JOHN HAWKWOOD: FLORENTINE HERO AND FAITHFUL ENGLISHMAN William P. Caferro Vanderbilt University The Englishman John Hawkwood was fourteenth-century Italy’s most famous and successful mercenary soldier. He began his career in France in the battles of the Hundred Years War and arrived on the peninsula with the famed White Company in 1361.1 He passed the next thirty- three years on Italian soil, during which time he distinguished himself by his feats of arms. His successes included the brilliant tactical victory on behalf of Padua at Castagnaro in 1387 and the daring retreat from Milanese territory at the head of Florentine forces in 1391, which forestalled certain defeat. When Hawkwood died in 1394, Florence commemorated him with an elaborate funeral and commissioned a mural in his honor in the cathedral, later repainted (1436) by Paolo Uccello. I Uccello’s portrait remains in the cathedral and is Hawkwood’s most enduring legacy to the modern world. It has xed for generations the connection between the Englishman and Florence, and has served as a starting point for scholarly studies. Hawkwood’s rst biographer, the eighteenth-century Italian scholar, D. M. Manni, cast the captain’s Copyright © 2008. BRILL. All rights reserved. life wholly in terms of his Florentine employment. Manni entitled his book Commentario della vita del famoso capitano Giovanni Aguto Inglese, gen- eral condottiere d’armi orentini, (my bold), laying the focus on Hawkwood’s military service to that city. Manni’s English contemporary, the antiquarian Richard Gough, presented Hawkwood in a similar 1 See William P. Caferro, “ ‘The Fox and the Lion’: The White Company and the Hundred Years in Italy,” in The Hundred Years War: A Wider Focus, ed. L. J. Andrew Vil- lalon and Donald J. Kagay (Leiden, 2005), 179–210; idem, John Hawkwood: An English Mercenary in Fourteenth-Century Italy (Baltimore, 2006). Hundred Years War (Part II) : Different Vistas, edited by Andrew L.J. Villalon, and Donald J. Kagay, BRILL, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=467668. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2018-10-25 08:11:19.  296 william p. caferro manner. Although stating his intention to “reclaim” Hawkwood for his native land, Gough in fact followed closely Manni’s model, treat- ing the captain’s career in terms of the Florentines, whom Hawkwood purportedly served “with irreproachable fidelity.”2 Gough’s fellow Englishman, John Temple-Leader, established the link still further. He fashioned Hawkwood into an inglese italianato, who was “transformed” by his service into an adoptive Florentine. Temple-Leader carefully laid out the points of contact between the captain and the city: stressing Hawkwood’s receipt of a lifetime pension in 1375, his acquisition of local property in 1383, and citizenship in 1391. Although an amateur historian, Temple-Leader nevertheless made extensive use of Florentine documentary sources, assisted by Giuseppe Marcotti, who did the actual archival work. Their book, Sir John Hawkwood, was published both in Italian and English in the late nineteenth century and proved highly inuential on both sides of the Atlantic.3 The image of a “Florentine Hawkwood” has since worked its way through the literature. The Italian scholars, F. Dini and A. Medin, making further use of the Florentine archives, elaborated on Hawk- wood’s landed investments in the city and the lavish funeral given him by ofcials.4 The German writer, Fritz Gaupp, added rhetorical ourish, reading virtually every act of Hawkwood’s career in terms of Florence. In Gaupp’s rendering, Hawkwood’s relationship with the city was a species of love story. When he raided Florentine lands in 1375, it was “a brutal wooing” of the city, which culminated in a subsequent “marriage proposal.”5 The portrait found its way into numerous general works on mercenaries.6 2 Domenico M. Manni, “Commentario della vita del famoso capitano Giovanni Copyright © 2008. BRILL. All rights reserved. Aguto Inglese, General condottiere d’armi orentini,” in Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, supplementum II (Florence, 1777); Gough provided more information on Hawkwood’s English background, but much of it is inaccurate. Richard Gough, Memoirs of Sir John Hawkwood (London, 1776). 3 John Temple Leader and Giuseppe Marcotti, Sir John Hawkwood (London, 1889). 4 F. Dini, “La Rocchetta di Poggibonsi e Gio Acuto,” Miscellanea storica della Valdelsa 5 (1893): 13–31; A. Medin, “La morte di Giovanni Aguto,” Archivio Storico Italiano 17–18 (1886): 161–71. 5 Fritz Gaupp, “The Condottiere John Hawkwood,” History 23 (March, 1939): 311. 6 For recent restatement of the orthodoxy see Philippe Contamine, War in the Middle Ages, trans. Michael Jones (Oxford, 1984), 159; Denys Hay and John Law, Italy in the Age of the Renaissance, 1380–1530 (London, 1989), 86–87. Hundred Years War (Part II) : Different Vistas, edited by Andrew L.J. Villalon, and Donald J. Kagay, BRILL, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=467668. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2018-10-25 08:11:19.  john hawkwood 297 But the notion of a “Florentinized” Hawkwood has always been problematic. For one thing, it derives from a suspect methodology that has focused almost solely on Florentine sources. In truth, Hawkwood played out his career throughout Italy, and worked for numerous employers besides Florence. For another thing, it stands at odds with the scholarly interpretation of Florentine military history, which has stressed the city’s deeply held mistrust of its mercenary captains and its preference for employing them only for short-term service. To allow for Hawkwood’s career, scholars have granted him special status; in the tradition of Gough, they have made him the one faithful, trustworthy, and “honest” mercenary, in a profession known for much the opposite. These were the qualities that commended Hawkwood to Florence, tied him to the Florentines, and served as the hallmark of his career. In terms of the broader history of the mercenary profession, Hawkwood is the exception that proves the rule. This well-entrenched portrait needs revision. A spate of recent work on Hawkwood, after almost a century of neglect, has to some extent helped broaden our horizons, presenting a somewhat darker and more rounded vision of the man. In his work on medieval mercenaries, Kenneth Fowler has extended his research into numerous archives, both in Italy and England.7 Nevertheless, the preponderance of the new work is of a popular nature, and has followed the basic outlines set out by Temple- Leader.8 Although we have some additional information about the man, Hawkwood has nevertheless emerged more romanticized than ever. The proper understanding of Hawkwood is one that does not equate him with any particular Italian state or moral virtue. The mercenary leader was neither a “Florentine” soldier, nor an honest or faithful man. What allegiance he possessed lay outside of Italy altogether, in his native England and with the English king, a connection he shared with other English mercenaries in Italy.9 Hawkwood’s most prominent personal Copyright © 2008. BRILL. All rights reserved. characteristics were his duplicity and craftiness, traits well-known to 7 Kenneth Fowler, “Sir John Hawkwood and the English Condottieri in Trecento Italy,” Renaissance Studies 11 (1998): 131–48. 8 Duccio Balestracci has followed closely in this tradition of Gaupp and Temple- Leader, offering little that is new. Duccio Balestracci, Le armi, i cavalli, le oro: Giovanni Acuto e I condottieri del Trecento (Rome, 2003). Frances Stonor Saunders reiterates much of Temple-Leader, but treats Hawkwood in a much broader context. Frances Stonor Saunders, Hawkwood, Diabolical Englishman (London, 2004). 9 Saunders’s popular book places more emphasis on Hawkwood’s English nature. Saunders, Hawkwood, Diabolical Englishman, 120–121, 124–5, 149–150, 291–299. Hundred Years War (Part II) : Different Vistas, edited by Andrew L.J. Villalon, and Donald J. Kagay, BRILL, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=467668. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2018-10-25 08:11:19.  298 william p. caferro contemporaries, embedded in his nickname “acuto” and reinforced by local comparisons of him to a “fox.” These characteristics were the keys to his success on the battleeld as well as his success in dealing with his employers. Hawkwood’s relationship with Florence throughout his career was one of give-and-take, characterized by profound ten- sions and dissimulation on both sides. His enduring positive image was largely the result of Florentine propaganda, constructed in the context of war with Milan and diplomacy with other states. The image arose at the end of his career, most notably after his death, when he was safely in his grave. Uccello’s portrait was the culmination of this stylized Hawkwood, a mercenary captain domesticated post-mortem. II To put Hawkwood’s career into proper perspective, it is necessary rst to review its chronology. During the thirty-three years he passed in Italy, the Englishman worked for Florence for only twelve. He served Milan for the same number of years. His Milanese service, however, was more continuous; he spent six consecutive years serving Milan, but no more than ve straight years with the Florentines. He also served the Pisans and the papacy for six years consecutively. Hawkwood did not begin his employment with Florence until he had been in Italy for sixteen years. Thus, his service to the city constituted a relatively small part of his overall career. Hawkwood also forged close personal ties with both his Pisan and Milanese employers. He acted as a kind of bodyguard to the Pisan doge, Giovanni dell’Agnello, who largely owed his political ascendancy in 1364 to Hawkwood’s military support.10 The two men were tied by means of what one scholar has called a “secret pact,” reinforced by Copyright © 2008. BRILL. All rights reserved. familial association. Agnello made Hawkwood the godfather of his son, Francesco, and gave the boy the incongruous middle name of “Aguto,” the mercenary’s Italian nickname.11 Hawkwood’s connection with Pisa was sufciently strong throughout the 1360s for at least one contem- 10 Natale Caturegli, La Signoria di Giovanni dell’Agnolo (Pisa, 1920), 97. 11 Both the Lucchese chronicler Giovanni Sercambi and the anonymous Pisan chronicler make note of the name. The latter mistook it for the child’s rst name. Giovanni Sercambi, “Le croniche Lucchese,” ed. Salvatore Bonsi, in Fonti per la storia d’Italia, 23 vols. (Rome, 1963), 1:132; “Chronica di Pisa,” ed. L. A. Muratori in Rerum Italicarum Scriptores (Milan, 1729), 15: col. 1047. Hundred Years War (Part II) : Different Vistas, edited by Andrew L.J. Villalon, and Donald J. Kagay, BRILL, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=467668. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2018-10-25 08:11:19.  john hawkwood 299 porary, the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles IV (1374–1378), to think that he was in fact a Pisan citizen, not an Englishman.12 Hawkwood established similarly close ties to the Milanese tyrant, Bernabò Visconti. In 1377, he married Bernabò’s illegitimate daughter, Donnina, with whom he remained until his death. The full extent of his association with the two cities will never be fully known, owing to absence in both places of archival material. What we do know, however, is that Hawkwood never established such intimate arrangements with Florence. He served the city by means of impersonal contracts and never sought broader integration with the political elite or with Florentine society in general. Even in the last years of his life, possessed of estates outside the city walls and government grants of dowries for his daughters, Hawkwood did not marry the young women to Florentine citizens. Instead, he worked to his dying day to liquidate his Italian properties and return home to England. For most of the rst decades of his career in Italy Hawkwood served Pisa and Milan during a period when these two cities often opposed Florence. In 1363, during their war with Florence, the Pisans promoted him to his rst full captaincy of an army. His initial offensive in the winter of that year was unsuccessful, as he drove his men too hard through snow and icy weather. But six months later, with the German mercenary captain, Hannekin Baumgarten, Hawkwood conducted a more successful campaign, leading Pisan forces to the walls of Florence.13 The action constituted the rst tangible evidence of the Englishman’s military skill and, according to the scholarly literature, the rst indica- tion of his moral character as an “honest” mercenary. With the Pisan army massed before the gates of Florence, Florentine ofcials bribed most of the leading captains, who then turned southward to plunder Sienese lands.14 Hawkwood, however, held rm, the only leading mer- cenary to do so. Copyright © 2008. BRILL. All rights reserved. This episode stands as the genesis of Hawkwood’s modern-day repu- tation for delity. But like so much else about the captain, it has been taken entirely out of context by scholars. The dissolution of armies 12 J. H. Böhmer, Regest Imperii; Die Regeste des Kaiserreichs unter Kaiser Karl IV, 1346–1378 (Innsbruck; reprint, Hildesheim, 1968), 8:388. The letter was to Mantua and was dated May 14, 1368. 13 Filippo Villani, Cronica di Matteo e Filippo Villani (Florence, 1826), 5:257–76. 14 “Chronica di Pisa,” col. 1045. The desertion of Hawkwood’s army is described also by Villani and Donato Velluti. Villani, Cronica, 284; La Cronica Domestica di Messer Donato Velluti, ed. Isidoro del Lungo and Guglielmo Volpi (Florence, 1914), 237–38. Hundred Years War (Part II) : Different Vistas, edited by Andrew L.J. Villalon, and Donald J. Kagay, BRILL, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=467668. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2018-10-25 08:11:19.  300 william p. caferro through bribery was a common occurrence. Historians traditionally place the blame on mercenaries and their inherently perdious nature, but, in reality, such episodes depended greatly upon the actions of employers. Behind many acts of betrayal were late payments or non- payment—a persistent and too-often unacknowledged problem. There is evidence to suggest that this was in fact true in the above case. Pisa owed its captains substantial amounts of money and their contracts were coming due. According to the extant agreement between Flor- ence and one of the deserting contingents, (led by the German, Albert Sterz), the band was owed 60,000 orins, an indication that it had not received wages for a long time.15 The debts Pisa owed its soldiers nd conrmation in a letter by Andrew Belmont, another of the deserting captains. This missive reects Belmont’s bitterness about money owed him by Pisa. While Belmont was fuming over the non-payment of his men, Albert Sterz had already contemplated leaving Pisan service well before the attack on the walls of Florence.16 A letter in the Archivio Segreto Vaticano shows that Sterz had entered negotiations with the pope about leaving Italy and going East on a crusade. In other words, Hawkwood’s army lacked unity from the very outset of its campaign. It would be incorrect to assume that the same nancial condition that alienated his comrades existed also for Hawkwood. As captain general of the overall army, and with close personal ties to the Pisan ruler, Agnello, he had very likely gained special nancial consideration and higher priority with respect to payment of wages. There is in any case little prior evidence to suggest moral failing on the part of Albert Sterz. When he served the marquis of Montferrat in 1361, he explicitly rejected Milanese attempts to bribe him, an attitude that drew the praise of a Milanese chronicler.17 But unlike Hawkwood, Albert gained no posthumous reputation for honesty as a result of this episode. Conversely, eight years after the events at the Florentine gates, Copyright © 2008. BRILL. All rights reserved. Hawkwood deserted his employer in a manner similar to that of his comrades in 1364. While conducting a siege of the city of Pavia in 1372, he quit Milanese service and went over to their enemy, the pope. 15 Giuseppe Canestrini, “Documenti per servire della milizia italiana del secolo XIII al XVI,” Archivio Storico Italiano. (s. 1), 15 (1851): 57–60. 16 Andrew Belmont’s letter was addressed to the Florentine envoy Zenobio dell’Antella on September 4, Archivio di Stato di Firenze [ASF ], Signori, Risponsive, 6, no. 9. See also n. 17. 17 Petri Azarii (Azario), “Liber Gestorum in Lombardia,” ed. Francesco Cognasso in Rerum Italicarum Scriptores (Bologna, 1925–1939), vol. 16, pt. 4:161. Hundred Years War (Part II) : Different Vistas, edited by Andrew L.J. Villalon, and Donald J. Kagay, BRILL, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=467668. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2018-10-25 08:11:19.  john hawkwood 301 The standard story is that Hawkwood did so out of frustration with the rulers of Milan, who did not allow aggressive campaigning.18 On the other hand, letters in the Archivio Gonzaga in Mantua suggest a different explanation: the mercenary’s contract was coming due and he attained better terms from the papacy.19 If contemporary Florentines were impressed by Hawkwood’s behav- ior, there is no mention of it in the sources. Rather than embrace his moral rectitude, Florence worked diligently, and deviously, to rid itself of him. When possible, the Florentines sided with those who might defeat him in the eld while attempting through diplomacy to encour- age him to leave Italy altogether. For his part, Hawkwood rode against Florence, both at the head of free companies and in the joint service of Milan and Pisa, when in the winter of 1369, he inicted a major defeat on the Florentine army at Cascina. During these episodes, the condottieri’s relationship with Florence can be reconstructed from diplomatic correspondence preserved in the Florentine state archives. This documentation consists of both ambas- sadorial reports and instructions from city ofcials to their envoys. Such sources show that Florence was preoccupied with Hawkwood, whom they saw as a great threat. The city’s basic diplomatic strategy involved manipulation through attery and deceit. In July, 1365, Florence sent Doffo di Giovanni dei Bardi and Simone Simonetti, to persuade the mercenary leader to leave Italy and go on the pope’s proposed crusade. The two envoys were instructed to fashion their proposal as a courtesy extended to “a rare friend and son.”20 At the same time, they were to convince Hawkwood to accept the least possible sum of money for the journey by insisting that Florence was in dire nancial straits. While Bardi and Simonetti were negotiating with the condottieri, Florence sent a “secret” dispatch to the pope and other Italian states, suggesting that they jointly purchase the services of a German mercenary company Copyright © 2008. BRILL. All rights reserved. 18 “Annales Mediolanenses,” Rerum Italicarum Scriptores 16 (1730): col. 750. See also Johannis de Mussis, “Chronicon Placentinum,” in Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, ed. Ludovico Muratori, 16 (1730): col. 514. 19 The letters are incorrectly dated as 1373 by a later archivist, but they refer to the events of 1372. Archivio di Stato di Mantova [ASMa], Archivio Gonzaga [AG], Busta 1367 (12, 18, 20 September). Hawkwood’s own letter on the matter is in Busta, 1321 (September 23, 1372). 20 ASF, Signori-Carteggi, Missive i Cancelleria, 13, f. 50v. Hundred Years War (Part II) : Different Vistas, edited by Andrew L.J. Villalon, and Donald J. Kagay, BRILL, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=467668. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2018-10-25 08:11:19.  302 william p. caferro which might “destroy” the English captain.21 According to this dispatch, with Hawkwood out of the way, the allies could then absorb the victori- ous Germans into their own armies, thus eliminating the problem of marauding mercenary bands.22 The plan did not succeed. The language of “friendship” formed an essential component of Florence’s diplomatic correspondence with Haekwood. Letters usually began by addressing him as “dearest friend.”23 They frequently went on to laud such traits as his “nobility” (nobilitas) and “virtue” (virtus). The latter term must be treated with great care. It was used in a military context, and is best rendered into English as “prowess” or “courage.” It was not, as Temple-Leader understood it, a reference to a moral qual- ity or, in that regard, an insight into Hawkwood’s broader relationship with Florence. The word was largely formulaic, as was its occasional partner, “faith” ( des). It was applied to virtually all military men in Florentine service. We see these same terms in letters to the German captains, Lutz von Landau and Konrad von Aichelberg, as well as to Hugh de Montfort, none of whom developed a special rapport with the city.24 Florence’s diplomatic efforts with regard to Hawkwood had a strong English dimension to them. The city consistently used as its envoy Doffo dei Bardi, son of the founder of the great Bardi bank, a man with long years of experience in England. Himself a banker, Bardi was personally acquainted with King Edward III (1327–1377).25 This added prestige and authority to his dealings with Hawkwood, which were almost certainly conducted in English. Florentine budgets of the camera del commune reveal that Florence handsomely paid an English-speaking knight, Walter Lesley to bribe English contingents surrounding its town Copyright © 2008. BRILL. All rights reserved. 21 Temple-Leader and Marcotti, Sir John Hawkwood, 72; Eugene Cox, The Green Count of Savoy (Princeton, 1967), 274. 22 ASF, Signori-Carteggi, Missive i Cancelleria, 13, ff. 53v–54r. The Florentines also had an outstanding agreement with Sterz and the Germans. C. C. Bayley, War and Society in Renaissance Florence (Toronto, 1961), 36–37. 23 ASF, Signori-carteggi, Missive i Cancelleria, 13, fol. 50v; Signori-carteggi, Missive i Cancelleria, 14, f. 41r; Signori-carteggi, Missive i Cancelleria, 15, ff. 2v, 3r, 7r, 8r, 9v, 16r, 19v, 31r, 36v; Dieci di balia, legazioni e commissarie, 1, f. 199r; Signori-carteggi, Missive i Cancelleria 22, ff. 71v, 149r, 149v, 160v, 161v, 162r, 170v. 24 Biblioteca Riccardiana, Ms. 786, f. 68v; ASF, Signori-Carteggi, Missive i Cancel- leria, 22, ff. 149r–v. 25 Armando Sapori, La crisi delle compagnie mercantili dei Bardi e dei Peruzzi (Florence, 1926), 86; Edwin Hunt, The Medieval Super Companies (Oxford, 1994), 241. Hundred Years War (Part II) : Different Vistas, edited by Andrew L.J. Villalon, and Donald J. Kagay, BRILL, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=467668. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2018-10-25 08:11:19.  john hawkwood 303 walls in 1364.26 Lesley had been a member of the Great Company, forerunner to the White Company, when it was at Avignon, just before it entered Italy. After this initial service, Lesley remained as envoy to the English mercenaries employed by Florence throughout the rest of the Pisan war. Doffo dei Bardi was eventually replaced as ambassador to Hawkwood by two other members of banking families with strong English ties: Simone di Ranieri Peruzzi and Spinello Alberti. In his ricordanze, Peruzzi clearly indicates that he was uent in English.27 Florence’s strategy makes clear the obvious though oft-minimized fact that Hawkwood was, throughout his Italian sojourn, a displaced Eng- lishman who strongly identied with his native land and language. The connection is apparent in the very rst Italian contract (condotta), that bears Hawkwood’s name—an instrument negotiated in 1361 between the White Company and the marquis of Monteferrat. It contains an explicit pledge of allegiance to the king of England. In it, Hawkwood and his fellow Englishmen refused to undertake any service that would oppose the interests of their own king.28 The clause was repeated in all of Hawkwood’s subsequent contracts, as well as those of his fellow Englishmen.29 By contrast, mercenaries of other nationalities did not include such a pledge in their contracts. The condottieri’s allegiance to the English king constituted a central component of his career. It manifested itself even when he was at the head of purportedly “free” companies. In 1367, seeking to pressure Pope Urban V (1362–1370) with whom relations had become strained, Edward III instructed Hawkwood and the English mercenaries in Italy to support Milan, the pope’s principal adversary. That he and his com- rades complied is indicated in a letter by Benabò Visconti to Edward thanking the English king for his support.30 This supplies our rst direct evidence of a pattern that would become prominent in Hawkwood’s later career: his choice of employers was often conditioned, at least in Copyright © 2008. BRILL. All rights reserved. part, by English foreign policy. His full-time employment by Bernabò Visconti in 1368 corresponded with a marriage agreement between the 26 Camera del comune, scriviano di camera uscita, 22, f. 13. 27 Armando Sapori, Il Libro di commercio dei Peruzzi (Milan, 1934), 522. 28 Francesco Cognasso, “Note e documenti sulla formazione dello stato visconteo,” Bolletino della Societa Pavese di Storia Patria 23 ( Jan.–Dec. 1923): 160. 29 ASF, Dieci di balia, deliberazioni, condotte e stanziamenti, 3, ff. 10r–12r; 31r–33r; 105r–6r. 30 Edinburgh University Library, Sc2–305, f. 116v–7r. I thank the staff at the library for sending me a copy of the letter on CD ROM. Hundred Years War (Part II) : Different Vistas, edited by Andrew L.J. Villalon, and Donald J. Kagay, BRILL, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=467668. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2018-10-25 08:11:19.  304 william p. caferro English crown and Milan, matching Edward III’s son, Lionel, duke of Clarence, with Bernabò’s niece, Violante.31 The strong connection between Hawkwood and England is apparent elsewhere. The great Flemish chronicler, Jean Froissart, claimed that when Hawkwood left Milanese service in 1372 and went over to the pope, it was on account of the presence in the papal army of Enguer- rand de Coucy who had married a daughter of Edward III.32 The composition of Hawkwood’s armies reected a preference for his own countrymen. A Florentine ambassadorial dispatch from 1369 quotes him as saying he had “more faith in his English soldiers than in others.”33 His forces often contained such countrymen as William Gold, William Boson, John Brice, and Richard Romsey, several of whom originally came to Italy with Hawkwood. There is also evidence of a connec- tion between Hawkwood and men from his home county of Essex. Hawkwood’s son-in-law, William Coggeshale, joined the condottieri’s brigade as a teenager and rode with him for years, before returning to Essex, where he became quite prominent. III While the tight connection between Hawkwood and England continued in subsequent years, his attachment to Italy also grew deeper. By the late 1360s and early 1370s, he had acquired landed holdings, located mostly in lower Lombardy.34 He owned property near Bologna and Parma, and perhaps gained possession at this time of the town of Gazzuolo on the Oglio River near Cremona, bordering lands that belonged to the lord of Mantua. According to his modern biographers, Hawkwood’s relationship with Italy reached a key phase with his raid on Tuscany Copyright © 2008. BRILL. All rights reserved. 31 Negotiations regarding the union were already underway in July 1366, and the deal was struck in middle of May 1367. Documents relating to this are in, Repertorio Diplomatico Visconteo: Documenti dal 1263 al 1402, ed. Elia Lattes, 2 vols. (Milan, 1918), 2:168; Foedera, Conventiones, Litterae et cuiuscunque generis Acta Publica inter Reges Angliae et alios quovis Imperatores, Reges, Pontices, Principes, vel Communitates, ed. Thomas Rymer, 6 vols. 3:782–83, 797; Anthony Luttrell, “English Levantine Crusaders,” Renaissance Studies 2 (1988): 151–53. 32 Jean Froissart, Chronicles of England, France and Spain, trans. J. Johnes, 2 vols. (Lon- don, 1868), 2:574. 33 ASF, Signori-Carteggi, Missive i Cancelleria, 14, f. 38v. 34 Archivio Segreto Vaticano [ASV], Reg Vat, 269, f. 178r; Repertorio Diplomatico, 166. Hundred Years War (Part II) : Different Vistas, edited by Andrew L.J. Villalon, and Donald J. Kagay, BRILL, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=467668. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2018-10-25 08:11:19.  john hawkwood 305 in the summer of 1375. It was this event which brought him into the Florentine orbit. This was the “brutal wooing” of the city that began a long and felicitous relationship. The critical link tying him to the city was a lifetime pension, followed two years later by full-time Florentine military service. On the other hand, evidence for any lasting nexus between Hawk- wood and Florence is slim. As he approached Tuscany in 1375, Simone di Ranieri Peruzzi depicted him as an angry captain, who spoke dispar- agingly of the region, in general, and of Florence, in particular. The mercenary leader mocked the city’s internal political discord, saying that “they don’t pull the same rope, but call one [Guelf ] and the other Ghibelline.”35 This statement—hardly a marriage proposal—suggests that Hawkwood had gained an understanding of the pervasive antago- nisms that animated local Italian politics. He tried to take advantage of these antagonisms by bringing with his army exiles from Florence and other Tuscan cities, a strategy typically adopted by marauding bands and one designed to exert political pressure on places under attack, making them capitulate more quickly. Hawkwood knew the Florentine exile community well and had established close ties with the power- ful exile, Giovanni d’Azzo degli Ubaldini, a rural lord, whose family controlled a northern access into Florentine territory. The mercenary’s raid into Tuscany in 1375 lasted for three months, during which he extorted from Florence bribes worth 130,000 orins. This sum shocked Ambassador Peruzzi, who initially counseled the city to take up arms rather than pay. Ignoring this advice, Florentine authorities gave in to Hawkwood’s demands, in addition granting him a lifetime pension worth 1200 orins a year, which was exempt from taxation.36 This pension has been the source of much confusion about Hawk- wood’s relationship with Florence. On the one hand, it did establish a Copyright © 2008. BRILL. All rights reserved. long-term tie between the captain and the city, one strengthened by the fact that Florence appears to have paid consistently and on-time.37 On the other hand, the pension was nothing more than a form of tribute, and, at that, a fairly common one, often bestowed upon mercenary captains. Many of Hawkwood’s contemporaries had already received 35 Archivio di Stato di Siena [ASS], Concistoro, 1786, #74. 36 ASF, Capitoli i registri, f. 48r. 37 Temple-Leader and Marcotti, Sir John Hawkwood, 92; Gaupp, Condottieri, 311; Saunders, Hawkwood, 176–79. Hundred Years War (Part II) : Different Vistas, edited by Andrew L.J. Villalon, and Donald J. Kagay, BRILL, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=467668. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2018-10-25 08:11:19.  306 william p. caferro such grants. For example, in 1373, an obscure German contemporary, Robotus von Engestorp, had received a lifetime pension from Venice.38 Hawkwood himself had previously extorted one from Queen Johanna I of Naples (1343–1382). In 1383, he gained another from the city of Lucca.39 In fact, his connection to Lucca proved particularly strong: he would eventually acquire land in that city, gain citizenship, and conduct banking with local rms.40 Nevertheless, scholars have not made a case for the condottieri becoming “an adoptive Lucchese.” The incontrovertible result of Hawkwood’s raid in 1375—that which most mattered to the captain himself—was the great wealth that it produced. A letter in the Archivio Gonzaga reports Hawkwood as having now amassed savings of 100,000 ducats. The dispatch also indicates that, at the height of his nancial fortunes, he contemplated returning home to England.41 The impulse is conrmed in a petition submitted to the English crown by Hawkwood’s representatives securing “pardon” for crimes committed while a free captain in France. The pardon was received in 1377 and provided Hawkwood an honorable means of returning home.42 Despite the pull of his homeland, Italy was difcult to leave at this point. Hawkwood’s raid on Tuscany had initiated a war between the pope and Florence, which involved much of central Italy. The market in soldiers grew tight, and Hawkwood was at the height of his demand as a captain. The ambiguity of his intentions raised further the price of his service. As a result, he remained in Italy. He took up rst with the papacy against Florence and its allies for which he and his brigade were purportedly paid 30,000 orins a month, a sum that contempo- raries thought impossible for the pope to raise.43 Two years later, he switched sides, receiving an even more lucrative offer, which required the nancial participation of sixteen separate states. The contract of May, 1377, guaranteed Hawkwood a personal stipend of 3,200 orins Copyright © 2008. BRILL. All rights reserved. 38 Stephan Selzer, Deutsche Söldner im Italien des Trecento (Tübingen, 2001), 110. 39 ASV, Reg Vat. 269, fols. 179v–180r. 40 Archivio di Stato di Lucca [ASL], Consiglio Generale 8, p. 73 (March 17, 1382); Calender of Close Rolls, Richard II, 1381–1385, vol. 2 (London, 1920), 367; Holmes,“Florentine Merchants,” 201–202. For Lucchese activity as bankers in Eng- land, see Kaeuper, Bankers to the Crown, 9, 81–82; Hunt, The Super-companies, 58–59; De Roover, Money, Banking and Credit, 39; Meek, Lucca, 44, 200–2. 41 ASMa, AG, Busta 1367 (October 26, 1375). 42 Calender of Patent Rolls, Edward III, 1374–1377, vol. 16 (London, 1916), 435; For Hawkwood’s intentions, see Caferro, John Hawkwood, 175–95. 43 ASF, Signori-Carteggi, Missive i Cancelleria, 15, f. 14v (October 16, 1375). Hundred Years War (Part II) : Different Vistas, edited by Andrew L.J. Villalon, and Donald J. Kagay, BRILL, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=467668. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2018-10-25 08:11:19.  john hawkwood 307 a month as well as payment for his brigade at the rate of 42 orins per month per lance, for the rst two months.44 The earnings represent a high point in the mercenary’s career. Hawkwood departed papal service just after his participation in February, 1377, in the sack of the city of Cesena. The sack was one of the most brutal acts of the century. Together with Breton mercenaries his men slaughtered unarmed locals at the direction of the cardinal of Geneva, the future anti-pope, Clement VII (1378–1394). While the deed shocked contemporaries, it has led modern scholars, seeking to maintain Hawkwood’s image as a “moral” captain, to minimize his involvement. His defenders reduce his role to a passive one, and make the claim that this bloody service convinced him to leave papal employ- ment. However, if he was morally offended, Hawkwood could easily have turned away from Italy altogether; his pardon in England was approved a month after the massacre. In reality, his major motivation was money. Lost in the accounts of human tragedy at Cesena is the fact that the pope’s mercenaries had gone without pay. The city’s sack thus served as partial payment for the soldiers. Hawkwood’s abandonment of the papacy was brought about through the diplomatic efforts of the Milanese, his new employer. Bernabó Vis- conti brokered the deal, for which he took explicit credit. He employed as his envoy Ruggiero Cane, whom the condottieri had apparently known since at least 1371.45 Bernabó sealed the deal with Hawkwood by arranging a marriage between the captain and his illegitimate daughter, Donnina. Donnina’s dowry involved large cash payments as well as a cluster of estates northeast of Milan, in the towns of Pessano, Bornago, Carugate, Valera and Santa Maria alle Molgora.46 Rather than metaphorical “marriage” to Florence, Hawkwood was, by 1377, quite literally married to Milan. His new wife, Donnina, was Copyright © 2008. BRILL. All rights reserved. 44 Biblioteca Riccardiana, Ms. 786, f. 36v. 45 ASS, Conc 1793, #5; ASMa, AG, Busta 1602, #642. Gino Franceschini, “Sol- dati inglesi nell’alta valle del Tevere seicent’ anni fa,” Bolletino della regia deputazione di Storia patria per L’Umbria 42 (1945): 183. Cane attached himself to Hawkwood during the raid on Tuscany in 1375 and took the rather unusual role of helping the captain collect bribe money. 46 An anonymous description of Hawkwood’s wedding is in ASMa, AG, Busta 1602, no. 641. This is partially reproduced by Documenti Diplomatici tratti daglu Archivi Milanesi, ed. Luigi Osio, vols (1864; reprint, Milan, 1970), 1, pt 1:191–92. See also Temple-Leader and Marcotti, Sir John Hawkwood, 128. For Hawkwoods own letter relating to his mar- riage, see ASL, Anziani al Tempo della Libertà, 439, (no. 2012). For the lands given to Hawkwood see Caterina Santoro, La politica nanziaria dei Visconti, 2–3, (doc. 5). Hundred Years War (Part II) : Different Vistas, edited by Andrew L.J. Villalon, and Donald J. Kagay, BRILL, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=467668. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2018-10-25 08:11:19.  308 william p. caferro a member of the city’s ruling elite. The so-called triumph of Florentine diplomacy was actually a triumph for Milan. Nevertheless, this bit of diplomacy also had an English dimension to it. Hawkwood’s marriage to Donnina Visconti took place shortly before the ascension of Richard II (1377–1399) to the English throne. Soon afterwards, Richard chose the mercenary as his representative in Milan to help arrange a marriage between himself and Bernabò’s legitimate daughter, Caterina. This coincidence between English foreign policy and Hawkwood’s actions is striking, and we cannot rule out the possibility that his own marriage was directed—or at least approved of—from home. In October, 1377, Richard sent the Franciscan friar, Walter Thorpe, to help the condot- tieri conduct negotiations with Milan.47 Hawkwood’s role as Richard’s ambassador dened much of his subsequent career. For the next two years, he worked to arrange the marriage to Caterina, an effort that eventually placed him in close asso- ciation with an English envoy, Geoffrey Chaucer. But this diplomatic service detracted from his military performance. Florentine ofcials of the period complained bitterly about his lack of military zeal. In their letters to him (always addressed to “dearest friend”), they appealed to his “virtue” and manliness and, signicantly, his sense of pride as an Englishman.48 But the Florentines apparently did not see the broader picture. In fall of 1377, Hawkwood expanded his diplomatic role by conducting negotiations with the papacy to bring an end to the war. It is not clear whether at this point he was pursuing Milanese or English objectives or both. For their part, the Florentines were appalled. They condemned his activities (“how can you possibly make treaties without our knowl- edge or that of Bernabò?”) and urged him to make “a strong showing in the eld.”49 By 1378, Hawkwood’s reputation stood at a low point in Florence. Copyright © 2008. BRILL. All rights reserved. After his visit to the city to confer with ofcials about his diplomatic efforts, the anonymous chronicler wrote, “May he never return!”50 With peace talks underway, Hawkwood summarily withdrew from Tuscany 47 Édouard Perroy, L’Angleterre et le grand schisme d’occident (Paris, 1933), 137; R. H. Jones, The Royal Policy of Richard II: Absolutism in the Later Middle Ages (Oxford, 1968), 83–84. 48 Biblioteca Riccardiana, Ms. 786, ff. 60v–61r (September 27, 1377), 69v; Temple- Leader and Marcotti, Sir John Hawkwood, 133. 49 Biblioteca Riccardiana, Ms. 786, ff. 55v, 61r. 50 “Diario d’anonimo orentino dall’anno 1358 al 1389,” ed. A. Gherardi in Cronache dei secoli XIII e XIV (Florence, 1876), 344. Hundred Years War (Part II) : Different Vistas, edited by Andrew L.J. Villalon, and Donald J. Kagay, BRILL, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=467668. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2018-10-25 08:11:19.  john hawkwood 309 and rode to Verona, an action that proved the primacy of his relation- ship with Milan over Florence. With Bernabò Visconti preparing to make war on Verona, Hawkwood arrived at the Veronese town walls in April, 1378. At the time he departed Tuscany, he was arguing with Florence over back pay.51 At Verona, Hawkwood continued to serve Richard II in an ambassa- dorial capacity, negotiating the marriage union with the Visconti. Talks reached a critical stage in the early summer of 1378, when Richard sent his envoys, Geoffrey Chaucer and Edward de Berkeley.52 The two men joined the mercenary leader and together they conferred with Bernabò Visconti.53 These negotiations ultimately failed. The marriage plans were aban- doned, and Richard II shifted his interest to the house of Luxemborg. Meanwhile, Hawkwood’s diplomatic activities had caused the Verona campaign to bog down. While away in Milan, his army fell into disar- ray.54 What had seemed to Bernabò an easy victory turned into a major disappointment. The Visconti duke blamed Hawkwood and his associ- ate, Lutz von Landau, dismissing them from service, while preventing them from redeeming captives. In February, 1379, Bernabò vindictively stripped the Englishman of the lands he had been given for Donnina’s dowry and the Milanese ruler published an edict granting a thirty-orin reward to anyone who killed or captured any mercenary serving either Hawkwood or Landau.55 Bernabò’s anger probably reected not only his frustration at the failure of the Verona campaign, but also the failure of negotiations with King Richard. In any case, Hawkwood’s relationship with Bernabò was now effectively ended; he would never again work for the house of Visconti. At this point, Hawkwood turned to Tuscany, not for rapprochement with the Florentines, but at the head of a free company to recoup his Copyright © 2008. BRILL. All rights reserved. 51 “Diario d’anonimo orentino,” 35. 52 Saul, Richard II, 84; Perroy, L’Angleterre, 137–38. 53 R. A. Pratt suggests that the talks were conducted between July 15 and August 2. R. A. Pratt, “Geoffrey Chaucer esq. and Sir John Hawkwood,” Journal of English Liter- ary History 16 (1949): 188–93; See also Chaucer’s Life Records, ed. Martin M. Crow and Clair C. Olson (Oxford, 1966), 53–61. 54 Evidence of this is in letter in the state archives at Mantua. ASMa AG, Busta 2388, no. 253; Busta 1595 (April 26, 1378), ( July 29, 1378). 55 Daniela Pizzagalli, Bernabò Visconti (Milan, 1994), 126–27. The peace accord that ended the Veronese war is in Caterina Santoro, La Politica Finanziaria dei Visconti, ed. Caterina Santoro, 3 vols. (Milan, 1976), 1:328–32 (doc. 455). Hundred Years War (Part II) : Different Vistas, edited by Andrew L.J. Villalon, and Donald J. Kagay, BRILL, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=467668. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2018-10-25 08:11:19.  310 william p. caferro nancial losses. Once again, he exploited political tensions by taking into his band exiles from the region. He invaded Florentine territory despite his sworn agreement, given at the end of his prior service, not to harass the city for ve years. On June 10,1379, Florence joined with Perugia, Siena, Arezzo, and Città di Castello, to sign a pact agreeing to hire Hawkwood’s band in lieu of paying bribes.56 According to Stefani, the Florentine chronicler who helped negotiate the deal, Hawkwood and his band broke faith with the commune by threatening Florence, then ossed over this breach by forcing themselves on the city at a considerable price. In the captain’s words: “I will not make you pay me, but you [will] hire me . . . whether you want to or not.”57 The state- ment makes clear that even at this late date in Hawkwood’s career, after nearly two decades in Italy, he was not viewed as a faithful or honest captain in Florence. For his part, he looked upon the city as a source of prot, to be attained through manipulation. The 1379 raid, however brief it may have been, had long-term im- plications for his relationship with Florence. It produced earnings, which now allowed him to retire from active military service and take up a new life on estates in the Romagna given him by the pope during his recent service. This placed Hawkwood physically close to Florentine territory, near its northern border, just beyond the Appenines. His prox- imity necessitated especially close attention from the Florentines. They were enduring politically-tense years, marked by conspiracies growing out of the Ciompi Uprising and the establishment of a government of the lesser guildsmen. Gene Brucker has depicted the mood in Florence as “verging on paranoia.”58 Hawkwood’s arrival in the Romagna also occasioned armed confron- tations with his neighboring Romagnol lords, many of whom resented his presence. The condottieri engaged in a particularly intense feud with Astorre Manfredi, the ruler of Faenza, a conict that strained Copyright © 2008. BRILL. All rights reserved. Hawkwood’s nancial resources and inclined him toward further Flo- renine service. There developed, in short, a mutual need, which helped bring Florence and the mercenary leader together. 56 ASMa, AG 2388, no. 326; ASF, Camera del Comune, Uscita, 238, f. 28r; Provis- sioni, registri, 68, f. 92v; Cronaca Senese, 675; Franceschini, “I soldati,” 185. 57 Marchionne di Coppo Stefani, Cronaca orentina di Marchionne di Coppo Stefani, ed. Niccolò Ridolico in Rerum Italicarum Scriptores [n.s.], (Città di Castello, 1903), 30, pt. 1:345. 58 Gene Brucker, The Civic World of Early Renaissance Florence (Princeton, 1977), 75–76. Hundred Years War (Part II) : Different Vistas, edited by Andrew L.J. Villalon, and Donald J. Kagay, BRILL, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=467668. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2018-10-25 08:11:19.  john hawkwood 311 The arrival of the Hungarian prince, Charles of Durazzo, in Italy in the spring of 1380 hastened the process. Charles came to defend his interests in Naples against the French Angevins. His itinerary took him through Tuscany and caused great consternation in Florence.59 At precisely this juncture, Hawkwood had arranged a truce with Astorre Manfredi. The Florentines decided to hire him as a means of speeding Charles through their territory. After his substantial economic losses, Hawkwood was eager to earn a salary. He signed a six-month contract as a Florentine captain of war. Hawkwood performed his charge well. The continuing political ten- sions and the fear of mercenary bands spinning out of the conict in Naples induced Florence to re-hire Hawkwood on two further occa- sions. The mutual benet to both parties is clear from the contract of April, 1381, which authorized Hawkwood to lead his forces seventy miles beyond the territorial limits of Florence, in order to use them against his Romagnol enemies.60 This was very uncommon in military contracts of the day. The document’s preamble lauded its signatory for his “virtue” (virtus), but this now obvious formula masked a moral calcuation on both sides. The internal debates within the Signoria reveal that Florentine authorities entertained decidedly mixed emo- tions about keeping Hawkwood on the payroll. Some ofcials felt he was too expensive and difcult to handle.61 On the other hand, what recommended him most was his military reputation, a reputation which alone discouraged enemies. The Florentines also appreciated his obvi- ous disinterest in local politics, a trait that reected his preoccupation with his native England. The involvement with England is particularly evident during these years. In 1379 and 1380, Hawkwood invested heavily in buying up in estates and manors back home in his native county of Essex.62 Undoubtedly, he had begun this activity even earlier. There is also Copyright © 2008. BRILL. All rights reserved. indication that he took advantage of the great Peasant Revolt of 1381 to increase his holdings. In Essex, an epicenter of the rebellion, the English captain purchased properties formerly belonging to Richard 59 ASF, Camarlingho del Camera, Uscita 241, ff. 9r–11r. 60 ASF, Provvisioni, registri, 70, ff. 26v–29v. 61 The deliberations are in ASF, CP 21, ff. 61v–62v, 67v–68r, 71r–72r. 62 Calender of Close Rolls, II Richard, 1377–1381, 367; Essex Sessions of the Peace, 14, 17. Hundred Years War (Part II) : Different Vistas, edited by Andrew L.J. Villalon, and Donald J. Kagay, BRILL, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=467668. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2018-10-25 08:11:19.  312 william p. caferro Lyons, a wealthy nancier to the crown and prominent landholder who had been beheaded by the rebels in London.63 At about the same time, Hawkwood also began acquiring land near Florence, a development seen by Saunders as representing a key stage in the captain’s relationship with his adopted city.64 In December, 1381, he sold his Romagnol lands to Niccolò d’Este of Ferrara, conceding in effect his inability to defend them. In October, 1382, Hawkwood submitted a petition to Florentine ofcials seeking permission to pur- chase land within Tuscany. Rather than representing a new closeness, however, the transaction was emblematic of basic tensions that drove both sides. The condottieri demanded that the land be given free of charge, a privilege he had gained from other cities. For their part, Flo- rentine ofcials refused to do this, agreeing only to allow Hawkwood to purchase estates in Florence, a concession that involved sidestepping a city statute that prevented foreigners from holding local property.65 On this issue, it appears that Florence prevailed. Hawkwood’s “investment” in Florence was in any case part of a broader pattern of acquisition of land throughout the region. Already in November, 1381, he had received from Perugia, without charge, pos- session of a “mansione and cloister in the city.”66 At precisely the same time, he was negotiating with Florence for land, he was also writing to Lucca expressing interest in permanently settling there.67 In 1383 and again early in 1384, he gained possession—though it is not entirely clear how—of the fortresses of Montecchio (now Montecchio Vesponi), located south of Arezzo, and of Migliari and Abbey del Pino.68 These last two properties were of considerable strategic importance since they controlled the passage into Tuscany through the Valdichiana and overlooked a busy Roman road that brought merchants, pilgrims, and armies from Arezzo to Cortona and then on to Rome. This newly- acquired patrimony made Hawkwood a power to be reckoned with in Copyright © 2008. BRILL. All rights reserved. north-central Italy. 63 The sale occurred in May, 1382. Calender of Close Rolls, Richard II, 1381–1385, 137–38; Morant, History and Antiquities of Essex, 379–80. 64 Saunders, Condottieri, 266. 65 ASF, Provvisioni, 71, registri, ff. 126v–27r. 66 Archivio di Stato di Perugia [ASPer], Consigli e Riformanze, 29, f. 188r–189v. 67 ASL, Consiglio Generale, 8, 73 (March 17, 1382). 68 Cronaca Senese, 702; Don Antonio Bacci, Strade romane e meioevali nel territorio aretino (Cortona, 1986), 148–204. Hundred Years War (Part II) : Different Vistas, edited by Andrew L.J. Villalon, and Donald J. Kagay, BRILL, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=467668. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2018-10-25 08:11:19.  john hawkwood 313 He acted accordingly. When the French noble, Enguerrand de Coucy, passed through Tuscany in the fall of 1384 on his way to Naples to ght against Charles of Durazzo, his route took him toward Cortona, past the fortresses controlled by Hawkwood.69 According to past scholars, Hawkwood, now rmly allied to Florence, adhered to local policy by opposing Coucy.70 But the actual situation was far different. Documents in the Ashburnam collection in the Biblioteca Laurenziana in Florence show that Hawkwood looked after his own interests, giving tacit support to Coucy (through a third party), while at the same time opening his castle at Montecchio to English soldiers in Florentine service.71 The above example makes clear the diverse motives that often lay behind Hawkwood’s actions. The inuence of England, and of Richard II in particular, remained strong. In 1381–1382, Richard’s brother- in-law, Holy Roman Emperor, Wenzel of Luxemburg (1378–1400), indicated that he planned to enter Italy in support Pope Urban VI (1378–1389) who was ghting French opponents in Naples. At this time, the English king commanded Hawkwood and other English mercenaries to assist in the enterprise.72 The royal directive was rescinded only when Wenzel chose to stay home, due to lack of money.73 It is quite possible that Richard inuenced Hawkwood’s decision to ght in Urban’s Neo- politan campaigns of 1383, a decision usually attributed to Florentine inuence.74 Although the war proved protless, it t within the general outlines of Richard’s policies, which supported the Italian pope over the French contender. Periodically, Hawkwood would become involved in Neapolitan affairs throughout the decade of the 1380s.75 Even after his acquisition of local properties, Hawkwood was hardly a “Florentine” captain. To date, he had worked for the city for only seven 69 “Ricordo della compra di Arezzo fatta dai Fiorentini, tratto del libro segreto di Copyright © 2008. BRILL. All rights reserved. Guccio Benvenuti, del popolo di Santa Maria sopra Porta di Firenze (Nov 1383),” ed. Giovanni Grazzini in Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, 24, pt 1 (Città di Castello, 1909). 70 Temple Leader and Marcotti, Sir John Hawkwood, 187. 71 Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana de Firenze [BLF], Ashburnham Ms. 1830 II- 548, II-549. 72 Rymer, Foedera, 4:114–6, 140; Perroy, L’Angleterre et le grand schisme, 159; Saul, Richard II, 83–88, 94. 73 Westminster Chronicle, 30–31; Tyerman, England and the Crusades, 333–38. 74 The degree of Hawkwood’s participation in Neapolitan affairs is already apparent in 1382. In a letter dated June 26 of that year he was able to relay the maneuvers of the French Angevin army—which had not yet entered Italy—and also the names of the nobles and barons in it. ASL, CG 8, 170, f. 15r ( July 26, 1382). 75 Rymer, Foedera, 4:145; Perroy, L’Angleterre et le grand schisme, 280, 287–88. Hundred Years War (Part II) : Different Vistas, edited by Andrew L.J. Villalon, and Donald J. Kagay, BRILL, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=467668. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2018-10-25 08:11:19.  314 william p. caferro years, never for more than three consecutively. During this time, his service had consisted mostly of defensive duties that included protecting the city from marauding bands, but not engaging them in actual battle. These facts help put into perspective his decision on July 1, 1385, to sign a contract with Giangaleazzo Visconti, who had deposed his uncle Bernabò two months earlier and then taken possession of the Milanese state. Scholars have portrayed this as a “shameful” act, out of character for the virtuous captain, tantamount to selling his “soul to the devil.”76 But that judgment relies on acceptance of the notion that Hawkwood was by now an adoptive Florentine. Giangaleazzo Visconti is a “devil” only in terms of Florentine history and propaganda, stemming from the great war in 1390. On the other hand, when Hawkwood made the deal with the new Milanese ruler, most Italians viewed him as a liberator, a welcome alternative to his bellicose uncle, and this opinion was shared by the Florentines. And while Temple-Leader accuses Hawkwood of selling his soul for “meager gain,” the contract was actually quite lucrative, calling for a bonus of 1000 orins and a pension of 3000 orins a year in return for his promise to serve Visconti when called.77 This was considerably more lucrative than his Florentine pension of 1375. In addition, Gian- galeazzo returned to the aging condottieri those Milanese lands that had been part of Donnina’s dowry. Here again, we see an English angle. The day after Hawkwood signed the contract with Giangaleazzo, Richard II once again appointed him ambassador to Milan and sent an envoy, Nicholas Dagworth, who accompanied him to that city in order to discuss the king’s business.78 IV Copyright © 2008. BRILL. All rights reserved. Only after 1387, following Hawkwood’s greatest military triumph at Castagnaro, did the Englishman nally enter a lasting period of service to Florence. This occurred in the context of growing tensions between Milan and Florence and their respective allies, which set off a massive 76 Temple-Leader and Marcotti, Sir John Hawkwood, 190. 77 La Politica Finanziaria, ed. Santoro, 3; Osio, Documenti diplomatici, 1:249; see also Temple-Leader and Marcotti, Sir John Hawkwood, 189–90; Cognasso, “L’Unicazione,” 522; Calendar of State Papers and MSS., Milan ed. Allen B. Hinds (London, 1912), 1. 78 Public Record Ofce [PRO], England, C 47, 28/6. Hundred Years War (Part II) : Different Vistas, edited by Andrew L.J. Villalon, and Donald J. Kagay, BRILL, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=467668. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2018-10-25 08:11:19.  john hawkwood 315 military build-up, eventually leading to a war that involved most of north and central Italy. Both sides competed to recruit available mercenary captains. The Milanese enjoyed particular success in establishing long- term relations with such leaders. This impelled Florence yet again to employ the man who, after his victory at Castagnaro, was at the height of his military prestige. Scholars have explained Hawkwood’s decision to work for Florence as stemming from a personal grudge against Giangaleazzo, who, after deposing Bernabò, issued a “legal decree” (processus) against his uncle, which among other things impugned the honor of Bernabò’s favor- ite mistress, Donnina de Porri, mother of Hawkwood’s wife.79 This interpretation is supported by the presence in Hawkwood’s brigade of Carlo Visconti, Bernabò’s son, who had escaped Milan after his father’s capture and had arrived in Florence in May, 1388. At this time, the two men swore vengeance on Giangaleazzo. The Florentines had not wanted to recruit Carlo Visconti, whom they deemed a “base and foolish” man.80 They both discouraged his participation and tried diplomatically to distance themselves from him. It was undoubtedly Hawkwood who hired him, suggesting that anger at Giangalleazo was at least in part motivating him. On the other hand, the notion of an angry John Hawkwood aveng- ing his father-in-law is problematic. Hawkwood’s relationship with Bernabò had collapsed in a most bitter fashion back in 1379. What is more, rash and angry behavior on the captain’s part ran contrary to a career of cool-headed calculation that had become synonymous with his military persona. It was, in fact, a dispassionate and calculating Hawkwood that the Florentines wanted in their service, not a vengeful warrior. Although an intense military build-up was under way, neither side wanted to start a war; in fact, both went to substantial lengths to prevent doing so. Copyright © 2008. BRILL. All rights reserved. What commended Hawkwood to Florence throughout these years was a new, well-established reputation for caution and prudence. In practical terms, Hawkwood offered help to Florence in building up its forces, particularly with regard to recruiting English soldiers, who were 79 Temple-Leader and Marcotti, Sir John Hawkwood, 190; Saunders, Hawkwood, 287. The processus is published in Annales Mediolanenses, cols. 788–800. 80 BLF, Ashburnham 1830 III-43 (May 11, 1388). Hundred Years War (Part II) : Different Vistas, edited by Andrew L.J. Villalon, and Donald J. Kagay, BRILL, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=467668. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2018-10-25 08:11:19.  316 william p. caferro considered the nest foreign mercenaries in Italy.81 For the captain, Flo- rentine employment again lled a nancial need. Evidence suggests that, despite his victory at Catagnaro, Paduan service had not been lucrative. In a petition to the Florentine city council, he bitterly complained of large debts and the need to sell some of his land.82 This is not to discount the effect on Hawkwood of Carlo Visconti, who vociferously advocated war against Giangaleazzo. The contract he had signed with Giangaleazzo in 1385 had apparently fallen apart and there may well have been ill-will existing between the signatories. On the other hand, Hawkwood had personal motives for serving Flor- ence. It brought him close to his own lands in Tuscany, which lay at the epicenter of tensions with Siena. In 1388 and 1389, the Florentines stationed his army near Cortona. But the diplomatic give-and-take of this complicated conict proved frustrating to the condottieri, who had difculties keeping an army in line in the face of often contra- dictory instructions. By 1389, the plague had broken out, rendering the situation even more untenable. Such problems probably account for Hawkwood’s remark, often quoted by scholars, that “the deeds in Lombardy require action not show.”83 While these words would seem to conrm the captain’s bellicose intentions toward Milan, it is more likely they express his growing frustrations with his current situation and his own employers. Florentine ofcials entertained their own anxieties about Hawkwood. Debates within the Signoria reveal ambivalence among the city’s execu- tives concerning the captain’s continued employment. Alessandro di Niccolò stressed the utilitarian nature of the relationship, arguing that “Hawkwood’s person is greatly useful to the commune.”84 But Lotto Castellani spoke in favor of allowing the contract to lapse, citing both the money and anxiety it would spare the city, anxiety owing to the dif- culty of managing Hawkwood.85 Bono di Taddeo advocated avoiding Copyright © 2008. BRILL. All rights reserved. foreign mercenaries altogether and instead employing a citizen cavalry 81 ASF, Dieci di Balia, Commisarie e legazioni, 1. ff. 77r–v; see also Hawkwood’s activities in July, 1388 in trying to recruit John Beltoft. These are recounted in ASMa, AG, Busta 1099 # 118 ( July 22, 1388). 82 ASF, Provvisioni, registri, 75, f. 209v. 83 ASF, Dieci di balia, Legazioni e commissarie, 1 f. 158r. 84 ASF, CP 26 ff. 215v–216v. 85 ASF, CP 27, f. 23v. Hundred Years War (Part II) : Different Vistas, edited by Andrew L.J. Villalon, and Donald J. Kagay, BRILL, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=467668. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2018-10-25 08:11:19.  john hawkwood 317 of 200 men, a move that would have the added advantage of permitting the city to pay its soldiers less than the current market rate.86 During this period, Hawkwood actually left Florentine employment on two occoasions, rst, in the spring and summer of 1388 and again in the fall of 1389, both times to go to Naples to ght the French Angevins. In so doing, he may again have been following English policy, perhaps even the direct instructions of King Richard, though we pos- sess no specic evidence. He did not, as scholars assert, strictly adhere to Florentine foreign policy. Florence played only a moderate role in events in Naples. While the city supported the Hungarian claimant, it also tried to avoid alienating French Angevins, who were traditional allies.87 Florentine ofcials kept a close watch on Hawkwood while he was in Naples, while at the same time closely monitoring the situation with Milan. Sources show that, as with everything regarding Hawk- wood, there were profound tensions. When war seemed close at hand in May, 1389, the mercenary captain showed no inclination to return to Florence, greatly angering city ofcials.88 Hawkwood did return to Florence in April, 1390, when the long- anticipated war between that city and Milan nally began. Florentine authorities sent him to Bologna to join the allied force assembling there. This constituted Hawkwood’s last and most enduring service to his adopted home, during which he gained citizenship, an increase in his pension, dowries for daughters and ultimately an elaborate funeral and lasting memorial in the cathedral.89 Hawkwood emerged in short a hero in the city, an admiration that must be judged sincere. The Milanese war was the rst time that Hawkwood engaged in offensive warfare directly on behalf of Florence. Yet, during this cam- paign, he did not win a battle in the eld. His major action consisted of a great retreat from Milanese territory in summer of 1391 during which he crossed three rivers and a ooded plain, pursued by a Mila- Copyright © 2008. BRILL. All rights reserved. nese army. He found himself deep in Milanese territory as part of an attempt to link up his forces with a French army led by Jean III, count of Armagnac.90 Armagnac, however, was delayed, and Hawkwood 86 ASF, CP 27, ff. 12v–13r. 87 ASF, CP, ff. 38r–39v, 46v–48v, 63r–64r; Brucker, Civic World, 76–77, 114; Collino, “La Politica Fiorentino-Bolognese,” 137–39. 88 ASF, Dieci di balia, Legazioni e commissarie, 1, f. 199r. 89 ASF, Capitoli, I, #79 ff. 160v–163v. 90 Discussions in the Florentine Signoria relating to Armagnac are in ASF, CP 28 fols. 85v, 86r, 88v, 96r. see also Storia di Milano, 557. The correspondence between Hundred Years War (Part II) : Different Vistas, edited by Andrew L.J. Villalon, and Donald J. Kagay, BRILL, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=467668. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2018-10-25 08:11:19.  318 william p. caferro ran short of supplies. Meanwhile, Milanese engineers cut through an embankment of the Adige River ooding the plain to his rear.91 Hawk- wood was trapped, but he escaped by means of ingenuity. He signaled to the enemy captain, Jacopo dal Verme, his willingness to do battle, then left under the cover of night. After traversing the ooded plain, he crossed rivers already swollen by spring rains. The escape was the culmination of Hawkwood’s career of dissimulation, his retreat was worthy of the nickname acuto. Had Hawkwood not escaped, the Florentines would likely have lost the war. This was clear from what followed. The count of Armagnac arrived shortly after Hawkwood’s retreat. The Milanese captain, dal Verme, doubled back and met Armagnac near the town of Alessandria. According to various accounts, the French army rushed boldly and incautiously into battle and was annihilated.92 The “rashness” of the French contrasted strongly with the “prudence” displayed by Hawk- wood, and brought into relief the true military greatness of the English captain. His stature as a local hero was assured. Florentine ofcials voiced their approval directly to him in a letter of July 27, 1390 which applauded him as the “protector of the Florentine state.”93 V Adulation for the man continued for the next fty years. The merchant of Prato, Francesco Datini, made regular reference to Hawkwood in his correspondence with his friend, Lapo Mazzei. “Is it not true,” Lapo wrote to Datini soon after Hawkwood’s death, “that John Hawk- wood himself was worth 500 lances?”94 Giovanni Cavalcanti (d. 1451) described Hawkwood in his Trattato Politico-Morale as “an excellent man, . . . an outstanding captain” and a paradigm of “prudence.”95 The Copyright © 2008. BRILL. All rights reserved. Armagnac and Florence is published in P. Durrieu, Les Gascons en Italie (Auch, 1885). For the agreement with Florence of October 16, see 51–52. 91 Cronica Volgare di Anonimo Florentino (Piero di Giovanni Minerbetti), ed. Elina Bellondi, Rerum Italicarum Sciptores, 17, pt. 2 (Bologna, 1937), 131. 92 See L. Mirot, La politique française en Italie de 1380 à 1422. Les preliminaires de l’alliance orentine (Paris, 1934); Storia di Milano, 558. 93 ASF, Signori-Carteggi, Missive i Cancelleria 22 ff. 149r–v. 94 Lettere di un notaio a un mercante del secolo XIV, ed. Cesare Guasti, 2 vols (Florence, 1880), 1:304, 424. 95 Giovanni Cavalcanti, Trattato Politico-Morale, ed. Marcella Grendler (Geneva, 1973), 124, 214. Hundred Years War (Part II) : Different Vistas, edited by Andrew L.J. Villalon, and Donald J. Kagay, BRILL, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=467668. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2018-10-25 08:11:19.  john hawkwood 319 humanists Leonardo Bruni (d. 1444) and Poggio Bracciolini (d. 1459) though they disliked mercenaries in general, admired Hawkwood in particular. They portrayed him in their histories of Florence as an effective soldier. Leonardo Bruni said of Hawkwood’s retreat that “no other captain . . . would have been able to save the army from such dif- culty.”96 Bracciolini described Hawkwood in several places as a “wise leader.”97 The city’s appreciation took more tangible forms. Hawkwood received an increase in his pension to 2,000 orins a year, dowries of 2000 orins for each of his three legitimate daughters, a pension of 1000 orins for his wife, “the noble lady, Donnina,” and Florentine citizenship for himself and “his sons, and descendants in the male line, born and yet to be born.”98 legislation enacting these measures reads like the sum- mary of Hawkwood’s career in Temple-Leader and Gaupp. It praises Hawkwood as a soldier who for a long time has fought most prudently, honorably and happily on our behalf and has been for long our devoted friend and has conducted himself with faith in the military matters of this commune.99 Finally in 1393, the city made plans to commemorate its great captain (still alive) by means of a marble monument. To understand the intense and lasting reaction in Florence to Hawk- wood’s service, it is necessary to stress the grave consternation that the Milanese war produced in the city. Milan had swallowed its neighbors and encircled Florence by means of an alliance with Siena. Ofcials believed that the very existence of the Florentine state was at stake, a fear that Hans Baron pinpointed as the genesis of civic humanism. In reality, both the fear of Milan and civic humanism developed before 1390 and co-existed well into the fteenth century, as the Milanese threat periodically reasserted itself.100 The public preoccupation in 1390 is clear from Florentine dispatches Copyright © 2008. BRILL. All rights reserved. and instructions to ambassadors. A letter of December, 1390, instructed envoys to take special care to please Hawkwood since “our entire state 96 Bruni, Istoria orentina, 539. 97 Bracciolini, Storia Fiorentina, libro terzo, pages unnumbered, but I count as the sixteenth side from the beginning of chapter three. 98 ASF, Capitoli, #79, ff. 160v–163v. 99 I Capitoli del comune di Firenze (Florence, 1865), 1:50. 100 Hans Baron, The Crisis of the Early Renaissance (Princeton, 1955). Hundred Years War (Part II) : Different Vistas, edited by Andrew L.J. Villalon, and Donald J. Kagay, BRILL, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=467668. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2018-10-25 08:11:19.  320 william p. caferro is in his hands.” To this end, they gave the captain Christmas presents of 1000 orins, as well as subsidies at Easter.101 The city’s use of propaganda during the war is well-known. Scholars have long recognized how the conict was as much a war of words as one of armies in the eld. Giangaleazzo Visconti purportedly said that the rhetorical skills of the Florentine chancellor, Coluccio Salutati, were worth whole battalions. It was largely as a result of Salutati’s efforts, and those of subsequent Florentine chancellors, that the city of Milan has ever since been viewed as an evil entity, and Giangaleazzo as a species of devil. John Hawkwood gured prominently in this propaganda. As the Florentines demonized Milan, and cast their struggle as one of “liberty” versus “tyranny,” so too did they idealize Hawkwood, making him into an archetype of faithful and good service, when, as we have seen, he was hardly that. The language of the grants of citizenship and dowries to his daughters recounts a past that never really existed. In the war of words, Hawkwood’s military feats became blown out of proportion. The Minerbetti chronicler placed his retreat after rather than before Armagnac’s defeat, adding greater luster to it. Minerbetti’s version found its way into the histories of Bruni and Bracciolini, and eventually into the work the great nineteenth-century historian of mercenaries, Ercole Ricotti, and thus to modern studies.102 In truth during the legendary retreat of 1391, Hawkwood was a secondary concern of the Milanese commander, dal Verme, who soon gave up the chase and turned to meet Armagnac. The proper sequence of events is clear from the Signoria’s letters to Hawkwood, as well as from the account left by the chronicler of the house of Car- rara who was closer to the action.103 A strong case can be made that the real hero of the events of that summer was not Hawkwood, but his opponent Jacopo dal Verme, who succeeded not only in chasing the Florentine condottieri from the borders of Milan, but in defeating Copyright © 2008. BRILL. All rights reserved. an entire French army, thus erasing a perilous threat to the Milanese 101 BML, Ashburnham 1830, III-106. 102 Bruni, Istoria orentina, 535–7; Donald J. Wilcox,The Development of Florentine Humanist Historiography in the Fifteenth Century (Cambridge, Mass., 1969), pp. 2–3. Ricotti, Storia delle compagnie, 2:191–93. The sixteenth century Florentine writer Scipio Ammirato must be credited with helping to set things right. In his Istorie orentine, Scipio placed the events in their proper order. Ammirato, Istorie orentine, 445–55. 103 Gatari, Cronaca, 435. Hundred Years War (Part II) : Different Vistas, edited by Andrew L.J. Villalon, and Donald J. Kagay, BRILL, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=467668. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2018-10-25 08:11:19.  john hawkwood 321 state. It is a measure of the triumph of Florentine propaganda that this version never won acceptance. It also must be pointed out that the citizenship and dowries Hawk- wood gained from his service did not come as rewards for his actual martial deeds. These were granted before his retreat, indeed before he had even undertaken his offensive. The legislation is dated April, 1390, while he and his army were still preparing their assault. The rationale behind the largesse was to keep Hawkwood motivated and happy and, above all, to minimize the possibility that he would suc- cumb to Milanese bribes. After all, Giangaleazzo had a penchant for corrupting captains. The grants also must be understood in terms of Giangaleazzo’s actions with respect to his own captains, notably Jacopo dal Verme, who had already obtained citizenship and landed estates in Milan and Verona.104 Mercenary captains were aware of the distinc- tions conferred upon others; thus Florence had little choice but to keep pace. How a city treated its captains constituted a very public dialogue, played out on the level of the commonwealth. It should come as no surprise that Hawkwood’s windfall was followed in August, 1391, by a similar grant of citizenship to the German captain, Konrad Aichelberg, who had also served Florence in the war, albeit, not as effectively. It is worth noting that Aichelberg has not been “Florentinized” by modern scholars as has Hawkwood.105 VI The stylized nature of Hawkwood’s image is perhaps most apparent in his funeral and death rites. He died on March 17, 1394, two years after the truce in the Milanese war. On March 20, he received an elaborate state funeral, recounted by numerous contemporaries.106 Local shops Copyright © 2008. BRILL. All rights reserved. were closed; citizens lined the streets. Hawkwood’s body, dressed in ver- million velvets and golden brocades, moved in solemn procession from 104 Archivio di Stato di Milano [ASM], Registri Panigarola, n. 1., ff. 150r–v; Archivio di Stato di Verona (ASVr) Archivio Zaleri-dal Verme cit cassetto, vi, n. 20. 105 Capitoli, 50. 106 The standard secondary account of Hawkwood’s funeral, with documents, is Antonio Medin, “La morte di Giovanni Aguto,” Archivio Storico Italiano 17–18 (1886): 161–71. The primary accounts include Minerbetti and Naddo da Montecatini, “Memorie storiche dal anno 1374 al anno 1398,” ed. Ildefonso di San Luigi in Delizie degli Eruditi Toscani, 18:141. Hundred Years War (Part II) : Different Vistas, edited by Andrew L.J. Villalon, and Donald J. Kagay, BRILL, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=467668. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2018-10-25 08:11:19.  322 william p. caferro the Piazza della Signoria to the Baptistery and nally to the cathedral for burial.107 The modern scholar, Sharon Strocchia, characterized the ceremony as the most elaborate of an already amboyant post-plague funerary style.108 The ceremony reected a sincere devotion to the man. But it also represented a pose. Strocchia has pointed out the didactic and symbolic functions of the funeral: how it, like all contemporary death rites, was a civic ritual, used by ofcials to project political themes and images. The burial of Hawkwood presented to the local populace a picture of “civic loyalty” and “communal triumph.” However, this event also had an external purpose, aimed at projecting those same images outside of the city, to other polities, and other mercenary captains. The propa- ganda aimed at mercenaries functioned as a means of recruitment, a message to them that the city rewarded good service. Indeed, the Hawkwood funeral can only be properly understood in the context of the actions of the city’s enemies. Scholars have thor- oughly igonored the fact that the death rites coincided with elaborate state funerals for mercenary captains in Siena, Florence’s nearest and most bitter opponent in the recent wars. The competing funerals formed a dialogue between two cities long embroiled in a many-sided rivalry. The ceremony for Hawkwood was braketed by funerals in Siena for Giovanni Azzo degli Ubaldini and Gian “Tedesco” da Pietramala. Both men had served Siena in theconict; and both were, in fact, Florentine exiles, hated in their native city. Ubaldini had been Siena’s most effective captain, until he died in 1391, probably the result of Florentine poison. His funeral in June of that year was spectacular, betting, according to the local chronicler’s description, “a pope or an emperor.” The rites for both Ubaldini and Hawkwood bear a striking similar- ity. Ubaldini’s body was carried in solemn procession from the central square to the cathedral, where it was interred. All the stores and shops in the city were closed.109 As with Hawkwood, the ceremony reected Copyright © 2008. BRILL. All rights reserved. a sincere love for the deceased warrior, who had preformed excellently in the war. At the same time, the Sienese well understood the effect of this funeral on its neighbor and enemy, Florence. Its scope, which the chronicler estimated as costing between two and three thousand 107 Minerbetti, Cronica Volgare, 183. 108 Sharon Strocchia, Death and Ritual in Renaissance Florence (Baltimore, 1992), 55, 79–82, 110. 109 Cronaca Senese, 735–36. Hundred Years War (Part II) : Different Vistas, edited by Andrew L.J. Villalon, and Donald J. Kagay, BRILL, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=467668. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2018-10-25 08:11:19.  john hawkwood 323 orins, constituted scal negligence, given the nancial state of Siena at that time. In fact, the city was staying aoat nancially only as the result of large Milanese subsidies.110 Siena’s second funeral was held for Gian “Tedesco” da Pietramala who died nine months after Hawkwood.111 Pietramala had, like Ubaldini, commanded Sienese troops against Florence. But his performance was, by Siena’s own account, lackluster, and just prior to his death, he had angered ofcials by aiding a band of Breton mercenaries who were at odds with the city.112 Nevertheless, when Pietramala died, he received a lavish funeral, in line with those of Ubaldini and Hawkwood. Shops and businesses were closed; the populace lined the street; Pietramala’s corpse was laid out in the cathedral. The Sienese chronicler assumed a standard hyperbolic tone, claiming that “there was no one at this time who remembers having seen or heard such magnicence and honor made to such a man.”113 One wonders what Siena would have done had Pietramala actually been an effective soldier, and in good standing with civic leaders. In any case, his funeral makes little sense apart from its role in a continuing dialogue with Florence, as a means of countering the rite accorded Hawkwood. If the Sienese were unable to outdo the Florentines on the battleeld, they seemed determined to out do them in paying homage to their fallen captains. This civic discourse had a wider scope than just the cities of Flor- ence and Siena. Mercenary captains received state funerals and burials in cathedrals elsewhere in Italy, most notably in Venice.114 And while there is little evidence for similar events in Milan at this time, their absence is due to the fact that the city’s leading captains remained alive. Nevertheless, the civic competition of the period encompassing Hawk- wood’s funeral points up dangers of taking at face value any images of Copyright © 2008. BRILL. All rights reserved. 110 On the scal condition of Siena at this time, see William Caferro, Mercenary Companies and the Decline of Siena (Baltimore, 1998). 111 Cronaca Senese, 747. 112 Ibid., 748. 113 Ibid., 748. 114 Tibertino Brandolino, Hawkwood’s comrade-in-arms from the Bagnacavallo days, found his nal resting place in Venice, as did Jacopo de’ Cavalli, who had fought with Hawkwood outside of Verona in the employ of Bernabó Visconti in 1379. Brando- lino is buried at the church of San Francesco; Cavalli is in SS Giovanni e Paolo. Eve Borsook, The Mural Painters of Tuscany (Oxford, 1980), 75–76; Mallet, Mercenaries and their Masters, 129; W. Valentiner, “The equestrian statue of Paolo Savelli in the Frari,” Art Quarterly 16 (1953): 281–92. Hundred Years War (Part II) : Different Vistas, edited by Andrew L.J. Villalon, and Donald J. Kagay, BRILL, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=467668. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2018-10-25 08:11:19.  324 william p. caferro Hawkwood projected by Florentines. For the sake of propaganda, Hawkwood had to be a loyal communal employee. And so he was. VII The point was reinforced by the efforts to memorialize Hawkwood in art, an effort that culminated in Uccello famous fresco, painted in 1436. The city began by planning a marble monument to Hawkwood in December, 1395, just after the Pietramala funeral. This plan involved reworking an old wooden monument to Piero Farnese, an Italian mercenary captain who had served the city against Pisa.115 The monument evolved into an expanded project, likely conceived by the Florentine chancellor, Salutati, to erect a series of statues in the cathedral commemorating men of action and men of letters, including Dante, Boccaccio, Petrarch, and the humanist theologian, Luigi de’ Marsigli.116 This grand scheme was later abandoned, and ofcials decided instead to commemorate Hawkwood with a painting by Agnolo Gaddi (d. 1396) and Giuliano Arrighi (known as Pesello, d. 1446). According to the speculation of scholars, this decision may have resulted from a lack of funds due to war and pestilence; or perhaps, more positively, from superiority of Florence in respect to painting technique.117 In any case, the city’s actions occurred in conjunction with Sienese efforts to commemorate its own fallen heroes. Both Ubaldini and Pietramala were honored with equestrian statues (now both lost) placed in the Sienese cathedral, the latter purportedly carved in wood by Jacopo della Quercia.118 The Ubaldini monument, completed in 1391 or 1392, probably had an effect on the original plans to honor Hawkwood, while the subsequent statue dedicated to Pietramala helped keep the Florentine project alive. The portrait of Hawkwood by Gaddi and Pesello was ultimately Copyright © 2008. BRILL. All rights reserved. replaced by Paolo Uccello’s fresco in 1436. Scholars have attributed the decision to redo the original to damage suffered from the elements as well as the overall refurbishing of the cathedral, which occurred prior 115 Alessandro Parronchi, Paolo Uccello (Bologna, 1974). 116 Borsook, The Mural Painters, 76. 117 Boskovits, Pittura orentina, 117–24, 295–304; B. Cole, Agnolo Gaddi, 39, 43–44, 66, 70. 118 H. W. Janson states that there were ve equestrian monuments in Tuscany before 1400: Guidoriccio da Fogliano, Piero Farnese, Hawkwood, Gian “Tedesco” and Giovanni degli Ubaldini. The Pietramala memorial was destroyed in 1506. Janson, The Sculpture of Donatello, 157–58. Hundred Years War (Part II) : Different Vistas, edited by Andrew L.J. Villalon, and Donald J. Kagay, BRILL, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=467668. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2018-10-25 08:11:19.  john hawkwood 325 to its rededication in 1436 as Santa Maria del Fiore by Pope Eugenius IV (1431–1447).119 Nevetheless, the decision to honor Hawkwood anew more than forty years after his death has raised tantalizing questions, most notably why the city remained so devoted to him? Indeed, the choice seems all the more perplexing since, as Eve Borsook has pointed out, the plans for the Uccello fresco were initiated under the Albizzi government in 1433 and then completed by the Medici government in 1436—two regimes that had little love for one another.120 The decision makes sense, however, in terms of a continuing dialogue among Italian city states regarding military men. Florentine govern- ments had changed since Hawkwood’s death, but the military situation had not. Florence remained at war with Milan, and the survival of the city was still in doubt. This, in conjunction with the uncertain service of its current mercenary captains, provided fertile ground in Florence for the propagation and projection of Hawkwood’s legend. The Florentines remembered his great retreat and effective last service, but conveniently forgot the prior years of extortion, duplicity, and bad behavior. More precisely this is the image ofcials wished to convey to the out- side world. The political milieu has been examined by the art historian Wendy Wegener, who has noted that Uccello’s commission dated to a moment when Florence was ghting the neighboring city of Lucca, then an ally of Milan. Lucca had honored its own mercenary captain, Niccolò Piccinino, with a fresco. The act resonated in Florence, where Piccinino had recently worked and had left under “suspicious circum- stances.”121 Piccinino’s departure from Florentine service occasioned a pittura infamant, a portrait ridiculing him. The Hawkwood fresco followed, presenting the image of what a mercenary captain should be. Piccinino was the image of what a mercenary ought not to be. The pose Uccello gave his Hawkwood conrms this larger politi- cal agenda. The great warrior sits atop his horse with the baton of Copyright © 2008. BRILL. All rights reserved. 119 Temple Leader and Marcotti, Sir John Hawkwood, 294. Borsook, Mural Painters, 75 “a possible reason”; The window next to the original painting was repaired in 1400 and again fteen years later, suggesting that the elements got to the fresco. Il duomo di Firenze, ed. Giovanni Poggi and Margaret Haines, 2 vols (Florence, 1988), 1:94–95. Ulisse Forni, Manuale del pittore restauratore (Florence, 1866), 23; John Pope Hennessy, Paolo Uccello (London/New York, 1969), 141. 120 Borsook, The Mural Painters, 75. 121 Wegener, “That Practice of Arms,” 142–58, quote on 158. Mallett has also stressed the propaganda value of the fresco. He saw it as a piece of Medici-inspired propaganda, intended to promote “the praiseworthiness of condottieri to a populace with mixed feelings.” Mallett, Mercenaries and their Masters, 129. Hundred Years War (Part II) : Different Vistas, edited by Andrew L.J. Villalon, and Donald J. Kagay, BRILL, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=467668. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2018-10-25 08:11:19.  326 william p. caferro command at his side, in the manner of a captain conducting an inspec- tion of his troops. The gait of the horse is that of an “amble” (ambio), consistent with a slow and stately process of an honored commander. The placement of the legs confused Giorgio Vasari, who thought it a technical mistake.122 But the depiction was intentional and didactic. Uccello and his Florentine employers wanted an idealized Hawkwood, in a stance suggestive of a loyal communal servant. The epitaph afxed to the bottom of fresco by Bartolomeo Fortini de Orlandini was taken from the eulogy of Fabius Maximus, the great Roman general of the third century BC, who through his patience and commitment to the state had defeated Hannibal.123 Conclusive proof of this interpretation comes from a recent study using ultraviolet rays on the extant design (modello) that Uccello submitted to earn his commission. It shows that the painter originally intended to depict Hawkwood in a more bellicose manner, in full armor from head to toe, with his baton slightly raised and his horse at the ready.124 This was Hawkwood the warrior, an image that Florentine ofcials specically did not want.125 For this reason, Uccello’s rst design was rejected, and he was asked to rework it.126 It is the idealized, domesticated John Hawkwood that Uccello ulti- mately portrayed and it is this image of the captain that has been passed down to posterity. The real John Hawkwood was far different, as was his relationship with Florence. What remains is no more than a mask, a vestige of Florentine propaganda that has impeded a proper understanding of the man. 122 GiorgioVasari, Le vite de’ piu eccellenti pittori, scultori ed architettori, with notes and annotations by Gaetano Milanesi (London, 1906), 211–2. 123 Eve Borsook, “L’Hawkwood d’Uccello et le Vie de Fabius Maximus de Plutarque,” Revue Art, 55 (1982): 44–51. Copyright © 2008. BRILL. All rights reserved. 124 Lorenza Melli, “Nuove indagine sui disegni di Paolo Uccello agli Ufzi: Dis- egno sottostante, tecnica, funzione,” Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz 42(1998): 6. 125 The decision of the operai of the cathedral to make Uccello redo the paint- ing has elicited much discussion among art historians, who have cited, among other things, problems with perspective and colors. D. Giosef cited problems of perspective (excessive foreshortening), as did B. Degenhart and A. Schmitt. Parronchi thought the problem one of colors. D. Giosef, “Complementi di prospettiva di Apollodor d’Atene, di Filippo, di Paolo e d’atre cose,” Critica d’arte 5 (1958): 131; B. Degenhart and A. Schmitt, Corpus der Italienische Zeichnungen, 1300–1450, 2 vols. (Berlin, 1960), 2:382; Parronchi, Paolo Uccello, 31. 126 The specic complaint was that “it was not painted as it should be.” The docu- ment is quoted in Temple-Leader and Marcotti, Sir John Manderville, 295. Hundred Years War (Part II) : Different Vistas, edited by Andrew L.J. Villalon, and Donald J. Kagay, BRILL, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=467668. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2018-10-25 08:11:19.  john hawkwood 327 Map 11: Northern Italy. Copyright © 2008. BRILL. All rights reserved. Hundred Years War (Part II) : Different Vistas, edited by Andrew L.J. Villalon, and Donald J. Kagay, BRILL, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=467668. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2018-10-25 08:11:19. Copyright © 2008. BRILL. All rights reserved. Hundred Years War (Part II) : Different Vistas, edited by Andrew L.J. Villalon, and Donald J. Kagay, BRILL, 2008. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/upenn-ebooks/detail.action?docID=467668. Created from upenn-ebooks on 2018-10-25 08:11:19.