| Abstract: | Although we know a great deal about the captivities and ransoms of noble prisoners during the Hundred Years War, the ransoms paid to soldiers by non-combatants, though far more common, received less publicity in contemporary chronicles and less notoriety in the courts of law. In consequence, we learn about them largely through the generalized, and perhaps rather routine, complaints of the preaching clergy. This article examines some of the permutations of ransom which non-combatants - particularly peasant non-combatants - were obliged to pay to men-at-arms during this war. They vary from ransoms agreements like those negotiated by noble prisoners to protection rackets and slavery which many contemporaries considered to be more appropriate to the circumstances of crusade against Islam than to the wars between Christian peoples. |
