Discover the truth about the 17th-century Welsh naval officer who became a hero for the British Empire—and not a bloodthirsty pirate. This is the swashbuckling biography of the naval officer known as the Sword of England, the Welshman Henry Morgan. Over the years, Morgan came to be portrayed as a black-hearted, fierce pirate. This error in terms and in the assessment of Morgan’s character led to the filing of the first libel lawsuit, brought in protest to a book published in 1684 claiming he had been an indentured servant, was a pirate, and was responsible for atrocities. In fact, Morgan was commissioned to aid the British navy in fighting enemies of the crown and was a superb military tactician who led a dozen victorious campaigns against massive odds. In 1655, Spain was the greatest naval and military power on earth, and controlled the sea lanes of Central America and the Caribbean. Henry Morgan’s career as a buccaneer officially began when, at age twenty, he landed in Barbados as part of a force deployed to capture Cuba or Hispaniola (Puerto Rico) for the British. The deployment failed, but the forces did capture Jamaica, which would become Morgan’s adopted home base for the rest of his life. From there, Morgan planned the attacks that would enrich the British throne and usher in the era of British supremacy on the high seas. For his leadership in battle and as lieutenant governor of Jamaica, Admiral Sir Henry Morgan deserves to take his place alongside Sir Francis Drake and the Duke of Wellington in the panoply of history’s greatest heroes.

But it was his face which attested the acuteness of the sneering observation of the unworthy giver of the royal accolade. No gentleman ever bore a face like that. Framed in long, thin, gray curls which] fell upon his shoulders after the fashion of the time, it was as cruel, as evil, as sensuous, as ruthless, as powerful an old face as had ever looked over a bulwark at a sinking ship, or viewed with indifference the ravaging of a devoted town. Courage there was, capacity in large measure, but not one trace of human kindness. Thin, lean, hawk-like, ruthless, cunning, weather-beaten, it was sadly out of place in its brave attire in that vaulted chamber. It was the face of a man who ruled by terror; who commanded by might. It was the face of an adventurer, too, one never sure of his position, but always ready to fight for it, and able to fight well. There was a watchful, alert, inquiring look in the fierce blue eyes, an intent, expectant expression in the craggy countenance, that told of the uncertainties of his assumptions; yet the lack of assurance was compensated for by the firm, resolute line of the mouth under the trifling upturned mustache, with its lips at the same time thin and sensual. To be fat and sensual is to appear to mitigate the latter evil with at least a pretense at good humor; to be thin and sensual is to be a devil. This man was evil, not with the grossness of a debauchee but with the thinness of the devotee. And he was an old man, too. Sixty odd years of vicious life, glossed over in the last two decades by an assumption of respectability, had swept over the gray hairs, which evoked no reverence.

This is the story of a Welshman who became one of the most ruthless and brutal buccaneers of the golden age of piracy. His name was Captain Sir Henry Morgan and, unlike his contemporaries, he was not hunted down and killed or captured by the authorities. Instead he was considered a hero in England and given a knighthood as well as being made governor of Jamaica. As Graham Thomas reveals in this fresh biography of this complex and intriguing character, Morgan was an exceptional military leader whose prime motivation was to amass as much wealth as he could by sacking and plundering settlements, towns and cities up and down the Spanish Main.??As featured on BBC Radio Wiltshire and in Cardiff Times.