Brigandage is the life and practice of highway robbery and plunder. It is practiced by a brigand, a person who usually lives in a gang and lives by pillage and robbery.
The word brigand entered English as brigant via French from Italian as early as 1400. Under the laws of war, soldiers acting on their own recognizance without operating in chain of command, are brigands, liable to be tried under civilian laws as common criminals. However, on occasions brigands are not mere malefactors, but may be the last resort of people subject to invasion.
Bad administration and suitable terrain encourage the development of brigands. Historical examples of brigands (often called so by their enemies) have existed in territories of France, Greece and the Balkans, India, Italy, Mexico and Spain, as well as certain regions of the United States.
Etymology
The English word brigant (also brigaunt) was introduced as early as 1400, via Old French brigand from Italian brigante "trooper, skirmisher, foot soldier". The Italian word is from a verb brigare "to brawl, fight" (whence also brigade).
For a bandito or bando a man declared outlaw by proclamation, see the article Bandit.
Laws of war
Towards the end of wars, irreconcilables may refuse to accept the loss of their cause, and may continue hostilities using irregular tactics. Upon capture by the victorious side, whether the capturing power has to recognize them as soldiers (who must be treated as prisoners of war) or as brigands (who can be tried under civilian law as common criminals) depends on whether the detainees "respect the laws and customs of war" and whether they operate within a chain of command and are "not persons acting on their own responsibility".
Resistance
In certain conditions the brigand has not been a mere malefactor. Brigandage may be, and not infrequently has been, the last resort of a people subject to invasion.
The Calabrians who fought for Ferdinand I of the Two Sicilies, and the Spanish irregular levies, which maintained the national resistance against the French from 1808 to 1814, were called brigands by their enemies. "It is you who are the thieves", was the defense of the Calabrian who was tried as a brigand by a French court-martial during the reign of Joachim Murat in Naples.
In the Balkan peninsula, under Ottoman rule, the brigands (called klephts by the Greeks and hayduks or haydutzi by the Slavs) had some claim to believe themselves the representatives of their people against oppressors. The only approach to an attempt to maintain order was the permission given to part of the population to carry arms in order to repress the klephts. They were hence called armatoli. In fact the armatole tended to act more as allies than enemies of the klephts.
Causes
The conditions which favor the development of brigandage may be summed up as bad administration and to a lesser degree, terrain that permits easy escape from the incumbents.
The Scottish Marches supplied a theatre for the gentlemen reivers. After the Wars of the Three Kingdoms (1639–1651), policing the Scottish moss-troopers tied up many English soldiers of the occupying New Model Army. Their contemporaries in Ireland became known as "tories". Rapparees, Irish guerrillas of a later generation, fought for King James II after the Revolution of 1688 and on his defeat degenerated into brigands.
Terrain
The forests of England gave cover to the outlaws, who were flatteringly portrayed in the ballads of Robin Hood. The dense Maquis shrubland and hills of Corsica gave the Corsican brigand many advantages, just as the bush of Australia concealed the bushranger.
The Apennines, the mountains of Calabria, the Sierras of Spain, were the homes of the Italian banditi, and the Spanish bandoleros (member of a gang) and salteadores (raiders). The great haunts of brigands in Europe have been central and southern Italy and parts of Spain.
Historical examples
England
England was ruled by William III, when "a fraternity of plunderers, thirty in number according to the lowest estimate, squatted near Waltham Cross under the shades of Epping Forest, and built themselves huts, from which they sallied forth with sword and pistol to bid passengers stand". The Gubbings (so called in contempt from the trimmings and refuse of fish) infested Devonshire for a generation from their headquarters near Brent Tor, on the edge of Dartmoor.