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Why did Miguel de Cervantes’s captors demand a high ransom?

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Engraving of Miguel de Cervantes, shown with a mustache and beard, wearing a ruffled collar and cloak, based on works by Gregorio Ferro and Fernando Selma. — Miguel de Cervantes Miguel de Cervantes, engraving by E. Mackenzie after Gregorio Ferro and Fernando Selma; from *The Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography* (1863).

Miguel de Cervantes’s captors demanded a high ransom because of the letters of commendation he carried when he was captured by Barbary pirates in 1575. These letters, which were addressed to the king from the duque de Sessa and Don Juan de Austria, led his captors to believe that he was a person of significant importance and high status.1

While this inflated ransom price prolonged his captivity in Algiers, it also served to protect him from death, torture, or mutilation despite his multiple failed attempts to escape. He was eventually released in 1580 after his family and the Trinitarian friars raised the 500 gold escudos required for his freedom.1