The Virgin Queen Lasted 44 Years and Led Her People to the Spanish Armada Defeat. Contracts Led Her the Way in Piracy.

What do Queen Elizabeth's pirating privateers have to do with Contracts.

Contracts, Agreements, Letters

It is easy in our updated modern world governed by contracts at every turn to see ourselves as highly civilized. But it is important to understand that contracts, and the elements of contracts have arisen in our modern world because of the ferocious and unpredictable wild human heart and the turbulent actions of that collective will in human society.

Bar Room Brawls and Duels at Dawn

We all know what bar room brawls sound like in theatrical extremes, full of grunting epithets and inebriated monosyllables. But if you could conjure up in formal English accents, and outfits from the Restoration period, you could characterize a bar room brawl differently:

"Kind sir, I see that we have a dispute. I know that you think you understand what you heard that I said, but it is my position that what you think I said, is not what I meant."

Privateers and Pirates

Remove Johnny Depp in the Caribbean in costume and the much more likely Errol Flynn. Think of pirates as disappointed and uniquely encouraged privateers who had licenses and contracts from none other than the Queen. Contracts, no less to go out and rob and pillage and sweep "booty" from unloved foreign shipping.

This was a fantastically wealthy government contracted project that enriched all contractual participants. It flooded her government coffers. This avoided over taxing her public and got her right where she wanted on the world scene. Amanda J. Snyder at the University of North Carolina website article entitled: "The Politics of Piracy: Pirates, Privateers, and the Government of Elizabeth I, 1558 - 1588":

"Elizabeth had to avoid conflict because she had insufficient military forces... Realizing that at her disposal were dozens of experienced sailors with their own ships, she began to sanction piracy by creating and encouraging a fleet of privateers. Such an act allowed Elizabeth to whittle away at Spanish hegemony in the Atlantic... culminating in the defeat of the Spanish Armada".

Contracts Are Civilizing Are They Not?

It is easy to think of contracts as the civilizing feature of our system, but in many ways, they can act as a great source of conflict. How you solve contractual disputes then becomes a great issue. Much violence occurs because people leap outside the contracts and decide to settle them, or more pointedly seek violent satisfaction from what they deem as a broken contract, in physical ways.

The Power of Accusation - "She Turned Me Into A Newt".

Human contracts end up in courts. Making statements about "contracts" tends to make people immediately think about Courts. The Power of the Accusation tends to make one tremble. The Accusation and its power go back to the first judges of society. Moses's system set up named Judges for his tribes, which, understanding the nature of people probably kept them busy day and night. In the Movie, Monty Python and the Search for the Holy Grail, a take off on Ancient England and its Holy Grail myth, a man, trying to condemn a Witch, makes a statement with the full enthusiasm of a witness for the prosecution.

Sir Bedevere: What makes you think she's a witch?
Peasant 3: Well, she turned me into a newt!
Sir Bedevere: A newt?
Peasant 3: [meekly after a long pause] ... I got better.

Contracts Are Designed To Bring Agreement and Satisfaction and Good Results

For when the first humans, who could write, said "Why don't we write this down", it carried a powerful impact. This article points to the powerful historical elemental factors that bring us to our civilized conclusions. A contract has to start with an "offer". If parties don't benefit (usually with money) then its probably not a contract. The "competency of parties" has to do with people knowingly and consciously entering into the contract with "competence". Can they do this? Are they truly competent? Is this person or party authorized to do this contract and enter into it?

"Am I My Brother's Keeper?"

Cain's answer is a deeply mysterious one when you think about it. Abel was dead, and he most likely knew it, since he killed him. But he resorted to a contractual legal response to the first Biblical homicide interrogation. What an odd response to God.

Fascinating how when under pressure, our Minds tend to go to contractual issues, when we are seeking a defense of the Heart.

The Queen was "Above Board" when it came to the Success of her Military. She truly had a Major Contract with her People.