Osprey - General Military - Knight - The Warrior and ... - Brego-weard

and facing a renewed attack in their rear, the French knights had become a real threat
again: in the rear surrounded by discarded weapons and with their fellows riding to
their aid, the captives could have turned the tide ol battle in favour ol the French.
That the men-at-arms refused to obey the order and that Henry's archers were the
ones to do the deed, may have had more to do with the loss of ransoms than to any
squeamishness on the part of those chivalric warriors.
The capture of a noble opponent brought about financial benefits, in both ransom
and goods. The taking of prisoners boosted prestige and pocket. When King Jean II
of France was taken at Poitiers there was an unseemly tussle amongst the men-at-
arms to be the one to claim him. Eventually a French exile, Denis de Morbecque, was
able to get the king to surrender to him by promising to lead him to the Black Prince.
There were at least four different claimants to the ransom ol Bertrand du Gueschn's
younger brother Olivier and it took English courts over three years to sort out
the details.
Ransoms were set according to the wealth and resources ol the captive and, more
importantly, according to their renown. As recalled previously, when the French knight
and commander Bertrand du Guesclin was taken by the Black Prince during the Najera
campaign, he boasted to the prince that the French believed that Bertrand would never
be ransomed because the prince was so afraid of his prowess. The prince retorted that
this was not the case and that Bertrand could have his freedom for 100,000 francs, and
Bertrand, keen to be free, took the prince at his word. Immediately the prince regretted
his so easily granting the ransom but his father told him that having set the ransom they
were honour-bound to hold to the terms. After he was captured by Duke Leopold of
Austria on his way back from the Holy Land in 1192, and handed over to Heniy, King
of Germany, Richard the Lionheart's ransom was set at 150,000 marks (two-thirds going
to Heniy and a third to Leopold), an amount equal to three years of the Plantagenets'
royal revenues. The ransoms of the ordinary knight would, obviously, be less but it was
generally thought that an amount equating to a year's income of the captive's patrimony
was a lair settlement.
The warrior who captured a knight might not see the whole ransom. If he were, say,
an archer or other pedej then his lord would take a large part. In royal campaigns
indentures often specified that 'great' prisoners taken were to be surrendered to the
king in return for compensation at a set rate dependent on the status of the captive.
Raising ransoms would take time, and often knights were paroled on the understanding
that they would settle the debt; the payment was often guaranteed by friends of the
captured man, or by the provision of hostages. Some knights bound themselves in
confraternities, or brotherhoods, which would see them share the spoils from a
campaign, but would also ensure payment of each other 's ransom if captured. A few
CAMPAIGN AND BATTLE -J*
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