On this day in 1192 King Richard the Lionheart, on his way home from the Crusades, was captured and imprisoned by Duke Leopold of Austria on the outskirts of Vienna. In spite of the danger of capture and ransom, he had tried to hurry home overland rather than by ship, travelling in disguise with a small band of companions.

The story goes that it was his demands for roast chicken rather than humbler fare at the inn where he stayed that aroused suspicion. He was eventually ransomed in 1194 for the huge sum of 150,000 marks. This required an extraordinary tax raising exercise in England – churches were forced to give up valuables, monasteries had to turn over a season’s wool harvest, and everyone had to contribute. If the phrase ‘a king’s ransom’ was not known at the time, it was probably invented then.

One calls to mind that old French marching song, Auprès de ma blonde which mentions ransom of a kind:

Dites-nous Donc ma belle
Où est votre Mari?
Il est dans la Hollande,
les Hollandais l’ont pris.
Que donneriez vous belle
Pour revoir votre Mari?
Je donnerai Versailles,
Paris et Saint Denis.
Auprès de ma blonde
Qu’il fait bon, fait bon, fait bon

“Tell us, my pretty girl
Where is your husband?”
“He is in Holland –
The Dutch have captured him.”
“What would you give my pretty,
To see him again?”
“Oh I would give Versailles,
Paris and Saint Denis.”
Auprès de ma blonde etc.

We always want our loved ones back and King Richard was well loved. His ransom money was roughly equivalent to the normal total of taxes raised in a year in England. Somehow they found it.

Today I give thanks for all those who are prepared to show their love for others in practical ways.