According to the online Cambridge Dictionary, a “king’s ransom” means “a large amount of money”. Something can be said to: “cost a king’s ransom”, or “be worth a king’s ransom”. 

On occasion, kings were ransomed, and a large amount of money was definitely involved. In a war, the winning side wouldn’t take many prisoners. Prisoners cost money to feed and keep safe. But anyone from the losing side who was deemed to be valuable would be kept alive and offered for ransom. This happened to King Richard I (“the Lionheart”), whose portrait is shown below.

In 1190, King Richard of England went on Crusade to the Holy Land. He was victorious in many of his sieges and battles, but as he was returning home, he was recognised and captured in Austria. He was imprisoned in Duke Leopold’s castle on the River Danube, and then transferred to the imperial castle of Henry VI, the Holy Roman Emperor.

An enormous ransom of 150,000 Marks was demanded. The Encyclopaedia Britannica records that “the raising of the ransom money was one of the most remarkable fiscal measures of the 12^thcentury and gives striking proof of the prosperity of England.”

Richard was released in February 1194.

In the 12^th century, one Mark was worth 13 shillings and 4 pence, two thirds of a pound sterling. 150,000 Marks was therefore 100,000 pounds sterling. I can’t find equivalent values from the 1190s to today; the nearest equivalent values I can find are from 1270 to 2017. 

In 1270 the sum of 100,000 pounds sterling would be equivalent to 73 million pounds in 2017. 

Which means that a century before that, in the 1190s, King Richard’s ransom was probably between 80 and 100 million pounds in today’s money. 

In The King’s Ransom, which is Book Four of Tales of Castle Rory, the demand seems straightforward at first. The King of Smander is captured and a ransom is demanded for his release. But all is not as it seems, and perhaps the ransom, whatever it is, is for a different king altogether…

Crusading kings were vulnerable to capture and imprisonment, with subsequent ransoms being demanded for their release. Far better than killing them; you could use them to replenish your dwindling war chest. Almost always, the ransom demands were ridiculous and had to be reduced in order for there to be any chance of the money being raised.

King Louis IX of France was captured after the Battle of Fariskur in Egypt on 6^th April 1250 in a huge defeat for Louis’s campaign, later known as the Seventh Crusade. 

The battle occurred as Louis tried to bring his army back to Damietta, a town he held. The Crusaders had been forced to wait for months outside the walls of Mansurah, a fortified city in the desert. They became very sick with dysentery. Louis had decided to retreat north from Mansurah when he was attacked by the Egyptians. Fariskur is only ten miles from Damietta – Louis had nearly made it.

The Egyptians captured many of Louis’s Crusaders, most of whom were sick anyway. These people were killed outright, as it would have been impossible to find the resources needed to feed them and keep them alive as prisoners. The valuable ones, however, were not killed, and a ransom was demanded for their release. 

Louis’s ransom, one million bezants, was exorbitant, and it was quickly reduced to 800,000 bezants. King Louis was also forced to give up Damietta, the town taken by him two years before. This was a bitter blow, and meant the Crusade had achieved precisely nothing. After massive financial costs and huge loss of life, the army was beaten and had lost the only town it had captured. 

The ransom was brokered by Louis’s wife, Queen Margaret, who’d given birth to a son in Damietta just two days after the disastrous Battle of Fariskur. Without her interventions and her clever handling of the situation, Louis’s ransom could not have been paid.

Yet again, it is the women in the kings’ families who come to their rescue, not with sentiment but with practical and hard-headed solutions.

A medieval bezant contained around 4.5g of gold. In August 2024 you would pay £61.44 for one gram of gold. One bezant, therefore, would cost you £276.48. That’s just the value of the gold. Louis’s (reduced) ransom was 800,000 bezants, although in fact only about a half of it was paid before he was released, meaning 400,000 bezants were paid. A total of over £110 million in today’s money.

If you sign up for The Household News, you’ll receive a code to download your free book, Mansurah: Jonny’s Tale. I hope you enjoy reading this prequel to Tales of Castle Rory. Jonny and Rory, both young men, join King Louis IX of France on the Seventh Crusade. They are very fortunate, though, in that they miss the Battle of Fariskur completely. Had they taken part in that, it’s doubtful they would have survived.

Joining the Castle Rory Household means you’ll get The Household News every fortnight, a newsletter about Tales of Castle Rory and Medieval life. Enjoy informative content, short stories, competitions and quizzes! You’ll also be the first to know about new books, together with cover reveals and behind-the-scenes action.

It’s completely free! All I need is your email address, and you can unsubscribe at any time.