Treatment of Prisoners in War in the Middle Ages. Western European Examples
Abstract
The present article indicates some examples of circumstances and ways of taking prisoners of war into captivity during military conflicts, different possibilities of treatment of prisoners of war and some measures to give them back freedom. The present article includes, among others, fixed gestures and signs that were used to manifest the intention of giving them into the hands of the opponent and the way of treating other prisoners of war.
The examples cited herein, related to the captivity of kings, illustrate how different were the ways of treatment of prisoners of war, even of the same rank. Moreover, they depict that some aspects of politico-economical nature were superior to those indicated by the chivalric code. At the same, the crusade and close encounter with the Islamic world contributed to the considerable growth of sensibility to the fate of prisoners of war, which was expressed by the institutionalised (at least the partial one) of the procedure of giving freedom.
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