# What countries recognized the privateer as legitimate? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 8, 2011, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-countries-recognized-the-privateer-as-legitimate/581185 "2011-05-08T19:54:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-countries-recognized-the-privateer-as-legitimate/581185/21 "2011-05-10T00:46:47Z")
> [@Simplicio](#): > > No. That’s the point of being a Privateer, if your captured by an enemy, your taken prisoner of war, as opposed to being hanged as was done to pirates. I thought the main advantage of being a privateer was that you had a safe port to go to where your actions wouldn’t be regarded as illegal. But there was no legal immunity anywhere else. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 9:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-countries-recognized-the-privateer-as-legitimate/581185/22 "2011-05-10T09:48:26Z")
From the responses I take it that most countries did not recognize the practice of being a privateer and just called you a pirate. Only a few larger countries seem to be on the list as using privateers for war and giving them special status if I go by what was presented here. ---
**Author:** ![Panurge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@Panurge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Panurge)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 10:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-countries-recognized-the-privateer-as-legitimate/581185/23 "2011-05-10T10:27:06Z")
Denmark used privateers in times of war, for instance against Sweden 1676-1677 and against UK in 1807-1814. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-countries-recognized-the-privateer-as-legitimate/581185/24 "2011-05-10T11:29:05Z")
Funnily enough I read just the other day about a Swedish woman who took over her husband’s privateering business after he died. ---
**Author:** ![Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a587f6/32.png) [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freddy_the_Pig)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-countries-recognized-the-privateer-as-legitimate/581185/25 "2011-05-10T13:39:50Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > From the responses I take it that most countries did not recognize the practice of being a privateer and just called you a pirate. Only a few larger countries seem to be on the list as using privateers for war and giving them special status if I go by what was presented here. Many countries _used_ privateers; the real issue is how various countries treated _other people’s_ privateers. The two don’t always correlate; as **Chronos** said upthread, there’s a tendency to view your own privateers as legitimate but other people’s privateers as pirates with a piece of paper. To tell you the truth, there doesn’t seem to be a lot of systematic research on this issue. There’s a lot of work out there about why countries _used_ privateers and why people _became_ privateers, but relatively little about how _captured_ privateers were treated. That’s why I say that generalization is difficult. It would make a good subject for a PhD dissertation. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-countries-recognized-the-privateer-as-legitimate/581185/26 "2011-05-10T14:02:49Z")
> [@Freddy\_the\_Pig](#): > > The two don’t always correlate; as **Chronos** said upthread, there’s a tendency to view your own privateers as legitimate but other people’s privateers as pirates with a piece of paper. One would think that would be like the bailing-out-of-airplane rule: You don’t shoot my pilots swinging from a parachute, and I won’t shoot yours. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [May 10, 2011, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-countries-recognized-the-privateer-as-legitimate/581185/27 "2011-05-10T14:35:27Z")
> [@Harmonious\_Discord](#): > > From the responses I take it that most countries did not recognize the practice of being a privateer and just called you a pirate. Only a few larger countries seem to be on the list as using privateers for war and giving them special status if I go by what was presented here. I think from the responses here, pretty much an country with a navy also had privateers. The only country not mentioned so far is Portugal. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 7:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-countries-recognized-the-privateer-as-legitimate/581185/28 "2011-05-11T07:15:32Z")
And I just went and Googled and got a bunch of hits on “bucanero portugués”… while most of them appear to be about soccer, there seems to be at least one [portuguese privateer](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bartolomeu_Portugu%C3%AAs) on record. It makes sense to me: after all, privateers were a naval version of militias - and like un-uniformed militia, they had the advantage that your Uniformed Gentlemen could call any which had been captured (i.e. failed) “rabble” and actually mean it. ---
**Author:** ![mac\_bolan00](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b3f665/32.png) [@mac\_bolan00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mac_bolan00)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 7:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-countries-recognized-the-privateer-as-legitimate/581185/29 "2011-05-11T07:40:01Z")
does this include mercenaries fighting proxy wars for world powers during the cold war? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 11:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-countries-recognized-the-privateer-as-legitimate/581185/30 "2011-05-11T11:27:24Z")
Don, is that you? ---
**Author:** ![Nametag](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nametag/32/406_2.png) [@Nametag](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nametag)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 12:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-countries-recognized-the-privateer-as-legitimate/581185/31 "2011-05-12T12:49:24Z")
> [@Floater](#): > > Funnily enough I read just the other day about a Swedish woman who took over her husband’s privateering business after he died. The Dread Pirate Robban? ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 3:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-countries-recognized-the-privateer-as-legitimate/581185/32 "2011-05-12T15:45:15Z")
I suspect ‘privateer’ covered a range of situations. At one extreme, the out and out thief/pirate in the pirate-infested Carribbean in the early 1600s who cut a deal (that might even have been upheld for a while) to leave British ships alone in return for not being hanged by the British if he was caught. I wouldn’t think it would end well for him if the Spanish caught him. At the other extreme, something like the fictional Jack “Master and Commander” Aubrey’s _Surprise_, which was at one point a now-privately-owned but former Royal Navy vessel, commanded by a Royal Navy officer (on some kind of quasi leave) and run as a military ship with military discipline, while operating in the North Atlantic of 1812, where out and out piracy was hardly rampant. I would think had Aubrey been captured at that point, he’d have been treated as a Royal Navy officer. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-countries-recognized-the-privateer-as-legitimate/581185/33 "2011-05-12T17:13:38Z")
Nitpick - when Jack Aubrey commanded the _Surprise_ as a Letter of Marque, he had been (spoiled for those who might read the books) dismissed from the Navy and struck from the Captains list. He had no legal connection to the RN whatsoever - in fact he was depressed to think that any wet-behind the ears lieutenant commanding a sloop could summon him aboard and demand his papers. Later he was reinstated, but then the _Surprise_ became a hired vessel of the RN. At that point, he no longer needed a Letter of Marque, and wasn’t a privateer - it was a valid naval warship again. ---
**Author:** ![Floater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/dc4da7/32.png) [@Floater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Floater)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-countries-recognized-the-privateer-as-legitimate/581185/34 "2011-05-13T09:26:07Z")
> [@Nametag](#): > > The Dread Pirate Robban? I give you [Ingela Gathenhielm](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingela_Gathenhielm). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-countries-recognized-the-privateer-as-legitimate/581185.md?page=1)