From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Anne Dieu-le-Veut
Anne Dieu-le-Veut
Anne Dieu-Le-Veut also called Marie-Anne or Marianne However, the pirates were outnumbered, and they were
(born ca 1650) was a French Pirate, a so called Buccaneer, all captured and taken first to Veracruz in Mexico, and
and together with Jaquotte Delahaye one of very few fe- then to Cartagena in Colombia, both of which were cities
male ones. earlier sacked by Laurens, to be judged. Anne’s fame was
She is believed to have been a criminal deported from so great that when the French Marine Secretary of
France in this manner, as were many of those women. Pontchartrain heard of this, he wrote to Louis XIV of
Her deportation to Tortuga was said to have taken place France and asked him to make the king of Spain inter-
during the reign of governor Betrand d’Ogeron de la vene. Anne was then freed as a special service between
Bouere, which means it must have been in 1665-1668 or kings, and she was never heard of again.
1669-1675. In Tortuga she was married to the buccaneer This story is not confirmed, but it could be at least
Pierre Length. partially true; if Laurens and Anne settled in Mississippi,
In 1683, Anne’s husband was killed in a bar fight by it would not have prevented them from continuing their
the famous buccaneer Laurens de Graff. She challenged career of piracy, on the contrary, it would make it easier
Laurens to a duel to avenge her husbands death (other - as Tortuga was closed as a base for the buccaneers in
sources claims she heard him insult her), and while Lau- 1697, Mississippi would have been a much better head-
rens drew his sword, Anne drew her gun. Laurens then quarters, and privateering against Spain would have
succumbed saying he would not fight a woman; he then been very possible during the Spanish war of Succession
proposed to her on the spot in admiration of her courage, in 1700-1714. The fact that Anne was rescued by the in-
and she accepted. In reality, the two were actually not tervention of an official from Pontchartrain in Louisiana
married, as Laurens already had a wife he had abandoned confirms this, and she and Laurens were mentioned in
many years ago, but they were from this point seen as Mississippi in 1700- and as one of the rivalling Spanish
man and wife. Others claim this event happened in 1693. kings during that period was a French prince, it would
Anne is called a pirate because she accompanied Lau- have made it easy to receive a Spanish royal pardon from
rens on his ship and fought on his side during acts of France.
piracy, sharing his work and the command on his ship in If this truly happened when Laurens died, which is
the same fashion as Anne Bonny did with Calico Jack. Un- the part of the story that is most unlikely to be true, it
like Anne Bonny, she did not disguise her sex, and her could have happened in 1704, which is the traditional
acts therefore aroused much attention and fascination. guess on Laurens death-year.
She was talked about as brave, stern and ruthless, and it Anne’s daughter (she was said to have had two, born
was in these years that her name "Anne God-Wants" be- in the early 1690s) was said to have lived in Haiti, where
came known. Usually, it was considered bad luck to have she became known for having performed a duel with a
a woman on board a ship, but Anne was instead regarded man.
as the bringer of good luck.
In 1693, her husband raided Jamaica, and was as a
thanks rewarded with the noble title of Chevalier, the po-
External links
sition of Major Lieutenant and the commission of Ile-a- • http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Post/426776
Vache, but the year after, the English took their revenge Persondata
on Tortuga, and Anne and her two daughters were tak- Name Dieu-Le-Veut, Anne
en prisoner by the English and kept as hostages for three
years. She was said to have been treated with great re- Alternative names
spect. In 1698 they were reunited with Laurens. Short description
After this, their fates become blurred; some say they Date of birth
became colonists in Mississippi, Alabama or Louisiana,
Place of birth
others that they continued their piracy, or at least priva-
teering. Date of death
The most famous story of Anne is as follows: as Anne Place of death
and Laurens attacked a Spanish ship, a cannon ball took
the life of Laurens, and Anne took his place as comman-
der of his ship, as she had done before, hurled their crew
of pirates on with fury in the fight against the Spaniards.
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Anne Dieu-le-Veut
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Anne_Dieu-le-Veut&oldid=461867364"
Categories:
• Female duellists
• Female pirates
• French pirates
• 1650s births
• 1700s deaths
• Women in 17th-century warfare
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