Duval, Claude

▪ French highwayman

also spelled  Du Vall  

born 1643, Domfront, France

died Jan. 21, 1670, London

      celebrated Norman-born highwayman of Restoration England, popularized as a gallant cavalier.

      Duval entered domestic service in Paris when he was 14 and made friends with the English exiles in Paris who were waiting for the Restoration; when Charles II returned to England in 1660, Duval migrated too as a page to a “person of quality” (probably Charles Lennox, duke of Richmond (Richmond, Charles Lennox, 1st Duke of, 1st Duke of Lennox, Earl of March, Earl of Darnley, Baron of Settrington, Lord of Torboultoun)). Almost immediately he changed employment and turned highwayman, earning a price on his head and a reputation for gallantry with women. Caught at last after a 10-year career, he was tried, then hanged at Tyburn. His gravestone at St. Paul's Church, Covent Garden, reads:

Here lies Du Vall: Reader, 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 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 illustrious

thief,

Du Vall, the Ladies' Joy; Du Vall, the Ladies'

grief.

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