Nassau was formerly known as Charles Town; it was burned to the ground by the Spanish in 1684, but later rebuilt and renamed Nassau in 1695 in honour of Dutch King William III of England and Ireland from the Dutch House of Orange-Nassau. In 1703 Spanish and French allied forces briefly occupied Nassau. By 1713, the sparsely settled Bahamas had become a pirate rendezvous. English pirate chieftains Thomas Barrow (pirate) and Benjamin Hornigold proclaimed Nassau a pirate republic, establishing themselves as governors, and were joined by Charles Vane, Calico Jack Rackham, and Edward Teach, the infamous "Blackbeard", along with women pirates such as Anne Bonny and Mary Read.
