Prisoners of War in the Hundred Years War: Ransom Culture in the Late Middle Ages
Cambridge University Press, 1/17/2013
EAN 9781107010949, ISBN10: 1107010942
Hardcover, 316 pages, 22.8 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm
Language: English
The status of prisoners of war was firmly rooted in the practice of ransoming in the Middle Ages. By the opening stages of the Hundred Years War, ransoming had become widespread among the knightly community, and the crown had already begun to exercise tighter control over the practice of war. This led to tensions between public and private interests over ransoms and prisoners of war. Historians have long emphasised the significance of the French and English crowns' interference in the issue of prisoners of war, but this original and stimulating study questions whether they have been too influenced by the state-centred nature of most surviving sources. Based on extensive archival research, this book tests customs, laws and theory against the individual experiences of captors and prisoners during the Hundred Years War, to evoke their world in all its complexity.
Introduction
1. Law, ransom and the status of the prisoner of war
2. Princes, masters and prisoners
3. Status and politics in Lancastrian Normandy
4. The process of ransoming (I) from capture to captivity
5. The practice of ransoming (II) the price of freedom
6. Merchants, banking and trade
7. Assistance to prisoners I
vassals and subjects - the end of customary aids?
8. Assistant to prisoners II
kings and princes - first or last resort?
9. Assistance to prisoners III
the social circle of the prisoner
Conclusion.
Advance praise: 'This book offers an important and sustained analysis of the culture of ransoming in England and France during the Hundred Years War. Building upon an unrivalled knowledge of the archival sources, Ambühl highlights the practical circumstances that shaped the development of practices of ransoming amongst the soldiers themselves. This is an essential corrective to modern romantic assumptions that interpret ransoming through the lens of chivalric literature or the writings of royal lawyers and propagandists.' Craig Taylor, University of York