The Highwayman

Claude Duval (1643-70) was born in Normandy. Making friends with many English exiles in Paris after the Civil War he became a footman to the Duke of Richmond and travelled with him to England after the restoration of Charles II in 1660. With a newly acquired expensive life style to maintain he turned to the road where, at the head of a gang, he gained a reputation for politeness to his victims especially the ladies.
Celebrated stories include his dancing with a lady coach passenger while her powerless husband looked on and returning a silver feeding bottle to a mother whose baby had started to cry. He was arrested in January 1670 in the Hole-in the-Wall tavern in Chandos Street while excessively celebrating his latest hold-up. Despite petitions for pardon to Charles II by several ladies
of high rank he was executed in the same month at Tyburn.
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He was buried with many flambeaux, amid a numerous train of mourners (most
of them ladies), in Covent Garden. A white marble stone was laid over him,
with his arms and the following epitaph engraven on it: --
"Here lies Du Vall, reader, if male thou art,
Look to thy purse; if female, to thy heart.
Much havoc hath he made of both; for all
Men he made stand, and women he made fall.
The second conqueror of the Norman race,
Knights to his arms did yield, and ladies to his face.
Old Tyburn's glory, England's bravest thief,
Du Vall the ladies' joy! Du Vall the ladies' grief."
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