Shining a light on who pirates really were, and how the well-known ‘skull and crossbones’ Hollywood stereotype evolved

‘The Laws of all Nations … define & declare a Pirate to be an Enemy of Mankind … He is perhaps the only Criminal on Earth, whose crime cannot be absolutely pardoned … a Pirate is equally an Enemy and dangerous to all Societies … Piracy is in its self a complication of Treason, Oppression, Murder, Assassination, Robbery and Theft.’

You know what a pirate is. You know how they dress, how they speak. If you think of the word ‘pirate’, you most probably think of black flags and peg legs, cutlasses and cannon, walking the plank and buried treasure. These stereotypes are familiar and entertaining, but they aren’t the whole truth.

Or, perhaps, they were never true at all.

From their origins and identities to their everyday lives and exploits, Enemies of All is a voyage of discovery that investigates piracy’s incredible, and often unrecognised, impact on history. Socially, economically and politically, pirates moulded European empires as they rose to global power in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. They shaped our modern world and left behind troubling legacies.

You will never see pirates in the same way again.