18 SEP 2020

Talk like a necromancer pirate monk!



Eustace, the Black Monk

In the 1200s the name Eustaces ‘was enough to strike terror into the hearts of Channel seamen’. He had a very interesting life and tales formed around him, many of them dark.


Histoire des Ducs de Normandie on Eustace

He was a medieval pirate, monk and necromancer who spread fear through the English channel fighting for both England and France. But before his naval career he trained as a knight, spent time in Spain and according to The Romance of Eustace the Monk his power in the dark arts had no match anywhere in France. An interesting, colourful and lesser known character from medieval times it’s hard to know where myth ends and fact begins.

What happens when pirates capture Caesar?

Julius Caesar is truly one of the great people from history but aged just 25 he was captured by Cilician pirates. Never one to miss an opportunity, rather than plead for release, he actually asked them to increase his ransom! After 38 days it was paid and he was released and set out for revenge...

Find out more

Talk like a pirate

Arrrr me hearties! Come learn how ti speak like arr pirate. And whilst ye at it let us put some facts straight.

Anton teaches us some pirate lingo courtesy of International talk Like a Pirate day (they have many more words on their website).

Did you know many pirates voted for their captain and had a help system? And don’t go buying treasure maps, listen to find out why.

Find oout mooore


This transcript is automatically generated so may contain errors.

Welcome to the curiosity of a scurvy sea dog

No, it's a child

yes sorry we can talk about Pirates this episode because every 19th of September is international talk like a pirate Day.

Which has it since 2002. Become one of the planets preeminent celebrations.

I live in a small island between France and England. Are history is being heavily linked with Pirates at different times, so for us I think it's important that we celebrate talk like a Pirate Day. I think even at school you dress up lately as Pirates and yeah.

You learn what that means later.

You're going to teach some pirate lingo, aren't you?

This episodes were going to dive deep into the ocean depths of time to uncover several pirate tales, one from Roman times and another one from the mediaeval. Were actually Visitguernsey and the Channel Islands in that Storey.

Not from the Golden Age of piracy. She thought we'd take a little different tact here and introduce some different characters.

And I think you're going to look at a few unknown things about Pirates, aren't you? Which people might not always.

Right myths.

Myths yeah apartments in pirate truths that people might not believe.

Did you know that not all Pirates talks like Pirates?

Seriously, so you mean all that time spent practising in front of the mirror? This episode is being wasted.


Pirate Sound a little bit like rougher farmers, and this accent probably came from Robert Newton playing Long John Silver and Blackbeard in the 1950s. His a video.

So I think you can hear the classic pirate accent there, Carney. It was actually just.

Robert Thing is accent.

Mr. Newton was a West Country native and adapted his accent until what we think pirate sound like today.

Yeah, that's right, and you're going to teach me a little bit of pirate lingo now, aren't you?

So we're going to talk like a pirate. Com, the official website of talk like a pirate Day. And here we go. So what can you teach me?

So the 1st.

One, what do you think ahoy means? I'll give you mean hi, yeah.

Play and it doesn't cheque doesn't, it does yes.

What do you think? Are I mean?

What do you think I means?

That sounds like a dog in pain.

Do you mean are are now? I mean I.

I'm gonna play.

It means yes.

OD mean I yeah I I.

Got you a bit more on the throats? You need to put more Irish.

You are just a little cabin boy.


I really I. I mean, I I.

Yeah, I.

Does that mean some? Like, yes, captain?

Or I'll get straight to it, yeah?

And I know but.

Are does every pirate words start with our sounds by any chance?

So are could be I'm in pain.

It could be I've lost my leg can.

I need a wooden one or I've lost my hand and I need a hook, is that right?

No, it means.


Or I agree or happy.

Okay, any other words you can teach me or?

Phrases or anything.

So are you alone lover, alarm lover. No I land. Lubber landlubber yeah.


re right one is so I'm going to.


Yes, well is it a landlubber? It's an insult? No thank you. Okay, do I have to?

Leave this out then. Yep, you dirty little lamb lover.

You should have beeped it hang on even when I say you dirty little lamb number Audi.

Right? Anyway, so now we've got a bit of light lie.

Right now we've got a bit of pirate lingo under about which we get The Time Machine ready so we can go talk.

To them we haven't used it in a while, so I think I need to do a.

Bit of dusting.

Okay, thank you very much and.

Let's head back first.

Of all 275 BCE, please.

Keeping our fire.

Who do you?

Think we're going to visit?

Not sure Haven Caveman is 75 PC. Hey obvious Ohh 75 yes.

Yeah, it could be caveman mate. We're going to go see a 25 Rd Julius Caesar. And now he's being captured by Sicilian Pirates an hour. These chaps, these parts. They're not really how you think of the classical Pirates, although they are classical Pirates.

And they dominated the Mediterranean from.

About 200 BC 266.

PC When Pompey the Great finally dealt to them.

Let's bring in The Time Machine carefully and see what's going on, shall we?

Thank you, good landing squashed butterfly with messed up time. I now there's one thing that Pirates are known for. Its their charismatic captains, isn't it? Like Blackbeard and Red Beard and Bluebeard and pink beard?

And green beard and bald.

Beard, food, beard? Yeah, that's me. But it seems that in this case it was a young Julius Caesar himself became the cosmetic leader of sorts.

Now at the time is just a young nobleman, and he had been kidnapped by the Pirates, and they plan to run some him for 20 tonnes of silver. I don't know how much that is, but I think it's probably quite a lot, yeah, but Caesar laughed at this and demanded that they demand 50 pounds for him. I mean, did they not know who he wants? He was the future greats Julius Caesar.

Now whilst waiting for this run to be collected, sees a settled down on board, said he with the Pirates and he joined in all of their games in their exercises and he gave speeches to their money. Read out pear tree that had been writing and it wasn't really acting like your typical hostage. They seem to be enjoying himself a little bit too much and you know he's a natural born leader and.

He spoke down.

Lita them kind of.

Ordering them around and it's just then when he wanted to go to sleep and make sure that things were done his way.

And but they like me then Villa. Yeah yeah right. And that they actually kind of grew to have a bit of a respect for one another and they respected him because I don't think he was actually being horrible to them. He was just incredibly charismatic, okay?

But perhaps he wasn't enjoying himself as much as he appeared because he said that once the ransom had been paid off, he was going to come back and haunt them down and have them or crucified.

And I think the parts.

They could have thought it was taking a little.

Bit because they didn't actually expect him to do that as he was their captive and they put it a bit odd and eccentric, yeah?

And after 38 days the ransom was paid off and the Pirates will no doubt pleased with the bumper horde of booty that they had at the end of this kind of 50 hold tonnes of gold.

Shortly after Caesar is released, he managed to raise a fleet. Either you don't have any military commander anything.

And when he set out.

In search of the Pirates and he found them still on the island camp where he had been held.

And it is now time for him to make them his captives.

The pecans have of Asia Marcus Junius wanted to sell the Pirates as slaves are not crucify them, but this didn? T stop Caesar going ahead anyway. But because he's gone so well with him, he very kindly decided to slit their throats before crucifying them to spare them the pain. That's nice. So yeah, really nice, isn't it?

That's our first little Storey there of Julius Caesar and the Pirates. So what do you think? I mean, do Caesar is the man? I think I love him. He's incredible.

But before we.

Head off to our second pirate today. We're going to.

Just look at a few facts.

Or things that people may believe about pipes that are true or things that people might not realise such about Pirates.

So you may think of Pirates as rough and kind of fighters.

They actually had lots and lots of rules to stick by. For example, they had to vote for their.

Captain and everybody would get a vote to choose their captain, but if they didn't like that captain, they could take him down from his spot and vote for a different one. OK, yes, it wasn't like there's one big.

Strongman kind of in charge, so they actually.

All had a.

Say in the pirate election. Okay, so it's quite Democratic for its time, it seems, actually, doesn't it?

They also had a healthcare.

System really yeah. So if you had an injury you would be given money to kind of help you. I guess to compensate.

Yeah, for example, if you lost your right arm, you would be given 600 pieces of eight, but if you lost your left arm, that was worth 500 pieces of eight. OK, that's amazing. So that's actually pretty forward thinking so.

This was during the Golden Age of piracy in the 16 and 1700s.

So that was say forward looking for them.

That's incredible.

Did you know that treasure or beauty and the Pirates found with distributed fairly according to skill and duty? Okay, so it wasn't just the greedy captain grabbing all of it then yeah.

Yeah, so it seems that maybe life aboard a pirate ship at those times you can see why people might want to do that an if you're sure in your farmer, but end up Pirates.

You could get kind of much fairer kind of society will be living in.

Very interesting then. Also lots of their female.

Pirates went there as well this.

Didn't seem to have a problem with class or race or gender.

That day, have you ever found pirate treasure?

No, I haven't, but I did dig up lots of beaches.

When I was your age but I found nothing although.

I have bought all these pirate Maps.

Pirates didn't Bury their treasure. It was shared out to the.

Crew or spent but seriously, so I've wasted my money.

You wish to do your treasure.

Can you kept it all to yourself within share? Our horsemen? Will you spend it on the wrong thing? I occasionally give you £0.50 a year.

And did you know?

They didn't make people walk the plank either. They preferred keelhauling and watch that it's where they tie a rope to tie a rope to somebody. Why you laughing?

And then they throw them.

Everybody and they kind of. They pull them underneath the boat underwater and then across all the barn.

Who's in the ship and back?

Up again, oh, that sounds really horrible. Really nice. He Sai. We've heard some good things about Pirates and some not so good things haven't we? Yeah, and I think The Time Machine has managed to warm up again so we should be ready for our next trip now.

Are you ready?

Yet strap yourself in because we are going.

To the 1200s, and let's give the English Channel.

Please where RI don't Amos.

Very good ako. That's currency. Can you guide us in?

Boo Boo Boo Boo I came.


ohh I didn't know they were both. Yeah Okay, now house hasn't been built yet, okay?

And I don't think.

Granny's quite being born either must be close, though, definitely.

Now, have you ever heard of Houston's the Black Monk? No, neither did I until I started researching this, and This is why I never got onto the Golden age of Pirates. We got so caught up with this chap Storey.

Now he was a mediaeval mercenary, a naval commander and a pirate born near.

Balloon in northern France and he came from a minor enable. Family changes tonight. Okay, so he would have started off writing on pigs and using a wooden sword. Quite possibly yeah, yeah. Now the.

History the Ducks did Normandy, so he went to Spain.

Where he actually studied the black art of necromancy.

So do you know what necromancy us?

Like bringing people back from the dead magic pretty much yeah, yes. Magic of the dead. It was said that no one would believe the marbles here come list, nor those which happened to him many times.

So they said that there's no equal to him in the black hearts and all of France.

There's actually lots of fantastical storeys and events from the period, such as that he and his colleagues he made entire rivers appear when there's this entire village people chasing him because I think they had rather upset villagers.

And they're pretty running off with pitchforks, and there's also storeys that he can make people fart. Let me tell you quite a bit about fighting from our flatulence. Ever say take me now despite his military training when he was younger, he decided.

To become a.

Benedictine monk in the Abbot of Summer, where he was described by 1 the head monks there as becoming demonic.

And he had a reputation for using bad language and getting other monks to either fast and they should be eating and eat when they should be fasting and just general other misbehaviour.

And it's also said that he gambled away the entire monastery.

So it's not exactly that a monk is expected to pass their time. Is it? After his death there was actually kind of a book or ask rolled over. It would have been written about him, called the Romance of the stunts, and it's from here that many of these kind of more fantastical storeys come. But it's a testament to kind of how important or well nearly was during that. Is influencing his neuter iate. And they're such a Storey written beast. They were usually reserved for more important things like Kings or Princes. Now the general vibe from the romances that he was pretty horrible person, say particularly.

It doesn't sound like a pirate yet. Does he know? But we are getting to that now in 1190, his father's murdered and he seeks revenge and he set up a duel between the accused witches hand freeze the harrassing him and himself, but not invites them self. They nominated champions on their behalf. Eustace's he lost, which meant that Humphrys went free.

But they sent a lot of bad blood between them, and it seems that the black monk he went into hiding and he started to wage a bit of a guerrilla war. And there's a lot more tales from this time and the quite reminiscent of Robin had actually read somewhere that maybe he'll be one of the influences for the Robin Hood House. Yeah, but I don't know how supportive that is, but he would play lots of tricks and hand phrase from his Woodland hideaway, and he got any capture. Some of his soldiers when they were searching for him, and he could disguise himself as a macro seller once as a lady.

Or he could even turn himself into bad and it's still money.

And do different things.

To basically play with Humphries in the same way that you like rabbits playing with. Yeah, what's his name?

The Sheriff of.


But the true storeys also continued there, as one day he caught a boy spying on him, and he had him hung.

I say often happen during this. France was at war with England, and Humphreys has allied himself to the French King, so Eustance, he decided to offer services to King John of England. Now you probably remember him from the rich of the lionhearts cast represent. Yeah, so this is that time? OK? This is that battle going on in that during this.

Due to his.

Native experiences given command of 30 ships. A neighbour tasks with raiding Normandy in northern France.

I'm going to quote have Normandy, Jonna very early, in his reign, asserted the Dominion of England over the sea by enacting that if any of the commanders of his fleets should meet with ships of a foreign nation at sea, the matters of which refused to strike the Royal flag. Such ships, if taken, would be deemed lawful prizes, even though they belonged to a state that was in amenity with England.

Sounds a bit like private hearing. There doesn't matter able to take the ships.

King John tasked with capturing the Channel Islands, which I think you're quite familiar with. Danny and he performed in a fabulous assault and managed to clear the islands of the French and it said that he took and sees Castle cornet here in Guernsey. Tricky thing to do? Yeah, it wasn't like the size it is today. It was an earlier but it's gonna it's an island at that time and he says one of his base of operations or other sources say it was suck that used eventually set up like a pirate headquarters there.

And I actually tried to siege Carter Corner myself this weekend because they've closed.

For the season and I wanted to go and see if there's anything.

About him there and.

I can get him, but they were.

A bit big for me.

He tried to scramble up.

500,000,000 metres to Wolves. Well, I looked at them and turned around and went home.

I'm not much of a seizure. He's definitely trying to break it.

But for instance, just raiding the French cased and the shipping that wasn't enough for him. So you want to take advantage of the chaos of war was happening at the time and he said his own Pirate Bay San attacked various merchant vessels of all nationalities, up and down in this channel, and said that you might even have attacked hounds along the South Coast of England in the book Outlaws of Mediaeval England. Maurice Keane writes that.

Uses his name was enough to strike terror into the hearts of channel semen so he was getting a reputation for himself and also stated that kind of English.

Parents of misbehaving children.

I'm done. They would say that Eustance would come and grab them and take them away. So I had really gone into fatal, almost like the Boogie man.


And as I said earlier, with accounts that I have read of him basically stated he was pretty horrible man, so that might be wasting the storeys of black magic became attached to him.

With Easter attacking.

And raiding English towns. King John wasn't best pleased with him, so he outlawed distance and he took his wife hostage and then burned and killed his daughter. That's nice, yes, so it's safe to say that Eustance wasn't best pleased with this and also back in France. His old enemies like Humphreys, he had actually fallen out with the French King Philip the second an allied himself with King John.

Say naturally, the Black Monk had to do the opposite and start supporting France.

So there's some science.

This in turn it led to a British attack on his pirate fortress in Sark as they wanted to reclaim the lands that he had taken. So it's important that the British controlled the Channel Islands. Good way of dictating power over the English Channel.

Philip the second. He was planning an invasion.

Of England and.

Distance was kind of an instrumental.

Part in that adds probably the Premier or greatest sea captain of its time, and I guess this is where he's going to become a pirate. Well, he's already been apparently with the rating, yeah?

An now Philip the second. He was planning an invasion of England, so in 1284 Euston became the Kings Admiral. Then his ships move the French army, including Prince Louis, over the channel to England, where they had a lot of initial successes and controlled large parts of the country. But the English we they started fighting back, so they needed the French needed a relief fleets to bring across more supplies and soldiers and things. Yeah, so.

This was.

Led by Easton, so he set sail for British shores for this relief fleet, which, according to William Marshall.

He was a pretty **** *** night, by the way. After covering some time.

Veep sorry yeah the army that he had was rightly large enough to conquer the entire realm. So this is make or break time. Eustace the greatest naval captain of his age was leading the feats that would take England.

But his ships they were large and heavy Laden and slow compared to the English ones, Okay?

To these Storey guys? Is that some of the English ships they let the French style pass them and then he came out behind them and attack them from the rear. Then the smaller, more nimble British ships were able to get the upper hand in the battle, yeah?

Now you gotta imaginable here. It's not like they're.

Firing cannons and things that you said. This is all about kind of volleys of arrows and cross bows and ships.

Running ramming into each other and barging one another and also help Lancaster ship so you can climb into.

The other one exactly yeah. Then nights on these ships.

Going hand to handle their.

Armour, so if you fall in that suit, you.

You gone yes. You'll get to Rusty in the.

Council and he will be still isn't.

Too heavy as well. Yeah, they get wrapping. Hickson had pulled the ship together. Okay, cool battle. Yeah, I mean horrible, but it must be amazing. Spectacle at the same time. Yeah, just what is loves. Imagine getting stuck in there then the English they used quicklime and if you throw that somebody's eyes Benjamin blinds them so through the use of battery saver upwind. So they were talking that defence fleets and they were able to gain the advantage.

Then eventually uses his own ship, was boarded and freeing for his life. He went down below deck and hidden the ships builds.

But he was eventually found and dragged out onto the deck. Now he offered a 10,000 mark ransom, which is a lot of money and have his life spared. But Richard Fitz?

John and the.

Other English leaders saw him as a traitor and a pirate as it is tide down and beheaded in one powerful play by.

Stephen Crabb.

Hi, yes, he's good for.

Crabs and because you have to be good at chopping.

Crabs crunches maybe as a fisherman. He's on the boat.

He just happened to be there and he was one nearby. You happen to have a sword, yeah, so the French fleet was defeated in the invasion was halted.


uses his headers put on a spike and prayed it through Canterbury and then taken out all across the land so.

People actually knew that the black monk.

The schools have saved many was dead.

The romance of Eustance ends with this line. No one who is who is intent on evil can live a long time.

History told us that he was going to his death border ship and see.

Neither of these.

Are your traditional pirate storeys, but I thought quite interesting bit of a local link of that second one as well so I liked it. What do you think of that Monk then?

Evil, yes, it's interesting. I don't know quite how he got all of this reputation around him, but I didn't know if it was. I think the romance.

Of instances about 60.


Later, so I don't know if it's maybe some of his enemies kind of Commission that, but at the same time.

For a lot of history, he's tricking them and deceiving them and outsmarting them. Yeah. How did they do that?

Well, they don't know that, but that's what's been written there, so I didn't know who.

With the commissions.

That Storey, but he must be insane notorious.

During the age that you had this written about him.

So I think there's probably a lot more kind of pirate.

Details and things going on there then.

Maybe the histories have given us so that is another episode on Pirates.

That was very good. Thank you so you found it interesting.

Well, I hope our listeners found it interesting too. And if you did, why don't you review us on?

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Recently, which is super duper and we will.

Be bringing you another episode scene, which will be our one year anniversary. I think so I think something to do from time to suit. 21 one year anniversary Woo.

Yeah, so thank you very much for listening.

And take care everybody and we will chat you again soon. Goodbye bye.

Love you love you too that day.