Royal Pardon

The Royal Pardon, also known as the King’s Pardon or the royal prerogative of mercy, is the ability of the British monarch to grant pardons to convicted persons or criminals. An Act of Parliament can also grant pardons en masse. Outside of those methods, it is very difficult to secure a pardon.

History[]

Background[]

Lord Thomas Hamilton, with his naval liaison Lieutenant James McGraw, are put in charge of bringing Nassau back into the fold of the British Empire and stop the pirate problem. Thomas comes up with the idea of pardoning the pirates of Nassau, something his father, Lord Alfred Hamilton, is vehemently opposed to. Lord Alfred says that to pardon traitors in a time of war is the act of a coward, furthermore, he asks how Thomas expects to get Queen Anne to issue the pardons. Thomas replies that an Act of Parliament would accomplish the same thing. Thomas, his wife Miranda, James, and Lord Peter Ashe begin a political campaign in Whitehall to get the pardons approved. Lord Alfred is ultimately able to quell their efforts.

Season One[]

Miranda Barlow writes to Judge Addington Thomas, a magistrate in Boston, asking for a pardon for James Flint. The letter is intercepted however, when the Walrus attacks the Andromache. Billy Bones

Season Two[]

Captain Hume of the Scarborough offers Billy Bones ten pardons, to be given to him and the men of his choosing after he captures Captain Flint and gives him to Hume on Harbour Island. Billy tells Dufresne about the deal after he returns to Nassau, to be used only as a last resort.

After Flint wins the captaincy election against Benjamin Hornigold, Dufresne says they have to take the pardons. Dufresne gathers eight men and waits for Billy, who arrives with the rest of the crew. Billy says he said what he needed to in order to be released. Dufresne and his men are then banished.

Dufresne and Hornigold are granted the pardons when they arrest Eleanor Guthrie and give her to Hume on Harbour Island.

Flint and Miranda Barlow travel to Charles Town to try and argue for the pardons again and gain the support of Lord Ashe by returning his daughter Abigail to him unharmed and without conditions. The plan appears to be going smoothly until it is revealed that Lord Ashe is the one who betrayed them and Thomas to Lord Alfred. In the ensuing argument, Miranda is killed by Ashe's subordinate Colonel William Rhett

Season Three[]

Woodes Rogers is granted permission by King George to offer pardons to all the pirates of New Providence Island when he is appointed Royal Governor of the Bahamas. On the advice of Eleanor Guthrie, whom he has rescued from imprisonment and taken on as an advisor, he says the pardon applies to all save for Charles Vane, upon whom he he places a 10,000 pound bounty.

Captain Benjamin Hornigold, now a privateer in the service of the Crown, intercepts the pirate vessel of the Straight Arrow and offers the pardon. If they accpet, their vessel will be comandeered and they can either join Hornigold's crew or be delivered to the nearest port. The crew accepts, save for the captain, Hallendale, who is left chained in his cabin with nothing but seawater to drink. He eventually kills himself.

Hornigold later offers the pardon to the Walrus when they happen upon the abandoned Straight Arrow and attempt to investigate. Hornigold reveals to Dufresne, his quartermaster, that he intends on sinking the Walrus regardless of whether or not they take the pardon. However, Flint and his crew refuse and sail into a storm to escape Hornigold.

When Rogers and his fleet arrive in Nassau, the pirates set up their defenses. However, Hornigold is sent to read Rogers' address to the pirates on the beach, explaining the pardon and the bounty on Vane's capture. The pirates take the pardon en masse, save for the holdouts in the Pirate Fleet led by Vane and Edward Teach, who flee Nassau shortly thereafter. The pardons are issued in the Tavern, where the Pardon Clerk and his assistant take down the pirates' names, places of birth and profession. The pirates sign their names in the Pardon Rolls.

During a parley with Captain Flint, Rogers brings up the fact that Flint was the original proponent of the pardons, alongside Lord Thomas Hamilton. Rogers says that Flint and Hamilton suffered the most as the first into the breach, but paved the road for Rogers to succeed. Flint refuses to accept the pardon, saying that both Thomas and Miranda died for their efforts in trying to secure the pardon. Rogers then revokes the pardon, and says any pirate caught will be assumed to be working for Flint and hanged.

Season Four[]

Woodes Rogers offers to a captured Madi a treaty that would emancipate all the Maroons living at the Maroon Camp she calls home in exchange for their returning any pirate or escaped slave that seeks refuge there must be returned to the law, however she refuses.

After Rogers is defeated at Skeleton Island, John Silver and Jack Rackham offer Rogers' treaty to the Maroons and pirates. They agree to surrender and take up the pardon rather than continuing the war. Nassau is returned to the fold of the British Empire with Augustus Featherstone as governor.

Text[]

The text of the pardon certificates received by the pirates of Nassau reads as follows:

By his Excellency, Benjamin Bennett Esq,

Captain General, Governor & Commander in Chief of these Islands and Vice Admiral of these Seas

To all to whom these presents may Concern

These and Therefore to Certifye that His Majesty’s Pardon can be made out that ______

has this day arrived in these His Majesty’s Islands and Surrendered himself to a Representative of the Governor and Vice Admiral aforesaid Accordingly,

WHEREAS HIS MOST SACRED MAJESTY GEORGE,

King of Great Britain, France and Ireland by his Royal Proclamation

bearing the Date the First Day of September 1715 and in the third year of His said Majesty’s Reign hath been graciously pleased to declare that if any Plate and Pirates Shall by the time therein committed Surrender to his Principal Secretaries of State in Great Britain or Ireland or to any Governor, Deputy Governor of His said Majesty’s Plantations or themselves as aforesaid: Should have His most Gracious Pardon of and for Such Piracy and Piracy by hm or them Cmitted as more fully and at large and appears by the said proclamation.