First and foremost I should like to thank my father for his help with French and Latin sources, for his advice and thoughts on the book and for instilling a love of history in me. I should also like to thank Phoebe Clapham and Natasha Martin, my two editors at Aurum, for their invaluable comments and suggestions; Celia Hayley at my agents, Lucas Alexander Whitley, for her help in the early stages of the project and Julian Alexander for his advice in the latter stages; the ever-helpful and efficient staff at the National Archive in Kew, as well as the staff at the British Library, the National Library of Wales, the National Archives of Scotland and the National Maritime Museum. Finally I would like to thank my wife Mary, without whose love and support this book would have been impossible, for reading and re-reading countless drafts, and my sons, Louis and Charlie, for indulging my endless pirate stories.