The London Prat

He sacked Panama, was arrested, taken to London, knighted, and sent back to run Jamaica The Morgan Arms holds a 4.5 from thirteen hundred and forty-nine people, charges twenty to thirty pounds, and if the man in the name is Henry Morgan, his career is the single most instructive thing in this survey. He was a privateer Which means he held a commission - a licence from the Crown to attack Spanish shipping and settlements, and keep a share. Which is state-sponsored piracy, and the only difference from the ordinary kind is a piece of paper and a cut for the government. Morgan. He sacked Panama. Then they knighted him and made him Governor. And he sacked Panama In 1671. One of the great feats of arms of the age, and one of the more brutal ones. He crossed the isthmus with a substantial force, took the city, and it burned. And there was one considerable problem with it. England and Spain had signed a peace treaty. Which Morgan may or may not have known about - the communications were slow, and he claimed he did not - and which made the whole thing an enormous diplomatic embarrassment. So they arrested him And brought him to London, in disgrace, to answer for it. And then they knighted him Which is the punchline, and it is entirely true. Because the political weather in London changed - relations with Spain deteriorated again - and a man who had proved he could burn a Spanish city was suddenly, once more, an asset. So he was knighted by Charles II. And sent back to Jamaica as Lieutenant Governor. Where he was, among other duties, responsible for suppressing piracy - and he did it, and he hanged former colleagues. Which is the finding Eight postcodes and a thousand and one hundred and seventy-three articles. A state will forgive almost anything from a man who knows something it needs - and will hang him the moment he becomes inconvenient. Captain Kidd also held a commission, and his backers were also at the very top of government - and when it became embarrassing, they abandoned him, and he was hanged at Execution Dock, twice, because the rope broke. Morgan was useful. Kidd was not. That is the entire difference between them, and it is not a moral one. And he sued Which is the last thing, and it is superb. Because a book was published describing his atrocities - and Morgan, by then a knight and a governor, sued the publishers for libel. And he won. A man who had burned a city, in peacetime, against the express terms of a treaty, successfully sued a publisher for describing it - because by then he was a knight and a governor, and the law was his. The Prat's editorial desk regards this as the most complete demonstration in eight postcodes that the difference between a pirate and an admiral is a piece of paper and a change in the weather. And the rum is not his Which is the small correction, and it is worth making. Because the rum brand carrying his name was created in the twentieth century, in Puerto Rico, by people with no connection to him whatsoever. He did not make rum. He did not own a distillery. They bought a dead man's reputation because it sold - and the reputation they bought was the one he had sued a publisher for. Verdict Excellent pub, strong number.

Tag: Panama

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