this post was submitted on 23 Sep 2025
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Explanation: A rare bit of OC from me. The medieval English King Richard I, 'The Lionheart', returned from the Third Crusade reasonably successful, but bad weather forced his ship aground before reaching England. In a hurry to get home, Richard attempted to travel overland to get to the next viable port - typical of his impatience and impulsiveness, he did so through the lands of Duke Leopold of Austria. Both men were stubborn hotheads, and had developed something of a feud during the Third Crusade, ending with Leopold leaving the Crusade in fury after being disrespected by King Richard.
Reasonably suspecting that he may not be entirely welcome after that, King Richard opted to travel incognito, disguised as a simple country knight returning from crusade.
The issue? Richard was a king, and his expensive tastes worked against him - perhaps especially after sharing in the misery of the supply-starved Crusaders in the Holy Land. After a stop in a local inn, he requested a chicken be roasted for his consumption - chicken was not a particularly 'rich' meat, but any traveler who should be watching their funds asking for an innkeep to pluck and roast a chicken just for him whilst on the road is certainly no poor man - not even a poor knight!
This raised enough suspicions that word reached Leopold - who was on alert after hearing of Richard's ship - and Leopold sent a force to arrest the undercover king, holding him for ransom and eventually extracting the equivalent of two years' income of the entire kingdom of England for Richard's release.
Quite the price for a roast chicken!
WHAT IS THE CHARGE? EATING A MEAL!? A SUCCULENT AUSTRIAN MEAL!? THIS IS MONARCHY MANIFEST!
Is this where we get the saying "King's ransom" perhaps? Or was it just common practice at the time if you could manage to kidnap a monarch?
(Also fantastic meme lol)
Just common practice - though usually monarchs who were captured were captured in battle rather than while travelling. In fact, holding nobility for ransom was a big part of 'knightly' warfare in the High Medieval Period - and the higher their rank, the higher the ransom!
I aim to entertain! 🙇♂️
This was so normal that the knights almost anticipated being able to survive.
This massively backfired in for example the battle of the golden spurs between the french heavy cavalry and (now Belgium) peasants.
The French thought they where going to have an easy win, when this turned out not to be, many french knights trow their sword away to surrender, expecting etiquette where the farmers imprison them for ransom.
The farmers though had no intention to respecting this and the knights where promptly killed sending a clear message to french rule.
Urban militia, but yes, an excellent example! Robert of Artois, the commander of the French forces, in particular was noted to have attempted to surrender, but the Flemish militiamen who found him claimed to not speak French, and killed him on the spot.
Pretty wild to think about how someone ordering a chicken can get the gossip train going that ended up with England losing 2 years of income but it makes sense
I learned about this from tor's cabinet of curiosities!