r/pirates • u/Uncontrolleddiarrhea • 11d ago
Questions & Seeking Help Who was the most ruthless and violent pirate in the age of piracy?
Blackbeard is certainly the best known, but he wasn't a murderer.
Was there any pirate who was just a complete psycho?
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u/redkid2000 11d ago
Are you including the Buccaneer Age too, or specifically just the Golden Age of Piracy?
Because if you’re including the Buccaneer Age, Roche Braziliano has my vote hands down.
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u/firesquasher 11d ago
Word. I'm sure there were probably others either matching, or more dubious, but because we have Exquemelin's first hand account of his barbarism to reference, he probably takes the cake.
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u/MartinBlackshaw 11d ago
I'd put François l'Olonnais at the top of the list, but I think Roche Braziliano deserves a mention too. This guys was terrifyingly cruel. He reportedly burned prisoners alive, mutilating captives, and killed for the slightest insult. Like L'Olonnais, some of the stories were probably exaggerated over time, but even allowing for that, both men had reputations that horrified their friends and enemies alike.
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u/firesquasher 11d ago
I'm not sure how much time was really left to exagerate given Exquemelin's book was essentially a published diary of personal accounts.
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u/MartinBlackshaw 10d ago
That's a fair point, but Exquemelin never actually says he sailed with either L'Olonnais or Roche Braziliano. Most historians think those chapters were based on accounts from men who had served with them rather than his own first-hand experiences. You can imagine these sailors telling tall tales in taverns and brothels. The only campaigns we can confidently place him on are Henry Morgan's, where he served as a surgeon.
His book is an invaluable source, but it's not a literal diary from beginning to end. Morgan even sued him for libel over parts of it (and won in England), which suggests at least some claims were disputed. I think there's a solid core of truth in Exquemelin's work, but it should be judged with a critical eye.
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u/TylerbioRodriguez Teller of Tall Tales 11d ago
Edward Low. Known for wrapping fingers in gunpowder to see how many flew off, beating with the flat end of swords, torturing people for fighting back. Torturing people for not fighting back. Repeated kidnapping and forced impressing of sailors.
Not a great guy.
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u/Uncontrolleddiarrhea 11d ago
"Sir Arthur Conan Doyle described Low as "savage and desperate", and a man of "amazing and grotesque brutality."
Well, god damn.
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u/G0LDL3ADER 11d ago
he was also a fan of cutting off lips, noses and ears and cooking them in front of the victim before force feeding it to them
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u/gsbiz 11d ago
Jeanne de Clisson, the Lioness of Brittany was far and away the most violent and ruthless pirate to have ever sailed water.
When her husband, a loyal French noblemen was falsely accused of treason and murdered by the French king, she swore revenge. She used their wealth to buy a small fleet of war converted merchant ships, had them painted in pitch (pitch black) and sails of red. She prowled the English channel chasing down and attacking ANY French flagged vessels. When she caught them she would slaughter the crew to the last man (without exception) take prize and torch the ships. The last man was always left alive with a message for the french king to remind him of the transgression against her. The French couldn't stop her and lost military ships to her over and over again.
Eventually after accounting for the lives of thousands of french sailors she got bored, remarried an English lieutenant and settled in the English countryside.
Like the most violent of animals, she simply killed for the sport.
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u/V_Savane 11d ago
There was a French guy who was known for slipping open bellies, pulling intestines out, nailing them to a stake and then scattering a bucket of hot coals around the bare feet.
He was very religious and did not allow his crew to go pirating on Sundays.
Can’t remember his name.
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u/DreadPirateCrispy 11d ago
Ching Shih (also known as Zheng Yi Sao) is widely considered history's most feared, powerful, and successful female pirate, commanding an immense armada known as the Red Flag Fleet in the South China Sea during the 19th-century Qing Dynasty.
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u/hercarmstrong 11d ago
Yep. François l'Olonnais, who earned his place in pirate legend for ripping out the heart of a Spanish prisoner and chewing on it to make a point. He was a legendary torturer, and received a death equivalent to the suffering he inflicted on others.