Jean Bontemps

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Jean Bontemps
— Pirate —
Type Privateer
Place of birth France
Died 1572
Place of death Curaçao
Allegiance France
Years active 1559-1572
Rank Captain
Base of operations Caribbean Sea

Jean Bontemps (died 1572) was a French privateer. In 1559, sailing with Jean-Martin Cotes, he attacked the towns of Santa Marta and Cartagena de Indias, in modern-day Colombia. Bontemps and his men ransacked both towns and extorted a 4,000-peso ransom from Cartagena.[1]

In 1567, Bontemps cooperated with John Lovell's semi-piratical trading expedition to Margarita, in modern Venezuela. A show of force provided the local Spanish, who desperately needed supplies, with the necessary pretext to violate the royal prohibition on trading with foreign powers. Bontemps then attacked Rio de la Hacha without success, and does not appear to have taken part in Lovell's voyage there a few days later.[2]

Bontemps attempted a raid on Curaçao in 1572, but was killed by a Spanish arrow or crossbow bolt through the throat. The Spanish took his head to Santo Domingo as a prize.[3]


  1. ^ Nigel Cawthorne (2005), Pirates: An Illustrated History, Chartwell Books, Inc., ISBN 0-7858-2034-5, p. 20.
  2. ^ Harry Kelsey (1998), Sir Francis Drake: The Queen's Pirate, Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-07182-5, p. 22.
  3. ^ Cawthorne, p. 21.