“In 1706, my older brother, Rupert, fought at the Battle of Ramillies in the Spanish War, and he’s never been the same since. He saw more bloodshed there than any man should witness in his lifetime.”
— Nathaniel Bagshaw
The War of Spanish Succession was fought in Europe and the colonies between 1701 and 1714. The theatre of war in the Americas was known as Queen Anne’s War and involved a series of smaller wars fought by British colonists against the French and their native American allies.
In 1700 King Charles II, the last Spanish King of the House of Habsburg, died with no direct heir to take over the throne of Spain. Before he died, he had named his half sister’s grandson, the Duke of Anjou, Phillip of Bourbon, as his successor to the Spanish crown under the name Felipe V. Felipe was also in the line of succession to the French throne.…
What did pirates eat? Anything they could get their hands on. Although fresh produce was scarce on long sea voyages, pirates didn’t usually spend as long at sea as the average sailor on a naval ship or merchantman. They would normally sail out from their base to seize there pray and return with their booty, where they could purchase fresh provisions. When no friendly port was available, food could be obtained by foraging on one of the many islands or even from plundering. After the fall of the pirate nest Nassau in 1718 and with the increasing pressure on pirates from the Royal Navy, their bases no longer existed and the sea rovers probably had to go for longer periods without fresh food.
The Cornish duo Topgallant Jack are singers of shanties, sea songs and Cornish songs. Their aim is to entertain by singing and keeping alive songs from the past and by writing and performing new material too. They arrange some of the traditional tunes in a slightly different way, whilst retaining the original flavour and meaning of the song.
Founded in 2013, this pirate band from Neuss and Düsseldorf in Germany plays hard hitting metal with both male and female vocals intertwined with the unusual sounds of hurdy-gurdy, accordion, and flutes, but they are also know to play some acoustic tunes. Their songs tell about pirates and life at sea sometimes sprinkled with a hint of pirate humour. Although hailing from Germany, their lyrics are in English.