Claude Du Vall (or Duval)(c. 1643 – 21 January 1670) was a FrenchhighwaymaninRestoration England.He worked in the service of exiled royalists who returned to England under KingCharles II.Little else is known of his history. According to popular legend, he abhorred violence, showing courtesy to his victims and chivalry to their womenfolk, thus spawning the myth of the romantic highwayman, as taken up by many novelists and playwrights.
Claude Deval | |
|---|---|
 William Powell Frith's 1860 painting,Claude Duvall | |
| Born | c. 1643 |
| Died | 21 January 1670(aged 26–27) |
| Resting place | St Paul's, Covent Garden,London, England |
| Nationality | French |
| Other names | Claude Duvall |
| Occupation(s) | servant, highwayman |
| Known for | French-born highwayman in post-Restoration Britain |
Early life
editPer one account, Claude Duval was born inDomfront, Orne,Normandy in about 1643 to Pierre Duval, a miller, and Marguerite, daughter of a tailor. A 'family fable suggested' they were once 'landed lords, but there was little evidence left to show for it'.[1]His origin and parentage are in dispute. He did, however, have a brother, Daniel Duval. At the age of 14 he was sent to Paris where he worked as adomestic servant.He later became a stable boy for a group of Englishroyalistsand moved to England in the time of theEnglish Restorationas afootmanof theDuke of Richmond(possibly a relation) and rented a house inWokingham.
Highwayman
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The legend goes that before long, Duval became a successfulhighwaymanwho robbed the passingstagecoacheson the roads to London, especiallyHollowaybetweenHighgateandIslingtonand, that unlike most other highwaymen, he distinguished himself with rather gentlemanly behaviour and fashionable clothes.
He reputedly never used violence. One of his victims was Squire Roper, Master of the Royal Buckhounds, whom he relieved of 50guineasand tied to a tree.
There are many tales about Duval. A particularly famous one – placed in more than one location and later published by William Pope – claims that he took only a part of his potential loot from a gentleman, when the man's wife agreed to dance the "courante" with him in the wayside, a scene immortalised byWilliam Powell Frithin his 1860 paintingClaude Duval.
If his intention was to deter pursuit by his non-threatening behaviour, he did not totally succeed. After the authorities promised a large reward, he fled to France for some time but returned a few months later. Shortly afterwards, he is said to have been arrested in the Hole-in-the-Wall tavern in London'sChandos Street,Covent Garden.
Execution
editOn 17 January 1670, judgeSir William Mortonfound him guilty of six robberies (others remained unproven) and sentenced him to death. Despite many attempts to intercede, theKingdid not pardon him and he was executed on 21 January atTyburn.When his body was cut down and exhibited in Tangier Tavern, it drew a large crowd. It is traditionally thought Duval was buried under the centre aisle of the church ofSt Paul's, Covent Garden;the parish register notes the burial of a "Peter Duval" in January 1670.[2]
A memorial at the church 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 Tyburn’s glory; England’s illustrious Thief,
- Du Vall, the ladies' joy; Du Vall, the ladies' grief.[1]
The apparently gallant highwayman inspired a number of biographers and playwrights to add to hislegend,including claims ofalchemy,gambling, and much womanising.[citation needed]
He is reported to haunt theHolt Hotelalong theA4260(Oxford Road) in Oxfordshire, a hotel where he spent many nights when it was a small coaching inn.[3]
Popular culture
editRecent historians have reappraised the legacy of Duval. James Sharpe inDick Turpinregarded Duval as the most significant figure in the shaping of the highwayman myth.[citation needed]John and Philip Sugden'sThe Thief of Heartsreconstructs what is known of the historical Duval, using much fresh evidence, and shows that the traditions about the Frenchman were used by such literary luminaries as Samuel Butler (A Pindarick Ode), John Gay (The Beggar's Opera) and William Harrison Ainsworth (RookwoodandTalbot Harland) to create the iconic image of the gentleman highwayman still beloved today.[citation needed]
- "As he reached this spot, a man started from the obscurity, and requested with the politeness of a Claude Duval to know the time." FromMountains and Molehills; or, Recollections of a Burnt Journal,1855, byFrancis Samuel Marryat,(1826–1855).
- Acomic operacalledClaude Duvalwas written in 1881 byEdward SolomonandHenry Pottinger Stephensand enjoyed success both in Britain and in America.
- In Mary Hooper's bookThe Remarkable Life and Times of Eliza Rose,Duval is said to be a friend ofNell Gwynand is credited with saving KingCharles II of England's life.
- A public house in the town ofCamberleyin Surrey is named in his honour.
- From 1953 to 1959 the British comicThe Cometran a popular strip about Duval, making him older than in reality so that he could be a Royalist officer during the Civil War and a Royalist agent during the Commonwealth and Protectorate.[4][5]Comet's "Claude Duval The Laughing Cavalier" was also published as a stand-alone Thriller Comics Library comic book in 1955.[6]
- TheCometcomic strip was sufficiently successful that in 1956 film director-producerGeorge Kingdevised a television series calledThe Gay Cavalierfeaturing Duval (played by French actorChristian Marquand) and another character from the comic, theCromwellian intelligence officerMajor Midas Mould (played byIvan Craig). The series was made byAssociated-Rediffusionand broadcast from May to August 1957. Despite having starred such actors asChristopher LeeandNigel Stock,none of the 13 episodes appears to have survived.[4]
- A 2005Travel ChannelHaunted Hotelsdocumentary onhauntingsclaims that Claude Duval's ghost presently haunts the Holt Hotel, the tavern wherein he was arrested before being condemned to death. This same documentary also claims several people were murdered by Duval, despite scant evidence.
- Michelle Lowe's novel, Cherished Thief, published in 2012, depicts Claude DuVal's entire life story.
- InArthur Conan Doyle's short storyOne Crowded Hour,a victim of a chivalrous highway robber rebukes the robber, saying, "Don't come the Claude Duval over us."
- He was the subject ofLondon Dungeonexhibitionin May 2015.
- Is a subject in the podcast radio-play Adventures of Sage & Savant Episode 206
References
edit- ^https:// normandythenandnow /duvall-the-dandy-highwayman-from-domfront/
- ^Weinreb, Ben (2008).The London Encyclopaedia.Pan Macmillan. p. 762.ISBN978-1-4050-4924-5.
- ^Haunted Hotel Guide
- ^ab"BFI Screenonline: Gay Cavalier (1957)".screenonline.org.uk.Retrieved13 June2023.
- ^"The Comet 382 (UK Comic Books)".Comic Book Plus.November 1955.Retrieved13 June2023.
- ^"Thriller Comics Library 99 - The Laughing Cavalier".Comic Book Plus.September 1955.Retrieved13 June2023.
Further reading
editMackie, Erin.Rakes, Highwaymen, and Pirates. The Making of the Modern Gentleman in the Eighteenth CenturyBaltimore: Johns Hopkins, 2009.ISBN978-1-4214-1385-3
Sharpe, James.Dick Turpin: The Myth of the English highwayman.London: Profile, 2005.ISBN978-1861974-181.
Sugden, John. 'The Merry Dance of the Highwayman',History Today,March 2017, vol. 67, no. 3, pp. 48–52.
Sugden, John and Philip.The Thief of Hearts: Claude Duval and the Gentleman Highwayman in Fact and Fiction.Arnside, Cumbria: Forty Steps, 2015.ISBN978-0-9934183-0-3.
External links
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- Indepth story of Claude Duvall's life with images
- Duval in Stand and Deliver
- Highwaymen at Historic UK
- Short radio episodeEvery Man A Roguementions "the politeness of a Claude Duval."California Legacy Project.