Highlights

Description

Surviving a prison sentence or war captivity could not be taken for granted in the early modern era. Prisoners and convicts were often at the mercy of the guards, who were sometimes of a different faith, and were only granted minimal food rations. They were also forced to do all kinds of hard labour, such as farming, building roads and entrenchments. To some, faith alone seemed to give them enough strength to survive this fate. Iron votive offerings in the form of chained prisoners were addressed to St Leonard as the patron saint of prisoners