Something unthinkable happened during the summer of 1718. Edward Teach, the infamous pirate known as Blackbeard, decided to give up piracy—at least ostensibly—in exchange for a royal pardon from the governor of North Carolina absolving him and his men of all wrongdoing.

This was a great deal for the pirates, whose wrongdoing was extensive. But Blackbeard’s lawfulness—and his life—didn’t last long.

Just a few months prior, Blackbeard and his small pirate flotilla had blockaded Charleston, South Carolina, for close to a week. He plundered ships, took hostages and “struck a great terror to the whole Province of Carolina,” according to the pseudonymous author Captain Charles Johnson.

But with his new veneer of legality, Blackbeard appeared to settle down. He married the daughter of a local planter and moved into a house in Bath, North Carolina, just down the street from the governor who’d pardoned him.