Anglo-Turkish piracy refers to the collaboration between Barbary pirates and English

English people

The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

 pirates against Catholic

Catholic

The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...

 shipping during the 17th century.

Anglo-Turkish collaboration

The Protestants and the Muslim

Muslim

A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...

 "Turks", more precisely the Barbary pirates, collaborated during that period against their common enemy, Catholic Europe. This collaboration has to be seen in the context of the wars of religions and the ongoing mortal battle between Protestantism and Catholicism. At that time, Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

, Portugal

Portugal

Portugal , officially the Portuguese Republic is a country situated in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal is the westernmost country of Europe, and is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the West and South and by Spain to the North and East. The Atlantic archipelagos of the...

, and France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, which were implementing anti-Protestant policies, were the target of this Anglo-Muslim collaboration. It also seems that English pirates, who had been active against Spain

Spain

Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 until 1604 when peace was signed with England, were still inclined to continue the fight and the depredations, although under the protection of a different state, to the embarrassment of the English Crown.

Piracy in the ranks of the Muslim pirates of Barbary was also a way to find employment, after King James I

James I of England

James VI and I was King of Scots as James VI from 24 July 1567 and King of England and Ireland as James I from the union of the English and Scottish crowns on 24 March 1603...

 formally proclaimed an end to privateering in June 1603. Further, abandonning England as well as their faith was often a way to financial success, as fortunes could be made by attacking Christian shipping. By 1610, the wealth of English renegade pirates had become so famous as to become the object of plays, and the king offered Royal Pardon to those who wished to return.

Not only the English corsairs participated to this collaboration, but also the
Dutch, who shared the same objectives. Catholic ships were attacked and prisoners taken to Algiers

Algiers

' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...

 or other places of the Barbary Coast

Barbary Coast

The Barbary Coast, or Barbary, was the term used by Europeans from the 16th until the 19th century to refer to much of the collective land of the Berber people. Today, the terms Maghreb and "Tamazgha" correspond roughly to "Barbary"...

 to be sold as slaves. The number of these English pirates was significant. Jack Ward, Henry Mainwaring

Henry Mainwaring

Sir Henry Mainwaring , was an English pirate, naval officer with the Royal Navy, and author.- Early life :Henry Mainwaring was born in Ightfield in Shropshire, second son of Sir George Mainwaring and his wife Ann, the daughter of Sir William More of Loseley Park in Surrey. His maternal grandfather...

, Robert Walsingham

Robert Walsingham

Robert Walsingham, also Wallsingham, was a famous 17th century English pirate who served with the Barbary States. He was the captain of a Turkish man-of-war, in which he finally sailed to Ireland to submit himself to the authorities...

 and Peter Easton

Peter Easton

Peter Easton was a pirate in the early 17th century who operated along the Newfoundland coastline between Harbour Grace and Ferryland from 1611 to 1614...

 were among such English pirates in the service of the dey

Dey

Dey was the title given to the rulers of the Regency of Algiers and Tripoli under the Ottoman Empire from 1671 onwards...

s of the Barbary coast. Some of the most famous Dutch pirates were Zymen Danseker

Zymen Danseker

Siemen Danziger , better known by his anglicized names Zymen Danseker and Simon de Danser, was a 17th century Dutch privateer and corsair...

, Salomo de Veenboer

Salomo de Veenboer

Ivan Dirkie De Veenboer was a 17th century Dutch corsair. A privateer during the Eighty Years' War, he later turned to piracy and became an officer under Simon the Dancer...

 and Jan Janszoon

Jan Janszoon

Jan Janszoon van Haarlem, commonly known as Murat Reis the younger was the first President and Grand Admiral of the Corsair Republic of Salé, Governor of Oualidia, and a Dutch pirate, one of the most notorious of the Barbary pirates from the 17th century; the most famous of the "Salé...

. Some of them, such as Ward and Danseker, were "renegades" who had adopted Islam. Mainwaring attacked the Spanish preferentially, and claimed that he avoided English shipping, but generally ships of all nationalities seem to have been attacked. Walsingham is known to have freed Turkish captives from Christian galleys, and to have sold Christian captives on the North African slave market. Janszoon led long-ranging raids such as the Turkish Abductions

Turkish Abductions

The Turkish Abductions were a series of raids that took place in Iceland between July 4 – July 19, 1627. Both Austurland and Vestmannaeyjar were raided by Barbary pirates from the regency of Algiers.In 1627, Jan Janszoon hired a Danish “slave”...

 in Iceland

Iceland

Iceland , described as the Republic of Iceland, is a Nordic and European island country in the North Atlantic Ocean, on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge. Iceland also refers to the main island of the country, which contains almost all the population and almost all the land area. The country has a population...

 to sell his slaves on the Barbary Coast.

A contemporary letter states:
Beyond the shared religious antagonism towards Catholicism, the Barbary States probably offered economic advantages as well as social mobility to Protestant pirates, as the Barbary States were a very cosmopolitan environment at that time.

Catholic reactions

France, which had a tradition of alliance with the Ottoman Empire

Franco-Ottoman alliance

The Franco-Ottoman alliance, also Franco-Turkish alliance, was an alliance established in 1536 between the king of France Francis I and the Turkish ruler of the Ottoman Empire Suleiman the Magnificent. The alliance has been called "the first non-ideological diplomatic alliance of its kind between a...

 placed a formal protest with the Ottoman Sultan in 1607, complaining that English and Dutch pirates were allowed to use North African harbours as bases to raid French shipping. For France, it was a clear conspiracy against Catholicism, described at the time as "Turco-Calvinism

Turco-Calvinism

Turco-Calvinism refers to the alliance or rapprochement between the Protestant Reformation and the Ottoman Empire during the 16th century.This rapprochement occurred at the expense of Catholic Habsburg, as the Protestant Reformation was struggling for survival in Europe and later entered into...

".

In order to curb these actions, Spain made a proclamation against piracy and privateering in 1615.

England probably became ambivalent about this sort of piratical collaboration as it attacked Algiers in 1621 in order to free Christian captives there. In 1629, Louis XIII attacked Salé

Salé

Salé is a city in north-western Morocco, on the right bank of the Bou Regreg river, opposite the national capital Rabat, for which it serves as a commuter town...

 to free 420 French captives. Louis XIV also later bombarded Algiers

Algiers

' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...

 in retaliation. Catholic religious orders, especially the Trinitarians and the Lazarists

Lazarists

Congregation of the Mission is a vowed order of priests and brothers associated with the Vincentian Family, a loose federation of organizations who claim St. Vincent de Paul as their founder or Patron...

 under Saint Vincent de Paul, himself a former slave, accumulated donations to ransom and liberate Christian slaves. It is estimated that the missionaries liberated 1,200 slaves until the death of Saint Vincent de Paul in 1660, for a total of 1,200,000 livres.