Privateer

A privateer is a private individual who engages in naval warfare on behalf of a government who issues them a permit called a letter of marque.
==Description==
As mercenaries of the sea, privateers are given legal permission to attack and plunder the naval vessels designated as enemies to the government that they serve. Commonly, these enemies are warships of states at war with the government or pirates, but the commission may also allow the privateers to target merchant vessels of the belligerent nation. In the eyes of their enemy, the actions of privateers may be indistinct from piracy in itself and have no legality.Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Database: Pirates, Buccaneers, and Privateers
The line between privateering and piracy can blur. The former is effectively piracy which is legally sanctioned by one government, and privateers who continue to operate after the letter of marque has expired or who attacks ships belonging to the client government immediately become pirates to all. The criminal lives of hundreds of Caribbean pirates during the Golden Age of Piracy originated in privateering.Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Benjamin Hornigold
==History==
===Golden Age of Piracy===
Before turning to piracy, the Welsh peasant Edward Kenway spent his days dreaming about an exciting life not as a pirate but as a privateer to his wife Caroline Scott. In particular, he dabbled in the idea of sailing against Spanish ships in the War of Spanish Succession, assuring Caroline that he would only be away for at most two years before returning with riches. When she wondered why he would not simply enlist with the Royal Navy, Edward asserted that the low wages of enlisted sailors were unfair and unsatisfactory to him, thus offering an insight into the motivations of privateers. After she left him in 1712 out of impatience for his idle fantasies, Edward travelled to the West Indies to seriously pursue his wish, determined to prove his worth.Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Edward KenwayAssassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Database: Edward Kenway
Edward joined with other privateers like Benjamin Hornigold and Edward Thatch,Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Database: Edward "Blackbeard" Thatch the latter of whom would one day earn infamy as the pirate captain Blackbeard. When the 1713 Peace of Utrecht ended the war and with it, their commissions, the three suddenly found themselves unemployed. Their stories were echoed by hundreds of other privateers, like the notorious Charles Vane,Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Database: Charles Vane who were left wanting for a livelihood and quickly returned to the only vocation that they knew. At Nassau, these men banded together and established the community that they dubbed a "pirate republic".Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag – Nassau
===American Revolution===
During the American Revolutionary War, the Assassin Ratonhnhaké:ton undertook numerous privateer contracts on behalf of the Continental Navy, making significant contributions to the American war effort.Assassin's Creed III
==Appearances==
*Assassin's Creed III 
*Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
*Assassin's Creed: Black Flag
*Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag: Blackbeard – The Lost Journal
*Assassin's Creed: Rogue
*Assassin's Creed: Unity 
*Echoes of History 
==References==
Category:Occupations
Category:Redirections