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A letter of marque and reprisal (French: lettre de marque; lettre de course) was a government license in the Age of Sail that authorized a private person, known as a privateer or corsair, 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.
Although not French Navy personnel, corsairs were considered legitimate combatants in France (and allied nations), provided the commanding officer of the vessel was in possession of a valid letter of marque (lettre de marque or lettre de course, the latter giving corsairs their name), and the officers and crew conducted themselves according to ...
Although not French Navy personnel, corsairs were considered legitimate combatants in France (and allied nations), provided the commanding officer of the vessel was in possession of a valid Letter of Marque (fr. Lettre de Marque or Lettre de Course), and the officers and crew conducted themselves according to contemporary admiralty law.
The formal commission bestowed upon a naval vessel, and the Letter of Marque and Reprisal granted to private merchant vessels converting them into naval auxiliaries, qualified them to take enemy property as the armed hands of their sovereign, and to share in the proceeds.
Letter of Marque. Sir John Sherbooke was commissioned on 27 November 1812 and carried ten guns and a crew of 30 men. The smallness of her crew relative to the number ...
To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures on Land and Water ... A number of wars have been declared under the U.S. Constitution, although there is some controversy as to the exact number; the Constitution does not specify the form of such a declaration.
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The issuing of letters of marque was originally done to compensate for the numerical inferiority of the Tudor navy in comparison to its Spanish counterpart; as England lacked a standing navy which was powerful enough to challenge the Spanish Navy head on, the Sea Dogs served as a way to attack Spanish ships during times of peace.