page_title: Eustace the Monk
section_title: Serving England
hierarchical_section_title: Eustace the Monk / Life / Serving England
caption_attribution_description: English: An aerial view of Sark.
context_page_description: Eustace the Monk, born Eustace Busket, was a mercenary and pirate, in the tradition of medieval outlaws. The birthplace of Eustace was not far from Boulogne. A 1243 document mentions a Guillaume le Moine, seigneur de Course, which indicates that the family lived in that vicinity.
context_section_description: Eustace became a pirate in the English Channel and the Strait of Dover, both for his own purposes and as a mercenary of France and England. King John of England employed him intermittently from 1205 to 1212, against Philip II of France. The biography asserts that John gave him command of thirty ships at the start of this assignment. This employment involved Eustace and his brothers raiding the Normandy coast and establishing bases in the Channel Islands (he and his men held Castle Cornet in Guernsey for a considerable period). He took the island of Sark in 1205. When he raided English coastal villages, King John briefly outlawed him, but soon afterwards issued a pardon because he needed Eustace's services.
caption: The island of Sark, which Eustace the Monk used as a base of operations for some time
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