Brigand

Brigandage refers to the life and practice of brigands: highway robbery and plunder. A brigand is a person who usually lives in a gang and lives by pillage and robbery.

The brigand is supposed to derive his name from the Old French , which is a form of the Italian brigante, an irregular or partisan soldier. There can be no doubt as to the origin of the word bandit, which has the same meaning. In Italy, which is considered the home of the most accomplished European brigands, a bandito was a man declared outlaw by proclamation, or bando, called in Scotland "a decree of horning" because it was delivered by a blast of a horn at the town 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 war support itself by plunder, by extortion, by capturing prisoners and holding them to ransom, who enforces his demands by violence, and kills the prisoners who cannot pay.

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".

In certain conditions the brigand has not been a mere malefactor. "It is you who are the thieves", was the defence of the Calabrian who was tried as a brigand by a French court-martial during the reign of Joachim Murat in Naples.

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