Jean Fleury

Infobox Pirate
name = Jean Florin
lived = d. 1527


caption =
nickname =
type = Corsair
placeofbirth = Normandy, France
placeofdeath = Toledo, Spain
allegiance = France
serviceyears = c. 1521-1527
base of operations = Normandy
rank = Captain
commands =
battles =
wealth =
laterwork =

Jean Fleury or Florin (d. 1527) was a 16th century French naval officer and privateer. He is best known for the capture of three Spanish treasure galleons carrying Aztec gold from Mexico to Spain in 1523. This was earliest recorded act of piracy against the Spanish and encouraged the French corsairs, Dutch Sea Beggars and English Sea Dogs to begin attacking shipping and settlements in the Spanish Main during the next several decades. [Beazley, Mitchell. "From the Dark Ages to the Renaissance: 700-1599 AD". London: Octopus Publishing Group, 2006. (pg. 102) ISBN 1-84533-163-X] [Pettegree, Andrew. "Europe in the Sixteenth Century". Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 2002. (pg. 243) ISBN 0-631-20704-X] [Watts, David. "The West Indies: Patterns of Development, Culture, and Environmental Change since 1492". Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. (pg. 129) ISBN 0-521-38651-9]

Biography

A French corsair and naval officer from Normandy, Fleury served as a pilot under Jean Ango and commanded a small squadron during the Four Years' War. He was involved in long range naval warfare, operating as far as 2,000 kilometres from his base with only a few hundred men, and was an active privateer during the conflict. [Harari, Yuval Noah. "Special Operations in the Age of Chivalry, 1100-1550". Woodbridge, Suffolk: Boydell Press, 2007. (pg. 2) ISBN 1-84383-292-5] In early 1523, three Spanish ships were sighted off the southwest coast of Portugal, somewhere between the Azores and Cape St. Vincent, and Florin ordered his five-ship squadron to attack. The small Spanish fleet, under a Captain Quinones, was on the last leg of their journey from Havana, Cuba to Seville, Spain carrying a large gold shipment taken from Hernando Cortez's recent conquest of Mexico and was to be presented as a tribute to Charles V. It is unknown whether Florin was aware of the Spaniard's cargo, however he decided to give chase and overtook them within a few hours. [Konstam, Angus and Angus McBride. "Elizabethan Sea Dogs 1560-1605". Oxford: Osprey Publishing, 2000. (pg. 25) ISBN 1-84176-015-3]

Although the Spanish responded to the raid by fortifying nearly all their major ports and cities in the Caribbean, [Petersen, Ronald H. "New World Botany: Columbus to Darwin". Koningstein, Germany: Koeltz Scientific Books, 2001. (pg. 149) ISBN 3-904144-75-8] it was only a matter of time before the rest of Europe became aware of the treasure Spain was bringing back from the New World. Besides the gold bullion, among the treasures captured by Florin included exotic animals, enameled gold and jade, ornaments, emeralds, pearls, works of art, masks in mosaic of fine stones and other rare items [Konstam, Angus. "Pirates: An Illustrated History". New York: Skyhorse Publishing, 2007. (pg. 76) ISBN 1-60239-035-5] which were presented to Francis I. [Miller, Robert Ryal. "Mexico: A History". Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1985. (pg. 99) ISBN 0-8061-2178-5]

The following year, he and Jean Terrian set out on another expedition against Spain with a fleet of eight ships capturing over 30 Portuguese and Spanish vessels by the end of the year. Fleury was eventually captured by the Spanish and, held captive for a time, was tried in Toledo along with two of his officers, Michel Fere and Mezie de Irizar, and hanged as a pirate in 1527. [Thomas, Hugh. "The Conquest of Mexico". London: Hutchinson, 1993. (pg. 763)]

References

Further reading

*Rogozinski, Jan. "Pirates!: Brigands, Buccaneers, and Privateers in Fact, Fiction, and Legend". New York: Da Capo Press, 1996. ISBN 0-306-80722-X
*Solnick, Bruce B. "The West Indies and Central America to 1898". New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1970.