Translate

Friday, 9 February 2018

First Knight

The Count de Ventadour, captured at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356 AD holds the distinction of being the first prisoner to be described officially in a court document as a 'prisoner of war' in England.

Battle Of Poitiers ..... Big Defeat For French
Battle Of Poitiers ..... Big Defeat For French

Court documents from 1357 AD show the term being used instead of 'slave' or 'owned' to describe someone held for ransom after being captured in battle.
 
However the origin of the phrase "prisonnier de guerre" (prisoner of war), is completely different from modern ideas of international rules governing the treatment of captured soldiers. The designation of prisoner of war status gave the master or owner of the prisoner, legal protections over the sale (ransom) of the prisoners. But the courts also used the term slave to describe the relationship for many years.

Sir Bartholomew Burghersh ... Prisoner Of War Taker
Sir Bartholomew Burghersh ... POW Taker

As for the luckless count, he had been legally "owned" by Lord Burghersh, a close adviser to Edward, the Black Prince, and had been bought for 10,000 marks (£5,000) by King Edward III .... a phenomenal amount when you realise that the amount raised by taxation in England annually would have been about £40,000.

He had been released by1360 AD, as he formed part of the deal to return King John II, the French King, who was also captured at Poitiers. Lord Burghersh (Sir Bartholomew Burghersh, the younger), also captured Henry Vaulx in 1360 AD .... he made a lot of money from these and other ransoms.

5 comments:

  1. Interesting use of language. Lord Burghersh must have realised that his "slaves" were somebody else's prisoners and worth more than a slave. An early marketing executive perhaps?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. A proto-free-marketeer capitalist in the making. Family probably one of the top 1 per-cent now ... just pulling your leg Vroomfondel.

      Delete
    2. I'm not against free marketeers Orange Male, just the excesses.

      Delete
    3. I suspect that hostage taking for ransom, or POW taking, as we now should call it, is possibly an excess.

      Delete
    4. Well, if it is, I'm against it. Always know where your towel is.

      Delete

All comments are welcomed, or even just thanks if you enjoyed the post. But please make any comment relevant to the post it appears under. Off topic comments will be blocked or removed.

Moderation is on for older posts to stop spamming and comments that are off topic or inappropriate from being posted .... comments are reviewed within 48 hours. I don't block normal comments that are on topic and not inappropriate. Vexatious comments that may cause upset to other commentators, or that are attempting to espouse a particular wider political view, are reviewed before acceptance. But a certain amount of debate around a post topic is accepted, as long as it remains generally on topic and is not an attempt to become sounding board for some other cause.

Final decision on all comments is held by the blog author and is final.

Comments are always monitored for bad or abusive language, and or illegal statements i.e. overtly racist or sexist content. Spam is not tolerated and is removed.

Commentaires ne sont surveillés que pour le mauvais ou abusif langue ou déclarations illégales ie contenu ouvertement raciste ou sexiste. Spam ne est pas toléré et est éliminé.

Followers

Blog Archive

Its a Pucking World

Its a Pucking World
Dreamberry Wine Cover

About Me

My photo
A middle aged orange male ... So 'un' PC it's not true....