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[photo] The church of St Martin, at Harfleur by Turner, at the Tate
Competent 15th Century kings went to war
In the 15th Century war was a means to quick profits (so long, of course, as you weren’t captured or killed.) Sensible soldiers teamed up and signed agreements to support each other if they were taken hostage, or worse.
The historian Kenneth McFarlane found one such agreement, signed by two young soldiers, Nicholas Molyneux and John Winter, in the summer of 1421 at the church of St Martin, Harfleur. They’d joined Henry V’s invasion of Normandy.
The agreement set out that, if either were taken prisoner —'which God forbid'— the other was bound to do everything possible to secure his freedom, provided that the ransom did not exceed £1,000 (a huge sum). If it did, then the free brother-in-arms would submit himself as a hostage, so that the captive could go home and raise the money.
Should both be captured at the same time, one would stay as a hostage while the other tried to fund the ransom for them both. (Hostage takers were clearly open to this sort of negotiation).
McFarlane guessed that, in 1421, these two men can’t have been the humblest kind of foot soldiers. But when they signed the agreement they were probably still young, unmarried men, with enough cash to buy some basic military equipment and not much more. It's a rare insight into 15th century European war.
#94 'Political gangsterdom' - Ep 3 What Wars? What Roses?
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[photo] 15th Century France: English land in pink, Burgundian in purple, French in blue
15th Century warfare was about capturing well connected people
Fifteenth century warfare was certainly about killing people. But it was much more about capturing them and then selling them for a ransom. There was a healthy black market in selling hostages on, and eventually extracting large sums from their families for their return.
Lord Fanhope, for example, bought a job lot of French prisoners from the Earl of Norfolk in 1421 and made so much money from selling them on that he built an entire new castle at Ampthill. (You won’t find that on the Royal Palaces website)
The going ransom rate was about a year’s worth of the hostage’s income but could be much more. For example Lord Moleyns was ransomed for £6 000 – an enormous sum, perhaps about £6 million today – in 1453. He then had to pay another £3,800 for the expense of imprisoning him. He finally got out in 1459.
Sieges were another way to make money – since many were ended when the beseiged castle or town bought the besiegers off. In 1428 the French garrison at Laval paid Lord Talbot £3,000 to go away.
[illustration] Henry V's soldiers storming the breach during the siege of Harfleur in 1415 painted by Thomas Grieve as part of the theatre design for Charles Kean's production of Henry V, 1859
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Joan of Arc's greatest crime was to embarrass the English
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