letters of marque in English
noun
1
a license to fit out an armed vessel and use it in the capture of enemy merchant shipping and to commit acts that would otherwise have constituted piracy.
Semi-official entrepreneurs, carrying government-signed letters of marque and reprisal, and known as privateers, also were a significant force in commerce raiding up until the nineteenth century.
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1. Title In Congress, April 3, 1776 : Resolved, that every person intending to set forth and fit out a private ship or vessel of war, and applying for a commission or letters of marque and reprisal for that purpose, shall produce a writing, subscribed by him, containing the name, and tonnage or Burthen of the ship or vessel, the number of her guns, with their weight of metal