ABSTRACT
When James I observed that piracy1 had become 'too deeply rooted among1 his English subjects he was at once both wiser and more foolish than he knew.2 From the time of Elizabeth I, the English had been perceived as a nation of pirates. This image persisted into the reign of James I, has been sustained in literature, and has now become fixed in the popular mind.3 The lives of famous English pirates and their exploits have been related many times, and their social and economic background analysed meticulously and well by academic historians.4
