Mind-Benders of Jewish History
He died in prison — and his body was held for ransom for 14 more years
The Maharam of Rothenburg, the leading Ashkenazic authority of his day, was seized and imprisoned; he forbade the community to ransom him, lest it invite the kidnapping of more rabbis. He died in captivity in 1293, and his body was held for another fourteen years — finally redeemed in 1307 by a Jew named Alexander ben Shlomo Wimpfen, who asked only to be buried beside him.
How we know
Meir ben Baruch of Rothenburg (c.1215–1293) was seized in 1286 and imprisoned; he refused ransom. He died in prison in 1293; his body was released in 1307 when Alexander ben Shlomo Wimpfen paid for it and was later buried next to him in the Worms cemetery. 1307 − 1293 = 14 years.
One of many fact-checked wonders across eight traditions at The Spring of Wisdom.