The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #108341   Message #2253387
Posted By: Little Hawk
04-Feb-08 - 03:01 PM
Thread Name: BS: 'I Don't Believe It'
Subject: RE: BS: 'I Don't Believe It'
Many of the greatest war leaders of that time were taken prisoner at some point and ransomed, alanabit. I see no reason to criticize Richard the 1st for that. It was a common thing, because ransoming the nobles and bigwigs from an opposing army was a fantastic way of raising money at that time. They were usually worth far more to their captors alive than dead.

Joan of Arc was one spectacular exception to that rule, at least as far as the English were concerned. The Duke of Burgundy (whose men had captured her) attempted to ransom her from the King of France, but he got no response...an extraordinary betrayal, considering what she'd done for France. So eventually the English paid Burgundy for her instead and got her in their hands so that they could dispose of her permanently...which they did, after some considerable difficulty, as she proved very difficult to outsmart in a series of eclesiastical trials arranged to establish her supposed "heresy"...the only excuse they could find to condemn her to death.

Now some of Joan's most notable English foes were also captured at various times during that war, such as the great Lord Talbot. I believe he was twice captured by the French and ransomed by the English, despite the fact that he almost always won his battles. He finally fell in battle in the last significant fight of the Hundred Years War, which was won decisively by the French.

And good riddance, I say. The man had been a curse upon the inhabitants of France.