Tan amados bandidos

Abstract

So much loved bandits

After the Napoleonic campaigns French public opinion operated a reappraisal of the image of Spain as a land fighting for her independence. This explains why in the decades of the years ’20 and ’30 many French travellers went to Spain with exotic interest looking for bandoleros. Even if such emotions are frustrated more often than not, the travellers’ memoirs create the figure of the bandido de honor, a romantic character of noble spirit, who used to keep a courteous and polite tone with the foreign travellers, sometimes even renouncing to rob them.