Letter of marque

A letter of marque and reprisal was a <a href="/facts/Sovereign_state/TrUb8sns">government</a> license in the <a href="/facts/Age_of_Sail/tDNdUvhq">Age of Sail</a> that authorized a private person, known as a <a href="/facts/Privateer/PfeEkF2p">privateer</a> or <a href="/facts/French_corsairs/djf3Vbzt">corsair</a>, to attack and capture vessels of a foreign state at war with the issuer, licensing international military operations against a specified enemy as reprisal for a previous attack or injury. Captured <a href="/facts/Prize_money/PvpYjx7x">naval prizes</a> were judged before the government's <a href="/facts/Admiralty_court/FXPKCoyw">admiralty court</a> for condemnation and transfer of ownership to the privateer. 
A common practice among Europeans from the late <a href="/facts/Middle_Ages/RqzEKB9v">Middle Ages</a> to the 19th century, cruising for enemy prizes with a letter of marque was considered an honorable calling that combined patriotism and profit. Such legally authorized privateering contrasted with unlicensed captures of random ships, known as <a href="/facts/Piracy/7HjKaWFC">piracy</a>, which was universally condemned. In practice, the differences between privateers and pirates were sometimes slight, even merely a matter of interpretation.
The terms "letter of marque" and "privateer" were sometimes used to describe the ships which typically operated under the marque-and-reprisal licences. In this context, a letter of marque was a lumbering, <a href="/facts/Square_rig/IH9Pdndo">square-rigged</a> cargo carrier that might pick up a prize if the opportunity arose in its normal commerce. In contrast, the term <a href="/facts/Privateer/PfeEkF2p">privateer</a> generally referred to a fighting vessel, <a href="/facts/Fore-and-aft_rig/CI8uA4CC">fore-and-aft rigged</a>, fast, and weatherly.
Letters of marque allowed governments to fight their wars using <a href="/facts/Mercenary/uQSfwcDR">mercenary</a> private captains and sailors in place of their own navies as a measure to save time and money. Instead of building, funding, and maintaining a navy in times of peace, governments would wait until the start of a war to issue letters of marque to privateers, who financed their own ships in expectation of prize money.

Letter of marque open-in-new

Letter of marque