Britain's Outlaws: Highwaymen, Pirates and Rogues
"3-part BBC documentary series. Few figures in British history have captured the popular imagination as much as the outlaw. From gentleman highwaymen, via swashbuckling pirates to elusive urban thieves and rogues, the brazen escapades and the flamboyance of the outlaw made them the antihero of their time - feared by the rich, admired by the poor and celebrated by writers and artists. In this three-part series, historian Dr Sam Willis ... shows that, far from being 'outsiders', outlaws were very much a product of their time, shaped by powerful national events."
Episode 1 - Knights of the Road: The Highwayman's Story
"In 1714, Captain Alexander Smith's book The Complete History of the Lives and Robberies of the Most Notorious Highwaymen caused a sensation. It set the bar for colourful and slightly dubious accounts of the big names in highway robbery. But whilst the public might find them romantic, the elite weren't so keen. They represented a threat to the social order: not only were they attacking property with impunity without any regard to the rank of their victims, but the robberies were giving them wealth and pretensions of status.
To satirists, there was a delicious irony to the howls of outrage about highwaymen. For them, politicians in the Georgian government were even worse thieves. In 1728, John Gay penned The Beggar's Opera, using a highwayman called Macheath as a central character in his stage satire. Macheath was the theatrical incarnation of the gentleman robber, but he wasn't the villain of the peace. He was moral, he was noble, and it was set against the rapaciousness of the elite. His character was used to dissect the hypocrisy of the ruling classes, who were losing more at the gambling tables than they were on the roads. Then there was the corruption. In John Gay's eyes, highwaymen were more honest thieves than the government. The ruling class were committing robberies of their own, but they were getting away with it. Prime Minister Robert Walpole spirited away thousands of pounds, and when the Chancellor, the Earl of Macclesfield, took a hundred thousand pounds in bribes, all he got was a fine."
