A King Who Became a Pirate | Hacker News Reader

A King Who Became a Pirate

narratively.com

60 pointsapollinaire17 comments

I knew who this would be about as soon as I saw the title, mostly because I have an ancestor which his successors claimed was of minor nobility. Their claim rested on a court case in the mid 1500's where a purported letter of nobility for their ancestor was presented as evidence of their own nobility, and accepted by the court as genuine.

When I came across this claim, I got curious and wanted to see if it was possible to dig up official documents (it'd have no practical meaning for me other than a fun part of family history - all titles of nobility were rendered invalid in Norway 200 years ago).

It didn't take much digging to realize that there was a major problem with the claim: The supposed date King Erik III of Norway (the numbering is ambiguous - he had a different number in each of Norway (III), Sweden(XIII) and Denmark (VII)) would have supposedly signed this document is right in the middle of his period as a pirate, and so well after he was deposed.

Which means either the document was a forgery, or they somehow managed to get either the date or the name of the king wrong in the court documents. It'd be very fascinating to find some more scraps of information about how that went down, or even the purported letter of nobility, but I suspect I won't get anywhere further - no sign of more documents still existing.

I do lean towards my ancestors in question being forgers rather than nobility, though (frankly that almost makes the story more interesting than if the claim was true).

Or perhaps he did actually sign the document, at the date indicated, a pirate with a sideline as a diploma mill.

If he was still considering himself the legitimate king he'd surely not mind signing with that title, just like any other exiled government.

That would be quite amazing if it was possible to find such a document. I'd still want to know why the court accepted it, though... But I'd enjoy finding a rogue letter like that more than a "valid" one... Unfortunately I doubt we'll ever know.

The ending of the article isn't really true to history, he didn't return to Pomerania because he had given up and had nothing left to fight for, he returned to Pomerania because he inherited the duchy, and decided a life as duke was better than a life as king in exile.

While the ordering is unusual (hence the lovely title) the difference between pirate and king is often who wins.

And plenty of kings supported and were supported by pirates, perhaps most famously Elizabeth I

At the time the Öresund strait was Danish and not a border between Sweden and Denmark.

What is now the most southern part of Sweden was à resultat of the peace of 1658

Oh, better far to live and die under the brave black flag I fly

Than play a sanctimonious part with a pirate head and a pirate heart

In reader mode:

> The night of December 18, 2004, began as an ordinary evening for Blair Cobbs’s father, Eugene. At 33, the elder Cobbs was already a seasoned veteran of the drug trafficking trade.

wtf.

wow, that story is very interesting too!

I'm curious about when the transition from "vikings" to "pirates" occurred, for Scandinavians who travel in long boats robbing and pillaging.

according to stereotype the vikings came on land and took what they wanted, pirates rob ships at sea.

Pirates the world over have engaged in (sometimes large-scale) land operations throughout history. Henry Morgan led a force of about 1400 men overland to sack Panama, for example.

I believe I started off my text with according to stereotype, as he is remarked as becoming a pirate not a viking.

The short answer is "when the Scandinavians began to adopt Christianity." While for some time there wasn't a real issue squaring Christianity and going viking, it didn't last.