Piratas, corsarios y malhechores: la violencia y la delincuencia marítimas en la europa atlántica (siglos XIII-XV)

Abstract

This article examines the development of conflict and crime based on legal violence (privateering and letters of marque) and criminal violence (piracy). This distinction was progressively established from the thirteenth century by the authorities, since the strategy to mitigate the dangers of violence at sea by means of truces, alliances and short-lived bilateral peace agreements ensued disjointed and ineffective. This article demonstrates that piracy, privateering and naval warfare were a mere legal distinction, arising from the new concept of royal sovereignty over the sea, which legitimized or criminalized maritime violence according to the interests of the rulers, which posed a serious and constant threat to maritime security in the seas of late medieval Atlantic Europe.