Captain Kidd.

[Ysgarran]

This isn't really applicable to many campaigns but I thought this might be the source of some plot ideas:

http://www.geocities.com/tokyo/garden/5213/engl1695.htm

Summary:
Captain Kidd had a letter of reprisal against French Merchant ships. Captain Kidd was condemned and found guilty of piracy because he could not produce the commissions/papers which would prove that several of the vessels which he had captured, were lawful prizes.

 

[Cutty Sark]

Captain Kidd got the shaft

The important stuff gets left out of the Captain Kidd story. For example, he wasn't a pirate: he did his best to carry out his orders and cruise against pirates, but his crew mutinied off Madagascar and a man named Bob Culliford commanded the ship in all sorts of pirate debauchery in the Indian Ocean. When captured, the British authorities hanged Kidd as a scapegoat, and let Culliford live for sqealing about other pirates. Kidd's trial was a sham and the charges were unfounded.

This might be an even better story for a plot idea. The most famous pirate in the realm isn't, or maybe a PC is going to be tried under false pretenses?