Historical events of the 1680s influence the fate, both personal and professional, of Peter Blood, providing the catalyst and conclusion of his odyssey. The catalyst is the ascension of James II to the English throne after his brother Charles II died. Charles’s illegitimate son the Duke of Monmouth declared himself the rightful heir. Thousands of men in the West Country supported the Protestant Monmouth over the Catholic James, but their rebellion was a failure that resulted in hundreds of executions. Some of the rebels were convicted at the “Bloody Assizes,” sham trials presided over by Judge Jeffreys, and received death sentences. James saw an opportunity to profit from other rebels (and their associates such as Peter Blood) by selling them into slavery in the West Indies.

The event that provides a conclusion to Blood’s journey is the Glorious Revolution in 1689, when a group of prominent Englishmen asked the king’s Dutch son-in-law, William of Orange, to bring troops to fight for Protestantism and constitutional government. William accepted and brought troops to England, but the anticipated battle never happened because James II fled to France before William could engage him. William and Mary—his wife and James II’s daughter—became joint monarchs.