The “golden age of piracy” in the Caribbean lasted from the end of the English Civil War to the end of the first quarter of the eighteenth century, or roughly 1650 to 1725. The lawlessness in the Caribbean corresponded with a time when Spanish power, which controlled most of the lands and trade around the sea, was fading. French, Dutch, and English pirates took advantage of the loss of Spanish control to raid settlements and seize trading ships. In 1655, at the height of the Interregnum following the English Civil War, an English fleet led by Admiral William Penn (1621–1670), father of the founder of Pennsylvania, and commander Robert Venables (1613–1687) seized the island of Jamaica from the Spanish. Jamaica gave the English both an interest in the Caribbean trade and a base for further operations against the Spanish.