henry morgan's daring borderline reckless raids became the stuff of legend and he
successfully plundered more than his fair share of booty in the west indies and best
of all he got away with it henry morgan did not die in battle and did not end up
on the end of a noose few other captains from his time had that privilege and none
of them did it quite like morgan who after his plundering days were done
became a nobleman and a politician reveling in the admiration and respect of his peers so was he a
pirate or was he a privateer the answer really depends on who you ask but there is no denying
that henry morgan has earned his spot as one of the most notorious men to sail the seven seas
henry morgan's early life is very obscure although most sources indicate that he was born circa 1635
in the welsh town of lien romney which today is a sub of cardiff we know little else about
his upbringing although a contemporary of the pirate named alexandre x milor claimed that
morgan came from a wealthy farming family but that he had no interest in that life which is why
he became a sailor equivalent will serve as one of our main sources for the life of henry morgan he's
quite distinctive in that regard not only was he a contemporary of the welsh pirates but he actually
served on morgan's ship and was an eyewitness to many of his exploits you'd think that that
would make him one of the most credible sources we've ever had on biographics but he was actually
sued for libel by henry morgan who claimed that he made up or exaggerated certain stories in his book
history of the buccaneers of america in order to make morgan appear more murderous and cruel well
if we're being technical morgan actually sued the publisher of the english translation of
the book but the point is that he won however the matter was settled out of court so whether
or not x-com allah's statements were true was never established with certainty we're going to
assume that most of what ex-cubanol said about henry morgan was true even if he did embellish
certain parts in this case morgan left his old life behind sometime during the mid-1650s and
traveled to an english port city from where he boarded a ship to barbados in the west
indies when he arrived there he was sold as an indentured servant for a period of three years
this is just one version of events another claimed that morgan simply joined a british navy ship to
fight in the anglo-spanish war either way he made his way to the west indies where
the better known chapter of his life began in 1655 the english tried to take the island of hispaniola
from the spanish they failed but they did manage to take jamaica with an assist from
the buccaneers we should mention at this point that although nowadays we use terms like pirate
privateer and buccaneer interchangeably back then they did mean slightly different things
and it's worth knowing the difference since henry morgan served as all three at various times we're
all familiar with pirates they had no loyalty to any government or king they operated outside of
the law and attacked whoever struck their fancy privateers on the other hand were basically state
licensed pirates they received something called a letter of mark from the admiralty or a governor
and this allowed them to raid certain ships which usually belonged to another nation that they were
currently at war with the privateer captain had to secure his ship and crew out of his own pocket
and he had to send a share of the spoils to his government but he was not breaking the law and
he had no fear of legal reprisals in fact some of history's most successful privateers such as
francis drake someone we've already covered here on biographics you can check out the video if
you haven't seen it were regarded as heroes back home finally we have buccaneers who were actually
a very specific subgroup of sailors who appeared in the caribbean sea during the early 17th century
they consisted of a lot of seamen who were forced to flee the pirate haven of tortuga when the
spanish took control of it in 1635. also included were social outcasts such as shipwreck survivors
mutineers and escaped slaves as well as native americans who settled in parts of the west indies
that the spanish didn't bother to colonize when other european nations such as england france or
the netherlands sailed in the caribbean they found most spanish ports closed to them and that these
people were the only ones willing to trade the english started calling them buccaneers from the
french word buccaneer itself derived from bukhar which is a wooden grill used to smoke meat and
make a jerky that they often used for trade it wasn't until the late 17th century that the
buccaneers became powerful enough that they earned the ire of other nations during the
1650s and 1660s however england was more than happy to trade with buccaneers and allow them
to use its port since they represented a cheap way of waging war with spain
once henry morgan was settled in the west indies around the mid-1650s he began his
career as a privateer although the exact details are a bit uncertain it's generally believed that
he sailed under christopher mungs an english naval officer who assembled a large fleet of buccaneers
and raided spanish merchant ships excumiore mentions that morgan and his comrades took part
in three or four such voyages before they raised enough money to buy their own ship around 1660
henry morgan who was still in his mid-20s was made captain of his first vessel he proved to
be a very good one too as he went marauding off the coast of campeche in the gulf of mexico and
captured several prizes there his success brought him to the attention of edward mansfeld a dutch
buccaneer who was one of the head honchos in the area and he was impressed with morgan's skill so
he asked the young captain to join his fleet even making him a vice admiral at the height of his
power mansfield allegedly commanded 15 ships with 500 men in 1664 he used this force to capture an
island named santa catalina from spain it's not very big but it had an easily fortified
harbor and the spanish had already built a fort there mansfeld intended to use it as a base of
operations as he waged war against spain but he did not get a chance as he died in 1666 supposedly
of a sudden illness the spanish then retook santa catalina and many buccaneers went their own ways
without mansfeld's leadership even so hundreds of others still remained and sailed under henry
morgan the second in command who was now in charge of his own fleet his actions at the time were in
illegal gray areas since technically the war between england and spain had ended in 1660 when
the house of stewart was restored to the monarchy and charles ii became the new king of england
scotland and ireland even so hostilities between the two maritime powers continued in the caribbean
enabled by the fact that privateers and buccaneers could act without much oversight from the english
crown henry was also helped by the fact that his uncle edward morgan served as the deputy
governor of jamaica and by the fact that the governor thomas martiford already tried to
curtail the activity of privateers but almost immediately had to reverse course because his
island's economy just depended on them too much of course spain wasn't just gonna sit idly by and
allow its ships to be constantly raided without retaliation by 1667 governor marty ford had
strong reasons to fear that the spanish might invade jamaica so he decided that a pre-emptive
strike would be in order he presented henry morgan with a letter of mark against spain
thus allowing him to attack in full force even though they were not at war at the time almost
immediately morgan exceeded his authority by raiding the town of puerto principa in cuba today
known as camogue his letter of mark only allowed him to attack spanish ships but towns made for
very alluring targets since they were often easier to plunder especially if caught off guard this is
the main reason why some scholars have dismissed the notion that henry morgan was a privateer
and simply label him a pirate since he often acted outside of his remit initially the captain wanted
to attack havana believing that a surprise attack would allow them to arrive in the city plunder it
and leave before the spanish had time to reach their positions inside the fort however he was
dissuaded from this course of action on the ground that havana was too heavily fortified and
even a large fleet such as his would sustain heavy casualties instead morgan settled on puerto
principe as an excuse for his actions he sent word to the governor that he found evidence of an
invasion against jamaica being organized there in reality at least according to ectomy there was a
man in morgan's crew who suggested puerto principe claiming that there was money there since savannah
merchants did a lot of business in that town and because it was some distance inland so there was
no fear of raiders so it wasn't heavily defended even though it made for an easy target the raid
on puerto principe didn't go very well first off there was a spanish prisoner aboard morgan's ship
who learned of their plan he managed to escape during the night and reached puerto principe
in time to warn the locals who then sent most of their riches away and then chopped down trees and
set up small ambushes on the road to slow down the raiding party inevitably though the fighting
started at which point the spanish villagers proved to be no match for the battle hardened
buccaneers the skirmishes lasted for about four hours ending in a decisive victory for morgan's
crew who suffered only a few casualties afterwards the locals were locked up in the churches while
the pirates plundered their town at this point according to exumior morgan starved and tortured
the townsfolk in order to get them to surrender their riches eventually he agreed to allow a few
of them to leave the town and travel to another city to secure a ransom for the release of his
prisoners but he soon discovered that he had been deceived instead of getting the money
the town's people were delaying him as long as possible as the governor of santiago was
sending an army to puerto principe left no other choice morgan carried what little plunder he had
aboard his ships and departed the town before the reinforcements arrived and if that was not bad
enough he also had to contend with a possible riot following an argument between an english and a
french privateer which resulted in the englishman killing the frenchman to show that he did not play
favorites morgan had the english sailor chained up and delivered him to stand trial in jamaica
where he was hanged even so the french were still unhappy sailing under henry morgan's command and
most of them around 200 men in all left his fleet soon after and went back to tortuga
the less than stellar attack on puerto principe did not diminish morgan's ambitions and he
chose as his next target the town of portobello located in modern-day panama this was a high-risk
reward situation as the settlement was heavily fortified but also sat on the principal trading
route between the spanish maine and spain meaning that it always had valuable cargo import in july
1668 morgan anchored his ships near portobello again he preferred a stealthy approach and this
time there was nobody to spoil his surprise attack his men boarded a few dozen canoes and
paddled at night in silence reaching portobello and starting their raid before dawn they caught
the locals unaware and even though the town had three castles few spanish soldiers actually had
time to reach their fortified positions allegedly morgan devised a particularly cruel strategy to
protect his men during their assault on the last castle by using spanish priests and nuns
as human shields this is all according to ex camillon who claimed that morgan gathered the
religious men and women of portobello and had them place ladders on the walls of the castle
and then climbed them ahead of his companies so that the enemy would not open fire something
which they did anyway this was the part in excamino's book that henry morgan objected
to and later successfully sued for libel he got it removed from the english translations of the
book but since the matter was settled out of court we still don't know for sure if morgan
actually ever used nuns as human shields either way his raid on portobello was a big success he
not only plundered the town for many riches but held it for ransom afterwards the spanish made
an attempt to retake portobello by force but the pirates repelled the attack and
then the local governor had no choice but to pay the ransom of a hundred thousand pesos or
have the entire town reduced to ashes everyone on morgan's crew left portobello a rich man receiving
a share worth several times their annual wages of course as captain henry morgan received a larger
share as did governor moddy ford for issuing the letter of mark there were some legal ramifications
since as we previously mentioned england and spain were not at war at the time ultimately though both
morgan and the governor got off with slaps on the wrist since realistically everyone back in
england still considered spain to be their enemy and realized that a new war was just never too
far away in the months that followed morgan was already preparing for his next raid but he had
a very close call when one of his ships exploded with him on board in 1668 he received some heavy
reinforcements in the form of hms oxford or warship that governor moriford obtained from
the royal navy to help defend jamaica the governor added its morgan's fleet who then promptly made
it his new flagship however he did not get to enjoy it for long because in january 1669
an errant spark from a pig roast went into the oxford's powder magazine blowing up the ship
morgan was one of the lucky ones because he was situated at the far end of the ship he was in his
cabin eating and drinking with the captains of his fleet the explosion simply propelled him out of
the window and onto the water but 350 of his men were not so fortunate and perished in the blast
clearly with almost half his crew dead morgan needed to reassess the situation initially he
wanted to attack cartagena to india's one of the biggest port cities on the spanish main
located today in colombia but now that was off the table instead he decided to repeat
the rating route that french pirate francois olyny did two years earlier in lake maracaibo
a tidal bay in modern-day venezuela this involved two main targets the city of maracaibo itself and
the town of gibraltar not to be confused with gibraltar in the iberian peninsula first came
maracaibo which did not prove to be difficult since it had been mostly abandoned the privateers
spent a few weeks in the city time during which they took everything of value that was left behind
they also scoured the nearby jungles knowing that some of the locals would not have traveled
very far they were then brought back to maracaibo where they were tortured to reveal the locations
where they hid their valuables afterwards morgan sailed across lake maracaibo to gibraltar where
he encountered heavier resistance but nothing that posed a serious threat he spent a few more weeks
there but when he wanted to leave he discovered that he had been trapped three spanish warships
under the command of don alonso del campo espanosa waited for him at the mouth of the lake there was
no getting around them without a fight but what morgan did next cemented his place in nautical
history the spanish captain actually sent him a letter offering him clemency provided that he
give up all of his plunder and prisoners morgan brought this option to his men who immediately
turned it down preferring to fight and die then give up their booty but morgan had a better idea
using subterfuge to defeat his enemy he sacrificed one of his vessels and turned it into a fire ship
a ship stuffed with explosives that was deliberately steered into the enemy formation
and abandoned by its crew he also filled the deck of the ship with giant wooden logs which
were dressed in coats and hats to disguise them as a regular crew the plan worked on april 30th 1669
the pirates launched their attack the spanish did not spot the deception until it was too late and
the fire ship plowed straight into espinosa's flagship the magdalena which was destroyed but
that was not the end as one of the remaining two warships was run aground in the chaos while
the other one was taken over by the buccaneers and added to morgan's fleet and so henry morgan
sailed out of lake maracaibo and into legend as one of the most daring pirates in history
understandably the spanish were none too pleased with morgan's actions so under orders from queen
regent maria anna their privateers wrapped up their raids on english merchant ships in the
region in response modefoot commissioned morgan to commit his most ambitious attack yet an assault on
the city of panama one of the main settlements on the spanish mainland this was a multi-part plan
since panama wasn't the kind of place they could just stroll into first morgan re took the island
of santa catalina from the spanish he used it as a headquarters where he gathered men and supplies
and discussed the details of his scheme with his captains estimates of the size of his army
are all over the place but most agree that it was around 1 800 to 2 000 men from santa catalina the
pirates left for panama approaching by sailing up the shangra river this also meant capturing fort
san lorenzo which overlooked the mouth of the river since morgan did not want to be trapped
again when it was time to leave this was easier said than done there was the fort at a garrison
of over 300 men and 20 cannons morgan lost around 100 men in the fight and 17 more were wounded but
the tide turned in his favor when a musket shot caused the powder magazine to blow up once the
port was under his command morgan left around 500 men behind and took the remaining 1 200 through
the panamanian jungle in january 1671. this trek lasted for nine days the spanish knew of their
impending arrival and had employed scorched earth tactics burning down the villages and the crops
that stood between the pirates in panama when the buccaneers arrived within sight of the city they
were hungry tired and demoralized on top of this the spanish greatly outnumbered them and they had
two squadrons of cavalry they were expecting an easy victory against a ragtag band of pirates led
by the son of a welsh farmer but they got exactly the opposite the cavalry was taken care of when
morgan fained a retreat by sending part of his army to one flank tricking the horsemen
into pursuing them straight into the line of fire of his remaining forces once the cavalry was out
of the way the buccaneers charged into the city which had almost no fortification so the fighting
was done in the open the spanish infantry although greater in number proved no match for the pirates
and it mainly consisted of locals and slaves none of whom were experienced in battle morgan
had taken panama which was pillaged and burned to the ground over the following weeks it was never
rebuilt and today the ruins of old panama are a unesco world heritage site while the current
panama city was built a few miles to the west but whether or not henry morgan was actually
responsible for its obliteration is still a matter of debate as some sources claimed that it was the
spanish general who ordered its destruction as he would rather see it burn and fall into enemy hands
the mission had been a success but the spoils were surprisingly meager mainly this was because
the plunder had to be shared among so many men but excavator did accuse morgan of sneaking the
lion's share of the riches onto his ship either way when the welsh captain arrived in jamaica he
expected a hero's welcome but what he got instead was an international incident in july of 1670
england and spain had signed the treaty of madrid specifically intended to finally settle their
disputes in america spain agreed to recognize jamaica as belonging to england and in return
england had to end all private curing against spanish ships the fact that morgan burned to the
ground one of the biggest cities on the spanish mains so soon after the treaty was signed what we
would today call a diplomatic faux pas both morgan and governor modified were arrested and sent to
london to stand trial in an attempt to appease spain henry morgan would have been in serious
trouble if he was convicted of piracy fortunately for him public opinion was firmly on his side as
many considered him a hero and a skilled military commander he also had a pretty solid defense
arguing that he did not know about the treaty when he set off for panama whether or not this was true
well who knows but it was good enough to get him off the hook in fact king charles ii even knighted
him making him a baronet in 1674 and appointing him the new lieutenant governor of jamaica the
now sir henry morgan returned to his old stomping grounds in jamaica where he spent the rest of his
life involved in local politics and the defense of the colony he became a rich man who owned several
plantations and had over a hundred slaves he also became a heavy drinker particularly fond
of the local rum which he enjoyed while swapping old war stories with other former privateers and
buccaneers he died august 25 1688 age 53 possibly due to tuberculosis or possibly due to his
drinking just four years later a giant earthquake and tsunami hit port royal jamaica causing part of
the city to slip into the water quite fittingly this included henry morgan's grave which became
lost at sea forever so i really hope you found that video interesting if you did please do
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