Research Project

Concepts of Violence in a Plural Legal Order. Controversial Semantics of Maritime Predation in late medieval Northern Europe

From the later 15th century onwards, in Northern Europe violence and predation at sea were regularly estimated as either illicit “piracy” or authorized, licit “privateering”. But this differentiation only became prevalent with the emergence of early modern prize law. Before this normative change, the use of force by private persons or their employees in individual conflicts was not per se illicit. Competing princes and authorities claimed for territorial sovereignty over coastal areas and “streams”. In legal terms, the sea was thus a highly plural space.

Accordingly, in written sources violent actions as such were usually described neutrally. In order to denote violent actors, however, speakers used a varying set of concepts: “hulpere” (helpers), “denere” (servants), “utligger” (people lying in wait), “soldenere” (mercenaries), “zeerovere” (sea rovers), “vitalien brodere” (etymologically: purveyors), “likedeeler” (men who share equally). The Latin terms “pirate” or “piracy” were only introduced into the vernaculars very slowly at the end of the 15th century. By analysing the use of these terms in sources especially from the Hanse area, written in Latin, Low German, and other vernaculars, I want to describe the process of normative differentiation leading to the much simpler dichotomy of piracy and privateering.