The Ransom That Bankrupted a Kingdom

In 1192, King Richard I of England was captured on his return from the Crusades by Duke Leopold of Austria. The ransom demanded was staggering: 150,000 marks of silver — roughly 35 tons. To raise it, England melted church plates, taxed every citizen a quarter of their income, and stripped monasteries of their wool. It took nearly two years. When Richard finally walked free in 1194, the nation lay financially gutted.

And yet Richard died just five years later from a crossbow wound at a minor siege in France. Thirty-five tons of silver — for five more years of a mortal life.

Peter knew about ransoms. He lived in a world where slaves were purchased and prisoners redeemed with coin. But he wanted his readers to understand something that would have stopped them mid-sentence: "You were redeemed, not with perishable things such as silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ."

England bankrupted itself for a king who would die again. The Almighty emptied heaven for sons and daughters who would live forever. The blood of Christ was not a desperate transaction scraped together under duress. It was chosen before the foundation of the world — the most costly ransom ever paid, for a freedom that never expires.

What silver and gold cannot purchase, the Lamb of God has already secured.