ABSTRACT
Holding hostages in the medieval west was not an uncommon state of play. Hostages were taken and held as surety for various reasons: the holding of property, the promise of paying off debts, the securement of peace. Hostages could be taken for social reasons, if broadly read. The fostering of sons is a form of social contract involving the holding of a boy by another family to strengthen a network of alliances. Betrothals and marriages of daughters and sisters, especially in the cases of making treaties between warring factions, served much the same purpose as a hostage or a fostered son: a promise of peace held in the body of a person. Wardships of various kinds, of either minor children or widows, could equally be read as a form of social caretaking, a polite-and profitable-form of hostage. Of course, hostages were also taken and ransomed in wartime under martial conditions, and provided a tidy income for the keeper. Hostages under martial conditions could extend beyond the expected situation of the holding of knights and affect the vulnerable, for example, wives or children being held for the actions of husbands and fathers. And of course, hostageship could turn ugly. Hostages were killed, starved, mutilated and ‘disappeared.’ In social, political and military terms, hostages and hostageships were, if not common, then a regular occurrence.
