During the Middle Ages, piracy flourished throughout the Baltic and Mediterranean. After several centuries of Scandinavian maritime dominance, a new age of piracy was born. In the Baltic Sea, a new power emerged in the form of the Hanseatic League, a Germanic guild of naval and merchant ships that worked together to gain riches through extensive commerce and trade while also fighting off the inevitable contingents of pirates. At the same time, pirates were running rampant during the fading years of the Byzantine Empire, which in its prime ruled the Mediterranean for hundreds of years while fighting off the imminent threat of the Islamic religion. With the fall of the empire's primary city, Constantinople, in 1204, the Byzantines suffered at the hands of Italian pirates, who at one time served on Byzantine naval forces but turned to piracy against the empire after a dispute with Venice. By the mid-thirteenth century, with Constantinople again under Byzantine control, many of these Italian pirates were recruited and ultimately turned allegiance, wreaking havoc on their fellow Italian countrymen.

The Black Monk

When staving off the attack of a Medieval pirate, one would hardly expect that seafaring rogue to have been a member of the clergy. Such was the case with Eustace the Monk, a Flemish cleric who spent a part of his youth in a Benedictine monastery before becoming a privateer, pirate, and ultimately a mercenary who sold his services to the highest bidder. Eustace's initial service was to the Count of Boulogne in France, but after a dispute he fled to England and became a privateer under England's King John.

In 1212, the monk-turned-pirate temporarily became an English outlaw when he invaded several villages on England's coastline. Realizing his need for Eustace's services, the King eventually issued him a pardon. Not long after, however, Eustace abandoned the English and once again began service to the French as a mercenary. Three years later, during the Barons' Uprising against King John, the monk protected and transported Prince Louis's French troops during their English invasions to support the rebellious barons.

By 1217, still in service to Prince Louis, Eustace engaged in a battle at Dover against an English fleet. This battle would prove fatal, as the English bombarded the French vessels with powdered lime, blinding Eustace and his French compatriots. The Black Monk's ships were boarded and his terrifying reign came to a swift and permanent end when he was immediately beheaded.

A League of Their Own

The mid-1200s saw a surge of maritime activity and piracy in the North and Baltic Seas. One of the seafaring strongholds at the time was the Hanseatic League, which comprised German seaports including Hamburg, Lübeck, Danzig, and Bremen. Realizing their combined maritime potential and the safety of traveling in numbers, this league of merchant ships and naval vessels became a powerhouse whose ideological trade monopoly made them a natural anti-piracy group. Prior to the League's formation, Baltic trade routes were largely controlled by the Scandinavians, but as the decades passed, the League became more powerful, the guild incorporating many port cities whose naval and economic cooperation helped protect their ships from Baltic pirates.