Claude Du Val: the Original Gentleman Highwayman
The image of highwaymen that has been handed down through history is a mixture of fact and legend merged together. It consists of conflicting images of heroism of the poor, robbing the rich, and the violence of criminality. The seventeenth and eighteenth centuries saw an increase in criminality in general, but none more so than highway robbery. The highwayman became the image of the ‘gentleman’ criminal. Whilst in more recent times, this has been posthumously attributed to Dick Turpin, the ‘actual’ gentleman highwaymen was a Frenchman, Claude Du Val.
Whilst most criminals were usually criticised for turning to criminality due to their own greed for luxury, idleness, poor education or parental neglect, there was a ‘separate class’ of criminal, of which Claude Duval was included, where they used glorified stories of themselves to build upon their own reputation. Increasingly, this status was given to highwaymen. They were characters to be romanticised by fashionable hostesses in their high society salons.
The term highwayman is believed to have become a popular term in the seventeenth century, when the amount of highway robberies began to increase. Highwaymen were most popular from the English Civil War until the mid-eighteenth century, which was fuelled by their legendary representations through storytelling, ballads, novels and plays. Many highwaymen had originally been soldiers or cavalrymen who had fallen on hard times and so, they turned to a new profession that still used the same horseman skills. Most importantly for Claude Duval in particular, he was known for his gallantry and portrayed himself as a version of Robin Hood.
As Du Val’s name suggests, he was a Frenchman and was born in Normandy in 1643. Like most highwaymen, he had turned to a life of crime because of bankruptcy, which also triggered his move to England. His reputation was built on his fashionable appearance and gallant treatment of his victims, as he was known for never using physical violence. For these actions Du Val became a popular figure for the ladies of the court to admire, but most importantly, Charles II admired him too.
The crime he is most famous for is when he tried to rob a couple and the woman challenged Du Val to a flageolet (a type of flute) and dancing contest. This incident amused Du Val very much and helped to reduce the husband’s payment owed to Du Val from £400 to £100. It is gentlemanly acts like this that I believe set Du Val out from other highwaymen. Most, such as Dick Turpin, where prone to using acts of extreme violence, which has since been forgotten over time and due to literary depictions referring to them as some form of romantic hero.
Unfortunately for Du Val, his gallantry was unable to save him from the eventual fate that would await him. He was eventually captured after a rather heavy drinking session in December 1669. After his trial, which was viewed with much intrigue by his many fans and the jury alike, he was sentenced to hang at Tyburn on 21st January of that year. What makes Du Val’s fate seem unusual is that both the women of the court and Charles II tried to intervene in the case, protesting about his good character and habit of not showing any violence, but the judge didn’t pay any attention to these protests. Still, his celebrity status certainly followed him to the grave. The Newgate Calendar describes his funeral as a large affair. He was laid in state as if he was a person of significant importance and many people attended the funeral. His tomb was also to be a fine affair where “a white marble stone was laid over him”, again suggesting that he was more than a condemned criminal. This headstone had the inscription of:
Here lies Du Vall, Reader, if male thou art,
Look to thy purse. If female, to thy heart.
Much havoc has he made of both; for all
Men he made to stand, and women he made to fall
The second Conqueror of the Norman race,
Knights to his arm did yield, and ladies to his face.
Old Tyburn’s glory; England’s illustrious Thief,
Du Vall, the ladies’ joy; Du Vall, the ladies’ grief.
Du Val is a perfect example of the criminal as celebrity. He helped to create the cultural identity of the ‘gentlemen highwayman’, which would help to mask the violence of others. It was Du Val who I believe should be recognised more than any other highwaymen for this, even though he has been posthumously overtaken by Dick Turpin as the most famous highwayman. Du Val, whilst a criminal at heart, never allowed it to corrupt his gentlemanly character and didn’t use the highwayman profession to take out personal revenge on the world as his contemporaries where known to do in the post-Civil War Era.
Emsley, C., Crime and Society in England, 1750-1900, Second Edition (Harlow: Longman, 1996), pp. 58 and 71.
Arnold, C., Underworld London: Crime and Punishment in the Capital City (London: Simon & Schuster, 2012), p. 90.
McDonald, F., Gentleman Rogues and Wicked Ladies: a Guide to British Highwaymen and Highwaywomen (Stroud: The History Press, 2012), p. 20.
McDonald, F., Gentleman Rogues and Wicked Ladies, pp. 10 and 21.
Adkins, R. and L., Eavesdropping on Jane Austen’s England: How our Ancestors Lived Two Centuries Ago (London: Abacus, 2014), p. 269.
Adkins, R. and L., Eavesdropping on Jane Austen’s England, p. 269.
Arnold, C., Underworld London, p. 83.
Peel, W., Stand and Deliver (Milverton: Giete, 2012), p. 42.
Arnold, C., Underworld London, p. 83.
Peel, W., Stand and Deliver, pp. 42-43.
Arnold, C., Underworld London, p. 92.
Basdeo, S., The Lives and Exploits of the Most Notes Highwaymen, Rogues and Murderers (Barnsley: Pen and Sword, 2018), p.44.
Peel, W., Stand and Deliver, p. 43.
Peel, W., Stand and Deliver, p. 43.
Claude Du Val, Newgate Calendar, Part 1 (1740) http://www.exclassics.com/newgate/newgate1.txt
Claude Du Val, Newgate Calendar, Part 1 (1740) http://www.exclassics.com/newgate/newgate1.txt
Claude Du Val, Newgate Calendar, Part 1 (1740) http://www.exclassics.com/newgate/newgate1.txt
Peel, W., Stand and Deliver, p. 46.
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