King John learns feudal loyalty isn’t genetic

    by Kapanash

    6 Comments

    1. Obligatory:

      “Bastardi! You think you can threaten me? I’ll give you NOTHING! You want my children? Take them! I have the instrument to make more!”

    2. Context: In 1216, King John threatened to execute William Marshal’s young son, who was being held as a hostage. Marshal famously replied that he could “make another,” not out of cruelty, but because he believed John would never dare kill a noble hostage it would destroy any trust in hostage-taking, a core feudal practice. He was right: the boy survived, and Marshal went on to defeat John’s forces and later rule England as regent.

    3. Interesting enough, there is a rather similar event during the Reconquest of Iberia were after the Arabs menaced the lord of a city to surrender it in exchange for the life of their son being Spared. The lord went and offered the arabs his own knife to kill his son in case the arabs didn’t actually have one.

    Leave A Reply