keep fighting. In these instances (for example, the Battle of Agincourt in 1415), the
military leader would command the killing of prisoners.
Perhaps the most famous medieval ransom was that agreed to by the French king John
II after his capture at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356. It was set initially at the exorbitant
amount of 4 million crowns, and only a partial sum was eventually paid, even though the
amount was later decreased to 3 million crowns by the Treaty of Bré-tigny. Although
John was eventually freed, the ransom remained unpaid and, bound by his ransom
agreement, he later returned to England, where he died.
Kelly DeVries
[See also: FEUDAL AIDS; JOHN II THE GOOD; WARFARE]
Contamine, Philippe. War in the Middle Ages, trans. Michael Jones. New York: Blackwell, 1984.
——. “Rançons et butins dans la Normandie anglaise (1424–1444).” In Actes du 101e Congrès
National des Sociétés Savantes. Lille, 1976; Paris, 1978, pp. 241–70.
Henneman, John Bell. Royal Taxation in Fourteenth Century France: The Captivity and Ransom of
John II, 1356–1370. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society, 1976.
Keen, Maurice H. The Laws of War in the Late Middle Ages. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul,
1965.
RAOUL DE CAMBRAI
. This 8,726-line chanson de geste in the Rebellious Vassal Cycle, aside from a
manuscript fragment and brief 16th-century extracts, has survived in one complete
manuscript (B.N. fr. 2493). Dated ca. 1180–1200, it is a revision of one or more earlier
texts now lost. The first 5,555 lines, in rhyme, tell of feudal rebellion and clan feuding.
The remainder, in assonance, treat largely of love and adventure, with Saracen motifs.
The majority of scholars consider the first part to be the genuine Chanson de Raoul de
Cambrai, and the romantic second half to be a sequel, a Raoul II or Chanson de Bernier.
Young Raoul, wrongly disinherited of the Cambrésis by King Louis, demands his
patrimony; the king offers him instead the first fief to become vacant. Herbert, count of
Vermandois, dies, and Raoul takes up the challenge by invading the Vermandois.
Herbert’s sons, defending their inheritance, include the father of Raoul’s squire, Bernier,
born out of wedlock. Bernier eventually quarrels with his lord and takes refuge with the
Vermandois. In the ensuing battle, he slays Raoul. War flares up again when Raoul’s kin
seek to avenge his death. The poem ends with a reconciliation of sorts between the
former enemies, who then turn upon King Louis and burn Paris.
Raoul de Cambrai treats the problems that beset society and questions the old heroic
values: it depicts a world in chaos, with barons driven to assault each other and the king
in senseless battles where no one can prevail. The poet explores in a powerful manner the
issues of feudal law, the role of the family, and the reality of the quest for land and power
in a time, and for a social class, in a state of crisis.
William C.Calin
[See also: CHANSON DE GESTE; LORRAINE CYCLE; REBELLIOUS VASSAL
CYCLE]
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