England During the reign of
William III of England, "a fraternity of plunderers, thirty in number according to the lowest estimate, squatted near Waltham Cross under the shades of
Epping Forest, and built themselves huts, from which they sallied forth with sword and pistol to bid passengers stand". The Gubbings (so called in contempt from the trimmings and refuse of fish) infested
Devonshire for a generation from their headquarters near
Brent Tor, on the edge of
Dartmoor.
France In France there were the
Écorcheurs, or Skinners, in the 15th century, and the
Chauffeurs around the time of the revolution. The first were large bands of discharged
mercenary soldiers who pillaged the country. The second were ruffians who forced their victims to pay ransom by holding their feet in fires. In the years preceding the
French Revolution, the royal government was defied by the troops of
smugglers and brigands known as
faux saulniers, unauthorized
salt-sellers, and gangs of
poachers haunted the king's preserves round
Paris. The salt monopoly and the excessive preservation of the game were so oppressive that the peasantry were provoked to violent resistance and to brigandage. The offenders enjoyed a large measure of public sympathy, and were warned or concealed by the population, even when they were not actively supported.
David Hannay writing in the 1911 edition of the
Encyclopædia Britannica stated that in "
Corsica the
maquis has never been without its brigand hero, because industry has been stagnant, family feuds persist, and the government has never quite succeeded in persuading the people to support the law. The brigand is always a hero to at least one faction of
Corsicans."
Greece and the Balkans In 1870 an English party, consisting of
Lord and Lady Muncaster, Mr Vyner, Mr Lloyd, Mr Herbert, and Count de Boyl, was captured at Oropos, near Marathon, and a ransom of £25,000 was demanded. Lord and Lady Muncaster were set at liberty to seek for the ransom, but the Greek government sent troops in pursuit of the brigands, and the other prisoners were then murdered. In the Balkan peninsula, under Turkish rule, brigandage continued to exist in connection with Christian revolt against the Turks. In Bulgaria famous brigand like irregulars were the Haiduti and Haiduci. The difference between the two is somewhat nuanced but essentially the Haiduti robbed mainly prominent Ottoman Citizens, Ottoman Tax collectors and fought mainly the Ottoman Bazhi-Bouzouks and Ottoman Garrisons, at some points known for liberating villages around the Stata Planina mountain range. They usually had support from the local Bulgarian population. The Haiduci were considered brigands by both the Ottoman Sultanate and by most local populations being seen as less freedom fighters and more common bandits. Haiduts were active from the XVIIth to the XIXth century playing an active role in securing finances for the Bulgarian national movements.
India The
dacoits or brigands of India were of the same stamp as their European colleagues. The
Pindaris were more than brigands, and the
Thugs were a religious sect.
Italy s from
Bisaccia, photographed in 1862. Until the middle of the 19th century Italy was divided into small states; therefore, the brigand who was closely pursued in one could flee to another. Thus it was that Marco Sciarra of the
Abruzzi, when hard pressed by the Spanish viceroy of Naples – just before and after 1600 – could cross the border of the
papal states and return on a favourable opportunity. When
pope and
viceroy combined against him he took service with
Venice, whence he communicated with his friends at home and paid them occasional visits. On one such visit he was led into a trap and slain. Marco Sciarra was the follower and imitator of Benedetto Mangone, who was documented to have stopped a party of travellers which included
Torquato Tasso. Sciarrae allowed them to pass unharmed out of his reverence for poets and poetry. Mangone was finally taken and beaten to death with hammers at Naples. He and his like are the heroes of much popular verse, written in
ottava rima beginning with the traditional epic invocation to the muse. A fine example is
The most beautiful history of the life and death of Pietro Mancino, chief of Banditi, which begins: In the
Kingdom of Naples, every successive revolutionary disturbance saw a recrudescence of brigandage down to the unification of 1860–1861. The source of the trouble was the supporters of brigands (like
Carmine Crocco from
Basilicata, the most famous outlaw during the
Italian unification) received from various kinds of
manuténgoli (maintainers) – great men, corrupt officials, political parties, and the peasants who were terrorized, or who profited by selling the brigands food and clothes. In the Campagna in 1866, two English travellers,
William John Charles Möens and the Rev. John Cruger Murray Aynsley, were captured and held for ransom; Aynsley was released shortly thereafter. Möens found that the
manuténgoli of the brigands among the peasants charged famine prices for food, and extortionate prices for clothes and cartridges.
Mexico The
Mexican brigand
Juan Cortina made incursions into
Texas before the
American Civil War. In Mexico the "
Rurales" ended brigandage.
Slovenia In Slovenia the brigands (called Rokovnjači) were active especially in the mountainous
Upper Carniola region in the 18th and 19th century. They were suppressed by the army in 1853.
Spain , legendary Spanish brigand of the 19th century. In Spain brigandage was common in and south of the
Sierra Morena. It reached its greatest heights in
Andalusia. In Andalusia, the Sierra Morena, and the
Serrania de Ronda, have produced the bandits whose achievements form the subject of popular ballads, such as Francisco Esteban El Guapo (Francis Stephen, the Buck or Dandy), Pedranza, &c. Jose Maria, called El Tempranillo (The Early Bird), was a liberal in the rising against
Ferdinand VII, 1820–1823, then a smuggler, then a
bandolero. He was finally bought off by the government and took a commission to suppress the other brigands. Jose Maria was at last shot by one of them, whom he was endeavouring to arrest. In
Catalonia, where brigands are called
bandolers, it began in the strife of the peasants against the feudal exactions of the landlords. It had its traditional hero, Roc Guinart, who figures in the second part of
Don Quixote. The revolt against the house of Austria in 1640 and the
War of the Succession (1700–1714) greatly stimulated Catalan brigandage. A country gentleman named Pere Veciana, hereditary
balio (military and civil lieutenant) of the
archbishop of Tarragona in the town of
Valls, armed his farm-servants and resisted the attacks of the brigands. With the help of neighbouring country gentlemen he formed a strong band, known as the Mossos (Boys) of Veciana, the precedent of current Catalan police, the
Mossos d'Esquadra. The brigands combined to get rid of him by making an attack on the town of Valls, but were repulsed with great loss. The government of
Philip V then commissioned Veciana to raise a special corps of police, the
Esquadra de Catalunya. For five generations the colonel of the
esquadra was always a Veciana. Since the organization of
Guardia Civil by the
Duke of Ahumada, about 1844, brigandage has been well kept down. At the close of the
Carlist War in 1874 a few bands again infested
Catalonia.
United States In lightly-settled parts of the
United States there was a considerable amount of brigandage when
highwaymen were pervasive on the travel routes to the
American West. Such outlaws, when captured, were often dealt with in an extra-legal manner by citizen
vigilance committees, known as
vigilantes. In the post-
American Civil War period, many of these outlaws, such as the
James-Younger gang, were former
Confederate bushwhackers, irregular soldiers who continued their activities when the war was over and the South had been defeated. An example from an earlier era are the
Harpe brothers,
Loyalists during the
American Revolutionary War who turned to brigandage after the war. ==See also==