The trials Introduction Piracy wasn't of course legal. Quite an important number of trials coming from the eighteenth century are against pirates and acts of piracy. The political system in the United Kingdom is quite complex. There are several courts caring about different ranges of crimes, each of them are divided in smaller courts around the empire to solve local affairs. Even if the three powers are quite separated, the king can still save or sentence someone with one simple letter or even just a word. We already saw an example of that when Alexander Dalziel was forgiven for his crimes in the newspaper section. The High Court of Admiralty and the old Bailey Founded somewhere between the reigns of Edward the first and Edward the third, which …show more content…
Only the most important cases are treated there, mostly those involving high treason or comparable offense. There is also smaller courts of admiralty in a lot of port towns in the United Kingdom in the Americas. About the accused Here is a short biography of the pirates we are going to see in this chapter. The first person is Captain Thomas Green. According to his trial, he was the commander of a ship called the Worcester, based in the English east India. The captain and his crew were accused of piracy, robbery and murder. The trial took place at the high court of Admiralty of Scotland in Edinburgh the thirteenth day of February 1705. John Baptist Jedre, also known as Laverdure, and his son John Baptist Junior attacked a ship and took all the goods it transported. The son was less than fourteen years old but was still put on a trial with his father and other members of their crew at the high court admiralty of Boston. Their trial can be found under the name « Tryal of five Persons » How the pirates are …show more content…
The word Pirate is explained etymologically and its meaning in a legal context is specified. Therefore we learn that the word comes from the greek « Peirates, praedo marinus » which means « robber in the high seas ». The word « Pirates » in itself can be translated as robber. At first, it didn't have anything to do with the sea. But with the years, it has absorbed the meaning of the two following words and acquire the meaning it has nowadays. Pirates should be treated as simple robbers but the reality is a bit different. They had basically the same rights as any other citizen set on a trial. They had a chance to try to defend themselves, lawyers even already were important members of the assembly. However, as said before, in most of the cases, the accused were merchants; their ships often belonged to a Lord so their crime can be considered as treason, and if this lord was the king, as high treason. For this reason, the verdicts were often quite strict and most of them finished their lives