So, let his name through Europe ring— A man of mean estate, Who died, as firm as Sparta’s king, Because his soul was great.

I doubt his name rings throughout Europe...

The man was a British soldier during the Second Opium War of the late 1850s, who was taken prisoner and clubbed to death and decapitated because he refused to kowtow to the Chinese. His name was Private John Moyse. His heroism was the source of a poem by Sir Francis Doyle.

John Derbyshire at the New English Review thinks that the British hostages should be "court-martialed for dereliction of duty when they get back to Blighty, with shooting definitely an option."

[British] [hostages] [Iran]