Andrew Barton ( privateer ) Sir Andrew Barton ( c . 1466 – 2 August 1511 ) , Scottish sailor from Leith , served as High Admiral of the Kingdom of Scotland . Career . Some of Andrew Barton ' s trading voyages to Flanders ports in the 1490s are recorded in the " Ledger of Andrew Halyburton " . He was the oldest of three brothers , a younger brother Robert Barton of Over Barnton became Lord High Treasurer of Scotland . Andrew became notorious in England and Portugal as a ' pirate ' , though as a seaman who operated under the aegis of a letter of marque on behalf of the Scottish crown , he may be described as a privateer . The letter of marque against Portuguese shipping was originally granted to his father John Barton by James III of Scotland before 1485 . John ' s ships had been attacked by Portuguese vessels when he was trading at Sluis in Flanders . James IV revived the letters in July 1507 . When Andrew Barton , sailing in the " Lion " tried to take reprisals against Portuguese ships in 1508 , he was detained by Dutch authorities at Veere . James IV had to write to Maximilian , the Holy Roman Emperor , and others to get him released in 1509 . Andrew then took a Portuguese ship which carried an English cargo , leading to more difficulties , and James IV had to suspend the letter of marque for a year . Andrew captured a ship of Antwerp in 1509 , the " Fasterinsevin " ( the " Shrove Tuesday " ) , which did not come within his letter of marque . James IV ordered him to recompense the captain Peter Lempson and his officers for her cargo of woad and canvas . The Bartons were in demand to support John , King of Denmark , and were allowed by him to harass the shipping of Lübeck . In return for this service , John of Denmark sent James IV timber for the masts of his ships from Flensburg . Andrew joined John ' s service briefly in the spring of 1511 , but sailed away without permission , also taking a ship that James IV had given to John . Last battle . Later in 1511 , Andrew Barton was cruising the English coast looking for Portuguese prizes when he and his ships the " Lion " and " Jenny Pirwyn " were captured after a fierce battle with Sir Edward Howard and his brother Thomas Howard , 3rd Duke of Norfolk off Kent at the Downs . According to the story told in ballads , Andrew was subsequently beheaded . If true , such action would perhaps have been illegal because Barton possessed a letter of marque . Contemporary English and Scottish chronicle accounts agree that Andrew died of wounds received in the fight . The incident was recalled two years later in the exchange of rhetoric at the battle of Flodden . The story of the sea - battle was told by Raphael Holinshed and in other 16th - century English chronicles . In Holinshed ' s story the Howards at first pretended only to approach and salute Andrew Barton , but then engaged in battle , Barton ' s ship was the " Unicorn " and he died from his wounds . The Scottish survivors were taken to London and kept prisoner in the Bishop of York ' s lodging , York Place at Whitehall . Edward Hall wrote that Andrew encouraged his men during the fight with his whistle . Hall mentions that the two ships were brought to Blackwall on 2 August 1511 , and the prisoners were freed after an interview with the Bishop of Winchester , after acknowledging their piracy . The Scottish bishop John Lesley gave a similar account of the battle in his chronicle . George Buchanan has the detail that Andrew Barton continued fighting after his leg was broken by a gunshot , and encouraged his sailors by beating a drum before he died from his wounds . Buchanan emphasises that the Howards sailed on the instruction of Henry VIII following a representation by a Portuguese ambassador . Hall wrote that Henry VIII was at Leicester when he ordered the Howards to chase the Scottish ships . Ballads of Andrew Barton . He is the subject of an English folk song entitled " Sir Andrew Barton " or " Andrew Bartin " , which is Child ballad number 167 . The most famous lines of this ballad are : His story is also told in a Scottish Child ballad called " Henry Martyn " ( Child ballad number 250 ) . Rudyard Kipling wrote a short story connected with Barton in his Puck of Pook ' s Hill series .