As the rural world grew more urban and criminals more sophisticated, people cunningly hid their external pockets under layers of clothing to hinder cutpurses; men's jackets and women's petticoats were outfitted with little slits that allowed to you access your tied-on pockets through your clothing.
|
|
A gang of cutpurses enter to try to rob them, but Moll sees them off: she is known and feared by all rogues. Moll explains that she thinks it her duty to protect the honest through her knowledge of London's low-lifes.
|
|
British author Linda Buckley-Archer Linda Buckley-Archer is a London-based writer. She was born in Sussex,Author Biography but spent most of her childhood on a blackcurrant farm in Staffordshire,Cutpurses and chiropractors Interview in The Guardian and now lives in London.
|
|
Other sources, such as Howard Mancing in The Cervantes Encyclopedia, claim that Fagin is assumed to be modeled on Monipodio, one of the main characters in Miguel de Cervantes' Rinconete y Cortadillo (1613). Monipodio is the leader of a criminal ring in 17th-century Seville that features cutpurses and cape stealers.
|
|
By this time it was also regarded as a very unsafe place, as many thieves, muggers and cutpurses took advantage of the cover provided by overgrown foliage and poor illumination to hide and wait for possible victims. Drug dealers and prostitutes also used to frequent the area at night during its most dangerous period.
|
|
The carrack whilst at Dartmouth, England was subject to theft on an industrial scale; it attracted all manner of traders, dealers, cutpurses, and thieves from miles around. By the time Walter Raleigh had restored order, a cargo estimated at half a million pounds (nearly half the size of England's treasury and perhaps the second-largest treasure ever after the Ransom of Atahualpa) had been reduced to £140,000.
|
|
Madre de Deus attracted all manner of traders, dealers, cutpurses, and thieves from miles around, from as far as London and beyond. At seeing this huge vessel, pandemonium broke out amongst the townspeople; they visited the floating castle and sought out drunken sailors in taverns and pubs, buying, stealing, pinching, and fighting for the takings. Local fishermen as well ventured aboard, further depleting the cargo. English law at the time provided that a large share of the loot was owed to the sovereign.
|
|
Livy 34.27 The increased citizen body, however, meant that Nabis had more citizen troops for his army, which also included numerous mercenaries. Polybius, who was deeply hostile to Nabis' revolutionary program, described his supporters as "a crowd of murderers, burglars, cutpurses and highwaymen" (ἀνδροφόνοι καὶ παρασχίσται, λωποδύται, τοιχωρύχοι).Polybius 13.6 Nabis executed the last descendants of the two Spartan royal dynasties; and the ancient sources, especially Polybius and Livy, depict him as a bloodthirsty ruler who held power through armed force and shocking brutality. Polybius (13.6-7) claims that he would frequently exile the leading citizens of conquered communities and marry their wives to the brigands and freed slaves under his command.
|
|
The Nuestra Señora del Rosario, the Spanish Armada's "payship" commanded by Admiral Pedro de Valdés, was captured along with all its crew by Sir Francis Drake. It was reportedly anchored in the River Dart for more than a year and the crew were used as labourers on the nearby Greenway Estate which was the home of Sir Humphrey Gilbert and his half- brother Sir Walter Raleigh. Greenway was later the home of Dame Agatha Christie. In 1592 the Madre de Deus, a Portuguese treasure ship captured by the English in the Azores, docked at Dartmouth Harbour. It attracted all manner of traders, dealers, cutpurses and thieves and by the time Sir Walter Raleigh arrived to reclaim the Crown's share of the loot, a cargo estimated at half a million pounds had been reduced to £140,000.
|
|
After the death of the Spartan regent Machanidas in 207 BC in battle against the Achaean League, Nabis overthrew the reigning king Pelops with the backing of a mercenary army and placed himself on the throne, claiming descent from the Eurypontid king Demaratus. By then, the traditional constitution of Lycurgus had already lost its meaning and Sparta was dominated by a group of its former mercenaries. Polybius described Nabis' force as "a crowd of murderers, burglars, cutpurses and highwaymen".Polybius 13.6 In 205 BC, Nabis signed a peace treaty with Rome, but in 201 BC he attacked the territory of Messene, at that time an ally of both parties, which Sparta had ruled until the mid 4th century BC. The Spartans captured Messene but were soon forced to abandon it when the army of Megalopolis arrived under the command of Philopoemen.
|
|