king [OE] The first kings in England were the chiefs of various tribes or ‘kins’ of Angles and Saxons who invaded the country and established their own small states (see kind). To say that something expensive costs a king’s ransom [LME] is to look back to feudal times. In the Middle Ages prisoners of war could be freed on payment of a ransom which varied according to the rank of the prisoner. A king would require a vast sum of money to be paid to secure his release.