Michel, Chevalier de Grammont, a nobleman who had come into disfavor after killing his sister's suitor in a duel and was forced to leave France, had in about 1670 gone to Hispaniola, where he had been given a French ship.

Serving as a privateer, his first success had been the capture of a Dutch convoy, valued at about four hundred thousand livres (four million US dollars).

On his next voyage he had run up onto a reef and sunk.

Grammont had then moved to Tortuga, where he bought and outfitted a new ship which he uses to attack Spanish shipping.

When war broke out between France and Holland, he had joined the fleet under the command of Comte d'Estrées for an abortive raid on the Dutch island of Curaçao in which the entire fleet of seventeen vessels had been wrecked on the Los Roques Archipelago (Las Aves).

De Grammont is in June 1678 made commander of the six ships and seven hundred men salvaged from the Las Aves Disaster.

He lands his men in Spanish-held Venezuela and captures Maracaibo, ...

...then follows with the capture and plundering of several smaller towns, penetrating as far inland as Trujillo.

De Grammont and his pirates have for the past six months plundered Venezuela.

This is followed by another successful raid on the Venezuelan port of La Guaira, captured in a daring night attack, though the buccaneers only escape with difficulty when attacked by a larger Spanish force.

Jan Willems, also known as Janke or Yankey Willems, a buccaneer, based in Petit Goave, participates in a number of expeditions against the Spanish during the early to-mid 1680s with other well-known privateers including the American Thomas Paine, the Dutchmen Michiel Andrieszoon, Laurens de Graaf, Nicholas van Hoorn, and the Frenchman Michel de Grammont.

Willem, although he is a Dutchman, works with English privateers during the first years of his buccaneering career, raiding Rio de la Hacha with American privateer Thomas Paine in 1680.

De Grammont joins forces with Paine and an English privateer captain named William Wright in June of 1680 at Isla La Blanquill.

Together with fifty men, they successfully raid the town of Caracas, although it is defended by two thousand Spanish soldiers.

De Grammont is badly wounded by a sword, however, and returns to Las Aves to recover.

...the buccaneers retire to Petit-Goâve, Saint Domingue, to celebrate and refit.

De Graaf makes the Princesa his new flagship.

Meanwhile, French privateer Michel de Grammont, following his recovery, has commanded eight ships but had had no success until 1682 when, at the request of the governor of Petit-Goâve, he joins the Dutch pirate Nicholas van Hoorn to harass Spanish shipping.

The Dutch buccaneer Jan Willems, along with his compatriots Laurens de Graaf, Nicholas van Hoorn and the French pirate Michel de Grammont, on May 17, 1683, successfully raids Veracruz.

Using two captured Spanish galleons in the vanguard, he and Laurens de Graaf are able to sneak into the Spanish harbor during the early morning hours and land a small force on shore.

Van Hoorn, marching overland, joins with de Graaf and attacks the town.

The buccaneers catch the garrison off guard, many of the soldiers still sleeping, and take out the city's defenses, allowing the rest of the fleet to enter the harbor.

On the second day of plundering, the Spanish "Plate" fleet, composed of numerous warships, appears on the horizon.

Retreating with hostages to the nearby island of Los Sacrificios (the sacrificed), the pirates wait for ransoms.

Either the division of the spoils or the treatment of the hostages leads to a duel between Hoorn and de Graaf, which is fought on the shore of the island.

Van Hoorn is seriously wounded with a slash across his wrist.

Finally, giving up on further plunder, the pirates depart past the Spanish ships without hindrance.

Louis Granmont, one of the most celebrated of French buccaneers, had first distinguished himself in service in the French royal marines, but, having illegally gambled away a captured prize cargo in Hispaniola (Haiti), dared not return to France and took to buccaneering.

His first grand exploit was at the head of seven hundred men on Lake Maracaibo, Venezuela, seizing ships and plundering surrounding settlements.

He and a small party of men in June 1680 had launched a night attack at La Guaira, the seaport of Caracas, and carried off the local governor and other prisoners.

He had taken part in the successful French and English attack on Vera Cruz, Mexico, in 1663, and the following year had led an attack on Cartagena.

Granmont joins in July 1685, with other captains, notably the Dutch pirates Laurens de Graff, Michel de Grammont, Nicholas van Hoorn, and a force of about 11,000, in attacking Campeche on the Yucatán Peninsula.

After a protracted battle, the Spaniards flee the town, leaving the pirates with a city devoid of plunder, due to the length of the battle and the delay of several months in actually attacking.

After two months in the town, the pirates, failing to secure a ransom, Michel de Grammont had sent a demand for ransom to the governor, who had refused.

De Grammont had then commenced to burn the town and execute prisoners as retaliation, but de Graaf had stopped the executions and de Grammont had parted company from his allies.

The pirates depart Campeche in September 1685, carrying many prisoners for ransom.

De Grammont will last be seen in April 1686 sailing in the northeast direction sailing off of St. Augustine. (Although his exact fate is unknown, his ship is reported lost with all hands in a storm shortly after he sets sail.)

Louis Granmont, after being appointed king’s lieutenant by Louis XIV, will sail from Hispaniola in 1686 with a crew of one hundred and eighty but will never be heard of again.