Outlaws and highwaymen : the cult of the robber in England from the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century / Gillian Spraggs.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Spraggs, Gillian, 1952-

Series:

Pimlico (Series) ; 476.

Pimlico ; 476

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Outlaws--England--History.

Outlaws.

Outlaws in literature.

Brigands and robbers--England--History.

Brigands and robbers.

Brigands and robbers in literature.

History.

England--Social conditions.

England.

Social conditions.

Physical Description:

viii, 372 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations, 1 map, portraits ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

London : Pimlico, 2001.

Summary:

In the modern imagination, the highwayman is a figure on horseback in a three-cornered hat who holds up a mailcoach with pistols. But England has a long legendary history of robber heroes that goes back well before Dick Turpin, even before the earliest ballads of Robin Hood. Eighteenth-century highwaymen like Turpin were absorbed into an already rich tradition of stories and ideas about robbery and robbers. In this lively and informative book, Gillian Spraggs argues for the existence of a distinctively English 'cult of the robber'. Englishmen took pride in the belief that there were more robbers in England than anywhere else in Europe. This was felt to be a credit to the nation, because it demonstrated English toughness and daring. Robbery possessed a potent mystique. For one thing, it was a gentleman's crime. The penniless young gentleman who took a purse on the highway was felt to be showing the courage that he had inherited from his ancestors. As for the lad of common stock who was drawn to the life of a highwayman, he often saw it as a way of rising in the world, by becoming a 'knight of the road'. This is the first authoritative full-length study entirely devoted to the English robbers of history and legend. It draws on street ballads and social commentary, reportage and satire, gossip and high literature, popular anecdotes and criminal biographies in charting the images of the highway robber across eight centuries.

Contents:

1 Introduction: the Cult of the Robber 1

2 Robbery in the Greenwood 13

3 The Outlaw Dispossessed 24

4 'I wil be Justice this day' 37

5 The Robin Hood Tradition 51

6 Good Fellows and Sworn Brothers 64

7 Guests at Robin Hood's Table 77

8 The Rise of the London Underworld 88

9 Gentlemen Thieves in Velvet Coats 101

10 Falstaff and the Wild Prince 117

11 Outlaws in Arcadia 132

12 The Robber Repentant: Clavell's Recantation 147

13 Knights of the Road 163

14 'The profession is grown scandalous' 180

15 'Why are the Laws levell'd at us?' 199

16 The Shadow of Tyburn 212

17 'Dying like a Heroe' 224

18 'Give me a highwayman': the Age of Nostalgia 234

19 The Turpin Legend 250

Appendix A The Female Robber 264

Appendix B Maid Marian 272

Appendix C Social Bandits 276.

Notes:

"Pimlico original."

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

0712664793

OCLC:

47726376