Parley
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Parley is a discussion or conference, especially one between enemies over terms of truce or other matters. The root of the word parley is parlée, which is from the French verb parler, "to speak".
Beginning in the High Middle Ages with the expansion of monarchs, a parley, or "talk", was a meeting held between kings and their chief retainers. Parleys were part of the many changes in Europe, especially regarding governments. These meetings can be attributed to the formation of parliaments, which are derived from a similar root, parliamentum, simply meaning "talking".
Parley was also part of the pirate code of the Brethren, set down by the pirates Henry Morgan and Bartholomew Roberts. Though there was a loose confederation of pirates, centered around Tortuga, who were known as the Brethren of the Coast — and they did have a code governing certain aspects of buccaneer life — this particular, seemingly omnipotent, version of the code never actually existed.
The concept of parley and the term "parler" was used in the 2003 Disney movie Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl. In the movie, parley became a running joke for the characters to escape harm.
