Historical person
Nathaniel Courthope
1585–1620
Nathaniel Courthope was an English East India Company factor who occupied the small spice island of Run in 1616 to challenge Dutch control of the Banda Islands. Nathaniel Courthope is generally dated to 1585–1620.
Courthope was an English East India Company merchant who in 1616 occupied the small spice island of Run in the Banda Islands and negotiated with its inhabitants for English protection and trade. He resisted Dutch efforts to seize the island for several years despite shortages and isolation. In 1620 he was killed during a Dutch attack, shortly before the English position in the Banda Islands collapsed.
Giles Milton’s Nathaniel’s Nutmeg centres the story on Nathaniel Courthope, who reached the island of Run in 1616 and accepted its inhabitants’ alliance with England. In the early seventeenth century, nutmeg grew commercially only in the Banda Islands, making the small archipelago a focus of violent competition between local communities, the Dutch East India Company and English merchants. With a small force and limited supplies, he attempted to resist Dutch efforts to enforce a regional monopoly.
Non Fiction
Non Fiction featuring Nathaniel Courthope (1 book)
Biographies, histories and other non-fiction are listed separately from the historical novels above.