Ransom Was Big Business In Medieval Europe
by Ivan Farkas
Despite what films like A Knight's Tale might have you believe, medieval times sucked by most modern standards. Spending every day in feces-encrusted pantaloons and eating onions and thistles for dinner was no fun in Middle Ages Europe, and it's no fun in the Midwest today. But medieval warfare sucked way more than you think, thanks to a lucrative, well-organized, and surprisingly prevalent ransom market.
There was no promise of the sweet relief of death after taking a glaive to the groin. In fact, it was likely that you would suffer the indignity of imprisonment in the turd-cellar of an unwashed knave. And this wasn't some new-fangled thing, either; kidnapping and ransoming weren't unheard of even during the classical age. And probably the caveman days, too, when you had to trade away all your seashells and alligator eggs to free captive Uncle Oönthor from the stone-club tribe.
By the late 11th century, ransom had become preferable over slaughter, though it depended on the enemy. So-called barbarian peoples like the Vikings or Celts did not abide by ransoms and, in turn, neither did their skull-squashing adversaries.
The ransom market really ramped up around the 15th century, according to University of Southampton historian Dr. Rémy Ambühl. And it was this incentive for capturing foes and getting paid, rather than patriotism, that helped swell the French and English armies during the Hundred Years' War.
For example, in 1415, an archer named William Callowe found himself within capturing range of an enemy combatant, and duly treated himself to a little kidnappery. He made an easy £100 via ransom, which was vastly more than his daily grog-salary of a measly sixpence. Inversely, one of these abducted rank-and-file Rambos could buy their freedom with a year's wages, which isn't so bad considering you're basically buying your life. Counts and earls and time-travelers would pay vastly more, around £5,000, to get back to their mistresses.
And so, the practice of ransom evolved into a contractual, effective, and honored business. It offered all classes, including commoners, a chance for a quick payday. Capturing a noble, a decorated knight, or the king's favorite ass-wiper was like winning the crime lottery. Ransoming also made wartime less bloody by providing a fatality buffer— being bested in battle no longer meant a certain shredding. Especially if you could convince the hulking chevalier with the brain-matter-coated battleax that your parents lived in the nice, non-wattle-and-daub part of town.
Hell, an individual named Jean de Rousselet was captured at least 14 times. Another soldier claimed to have been taken 17 times, possibly to escape the cooking and nagging back home. Another unlucky individual was "kept waiting for 25 years" before he was ransomed. It was also around this time that the term "prisoner of war" arose, because now there existed a market for such entities, rather than the hastily dug earthen ditches and lavatory canals where defeated soldiers of previous ages had been discarded.
Of course, wherever or whenever there's new money to be had, some kind of government agency steps in to claim it. And by the 17th century, the ransom market began to fall more and more under control of the state. Much in the same way the current government is targeting PayPal and Venmo, and probably OnlyFans in the near future.
