The Prince of Prigs
Captain James Hind
My central character is Captain James Hind. Born Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire 1616, died (hung drawn and quartered) 1652, Worcester. In between, he was a butcher's lad, then a highwayman, next he was a Captain in the Royalist army (apparently heroically so, but no details are recorded), then a highwayman to the point at which this story ends.
Subsequently, he visited Charles II in the Hague, who sent him to fight in Ireland against Cromwell. Wounded, he was sent to the Scilly Isles and then to Stirling, Scotland where he joined Charles II's ill-fated invasion and reputedly helped his King escape the battle, following which Charles famously hid in a tree. James made his way back to London, but was betrayed (read 'sold') by a 'friend'. They tried him for highway robbery, but somehow he was acquitted. They held onto him, then tried him for murder - but a new law pardoned him. Still they refused to release him and finally they tried him for High Treason for having been with Charles II. Finally, they got their conviction and he was executed.