Blog | The damning of Henry Morgan

Marianna of Austria & Johann Nithard

Thu, 28 Feb 2013 13:37:31 +0000

How I found Marianna of Austria, and her Jesuit tutor, Johann Nithard who became my villain...

It was quite by chance that I came across Marianna of Austria. She was born in Vienna at the court of her paternal grandfather the Habsburg Emperor, Ferdinand II. Her father, who would become Emperor in 1637, was as yet only the King of Hungary and Bohemia, and was away for most of his wife's pregnancy campaigning in the Thirty Years' War. As a child, she was engaged to her Spanish Habsburg first cousin Baltasar Carlos, Prince of Asturias, but when he died aged 16 in 1646, King Philip IV of Spain was left without a male heir and Maria-Anna without a fiancé. In 1649, the king married his 14-year-old niece himself. Although known for being cheerful as a young girl, after her wedding to her uncle she became 'cold and bad-tempered'.

During her childhood, her tutor was the Austrian Jesuit, Johann Eberhard Nithard, and when she married Philip IV, he remained at her side as her confessor. When Philip died, Marianna became the Queen Regent for her son Carlos (later Charles II of Spain) who was too young and disabled to rule for himself. Nithard's power increased enormously when he was appointed Inquisitor General, the highest official authority in the Spanish Inquisition.

Henry Morgan

Sun, 01 Jul 2012 13:32:54 +0100

So, I'd met my main character, Alexandre Exquemelin. And from hearing just a short account of his exploits during his time in the Caribbean, I realised that my hook into this story was Welshman, Henry Morgan.

But first, who was this Alexandre Exquemelin? Well, he’s the man who wrote the book on buccaneers. Literally. Exquemelin was the author of the first (and only) book written at the time about these men, by someone who shared their adventures with them. Exquemelin’s book, called (in English) The American Buccaneers, first published in 1678, has led to just about every other book and film about pirates – ever.

So what was this young student of medicine from France doing in brutal, lawless Tortuga as an indentured servant of the French West Indies Company? What made him give up six years of study to become (in effect) a slave? Was it because he was a Huguenot, persecuted by Catholic France? How did he come to join Henry Morgan, a Welsh soldier in the service of England?

Why did he write a book about the exploits of these people? Why was Henry Morgan brought back to London as a prisoner, but returned three years later with a knighthood, and a commission as Deputy Governor of Jamaica?

How I met Alexandre

Fri, 01 Jun 2012 14:10:16 +0100

I would be unforgivable to forget the day I met him. It was New Year's Day, 2008, aboard the Cunard liner, Queen Mary 2, cruising majestically somewhere in the middle of the beautiful blue Caribbean.

What was his name? Almost unpronounceable, his name was Alexandre Olivier Exquemelin. And even though he had been dead over 300 years, he was as alive to me as if I had actually bumped into him. The man who introduced us (so to speak) was Professor Roderick McDonald of Rider University (New Jersey).

He had the unenviable task of giving a lecture at 10:00am on New Year’s Day, following the party-to-end-all-parties on board the QM2 the previous New Year’s Eve. Using the cunning ploy of calling his lecture ‘Buccaneers and Pirates of the Caribbean’, Professor McDonald ensured himself an audience, and I remember sitting fascinated by the information that he presented about that short period in history when pirates roamed the West Indies in search of plunder and wealth.

So who was this unpronounceable Alexandre Olivier Exquemelin?