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Epilogue: Freedom and Reintegration
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175 Epi logue Freedom and Reintegration In 1485, during Holy Week, a pitiful group of people slowly made its way from the captured city of Ronda to Córdova in southern Spain. The crowd, numbering over four hundred men, women, and children, was in a poor state. Many showed the signs of malnutrition; others were sick; the clothing of most confirmed the wear and tear of having gone for years unchanged; only a few lucky ones rode animals or enjoyed the comforts of a cart; some even carried chains or wore hair the length of many seasons’ growth. Most probably considered themselves lucky and even in their current situation were experiencing a joy they had not felt for some time. A few days earlier they had been captives in Ronda. That was before King Ferdinand, leading joint CastilianAragonese forces, had come with his army and conquered the city, liberating them in the process. Their arrival in Córdova was a happy affair. Queen Isabel and her daughter turned out to greet them, and each of the ex-captives proceeded to kiss the royal hand in reverence. They proceeded to the cathedral where they received 8 reales each (about 10 sous) and were left to make their way back to their homes and families as best they could.1 1. Bernáldez, Historia de los reyes católicos, 1:207–8; the amount dispensed to each captive is confirmed by Isabel’s treasurer, Gonzalo de Baey 176 The story of the captives of Ronda provides a brief but useful look into the lives of captives after their release. It highlights their initial joy, the way that institutions such as the crown and the ransoming orders used them for purposes of propaganda , the ceremonies employed to incorporate the returnees into the Christian body social, and the uncertainty of life after their release symbolized by the long, ambiguous road that lay ahead for many on their journey home. The episode, moreover, is indicative of the fate of medieval captives in the historical sources. The efforts undertaken on their behalf while they were imprisoned and the parchment and paper trail this process created made them historical figures and brought their struggles to the eyes of the modern historian. Yet, after gaining their freedom , a shroud of obscurity descended upon most of them, hiding them from view. They disappeared into everyday life. The lack of sources is not absolute, and periodically we get glimpses of captives reclaiming their lives or trying to put the pieces back together. A begging license here, a dispensation from an almoner there, and perhaps a contract or inclusion in the text of a chronicle: tantalizing clues about specific captives. For the most part, however, we are left to reconstruct their experience from very scattered fragments and educated inferences. Before captives could begin to recover their former lives, they had to somehow get out of captivity.2 In spite of the extensive efforts organized on their behalf, only a small minority of Aragonese captives ever returned home. Using the figures given in chapter 1 of 2,300 Aragonese citizens in captivity in any given year, it is possible to work our way backward and to roughly approximate how many may have gotten out. Truces and wholesale prisoner exchanges were responsible for a large za, in his account book, but he says that only 125 captives received alms from the queen: De la Torre and De la Torre, Cuentas de Gonzalo de Baeza, 86. 2. See also Friedman, Encounter between Enemies, 130; Cipollone, Cristianit à-Islam, 223. EPILOGUE [3.92.96.247] Project MUSE (2024-03-28 13:42 GMT) 177 share of the liberations. The truce negotiations between Aragon and Tlemcen in 1319 discuss the release of some 300 Christians , while a similar negotiation with Granada in 1386 mentions 150 captives.3 Other negotiations were not so fruitful, and exchanges that numbered only a couple of dozen captives were common.4 Moreover, as truces typically lasted three to four years, even the larger figures do not represent annual exchanges but must be spread out over a number of years. Consequently , even the most sanguine estimate could not be much larger than some 50 captives a year released as the result of truces and prisoner exchanges. To this figure must be added those captives ransomed by the religious orders. Mercedarian historians have noted that the order ransomed some 7,000 captives throughout the fourteenth century, which would average out to 70 redemptions a...