Roger Rabbit
04-27-2005, 01:51 PM
Killing or Clemency? Ransom, Chivalry and Changing Attitudes to Defeated Opponents in Britain and Northern France, 7-12th centuries
On 25 September, 1066, the forces of King Harold II of England fell upon the unsuspecting Norwegian army of Harald Hadraada at Stamford Bridge in Yorkshire. In the fierce battle which ensued, the English lost many of their best warriors, but both Hardraada and his ally Tosti Godwineson, Harold's own brother, were slain and the Norwegians virtually annihilated. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the English king gave quarter to the Norwegian reserve force under Olaf, Hardraada's son, and the earl of Orkney, who had not been present at the main battle, but of 300 ships which had sailed into the Humber earlier that month, only 24 were needed to carry away the survivors.[1] We hear of no prisoners, no ransom.
Less than sixty years later, in 1119, another king of England, Henry I, but now also duke of Normandy, met an invading French army under Louis VI at Brémule in the Norman Vexin. The battle was a resounding victory for the Anglo-Normans, yet of the 900 or so knights engaged, only three were killed.[2] The Anglo-Norman chronicler Orderic Vitalis, writing at the monastery of St Evroult in southern Normandy and one of our finest sources for the nature of contemporary warfare, offered his own explanation for this striking lack of casualties:
They were all clad in mail and spared each other on both sides, out of fear of God and
fellowship in arms (notitia contubernii); they were more concerned to capture than kill the
fugitives. As Christian soldiers, they did not thirst for the blood of their brothers, but rejoiced
in a just victory given by God for the good of Holy Church and the peace of the faithful.[3]
Rest of the article here http://www.deremilitari.org/RESOURCES/ARTICLES/strickland1.htm
On 25 September, 1066, the forces of King Harold II of England fell upon the unsuspecting Norwegian army of Harald Hadraada at Stamford Bridge in Yorkshire. In the fierce battle which ensued, the English lost many of their best warriors, but both Hardraada and his ally Tosti Godwineson, Harold's own brother, were slain and the Norwegians virtually annihilated. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, the English king gave quarter to the Norwegian reserve force under Olaf, Hardraada's son, and the earl of Orkney, who had not been present at the main battle, but of 300 ships which had sailed into the Humber earlier that month, only 24 were needed to carry away the survivors.[1] We hear of no prisoners, no ransom.
Less than sixty years later, in 1119, another king of England, Henry I, but now also duke of Normandy, met an invading French army under Louis VI at Brémule in the Norman Vexin. The battle was a resounding victory for the Anglo-Normans, yet of the 900 or so knights engaged, only three were killed.[2] The Anglo-Norman chronicler Orderic Vitalis, writing at the monastery of St Evroult in southern Normandy and one of our finest sources for the nature of contemporary warfare, offered his own explanation for this striking lack of casualties:
They were all clad in mail and spared each other on both sides, out of fear of God and
fellowship in arms (notitia contubernii); they were more concerned to capture than kill the
fugitives. As Christian soldiers, they did not thirst for the blood of their brothers, but rejoiced
in a just victory given by God for the good of Holy Church and the peace of the faithful.[3]
Rest of the article here http://www.deremilitari.org/RESOURCES/ARTICLES/strickland1.htm