Although Crabbe probably began his career earlier, the first notice of him as a pirate is in 1305, when he attacked the
Waardeboure of
Dordrecht at
La Rochelle in the
Bay of Biscay, seizing the cargo, which included 160
tuns of wine, burning the ship, and kidnapping the sailors. According to
William Gurstelle, Crabbe largely owed the success of his attack on the
Waardeboure to his development of a catapult which could be fired from the deck of his ship. Since Dordrecht was under the jurisdiction of
John II, Count of Holland, and the Counts of Holland and Zeeland were a "traditional enemy of Flanders", Crabbe likely considered the
Waardeboure "legitimate prey". The ship's owner, one John de le Waerde (Johannis de Wardre), a
Dordrecht merchant, sought damages of 2,000
livres tournois. He enlisted the help of
Philip IV of France in negotiations with
Robert III, Count of Flanders, but after four years Crabbe and his men had not been brought to justice. When summoned to trial they failed to appear; thus, although they were found guilty, de le Waerde was not indemnified. Nothing further is heard of Crabbe until the spring of 1310, when he seized a ship carrying cloth, jewels, gold, silver and other goods worth £2000 which were the property of
Alice of Hainault (died 26 October 1317),
Countess Marshal. As revealed in a letter of complaint from
Edward II of England to Count Robert of Flanders dated 29 May 1310, the ship was in the
Strait of Dover, bound for London, when it was attacked by Crabbe, then master of the
De la Mue (i.e. of Mude or Muiden). Although the king sent further letters to the count, Crabbe was not brought to justice. In 1315, some of Crabbe's men were punished, but no restitution had been made, in consequence of which Edward II ordered the seizure of
Flemish ships and goods in London to compensate the countess. By this time Crabbe was apparently established in
Aberdeen, where he may have had relatives. There he disputed rights to land in Cults,
Cromar. Over the centuries, the name Crabbe became Craib. Craibs were farming on Strathmore, Cromar from the 1700s. According to Lucas, Flemish merchants were welcome in Scotland because of the enmity between that country and England. From there they preyed on English merchant ships, sending the plundered goods to ports in Flanders for sale. In 1311 Crabbe seized two merchant ships from
Newcastle-on-Tyne bound for Flanders with a cargo of eighty-nine sacks of wool. Friends of Crabbe in Aberdeen took the wool to Flanders where it was sold. The merchants complained to Edward II, who wrote to Count Robert requesting restitution. For the next several years, nothing is known of Crabbe's activities. However, in 1316 Flanders was ravaged by famine, and Count Robert allowed Crabbe to return, and appointed him admiral of a fleet of ships with orders to acquire food to alleviate the famine. Crabbe duly seized two ships owned by merchants of
Great Yarmouth. In December of that year Crabbe seized another ship,
La Bona Navis de la Strode, off the
Isle of Thanet. The
Bona Navis was carrying a valuable cargo of wine intended for the English market, and the king made a series of representations concerning Crabbe's plunder of it to Count Robert during the ensuing five years. Count Robert, however, in a letter of 14 November 1317, disavowed knowledge of Crabbe's whereabouts, claiming that he had been banished for murder, but that he would be punished on the
wheel if found. Crabbe was now notorious, and his deeds were mentioned by the chronicler
Lodewijk van Velthem of
Antwerp. He returned to Scotland, eventually settling in
Berwick, where he became a burgess, and continued his attacks on English ships. In 1318–1319, when the English attempted to capture Berwick, Crabbe played an important role in the defence of the town, recorded in verse by
John Barbour, author of
The Bruce: John Craby, a Flemyne, als had he, That wes of gret subtilite. of
Berwick Castle In 1332,
war broke out again between England and Scotland, with
Edward III supporting the claim of
Edward Balliol (died 1363) to the Scottish throne. Balliol defeated the Scots at the
Battle of Dupplin Moor, and Crabbe, who was in command of a fleet of ten Flemish ships, was also decisively defeated by English vessels in the
Firth of Tay. After the battle Crabbe escaped to Berwick, but shortly thereafter was captured in a skirmish by the English soldier
Walter de Manny. At the petition of an English Parliament convened at
York, Edward III allowed Manny the 4,300 marks ransom to be paid by the Scots for Crabbe, and ordered that Crabbe, still a prisoner in Scotland, be kept in chains until he had made restitution for his earlier robbery of the
Bona Navis. According to Lucas, Crabbe was fearful of his English captors, and succeeded in getting
John Randolph, 3rd Earl of Moray, to request a safe conduct for him to the English court until
Michaelmas 1333. Once Crabbe had arrived in England, Edward III determined to keep him there, and paid Manny 1,000 marks for Crabbe's ransom. The English once again
besieged Berwick in the spring of 1333, and after the Scots were decisively defeated on 19 July 1333 at the
Battle of Halidon Hill, they refused to ransom Crabbe from the English because, according to the
Lanercost Chronicle, Crabbe had assisted Edward III at the siege of Berwick. The Scots then killed Crabbe's son. Edward III later rewarded Crabbe for his "good service in the siege of Berwick" by pardoning him of all his crimes on both land and sea, and making him
Constable of
Somerton Castle. ==Later years==