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John Hawkwood

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Engraving representing John Hawkwood.
Funerary Monument to Sir John Hawkwood by Paolo Uccello (1436).

Sir John Hawkwood (1320 – 1394) was an English mercenary or condottiero in 14th century Italy. The French chronicler Jean Froissart knew him as Haccoude and Italians as Giovanni Acuto. Hawkwood served first the Pope and then various factions in Italy for over 30 years.

Hawkwood's youth is shrouded in tales and legends and it is unclear how he exactly became a soldier. According to the most accepted tales, he was a second son of a tanner in Sible Hedingham in Essex and was apprenticed in London. Other tales also claim that he was a tailor before he became a soldier.

Hawkwood served in the English army in France in the first stages of the Hundred Years' War under Edward III. According to different traditions Hawkwood fought in the battles of Crécy and/or Poitiers but there is no direct evidence of either. Different traditions claim that the King or Edward, the Black Prince knighted him but there is no record of that - he might have just taken the title himself with the support of his soldiers. His service ended after the Treaty of Brétigny in 1360.

Early career as a mercenary in France

Hawkwood moved to Burgundy and joined the small mercenary companies that fought for money in France. Later he was part of the self-named Great Company that fought against Papal troops near Avignon.

In the beginning of the 1360s Hawkwood had risen to be commander of the White Company. In 1363 Hawkwood's men were part of the companies that the marquis of Montferrato hired and led over the Alps to fight a war against Milan. Afterwards, Hawkwood and his troops remained in Italy.

Serving Italian factions

In the following years, the White Company fought under many banners and switched sides many times. In 1364, it fought for Pisa against Florence. In 1369, Hawkwood fought for Perugia against the Papal forces. In 1370, he joined Bernabò Visconti in his war against an alliance of cities including Pisa and Florence. In 1372, he fought for Visconti against his former master, the Marquis of Monferrato. After that, he resigned his command and the White Company moved to the service of the Pope for a time.

Under Hawkwood's command, the company gained a good reputation and he became a popular mercenary commander. He gained a nickname l'acuto, "the keen one", possibly a mispronunciation of his name by Italian speakers which became his Italian name, Giovanni Acuto. His success was varied, but he exploited the shifting allegiances and power politics of Italian factions for his own benefit.

Italian cities concentrated on trade and hired mercenaries instead of forming standing armies. Hawkwood often played his employers and their enemies against each other. He might get a contract to fight on one side and then demand a payment from the other in order not to attack them. He also could just change sides, keeping his original payment. Sometimes one party hired him so that he would not work for their enemies.

When Hawkwood needed money, he could threaten his employers with desertion or pillage if he was not paid. He bought estates in the Romagna and in Tuscany, a castle at Montecchio Vesponi. Despite all this, Hawkwood remained illiterate and had his contracts read to and signed for him.

In 1375, when Hawkwood's company was fighting for the Pope against Florence in the War of the Eight Saints, Florence made an agreement with him and paid him not to attack for three months.

In 1377, Hawkwood led the destruction of Cesena by mercenary armies, acting in the name of Pope Gregory XI. One tale claims that he had promised the people that they would be spared, but cardinal Robert of Geneva ordered them all killed. Shortly after, he switched allegiance to the anti-papal league and married Donnina Visconti, the illegitimate daughter of Bernabò Visconti, the Duke of Milan. A quarrel with Bernardo soon ended the alliance, and Hawkwood instead signed an agreement with Florence.

John and Donnina had a son and three daughters.

In 1381, Richard II of England appointed him as ambassador to the Roman Court.

In 1387, Hawkwood, fighting for Padova, fought Giovanni Ordelaffi from Forlì, fighting for Verona in the Battle of Castagnaro, and won.

Last years with Florence

In the 1390s Hawkwood became a commander-in-chief of the army of Florence in the war against the expansion of Gian Galeazzo Visconti of Milan. Hawkwood's army invaded Lombardy and was within ten miles of Milan before he had to retreat over Adige river. Later in the year, forces under his command defended Florence and later defeated the Milanese force of Jacopo dal Verme. Eventually Visconti sued for peace. Contemporary opinion in Florence regards Hawkwood as a savior of Florence's independence against Milanese expansion.

At that stage Florence had given him citizenship and a pension. He spent his latter years in a villa in the vicinity of Florence.

John Hawkwood died in Florence on March 16-17 1394. He was buried with state honors in the Duomo. Shortly afterwards, Richard II asked for his body to be returned to his native England. Hawkwood's son also moved to Essex, England.

Memory and monuments

In 1436 the Florentines commissioned of Paolo Uccello a funerary monument, a fresco transferred on canvas, which still stands in the Duomo. Originally, the Florentines intended to erect a bronze statue, but the costs proved too high. Finally they settled for a monochrome fresco in terra verde, a color closest to the patina of bronze.

Posthumously Hawkwood gained a reputation of both brutality and chivalry. In Sible Hedingham there is a Hawkwood memorial chapel and a Hawkwood Road. In Romagna there is a Strada Aguta.

He is one of the Nine Worthies of London mentioned by Richard Johnson in his book of 1592.

Books

  • Duccio Balestracci - Le armi i cavalli l'oro. Giovanni Acuto e i condottieri nell'Italia del Trecento, (Rome, 2003)
  • Frances Stonor Saunders - Hawkwood: The Diabolical Englishman (2004).
    • US edition: The Devil's Broker: Seeking Gold, God, and Glory in 14th Century Italy (2005)
  • William Caferro- John Hawkwood: An English Mercenary in Fourteenth-Century Italy (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006)
  • John Temple-Leader & Giuseppe Marcotti - Sir John Hawkwood (L'Acuto) Story of a Condottiere
  • Sir Arthur Conan Doyle - The White Company (originally published in serial form in 1891) is loosely based on John Hawkwood and his exploits.

Other sources

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