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Claude Duval
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For other uses, see Claude Duval (disambiguation).
William Powell Frith's 1860 painting, Claude Duvall.
Claude Du Vall (1643 21 January 1670) was a French-born gentleman highwaymanin post-Restoration Britain.Contents [hide]
1 Early life
2 Highwayman
3 Execution
4 Popular culture
5 References
6 External links
Early life[edit]
Du Val was born in Domfront, Orne, Normandy in 1643 to a noble family strippedof title and land. His origin and parentage are in dispute. He did however havea brother Daniel Du Val. At the age of 14 he was sent to Paris where he workedas a domestic servant. He later became a stable boy for a group of Englishroyalists and moved to England in the time of the English Restoration as afootman of the Duke of Richmond (possibly a relation) and rented a house inWokingham.
Highwayman[edit]
Before long Du Val became a successful highwayman who robbed the passingstagecoaches in the roads to London, especially Holloway between Highgate andIslington. However, unlike most other brigands, he distinguished himself withrather gentlemanly behaviour and fashionable clothes. He reputedly never usedviolence. One of his victims was Squire Roper, Master of the Royal Buckhounds,whom he relieved of 50 guineas and tied to a tree.
There are many tales about Du Val. One particularly famous one placed in morethan one location and later published by William Pope claims that he took onlya part of his potential loot from a gentleman when his wife agreed to dance the"courante" with him in the wayside, a scene immortalised by William Powell Frith
in his 1860 painting Claude Du Val.
If his intention was to deter pursuit by his non-threatening behaviour, he didnot totally succeed. After the authorities promised a large reward, he fled toFrance for some time but returned a few months later. Shortly afterwards he wasarrested in the Hole-in-the-Wall tavern in London's Chandos Street, CoventGarden.
Execution[edit]
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On 17 January 1670, judge Sir William Morton found him guilty of six robberies (othersremained unproven) and sentenced him to death. Despite many attempts tointercede, the king did not pardon him and he was executed on 21 January atTyburn. When his body was cut down and exhibited in Tangier Tavern, it drew alarge crowd and was later removed to St Paul's church, Covent Garden, where itwas buried under the centre aisle. His memorial inscription reads:
Here lies DuVall: Reder, 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 Tyburns glory; Englands illustrious Thief,
Du Vall, the ladies joy; Du Vall, the ladies grief.[1]
The apparently gallant highwayman inspired a number of biographers andplaywrights to add to his legend, including claims of alchemy, gambling, andmuch womanising.
He is reported to haunt the Holt Hotel along the A4260 (Oxford Road) inOxfordshire, a hotel where he spent many nights when it was a small coaching inn.[1]
Popular culture[edit]
Claude Du Vall appears as a suspect in Ace Murder Mystery's 17th Century Englishmurder mystery dinner party game 'Power Plots and Pistols' (link below).
A 2005 Travel Channel Haunted Hotels documentary on hauntings claims that ClaudeDuval's ghost presently haunts the tavern wherein he was arrested before beingcondemned to death. This same documentary also claims several people weremurdered by Duval, despite scant evidence.
A comic opera called Claude Duval was written in 1881 by Edward Solomon andHenry Pottinger Stephens and enjoyed success both in Britain and in America.
In the Mary Hooper book "The Remarkable Life and Times of Eliza Rose" Duval isstated as being a friend of Nell Gwyn and credited with saving King Charles IIof England's life.
"As he reached this spot, a man started from the obscurity, and requested withthe politeness of a Claude Duval to know the time." From Mountains and Molehills;or, Recollections of a Burnt Journal, 1855, by Francis Samuel Marryat, (18261855).
A public house in the town of Camberley in Surrey is named in his honour.
Claude Duval is the subject of Michael Scott Smith's song "The Highwayman Waltz"
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;recorded by folk group The Band of Brothers in their 2006 album "Railroads,Hobos & Cowboys".
Claude Duval owned the land on which now stands, The Rainbow Theatre (TheAstoria) in Seven Sisters Road. Finsbury Park.
References[edit]
1.^ Haunted Hotel Guide
External links[edit]Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopdia Britannica article Duval,Claude.
Duval in Stand and Deliver
Highwaymen at Historic UK
Claude Duval as a murder mystery game suspect
Short radio episode Every Man A Rogue mentions "the politeness of a Claude Duval."California Legacy Project.
Authority control VIAF: 37987074
Categories: 1643 births1670 deathsPeople from OrneEnglish people of FrenchdescentCrime in LondonEnglish people executed by hangingHighwaymenFrench peopleexecuted abroadPeople executed for robberyPeople executed by Stuart EnglandFrenchpeople executed by hangingPeople executed by the Kingdom of England by hanging17th-centuryexecutions by EnglandBurials in LondonPeople executed at Tyburn
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