It's been months since I played.Can't tell, but it doesn't seem to be that way.
Please please tell me that they finally execute leaders of minor factions who are literal criminals or cult leaders?
It was so immersion-breakingly annoying to see my faction leader force me to ransom actual bandits in peacetime. Much less my OWN kingdom forcing me to.
1000% correct. Even in the context of a civil war, summary battlefield execution of nobility was not standard practice.It sounds odd but killing prisoners (specifically nobles) was seen as a very bad thing during the high-medieval age. For multiple reasons; however the primary one is ransoms. Ransoming enemy nobles was big-business and the main reason knights were so keen to get into battle. A relatively poor land-owner could make a fortune by capturing a rich opponent.
After the battle of Agincourt the English King demanded the French nobles be executed as there was simply too many to hold. Nor did he much wish to profit from them. The English Knights refused to do it and eventually it fell on the longbowmen to perform the executions. It didn't do him any favours with the 'relationships' of the English or French nobility.
If you captured a rebel claimant to the throne, that might be another thing... but ransoming even minor rebel lords was incredibly profitable AND - by draining resources - it would harm the enemy war effort.
Any noble who developed a reputation for murdering captured nobles would almost certainly be murdered in turn. Medieval nobility were always conscious of the likely possibility that they'd be captured at least once in their lifetimes and had a vested interest in ensuring that capture would not equal death.
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