. PREVIEW. AUTHORS: Sean Kingsley and Rex Cowan TITLE: The Pirate King: Lost Treasure, Piracy in the Indian Ocean, Spying, Spycraft for the King, Scottish Independence SUMMARY: Henry Avery, surviving pirate and strategist, was sent as Daniel Defoe's enf
The John Batchelor Show
John Batchelor
4.5 • 2.8K Ratings
🗓️ 21 September 2025
⏱️ 3 minutes
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Summary
TITLE: The Pirate King: Lost Treasure, Piracy in the Indian Ocean, Spying, Spycraft for the King, Scottish Independence
SUMMARY: Henry Avery, surviving pirate and strategist, was sent as Daniel Defoe's enforcer/wingman to manipulate opinion in Scotland (1706), fighting Jacobites threatening Scottish independence.
Details:
- Henry Avery was one of the few pirates who survived to enjoy their ill-gotten gains, unlike Blackbeard, Stede Bonnet, and Calico Jack Rackham, who were hanged or died
- Avery was sent with master spy Daniel Defoe to Scotland in early 18th century to undermine the Scottish independence movement
- They traveled to Scotland in September 1706
- Edinburgh was a hotbed of Catholics, known locally as Jacobites
- These Jacobites threatened to break away from the English Crown
- Daniel Defoe was sent by London to manipulate public opinion by controlling key figures (church leaders, lawyers, merchants) and the presses
- They established control within two months
- Henry Avery served as Defoe's wingman and enforcer
- Avery is characterized as an incredible strategist, very smart, ex-Royal Navy salt, "the thinking man's muscle"
Transcript
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| 0:26.2 | This is John Batchelor, a conversation with Sean Kingsley and Rex Cowan for their wonderful, not believable but all factual story, the pirate king. |
| 0:32.6 | Lost treasure, piracy in the Indian Ocean, spying, spycraft for the King, Scottish Independence. |
| 0:42.0 | This is the strange adventures of Henry Avery, the pirate king, and the birth of the golden age of piracy. |
| 0:48.9 | Sean Kingsley here not only describes how Henry Avery was sent with the master spy Daniel Defoe to Scotland |
| 0:58.3 | to undermine the Scottish independence movement. |
| 1:02.4 | This is the early 18th century, but also lived to tell the tale of his piracy, of his treasure. |
| 1:13.4 | The Golden Age of Piracy. |
| 1:14.9 | Very few survived, as Sean will mention. |
| 1:18.4 | Sean Kingsley, with his colleague Rex Cowan, |
| 1:21.4 | the Pirate King, the strange adventures of Henry Avery |
| 1:24.0 | and the birth of the Golden Age of Piracy, |
| 1:26.6 | much more of this tonight. |
| 1:28.5 | Thank you. |
| 1:29.4 | I think that Daniel Defoe is a details guy. |
| 1:33.8 | You know, he's really good. |
| 1:35.2 | You know, as you say, they go up to Scotland in September 1706. |
| 1:39.6 | And this links again to Catholicisms. |
| 1:42.1 | Scotland in Edinburgh, there are a hotbed of Catholics, what we call Jacobites. There's all kinds of characters coming over the sea from France. And they're threatening, kind of like today with Scottish independence and history repeating itself, they're threatening to break away from the English crown. And London's not going to allow that to happen. So they send Daniel DeFoe up there |
| 2:02.7 | to basically manipulate public opinion by getting control of people in the church, lawyers, |
| 2:10.4 | merchants, controlling the presses. If you control what is written, you control people's minds. |
... |
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