I was playing (still am) as the Almohads. I didn't have any provinces surrounding Wessex but I had an emmisary near by. The Germans and English were at war and the Germans were laying seige to the English Castle. I bribed the German army who flipped to my side. This lifted the seige on the English but because I had no surrounding provinces I had to pay to get my troops back - they were ransomed by the English. This seemed somewhat harsh as I had just saved them a province. Anyone else met this?
Also I'd like to see the option of deciding whether you ransom prisoners back or not after a battle. I know you could press the kill button just before the end of the battle but I don't often remember. When you get near the end of a game and the enemy has been steadily retreating until it has huge armies, you don't want them to pay to get them back, you don't care about your reputation anymore, you just want to slaughter them all, it's tedious to have to fight the same army time and time again because you have no option to not ransom them, maybe you should be able to recruit them yourself? Or they could become mercenaries if you don't ransom them back...
