Which crime was William Kidd hanged for in 1701?

William Kidd is one of the most famous pirates in history, remembered for his execution for piracy on the Indian Ocean.

Born in Scotland in 1645, William Kidd started out as a privateer, hired by European royals to attack foreign ships. When his crew insisted on attacking the Quadegh Merchant, a large Armenian ship laden with treasures on the Indian Ocean, Kidd found himself on the wrong side of the British government. He was hanged in London in 1701, as a warning to other pirates. Legends persist about Captain Kidd and the treasure some believe he buried in the Caribbean, and he remains one of history's most famous and fascinating pirates.

The belief that Kidd had left buried treasure contributed considerably to the growth of his legend. The 1701 broadside song "Captain Kid's Farewell to the Seas, or, the Famous Pirate's Lament" lists "Two hundred bars of gold, and rix-dollars manifold, we seized uncontrolled". This belief made its contributions to literature in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Gold-Bug"; Washington Irving's "The Devil and Tom Walker"; Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island and Nelson DeMille's Plum Island.