Editing Piracy (section)

====Middle Ages====

[[File:Viking invasion (Pierpont Morgan Library MS M.736, folio 9v) crop.jpg|thumb|right|A fleet of [[Vikings]], painted mid-12th century]]
The most widely recognized and far-reaching pirates in medieval Europe were the [[Vikings]],<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Golden Age of Piracy|url=https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/golden-age-piracy|access-date=2021-10-13|website=Royal Museums Greenwich |language=en|archive-date=October 27, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211027024113/https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/topics/golden-age-piracy|url-status=live}}</ref> seaborne warriors from [[Scandinavia]] who raided and looted mainly between the 8th and 12th centuries, during the [[Viking Age]] in the [[Early Middle Ages]]. They raided the coasts, rivers and inland cities of all Western Europe as far as [[Seville]], which was attacked by the Norse in 844. Vikings also attacked the coasts of North Africa and Italy and plundered all the coasts of the [[Baltic Sea]]. Some Vikings ascended the rivers of Eastern Europe as far as the Black Sea and Persia.

In the Late Middle Ages, the [[Frisians|Frisian]] pirates known as [[Arumer Zwarte Hoop]] led by [[Pier Gerlofs Donia]] and [[Wijerd Jelckama]], fought against the troops of the [[Holy Roman Emperor]] [[Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor|Charles V]] with some success.

Toward the end of the 9th century, Moorish pirate havens were established along the coast of southern France and northern Italy.<ref>{{cite web |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20010622192246/http://www.geocities.com/athens/troy/4040/pirates.htm |archive-date=Jun 22, 2001 |title=The Pirates of St. Tropez |url=http://www.geocities.com/athens/troy/4040/pirates.htm |first1=Robert W. Jr. |last1=Lebling |website=The Empty Quarter }}</ref> In 846 Moor raiders [[Arab raid against Rome|sacked]] the ''extra muros'' Basilicas of [[Old saint peter's basilica|Saint Peter]] and [[Saint Paul Outside the Walls|Saint Paul]] in Rome. In 911, the bishop of [[Narbonne]] was unable to return to France from Rome because the Moors from [[Fraxinet]] controlled all the passes in the [[Alps]]. Moor pirates operated out of the [[Balearic Islands]] in the 10th century. From 824 to 961 [[Arab]] pirates in the [[Emirate of Crete]] raided the entire Mediterranean. In the 14th century, raids by Moor pirates forced the Venetian Duke of Crete to ask [[Republic of Venice|Venice]] to keep its fleet on constant guard.{{citation needed|date=November 2015}}

After the [[Slavs|Slavic]] invasions of the former [[Roman province of Dalmatia]] in the 5th and 6th centuries, a tribe called the [[Narentines]] revived the old Illyrian piratical habits and often raided the Adriatic Sea starting in the 7th century. Their raids in the Adriatic increased rapidly, until the whole Sea was no longer safe for travel.

The Narentines took more liberties in their raiding quests while the Venetian Navy was abroad, as when it was campaigning in Sicilian waters in 827–882. As soon as the Venetian fleet would return to the Adriatic, the Narentines momentarily outcast their habits again, even signing a Treaty in Venice and baptising their Slavic pagan leader into Christianity. In 834 or 835 they broke the treaty and again they raided Venetian traders returning from Benevento. All of Venice's military attempts to punish them in 839 and 840 utterly failed.

Later, they raided the Venetians more often, together with the [[Arabs]]. In 846, the Narentines broke through to Venice itself and raided its lagoon city of [[Caorle]]. This caused a Byzantine military action against them that brought Christianity to them. After the [[Caliphate|Arab]] raids on the [[Adriatic coast]] circa 872 and the retreat of the Imperial Navy, the Narentines continued their raids of Venetian waters, causing new conflicts with the Italians in 887–888. The Venetians futilely continued to fight them throughout the 10th and 11th centuries.

[[Domagoj of Croatia|Domagoj]] was accused of attacking a ship which was bringing home the papal legates who had participated in [[Fourth Council of Constantinople (Roman Catholic)|the Eighth Catholic Ecumenical Council]], after which [[Pope John VIII]] addresses to Domagoj with request that his pirates stop attacking Christians at sea.<ref>Vedran Duančić; (2008) ''Hrvatska između Bizanta i Franačke'' (in Croatian) p. 17; [https://hrcak.srce.hr/index.php?show=clanak&id_clanak_jezik=82757] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201113054932/https://hrcak.srce.hr/index.php?show=clanak&id_clanak_jezik=82757|date=November 13, 2020}}</ref><ref>Maddalena Betti; (2013) ''The Making of Christian Moravia (858–882): Papal Power and Political Reality'' p. 129; Brill Academic Publishers, {{ISBN|900421187X}}</ref>

[[File:Vitalienbrueder.jpg|thumb|upright=1.15|The Vitalienbrüder. Piracy became endemic in the [[Baltic Sea]] in the [[Middle Ages]] because of the [[Victual Brothers]].]]
In 937, Irish pirates sided with the Scots, Vikings, [[Picts]], and Welsh in their invasion of England. [[Athelstan]] drove them back.

The [[Baltic Slavic piracy|Slavic piracy]] in the Baltic Sea ended with the [[Siege of Arkona|Danish conquest]] of the [[Rani (Slavic tribe)|Rani]] stronghold of [[Cape Arkona|Arkona]] in 1168. In the 12th century the coasts of western Scandinavia were plundered by [[Curonians]] and [[Oeselians]] from the eastern coast of the Baltic Sea. In the 13th and 14th century, pirates threatened the [[Hanseatic]] routes and nearly brought sea trade to the brink of extinction. The [[Victual Brothers]] of [[Gotland]] were a companionship of privateers who later turned to piracy as the [[Likedeelers]]. They were especially noted for their leaders [[Klaus Störtebeker]] and [[Gödeke Michels]]. Until about 1440, maritime trade in both the [[North Sea]], the Baltic Sea and the [[Gulf of Bothnia]] was seriously in danger of attack by the pirates.

H. Thomas Milhorn mentions a certain Englishman named William Maurice, convicted of piracy in 1241, as the first person known to have been [[hanged, drawn and quartered]],<ref>H Thomas Milhorn, ''Crime: Computer Viruses to Twin Towers'', Universal Publishers, 2004. {{ISBN|1-58112-489-9}}.</ref> which would indicate that the then-ruling King [[Henry III of England|Henry III]] took an especially severe view of this crime.

The [[ushkuiniks]] were [[Novgorod]]ian pirates who looted the cities on the [[Volga]] and [[Kama]] Rivers in the 14th century.

[[File:Cotes de la Mer Noire. Cosaques d'Azof abordant un corsaire Turc. (1847).jpg|thumb|"Cossacks of Azov fighting a Turk ship" by [[Grigory Gagarin]]]]
As early as [[Byzantine]] times, the [[Maniots]] (one of Greece's toughest populations) were known as pirates. The Maniots considered piracy as a legitimate response to the fact that their land was poor and it became their main source of income. The main victims of Maniot pirates were the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottomans]] but the Maniots also targeted ships of European countries.

[[Zaporizhian Sich]] was a pirate republic in Europe from the 16th through to the 18th century. Situated in [[Cossack]] territory in the remote [[Eurasian Steppe|steppe]] of Eastern Europe, it was populated with Ukrainian peasants that had run away from their feudal masters, outlaws, destitute gentry, run-away slaves from Turkish [[galleys]], etc. The remoteness of the place and the rapids at the [[Dnieper]] river effectively guarded the place from invasions of vengeful powers.

The main target of the inhabitants of the Zaporizhian Sich who called themselves "Cossacks", were rich settlements at the Black Sea shores of Ottoman Empire and [[Crimean Khanate]].{{citation needed|date=November 2015}} By 1615 and 1625, [[Zaporozhian Cossacks]] had even managed to raze townships on the outskirts of [[Istanbul]], forcing the [[Ottoman Sultan]] to flee his palace.{{citation needed|date=November 2015}} [[Don Cossacks]] under [[Stenka Razin]] even ravaged the Persian coasts.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.cindyvallar.com/razin.html|title=Pirates & Privateers: The History of Maritime Piracy |author=Stepan Razin|website=www.cindyvallar.com|access-date=August 28, 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070805222255/http://www.cindyvallar.com/razin.html|archive-date=August 5, 2007|url-status=dead}}</ref>{{unreliable source?|date=November 2015}}