Editing Hostage (section)

==Historical practices==<!-- This section is linked from [[History of Japan]] -->
The long history of political and military use indicates that political authorities or generals would legally agree to hand over one or usually several hostages in the custody of the other side, as guarantee of good faith in the observance of obligations. These obligations would be in the form of signing of a peace treaty, in the hands of the victor, or even exchange hostages as mutual assurance in cases such as an [[armistice]]. Major powers, such as [[Ancient Rome]]<ref>For more on Roman and Celtic practices of hostage-taking as a customary part of treaty-making, see discussion of [[Publius Licinius Crassus (son of triumvir)#Hostage crisis|Julius Caesar's hostage crisis in Armorica]] in 56 BC.</ref> and European [[Colonialism|colonial powers]] would especially receive many such political hostages, often offspring of the elite, even princes or princesses who were generally treated according to their rank and put to a subtle long-term use where they would be given an [[academic elitism|elitist education]] or possibly even a [[religious conversion]]. This would eventually influence them culturally and open the way for an amicable political line if they ascended to power after release. Sometimes when a man from one nation was hostage in another nation, his position as hostage was more or less voluntary: for example the position of Æscferð son of Ecglāf, who was a [[Northumbria]]n hostage in [[Wessex]]; he fought under Byrhtnōð against Vikings in the [[Battle of Maldon]] on 10 August 991 AD (ref. lines 265 etseq), and probably died in battle there.
In Greek, 'Ομηρος means "[[Homer]]" and also "hostage", a coincidence which is part of the [[Homeric Question|debate over Homer's identity]].

[[File:Anglo-Saxon Chronicle - gislas sealde (British Library Cotton MS Tiberius A VI, folio 19r).jpg|thumb|left|[[wikt:gislas|"Gislas"]] was an Old English word for "hostages", demonstrating that the practice was commonplace in England long before the word "hostage" was coined.]]
The Anglo-Saxon practice caused the element ''gīsl'' = "hostage" in many old [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] [[personal name]]s, such as ''Ēadgils'', ''Cynegils'', ''Gīslheard'', and ''Gīslbeorht''. This has been imported into  placenames derived from personal names, for example [[Isleworth]] in west London (UK) from [[Anglo-Saxon language|Old English]] ''Gīslheres wyrð'' (= "enclosure belonging to [a man called] '''Gīsl'''here").

[[File:Laurens - Hostages.jpg|thumb|"Hostages", 1896 painting by [[Jean-Paul Laurens]], Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon]]
The practice of taking hostages is very ancient, and has been used constantly in negotiations with conquered nations, and in cases such as surrenders, armistices and the like, where the two belligerents depended for its proper carrying out on each other's good faith. The Romans were accustomed to take the sons of tributary princes and educate them at Rome, thus holding a security for the continued loyalty of the conquered nation and also instilling a possible future ruler with ideas of Roman civilization.<ref name=EB1911/> The practice was also commonplace in the [[Imperial Chinese tributary system]], especially between the [[Han dynasty|Han]] and [[Tang dynasty|Tang]] dynasties.

The practice continued through the early Middle Ages. The Irish [[High King]] [[Niall of the Nine Hostages#Origin of his epithet|Niall of the Nine Hostages]] got his epithet ''Noígiallach'' because, by taking nine petty kings hostage, he had subjected nine other principalities to his power.

This practice was also adopted in the early period of [[company rule in India]], and by France during the [[French colonial empire|French colonization]] of [[North Africa]]. The position of a hostage was that of a [[prisoner of war]], to be retained until the negotiations or treaty obligations were carried out, and liable to punishment (in ancient times), and even to death, in case of treachery or refusal to fulfil the promises made.<ref name=EB1911/>

The practice of taking hostages as security for the carrying out of a treaty between civilized states is now obsolete. The last occasion was at the [[Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle (1748)]], ending the [[War of the Austrian Succession]], when two British peers, [[Henry Bowes Howard, 11th Earl of Suffolk]], and [[Charles Cathcart, 9th Lord Cathcart|Charles, 9th Baron Cathcart]], were sent to France as hostages for the restitution of [[Cape Breton Island|Cape Breton]] to France.<ref name=EB1911/>

In France, after the revolution of Prairial (June 18, 1799), the so-called law of hostages was passed, to meet the royalist insurrection in [[La Vendée]]. Relatives of émigrés were taken from disturbed districts and imprisoned, and were liable to execution at any attempt to escape. Sequestration of their property and deportation from France followed on the murder of a republican, four to every such murder, with heavy fines on the whole body of hostages. The law only resulted in an increase in the insurrection. In 1796 [[Napoleon]] had used similar measures to deal with the insurrection in [[Lombardy]].<ref>''Correspondence de Napoléon I''. i. 323, 327, quoted in Hall, ''International Law''.</ref><ref name=EB1911/>

In later times the practice of official war hostages may be said to be confined to either securing the payment of enforced contributions or requisitions in an occupied territory and the obedience to regulations the occupying army may think fit to issue; or as a precautionary measure, to prevent illegitimate acts of war or violence by persons not members of the recognized military forces of the enemy.<ref name=EB1911/> 
[[File:Announcement of death of 100 of Polish hostages executed in occupied Warsaw after the death of Franz Kutschera (February 1944).jpg|thumb|German announcement of the execution of 100 Polish hostages as revenge for death of 2 Germans in Warsaw, [[Occupation of Poland (1939–45)|occupied Poland]], February 1944]]

During the [[Franco-Prussian War]] of 1870, the Germans took as hostages the prominent people or officials from towns or districts when making requisitions and also when foraging, and it was a general practice for the mayor and adjoint of a town which failed to pay a fine imposed upon it to be seized as hostages and retained until the money was paid. Another case where hostages have been taken in modern warfare has been the subject of much discussion. In 1870 the Germans found it necessary to take special measures to put a stop to train-wrecking by "[[Francs-tireurs]]" - i.e. "parties in occupied territory not belonging to the recognized armed forces of the enemy", which was considered an illegitimate act of war. Prominent citizens were placed on the engine of the train so that it might be understood that in every accident caused by the hostility of the inhabitants their compatriots will be the first to suffer. The measure seems to have been effective. In 1900 during the [[Second Boer War]], by a proclamation issued at Pretoria (June 19), Lord Roberts adopted the plan for a similar reason, but shortly afterwards (July 29) it was abandoned.<ref>The Times History of the War in S. Africa, iv. 402.</ref><ref name=EB1911/>

The Germans also, between the surrender of a town and its final occupation, took hostages as security against outbreaks of violence by the inhabitants.<ref name=EB1911/>

Most writers on international law have regarded this method of preventing such acts of hostility as unjustifiable, on the ground that the persons taken as hostages are not the persons responsible for the act; that, as by the usage of war hostages are to be treated strictly as prisoners of war, such an exposure to danger is transgressing the rights of a belligerent; and as useless, for the mere temporary removal of important citizens until the end of a war cannot be a deterrent unless their mere removal deprives the combatants of persons necessary to the continuance of the acts aimed at.<ref>W. E. Hall, International Law, 1904, pp.&nbsp;418, 475.</ref> On the other hand, it has been urged<ref>L. Oppenheim, International Law, 1905, vol. ii., War and Neutrality, pp.&nbsp;271–273.</ref> that the acts, the prevention of which is aimed at, are not legitimate acts on the part of the armed forces of the enemy, but illegitimate acts by private persons, who, if caught, could be quite lawfully punished, and that a precautionary and preventive measure is more reasonable than reprisals. It may be noticed, however, that the hostages would suffer should the acts aimed at be performed by the authorized belligerent forces of the enemy.<ref name=EB1911/>

[[File:Train hostages.jpg|thumb|right|A British armoured railway wagon behind a railcar on which two Arab hostages are seated, [[Mandatory Palestine|Palestine Mandate]], 1936]]
[[Image:Congo Crisis dead hostages.jpg|thumb|Belgian soldier in front of dead hostages, November 1964 in [[Kisangani|Stanleyville]], Congo. Belgian paratroopers freed over 1,800 European hostages held by Congolese rebels during the [[Congo Crisis]].]]
Article 50 of the [[Hague  Convention of 1907|1907 Hague Convention on Land Warfare]] provides that: "No general penalty, pecuniary or otherwise, can be inflicted on the population on account of the acts of individuals for which it cannot be regarded as collectively responsible." The regulations, however do not allude to the practice of taking hostage.<ref name=EB1911/>

In May 1871, at the close of the [[Paris Commune]], took place the massacre of the so-called hostages. Strictly they were not hostages, for they had not been handed over or seized as security for the performance of any undertaking or as a preventive measure, but merely in retaliation for the death of their leaders E. V. Duval and [[Gustave Flourens]]. The massacre occurred after the defeat at [[Mont Valerien|Mont Valrien]] on the 4 April and the entry of the army into Paris on the 21 May. Among the 52 victims who were shot in batches the most noticeable were [[Georges Darboy]], [[archbishop of Paris]], the Abbé Deguery, curé of the [[Église de la Madeleine|Madeleine]], and the president of the Court of Cassation, [[Louis Bernard Bonjean]].<ref name=EB1911/><ref>{{Cite web|date=2020-05-25|title=Le massacre de la rue Haxo|url=https://www.histoires-de-paris.fr/massacre-rue-haxo/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200603163801/https://www.histoires-de-paris.fr/massacre-rue-haxo/|archive-date=2020-06-03|access-date=2021-05-31|website=Histoires de Paris|language=fr-FR}}</ref>