silver , pearls, precious stones, precious woods, indigo and cocoa, as well as the personal wealth of the residents. Most of the booty, however, made up the ransom that Morgan had extorted from the Spanish authorities in Panama with the threat of burning Portobelo down in case of non-payment. In the same year he also attacked the city of Santa María del Puerto Príncipe in Cuba.

In the spring of 1669 almost 500 privateers under Morgan's command haunted the Spanish branches of Maracaibo and Gibraltar (both on Lake Maracaibo in present-day Venezuela). This time, too, the booty was considerable. On January 28, 1671, Morgan achieved the greatest coup of his career - as can often be read in popular science books: the conquest of Panama, at that time the largest and richest settlement in Spanish America. As the self-proclaimed "chief admiral of all buccaneer fleets and generalissimo of the united privateers of America" ​​he was able to raise around 1,800 men on 36 ships for this company. Under Morgan's leadership, after a grueling nine-day hike across the Isthmus of Panama , the pirates routed a hastily dug up and mixed up Spanish force and then occupied the city. A big fire that broke out on the same day, the cause of which could never be fully clarified and which the pirates were no longer able to extinguish, not only destroyed the city, but also a good part of the booty that would otherwise have fallen into the hands of the privateers . Since there was no longer any ransom to be extorted for the city based on the Portobelo model and the wealthy city dwellers in particular had been able to remove a considerable part of their belongings before the pirates approached, the loot for Morgan and his men was generally rather meager. Finally, the privateers even suspected Morgan of having cheated on them and of having stolen a large part of Panama's treasures for themselves, which is why Morgan secretly ran away after the Panama raid and the distribution of the booty.

Morgan, who was nevertheless a rich man through his raids, was arrested on his return to Jamaica and taken to England because the English king had meanwhile concluded a peace treaty with Spain and Morgan invaded one of the largest cities in Spanish America in the middle of peace and robbed. Since friends stood up for him, Morgan was pardoned again in 1674, as a Knight Bachelor ("Sir") raised to the nobility and even appointed lieutenant governor of Jamaica. In 1676 Morgan sailed with the Jamaica Merchant towards Port Royal, where the ship never arrived. Presumably due to a navigation error, the freighter sank on February 26 on a reef off the Île à Vache . Morgan survived the sinking and recovered most of the weapons and ammunition. With the guns of the Jamaica Merchant , he then equipped the coastal fortifications of Port Royal to protect the port city from pirates. At the post of Lieutenant Governor and later as "Custos of Port Royal" and "Judge of the High Court of Vice-Admiralty" Sir Henry Morgan made a name for himself as a relentless adversary of the pirates and had many of his former predators hunted down.

Henry Morgan, who had been a heavy drinker all his life , fell into this vice towards the end of his life. In the few clear moments he is said to have asked God for forgiveness for his atrocities. He returned the part of his booty which he had stolen from the churches in Panama and Maracaibo to the church in Port Royal. Morgan died on August 25, 1688 at Port Royal around 11 a.m. The cause of death is unclear. Tuberculosis , syphilis or liver failure as a result of excessive alcohol consumption seem possible .

Pirate Code

The so-called Articles of Agreement , also known as the “ Pirate Code ”, are generally attributed to Henry Morgan . These were written down by Alexandre Olivier Exquemelin , who presumably stayed with the privateers as a doctor: "You will receive 600 piastres or six slaves for the loss of a right arm, 500 piastres or five slaves for the loss of a left arm ..." ("Thus they order for the loss of a right arm six hundred pieces of eight, or six slaves; for the loss of a left arm five hundred pieces of eight, or five slaves ... "). For comparison, a cow could already be purchased for two piastres at that time. When hired, a pirate signed this code, which guaranteed him a democratic say in the choice of the captain and a fixed share of the booty.

Today the records known as the “Pirate Codex” are in the Archivo General de Indias in Seville .

Critical appraisal

It is certain that Morgan was worried about his reputation himself. After the appearance of Alexandre Olivier Exquemelin's reports, he took legal action against individual statements made therein. Contrary to the information given in the book, he was never a slave or was sold as such, won no money in gambling and thus did not equip a pirate ship. In addition, before his nautical career he was not a simple farm laborer, but came from the Welsh landed gentry. Furthermore, as reported in Exquemelin's reports, he never molested any particular prisoner business woman. Morgan successfully sued Exquemelin's English publisher for defamation - he was subsequently awarded £ 200.

Morgan has been described as the “inventor” of social security and is considered by some to be the one who “played a key role in the economic and military rise of the British Empire on behalf of the British crown, ” according to British historian Peter Earle in a Terra-X documentary [played]. “On the whole, the relationship with British authority can be described as divided. After the accolade by Charles II and his return to Jamaica, Morgan devoted himself to the pursuit of pirates. According to his own account, he subsequently "... executed all English and Spanish pirates whom I could get hold of, thrown into prison or handed over to the Spaniards." Nevertheless, the governor Vaughn, who was in charge of him, insisted on his dismissal as lieutenant governor for embezzlement and drunkenness. After his death the government in London considered a solemn burial at Westminster Abbey . However, after a devastating earthquake in Port Royal that also buried Morgan's grave, these plans were no longer pursued.

It is also certain that Morgan must have had charisma and was a gifted tactician. After the raids on Villahermosa and Grand Granada, he was also considered a feared military leader from 1665 at the latest. His attack on Portobello and the successful siege of the city in 1668 sparked enthusiasm in London. The company is considered one of the most successful military operations of the 17th century. With the raid on Panama in 1671, he ran the largest and last significant company among buccaneers in the Caribbean. In his endeavors, Morgan knew how to skillfully use the leeway that the Caribbean had, not least because of the long communication routes to the European mother countries. For example, he had looted Portobello, even though a peace treaty had existed between Great Britain and Spain for a few months. The protests of the Spanish ambassador in London had no consequences for Morgan. Here, as in other ventures, he used the self-serving political support of Thomas Modyford, the corrupt British governor of Jamaica, who in turn gave Morgan's actions a quasi-official fig leaf. Morgan's aptitude as a shrewd social tactician is underscored by the fact that Modyford's successor, Lord Vaughan, tried several times to have him deposed. Instead, Vaughan was recalled and Morgan temporarily fulfilled his function as governor, which he used to have Port Royal fortified in a sustainable manner.

Although his suitability as a leader is undisputed, some incidents cast an unfavorable light on Morgan's seafaring skills. During his activities there were several ship accidents. In preparation for a raid on Cartagena , in which Morgan had been given command of ten ships, a catastrophic accident occurred. In the explosion of its flagship, the Oxford , 200 men of its crew died in October 1668. The trigger was a spark that had ignited the powder magazine during a gun salute during a dissolute drinking party on board the Oxford . Morgan and other new survivors were fished out of the water. On his return from London in 1676, his ship, the Jamaica Merchant , was shipwrecked. Cannons that Morgan had brought to fortify Port Royal were lost with the ship.

Trivia

  • The Rumsorte Captain Morgan was named after Henry Morgan.
  • The character of Sir Mortimer from the clay-stones-shards radio play "Devil have you wind" is based on Henry Morgan.
  • The main character of the same name in the ABC series Forever is modeled on Henry Morgan.
  • In the episode "In the Caribbean" (S01E08) of the series Hooten & the Lady , the protagonists Alex and Hooten try to find Henry Morgan's buried barrel on a Caribbean island.

literature

  • Dudley Pope: Harry Morgan's Way - The Biography of Sir Henry Morgan (1635–1684) , 2001, House of Stratus ISBN 1-84232-482-9 .
  • John Steinbeck : A handful of gold . (Cup of gold. A life of Sir Henry Morgan, Buccaneer, with occasional reference to history.) German translation by Hans B. Wagenseil, Unabbreviated edition, 2nd edition, Munich, DTV 1990. 208 pages, ISBN 3-423 -10786-3 .
  • Rick Haupt: The pirate ship - the adventurous discovery of Oxford. With the assistance of Karsten Lohmeyer. Munich, Zurich, Piper 2006. ISBN 3-492-24625-7 .
  • Howard Marks : Señor Nice. 1995–2006 - From Wales to South America. 1st edition, Cologne, Edition Steffan 2006. 300 pages, ISBN 3-923838-54-9 .
  • Robert Bohn : The pirates. 3rd edition, Verlag CH Beck, Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-48027-0 .
  • Peter Earle: The Sack of Panama . London 1981.
  • Ernest Alexander Cruikshank: The life of Sir Henry Morgan, with an account of the English settlement of the island of Jamaica (1655–1688). Toronto, Ont. 1935.
  • Eugen Pfister: From buccaneers, flibustiers and pirates (1620–1726) in: Andreas Obenaus, Eugen Pfister and Birgit Tremml (eds.): Horrors of traders and rulers: Pirate communities in history . Mandelbaum, Vienna 2012, ISBN 978-3-85476-403-8 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Archive link ( Memento from September 17, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ The Buccaneers of America ( Memento of May 16, 2007 on the Internet Archive ) by John Esquemeling , Part II, Chapter IV, p. 84
  3. ^ Henry Morgan, 1635–1688 - A Welsh buccaneer and son of Monmouthshire. ( Memento dated August 20, 2011 on WebCite ) - John Weston, Data Wales, 1998
  4. ↑ Alexander Porter Winston: No Man Knows My Grave. Sir Henry Morgan, Captain William Kidd, Captain Woodes Rogers in the Great Age of Privateers and Pirates, 1665-1715. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1969, ISBN 0-395-08344-3 . (Reprinted under the title: No Purchase, No Pay. Morgan, Kidd and Woodes Rogers in the Great Age of Privateers and Pirates, 1665-1715 . London: Eyre & Spottiswoode, 1970)
  5. ↑ The True Curse of the Caribbean In: Galileo Spezial ( ProSieben ), October 15, 2006
  6. ↑ a b worldconnect.rootsweb.com , pedigree of Anna Petronella von Polnitz
  7. ↑ Sir Henry Morgan ( Memento of July 13, 2003 in the Internet Archive ) - A biography of Russ Campbell (English)
  8. ↑ a b A Morgan Family Reunion - Michael A. Morgan, July 27, 1999
  9. ↑ worldconnect.rootsweb.com , pedigree by Thomas Morgan
  10. ↑ worldconnect.rootsweb.com , Ancestry of Catherine Herbert
  11. ↑ worldconnect.rootsweb.com , pedigree of Sir Edward Morgan
  12. ↑ worldconnect.rootsweb.com , Pedigree of William Morgan
  13. ↑ worldconnect.rootsweb.com , Robert Morgan pedigree
  14. ↑ worldconnect.rootsweb.com , pedigrees of John Dorian Morgan
  15. ^ A b c Hans Leip : " Bordbuch des Satans. Geschichte der Piraterie, ", Moewig Verlag, Rastatt 1986, ISBN 3-8118-2349-3 pages 21-22
  16. ↑ Glenn Blalock: "Morgan, Sir Henry". American National Biography. Oxford University Press 2000.
  17. ↑ David Williams: "Morgan, Henry (1635? - 1688), Buccaneer". Dictionary of Welsh Biography. National Library of Wales 1959.
  18. ↑ Phillip Gosse: "The History of Piracy". [1932] Dover Publications Mineola, NY 2007.
  19. ^ John Exquemelin: "The Buccaneers of America: A True Account of the Most Remarkable Assaults Committed of Late Years Upon the Coasts of the West Indies by the Buccaneers of Jamaica and Tortuga". [1684]. Cambridge University Press: Cambridge 2010. ISBN 978-1-108-02481-5 .
  20. ↑ The Buccaneers of America ( Memento of May 9, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) by John Esquemeling , Part II, Chapter VI, p. 97
  21. ↑ See Earle (2007), pp. 74–78.
  22. ^ The Buccaneers of America ( Memento of May 9, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) by John Esquemeling , Part II, Chapter VII, p. 103
  23. ↑ The Buccaneers of America ( Memento of May 9, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) by John Esquemeling , Part III, Chapter IV, p. 139
  24. ↑ See Earle (2007), pp. 229–232.
  25. ^ ZDF expedition: Sir Henry Morgan - On behalf of his majesty
  26. ^ The Buccaneers of America ( July 6, 2007 memento on the Internet Archive ) by John Esquemeling , Part I, Chapter VII, p. 46
  27. ↑ Piratenleben ( Memento from December 27, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) - Olaf Voigt
  28. ^ " Blackbeard - The True Curse of the Caribbean" , ProSieben , October 13, 2006, presseportal.de ( Memento from October 15, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
  29. ↑ Documentary diving trip into the past –– Sir Henry Morgan - Pirate on behalf of his majesty , ZDF , September 14, 2004, accessed on May 25, 2020
  30. ↑ a b Andreas Kammler: "Pirates! The manual of unknown facts and most beautiful anecdotes," Edition marebuch, Fischer Taschenbuch Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2008, ISBN 978-3-596-17813-1 , pages 94-96
  31. ↑ a b c d David Cordingly: "Under black flag. Legend and reality of the pirate life" , Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 2001, ISBN 3-423-30817-6 , pages 51-58
personal data
SURNAME Morgan, Henry
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English pirate
DATE OF BIRTH around 1635
DATE OF DEATH August 25, 1688
Place of death Port Royal