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BRIGANDAGE

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Originally appearing in Volume V04, Page 566 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BRIGANDAGE . 'The brigand is supposed to derive his name from the O. Fr. brigan, which is a See also:

form of the Ital. brigante, an irregular or See also:partisan soldier. There can be no doubt as to the origin of the word " bandit," which has the same meaning. In See also:Italy, which is not unjustly considered the See also:home of the most accomplished See also:European brigands, a bandito was a See also:man declared outlaw by See also:proclamation, or bando, called in See also:Scotland " a See also:decree of See also:horning " because it was delivered by a blast of a See also:horn at the See also:town See also:cross. The brigand, therefore, is the outlaw who conducts warfare after the manner of an irregular or partisan soldier by skirmishes and surprises, who makes the See also:war support itself by See also:plunder, by extorting See also:blackmail, by capturing prisoners and holding them to See also:ransom, who enforces his demands by violence, and kills the prisoners who cannot pay. In certain conditions the brigand has not been a See also:mere malefactor. " It is you who are the thieves "—" I Ladroni, siete voi,"—was the See also:defence of the Calabrian who was tried as a brigand by a See also:French See also:court-See also:martial during the reign of See also:Murat in See also:Naples. Brigandage may be, and not infrequently has been, the last resource of a See also:people subject to invasion. The Calabrians who fought for See also:Ferdinand of Naples, and the See also:Spanish irregular levies, which maintained tl-_.e See also:national resistance against the French from 18o8 to 1814, were called brigands by their enemies. In the See also:Balkan See also:peninsula, under See also:Turkish See also:rule, the brigands (called klephts by the Greeksandhayduks or haydutzi by the Slays) had some claim to believe themselves the representatives of their people against oppressors. The only approach to an See also:attempt to maintain See also:order was the permission given to See also:part of the See also:population to carry arms in order to repress the klephts.

They were hence called " armatoli." As a See also:

matter of fact the armatole were rather the See also:allies than the enemies of the klephts. The invader who reduces a nation to anarchy, and then 'suffers from the disorder he creates, always calls his opponents brigands. It is a natural consequence of such a war, but a very disastrous one, for the people who have to have recourse to these methods of defence, that the brigand acquires some measure of See also:honourable See also:prestige from his temporary association with patriotism and honest men. The patriot See also:band attracts the brigand proper, who is not averse to continue his old courses under an honourable pretext. " Viva Fernando y vamos robando " (See also:Long See also:life to Ferdinand, and let us go robbing) has been said by not unfair critics to have been the See also:maxim of many Spanish guerrilleros. Italy and See also:Spain suffered for a long See also:time from the disorder See also:developed out of the popular resistance to the French. See also:Numbers of the guerrilleros of both countries, who in normal conditions might have been honest, had acquired a preference for living on the See also:country, and for occasional See also:booty, which they could not resign when the enemy had retired. Their countrymen had to See also:work for a second deliverance from their See also:late defenders. In the See also:East the brigand has had a freer See also:scope, and has even founded kingdoms. See also:David's following in the See also:cave of See also:Adullam was such material as brigands are made of. " And every one that was in See also:distress, and every one that was in See also:debt, and every one that was discontented, gathered themselves unto him, and he became a See also:captain over them: and there were with him about four See also:hundred men." See also:Nadir Shah of See also:Persia began in just such a cave of Adullam, and lived to plunder See also:Delhi with a See also:host of Persians and Afghans. The conditions which favour the development of brigandage may be easily summed up.

They are first See also:

bad See also:administration, and then, in a less degree, the See also:possession of convenient hiding-places. A country of See also:mountain and See also:forest is favourable to the brigand. The See also:highlands of Scotland supplied a safe See also:refuge to the " gentlemen reavers," who carried off the See also:cattle of the Sassenach landlords. The See also:Apennines, the mountains of See also:Calabria, the Sierras of Spain, were the homes of the See also:Italian " banditos and the Spanish " bandoleros " (banished men) and " salteadores " (raiders). The forests of See also:England gave See also:cover to the out-See also:laws, whose very much flattered portrait is to be found in the See also:ballads of See also:Robin See also:Hood. The " maquis," i.e. the See also:bush of See also:Corsica, and its hills, have helped the Corsican brigand, as the bush of See also:Australia covered the bushranger. But neither forest thicket nor mountain is a lasting See also:protection against a See also:good See also:police, used with intelligence by the See also:government, and supported by the See also:law-abiding part of the community. The See also:great haunts of brigands in See also:Europe have been central and See also:southern Italy and the worst-administered parts of Spain, except those which See also:fell into the hands of the See also:Turks. " Whenever numerous troops of banditti, multiplied by success and impunity, publicly defy, instead of eluding, the See also:justice of their country, we may safely infer that the excessive weakness of the government is See also:felt and abused by the lowest ranks of the community;" is the See also:judgment passed by See also:Gibbon on the disorders of See also:Sicily in the reign of the See also:emperor See also:Gallienus. This weakness has not always been a sign of real feebleness in the government. England was vigorously ruled in the reign of See also:William III., when " a fraternity of plunderers, See also:thirty in number according to the lowest estimate, squatted near See also:Waltham Cross under the shades of See also:Epping Forest, and built themselves huts, from which they sallied forth with See also:sword and See also:pistol to bid passengers stand." It was not because the See also:state was weak that the Gubbings (so called in contempt from the trimmings and refuse of See also:fish) infested See also:Devonshire for a See also:generation from their headquarters near Brent Tor, on the edge of See also:Dartmoor. It was See also:bee? use England had not provided herself with a competent rural police.

In relatively unsettled parts of the See also:

United States there has been a considerable amount of a certain See also:kind of brigandage. In See also:early days the travel routes to the far See also:West were infested by highwaymen, who, however, seldom united into bands, and such outlaws, when captured, were often dealt with in an extra-legal manner, e.g. by " vigilance committees." The Mexican brigand Cortina made incursions into See also:Texas before the See also:Civil War. In See also:Canada the mounted police have kept brigandage down, and in See also:Mexico the " Rurales " have made an end of the brigands. Such curable evils as the highwaymen of England, and their like in the States, are not to be compared with the " Ecorcheurs," or Skinners, of See also:France in the 15th See also:century, or the " Chauffeurs " of the revolutionary See also:epoch. The first were large bands of discharged See also:mercenary soldiers who pillaged the country. The second were ruffians who forced their victims to pay ransom by holding their feet in fires. Both flourished because the government was for the time disorganized by See also:foreign invasion or by revolution. These were far more terrible evils than the See also:licence of criminals, who are encouraged by a See also:fair prospect of impunity because there is no permanent force always at See also:hand to check them, and to bring them promptly to justice. At the same time it would be going much too far to say that the See also:absence of an efficient police is the See also:sole cause of brigandage in countries not subject to foreign invasion, or where the state is not very feeble. The Sicilian peasants of whom Gibbon wrote were not only encouraged by the See also:hope of impunity, but were also maddened by an oppressive See also:system of See also:taxation and a cruel system of See also:land See also:tenure. So were the Gauls and Spaniards who throughout the 3rd and 4th centuries were a See also:constant cause of trouble to the See also:empire, under the name of Bagaudae, a word of uncertain origin. In the years preceding the French Revolution, the royal government commanded the services of a strong See also:army, and a numerous marechausste or See also:gendarmerie.

Yet it was defied by the troops of smugglers and brigands known as faux saulniers, unauthorized See also:

salt-sellers, and gangs of poachers haunted the See also:king's preserves See also:round See also:Paris. The salt See also:monopoly and the excessive preservation of the See also:game were so oppressive that the peasantry were provoked to violent resistance and to brigandage. They were constantly suppressed, but as the cause of the disorder survived, so its effects were continually renewed. The offenders enjoyed a large measure of public sympathy, and were warned or concealed by the population, even when they were not actively supported. The traditional outlaw who spared the poor and levied See also:tribute on the See also:rich was, no doubt, always a creature of fiction. The ballad which tells us how " Rich, wealthy misers were abhorred, By brave, See also:free-hearted See also:Bliss " (a See also:rascal hanged for See also:highway See also:robbery at See also:Salisbury in 1695) must have been a mere See also:echo of the Robin Hood songs. But there have been times and countries in which the law and its administration have been so far regarded as enemies by people who were not themselves criminals, that all who defied them have been sure of a measure of sympathy. Then and there it was that brigandage has flourished, and has been difficult to extirpate. Schinder-Hannes, See also:Jack the See also:Skinner, whose real name was Johann Buckler, and who was See also:born at Muklen on the See also:Rhine, flourished from 1797 to 1802 because there was no proper police to stop him; it is also true that as he chiefly plundered the See also:Jews he had a good See also:deal of See also:Christian sympathy. When caught and beheaded he had no successors. The brigandage of See also:Greece, southern Italy, Corsica and Spain had deeper roots, and has never been quite suppressed. All four countries are well provided with hiding-places in forest and mountain.

In all the administration has been bad, the law and its See also:

officers have been regarded as dangers, if not as deliberate enemies, so that they have found little native help, and, what is not the least important cause cf the persistence of brigandage, there have generally been See also:local potentates who found it to their See also:interest to protect the brigand. The See also:case of Greece under Turkish rule need not be dealt with. Whoever was not a klepht was the victim of some See also:official extortioner. It would be grossly unfair to apply the name brigand to the Mainotes and similar clans, who had to choose between being flayed by the Turks or living by the sword under their own law. When it became See also:independent Greece was extremely See also:ill administered under a nominal See also:parliamentary government by politicians who made use of the brigands for their own purposes. The result was the state of things described with only pardonable exaggeration in Edmond About's amusing Roi de la montagne. An See also:authentic and most interesting picture of the See also:Greek brigands will be found in the See also:story of the captivity of S. Soteropoulos, an ex-See also:minister who fell into their hands. It was translated into See also:English under the See also:title of The Brigands of the Morea, by the Rev. J. O. Bagdon (See also:London, 1868).

The misfortunes of Soteropoulos led to the See also:

adoption of strong See also:measures which cleared the Morea, where the peasantry gave active support to the troops when they saw that the government was in See also:earnest. But brigandage was not yet See also:extinct in Greece. In 1870 an English party, consisting of See also:Lord and See also:Lady Muncaster, Mr Vyner, Mr See also:Lloyd, Mr See also:Herbert, and See also:Count de Boyl, was captured at Oropos, near See also:Marathon, and a ransom of 25,000 was demanded. Lord and Lady Muncaster were set at See also:liberty to seek for the ransom, but the Greek government sent troops in pursuit of the brigands, and the other prisoners were then murdered. The scoundrels were hunted down, caught, and executed, and Greece has since then been tolerably free from this reproach. In the Balkan peninsula. under Turkish rule, brigandage continued to exist in connexion with Christian revolt against the Turk, and the See also:race conflicts of Albanians, Walachians, Pomuks, Bulgarians and Greeks. In Corsica the " maquis " has never been without its brigand See also:hero, because See also:industry has been stagnant, See also: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 See also:faction of Corsicans. The conditions which favour brigandage have been more prevalent, and for longer, in Italy than elsewhere in western Europe, with the See also:standing exception of Corsica, which is Italian in all but See also:political See also:allegiance. Until the See also:middle of the Igth century Italy was divided into small states, so that 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 See also:viceroy of Naples—just before and after 1600—could cross the border of the papal states and return on a favourable opportunity. When See also:pope and viceroy combined against him he took service with See also:Venice, from whence he could communicate with his See also:friends at home, and pay them occasional visits.

On one such visit he was led into a See also:

trap and slain. Marco Sciarra had terrorized the country far and wide at the See also:head of 600 men. He was the follower and imitator of Benedetto Mangone, of whom it is recorded that, having stopped a party of travellers which included Torquato See also:Tasso, he allowed them to pass unharmed out of his reverence for poets and See also:poetry. Mangone was finally taken, and beaten to See also:death with hammers at Naples. He and his like are the heroes of much popular See also:verse, written in ottava rima, and beginning with the traditional epic invocation to the muse. A See also:fine example is " The most beautiful See also:history of the life and death of Pietro Mancino, See also:chief of Banditti," which has remained popular with the people of southern Italy. It begins: " Io See also:canto li ricatti, e it fiero ardire Del gran Pietro Mancino fuoruscito " (Pietro Mancino that great outlawed man I sing, and all his rage.) In Naples the number of competing codes and jurisdictions, the survival of the feudal See also:power of the nobles, who sheltered banditti, just as a Highland• chief gave refuge to "caterans" in Scotland, and the helplessness of the peasantry, made brigand-See also:age chronic, and the same conditions obtained in Sicily. The See also:Bourbon See also:dynasty reduced brigandage very much, and secured order on the See also:main high-roads. But it was not extinguished, and it revived during the French invasion. This was the flourishing time of the notorious Fra See also:Diavolo, who began as brigand and blossomed into a patriot. Fra Diavolo was captured and executed by the French. When Ferdinand was restored on the fall of See also:Napoleon he employed an English officer, See also:General See also:Sir See also:Richard See also:Church, to suppress the brigands.

General Church, who kept good order among his soldiers, and who made them pay for everything, gained the confidence of the peasantry, and re-stored a fair measure of See also:

security. It was he who finally brought to justice the villainous See also:Don Ciro Anicchiarico—priest and brigand—who declared at his trial with offhand indifference that he supposed he had murdered about seventy people first and last. When a See also:brother See also:priest was sent to give him the consolations of See also:religion, Ciro cut him See also:short, saying, " Stop that chatter, we are two of a See also:trade: we need not See also:play the See also:fool to one another" (Lasciate queste chiacchiere, siamo dell' istessa profession: non ci burliamo fra noi). Every successive revolutionary disturbance in Naples saw a recrudescence of brigandage down to the unification of 186o-1861, and then it was years before the Italian government rooted it out. The source of the trouble was the support the brigands received from various kinds of " manut8ngoli " (maintainers)—great men, corrupt officials, political parties, and the peasants who were terrorized, or who profited by selling the brigands See also:food and clothes. In Sicily brigandage has been endemic. In 1866 two English travellers, Mr E. J. C. Moens and the Rev. J. C.

See also:

Murray Aynesley, were captured and held to ransom. Mr Moens found that the " manutengoli " of the brigands among the peasants charged See also:famine prices for food, and extortionate prices for clothes and cartridges. What is true of Naples and Sicily is true of other parts of Italy mutatismutandis. In See also:Tuscany, See also:Piedmont and See also:Lombardy the open country has been orderly, but the See also:borders infested with brigands. The worst See also:district outside Calabria has been the papal states. The See also:Austrian general, See also:Frimont, did, however, partly clear the Romagna about 1820, though at a heavy cost of life to his soldiers—mostly Bohemian Jagers—from the See also:malaria. The history of brigandage in Spain is very similar. It may be said to have been endemic in and See also:south of the Sierra Morena. In the See also:north it has flourished when government was weak,, and after foreign invasion and civil See also:wars. But it has always been put down easily by a capable administration. It reached its greatest heights in See also:Catalonia, where it began in the strife of the peasants against the feudal exactions of the landlords. It had its traditional hero, Roque Guinart, who figures in the. second part of Don Quixote.

The revolt against the See also:

house of See also:Austria in 164o, and the War of the See also:Succession (1700-1714), gave a great stimulus to Catalan brigandage. But it was then put down in a way for which Italy offers no precedent. A country See also:gentle-man named Pedro Veciana, hereditary balio (military and civil See also:lieutenant) of the See also:archbishop of See also:Tarragona in the town of See also:Valls, armed his See also:farm-servants, and resisted the attacks of the brigands. With the help of neighbouring country gentlemen he' formed a strong band, known as the Mozos (Boys) of Veciana. 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 See also:Philip V. then commissioned Veciana to raise a See also:special See also:corps of police, the " escuadra de Cataluna," which still exists. For five generations the See also:colonel of the escuadra was always a Veciana. At all times in central and See also:northern Spain the country population has supported the police when the government would See also:act firmly. Since the organization of the excellent constabulary called " La Guardia Civil " by the See also:duke of Ahumada, about 1844, brigandage has been well kept down. At the See also:close of the Carlist War in 1874 a few bands infested Catalonia, but one of the worst was surprised, and all its members battered to death with See also:boxwood cudgels by a gang of See also:charcoal-burners on the ruins of the See also:castle of See also:San See also:Martin de Centellas. In such conditions as these brigandage cannot last. More sympathy is felt for " bandoleros " in the south, and there also they find Spanish equivalents for the " manutengoli " of Italy.

The See also:

tobacco See also:smuggling from See also:Gibraltar keeps alive a lawless class which sinks easily into pure brigandage. Perhaps the See also:influence of the See also:Berber See also:blood in the population See also:helps to prolong this barbarism. The Sierra Morena, and the Serrania de See also:Ronda, have produced the bandits whose achievements form the subject of popular ballads, such as Francisco Esteban El Guapo (See also:Francis See also:Stephen, the See also:Buck or See also:Dandy), Don Juan de Serralonga, Pedranza, &c. The name of Jose Maria has been made See also:familiar to all the See also:world by See also:Merimee's story, Carmen, and by Bizet's See also:opera. Jose Maria, called El Tempranillo (the early See also:bird), was a See also:historical personage, a liberal in the rising against Ferdinand VII., 182o-1823, then a smuggler, then a " bandolero." He was finally bought off by the government, and took a See also:commission to suppress the other brigands. Jose Maria was at last shot by one of them, whom he was endeavouring to See also:arrest. The civil guard prevents brigandage from reaching any great height in normal times, but in 1905 a bandit of the old See also:stamp, popularly known as "El Vivillo " (the Vital Spark), haunted the Serrania de Ronda. The brigand life has been made the subject of much See also:romance. But when stripped of fiction it appears that the bands have been mostly recruited by men who had been guilty of See also:homicide, out of See also:jealousy or in a gambling See also:quarrel, and who remained in them not from love of the life, but from fear of the gallows. A reformed brigand, known as Passo di Lupo (See also:Wolf's Step), confessed to Mr McFarlane about 1820 that the weaker members of the band were terrorized and robbed by the bullies, and that murderous conflicts were constant among them. The " dacoits or brigands of See also:India were of the same stamp as their European colleagues. The See also:Pindaris were more than brigands, and the See also:Thugs were a religious See also:sect.

McFarlane's Lives and Exploits of Banditti and Robbers (London, 1837) is a useful introduction to the subject. The author saw a part of what he wrote about, and gives many references, particularly for Italy. A good bibliography of Spanish brigandage will be found in the Resena Historica de la Guardia Civil of Eugenio de la Iglesia (See also:

Madrid, 1898). For actual pictures of the life, nothing is better than the English Travellers and Italian Brigands of W. J. C. Moens (London, 1866), and The Brigands of the Morea, by S. Soteropoulos, translated by the Rev. J. O. Bagdon (London, 1868). (D.

End of Article: BRIGANDAGE

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