François Le Clerc was a French privateer during the 16th century. He additionally went by the alias “Jambe de Bois” and was known as one the first peg leg pirates in the early modern era. Le Clerc was important to the history of the Atlantic World as he was known for being one of the most successful French privateers in modern era history. Le Clerc would participate in numerous raids against the Spanish that would overall lead to him collecting massive profits off Spanish colonies. The successful raids were celebrated by the French and led to Le Clerc being knighted by King Henry II himself in 1551. His knighting was important as Henry II gave him the first letters of marque for Caribbean waters. Getting permission to the Caribbean led to his most famous raids happening in the Caribbean in 1553, where he led a band of pirates and pillaged the coastal towns of Puerto Rico and Hispaniola, burning them down to the ground and stripping them of all their silver. He was sent there by Henry with 5 or 6 fleets and he returned with an even larger fleet as he seized 6 Spanish bullion ships from the Caribbean. With the same fleet, Le Clerc went and attacked Santiago de Cuba in 1554 and accumulated a massive amount of wealth after a month. The amount of wealth stolen was so detrimental to Cuba that it was unable to financially recover. His attack has become so well known and feared by the Spanish the Spanish king gave him the nickname “Pata de Palo”, or “peg leg” in English.
The geopolitical status during the time in which François Le Clerc dramatically affected his actions, especially later during his time as a pirate. During the time he was a pirate, European nations such as Spain, England, France and the Netherlands were competing with each other to establish colonies and trade routes in the New World and across the Atlantic. Piracy, for Le Clerc, was a way of challenging the dominance of other nations, especially Spain, and asserting himself as a superior power. He was driven by wealth and independence as he would attack other nations and become known for his accumulated wealth, asserting himself as a threat to other nations in the Caribbean. The Caribbean, during the time, was also beneficial for Le Clerc as the political instability helped other pirates, including himself, flourish. He would work under his own independence but he would eventually become involved with the conflicts of other nations that he was personally sent by Elizabeth I to host a fleet to help attack the French in 1560. After the war, he would continue to hunt down Spanish fleets until his death in 1563.
François Le Clerc and his journeys help highlight many important details that can summarize important details about the Atlantic World and its history. Many of the actions Le Clerc made directly highlighted the rivalries between nations, as the time during the Atlantic World revolved around their conflicts. The fights between nations for control over the colonial territories led to tensions between the European powers that resulted in conflicts of battle on land and in the sea. Even though nations would fight between each other, there were a lot of other factors that impacted the success of the European powers. One of the biggest threats to the success of the nations was how easy it was for pirates or privateers to exploit other nations to establish political and economic influence. Any nation in the Atlantic World would grow or manufacture goods, such as sugar, and only profit by shipping them across the Atlantic. This hurt the nations as the merchant ships would be vulnerable to pirate or privateer attacks when they cross the ocean, highlighting the nature of the transatlantic commerce. Le Clerc also highlighted the interactions between pirates and privateers and the native indigenous people that inhabited the Atlantic world. Pirates who went to the Atlantic world would form alliances with the natives, and it would become very beneficial for both parties. Natives brought knowledge about the land, and would even trade goods or protection, highlighting how nations would trade with each other out of mutual benefit. Pirates like Le Clerc would also form alliances with the indigenous people for various reasons, but would overall benefit from the various goods provided by the indigenous people Other nations in the Atlantic world, however, would also show that indigenous people from the New World could be taken advantage of for the personal interests of pirates.
Sources:
Boucher, Philip P. “REVISIONING THE ‘FRENCH ATLANTIC’: OR, HOW TO THINK ABOUT THE FRENCH PRESENCE IN THE ATLANTIC, 1550–1625.” The Atlantic World and Virginia, 1550-1624, edited by PETER C. MANCALL, University of North Carolina Press, 2007, pp. 274–306. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.5149/9780807838839_mancall.13. Accessed 11 Apr. 2024.
“Henri unleashed privateers such as the famous François Le Clerc and his lieutenant, the ferocious Jacques de Sores, who swarmed to the Spanish Caribbean. Le Clerc, for his part, armed ten ships out of Rouen and Dieppe to launch assaults on Hispaniola and Puerto Rico. The Huguenot de Sores wreaked havoc in Cuba, not sparing clerics or churches. He burned Havana to the ground after extracting every portable bit of wealth” (Boucher 7).
Baumgartner, Frederic J. “ADAM’S WILL: ACT II HENRY II AND FRENCH OVERSEAS EXPEDITIONS.” Proceedings of the Meeting of the French Colonial Historical Society, vol. 11, 1987, pp. 137–47. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/45137398. Accessed 8 Feb. 2024.
“The Most famous of the expeditions was that of François Le Clerc, called Jambe de Bois from the peg leg he had gained in a previous naval encounter. Prefiguring Francis Drake, Le Clerc had been ennobled in 1551 for his previous service as a privateer. It is likely that it was this fleet to which an Imperial agent referred when he wrote in March, 1553 that “the king has ordered five or six warships to get ready with all haste at Le Harve and Brest. Some say they are to pillage Peru and the Indies” (Baumgartner 3). “He pillaged the coastal towns of Puerto Rico and Hispanola, striking largely at isolated targets and seized six Spanish bullion ships” (Baumgartner 3).
“In 1555 Jambe de Bois returned again to the Spanish Main with a larger fleet. Although he again contented himself with raiding isolated ports, his Protestant second-in-command Jacques de Sores took part of the fleet to Havana in July. After a bloody assault on the citadel, he gained control of the city and its royal treasury. Much to his consternation, there was little bullion to be had at the moment. His men, meanwhile, demonstrated their religious affiliation by desecrating the city’s churches. After occupying Havana for twenty days, Sores abandoned it in such ruin that another French fleet arriving in October of the same year found nothing to pillage” (Baumgartner 3).
Vila-Santa, Nuno. “The Untold Story of Oceanic Pilot Bartolomeu Borges who Guided Jean Ribault to Florida in 1562: Document Transcription and Translation, Accompanied by an Historical Introduction.” Terrae Incognitae 55.1 (2023): 82-102. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00822884.2023.2182986. Accessed 8 Feb. 2024.
“Despite being a Huguenot under a French King with anti-Protestant policies, Le Clerc had been knighted by King Henry II (r. 1547–1559) himself in 1551, in recognition to his maritime services to France. In 1553, King Henry II granted him the first French letter of marque for Caribbean waters” (Vila-Santa).
“Nicknamed in English Wooden Leg, and in French Jambe de Bois, it was François Le Clerc, the first famous French corsair to receive a letter of marque by King Henry II in 1551 and knighted personally by the King in 1553 for his maritime services to France in the war against Spain. According to Tovar’s letter, Le Clerc not only captained his own ships, but also had his own captains that he sent in raiding expeditions against the Spanish in the Caribbean.” (Vila-Santa).
Zaczek, Iain. Pirates: Facts, Figures and Fun. AAPPL, 2006
“The most renowned of these was François Le Clerc, dubbed Pie de Palo or ‘Peg Leg’ by the Spanish, on the account of his wooden Leg” (Zaczek 14).