. PREVIEW. AUTHORS: Sean Kingsley and Rex Cowan TITLE: The Pirate King: Lost Treasure, Piracy in the Indian Ocean, Spying, Spycraft for the King, Scottish Independence SUMMARY: Henry Avery, surviving pirate and strategist, was sent as Daniel Defoe's enf

Sep 21, 12:35 AM

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.  PREVIEW.  AUTHORS: Sean Kingsley and Rex Cowan
TITLE: The Pirate King: Lost Treasure, Piracy in the Indian Ocean, Spying, Spycraft for the King, Scottish Independence
SUMMARY: Henry Avery, surviving pirate and strategist, was sent as Daniel Defoe's enforcer/wingman to manipulate opinion in Scotland (1706), fighting Jacobites threatening Scottish independence.

Details:

  • Henry Avery was one of the few pirates who survived to enjoy their ill-gotten gains, unlike Blackbeard, Stede Bonnet, and Calico Jack Rackham, who were hanged or died
  • Avery was sent with master spy Daniel Defoe to Scotland in early 18th century to undermine the Scottish independence movement
  • They traveled to Scotland in September 1706
  • Edinburgh was a hotbed of Catholics, known locally as Jacobites
  • These Jacobites threatened to break away from the English Crown
  • Daniel Defoe was sent by London to manipulate public opinion by controlling key figures (church leaders, lawyers, merchants) and the presses
  • They established control within two months
  • Henry Avery served as Defoe's wingman and enforcer
  • Avery is characterized as an incredible strategist, very smart, ex-Royal Navy salt, "the thinking man's muscle"