Pirates: Did you mean...?

Ship Money was a tax applied by medieval monarchs to English coastal communities to pay for ships for the Royal Navy and so ward off pirates and enemies of the state. During the reign of Charles I of England (r. 1625-1649), the tax was used...

Ptolemaic Egypt was a naval power that exerted influence throughout the Eastern Mediterranean from its foundation in 330 BCE until Cleopatra's defeat by Augustus at the Battle of Actium in 30 BCE. The Ptolemaic Kingdom produced some of the...

Jang Bogo (aka Chang Pogo or Gungbok) was a powerful Korean warlord, naval commander, and merchant who came to monopolise maritime trade in northeast Asia to such a degree that he was known as the 'King of the Yellow Sea' during the first...

James I of Scotland ruled as king from 1406 to 1437. In 1406, the future king was captured by pirates and then imprisoned by Henry IV of England (r. 1399-1413), a confinement that lasted for 18 years. He succeeded his father Robert III of...

By the late 2nd century BCE, following its victories in the Punic Wars (264–146 BCE), the Roman Republic had become the dominant power in the Mediterranean world. Roman authority extended from the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa to Greece...

A map illustrating the geography and history of Holy Island, also known as Lindisfarne. A tidal island off the northeast coast of England in Northumberland, it holds significant historical and religious importance due to its early Christian...

Slavery was an ever-present feature of the Roman world. Slaves served in households, agriculture, mines, the military, workshops, construction and many services. As many as 1 in 3 of the population in Italy or 1 in 5 across the empire were...

Last March marked the anniversary of Julius Caesar's assassination over 2,000 years ago, and after two millennia, his legendary achievements still linger in today's consciousness just as they have for centuries. He was so revered that in...

The Portuguese colonization of the Cape Verde (Cabo Verde) Islands began from 1462. Initially envisaged as a base to give mariners direct access to West African trade, the Central Atlantic islands soon became a major hub of the Atlantic slave...

The Battle of New Orleans (8 January 1815) was the final major battle of the War of 1812, in which a ragtag American army under Major General Andrew Jackson (1767-1845) beat back a superior British force under Major General Sir Edward Pakenham...