John Hawkwood (c. 1323 – 1394)
Little is known about the origins of this formidable fighter. Nobody knows, for example, where, when or by whom he was knighted, though some suggest he received the accolade from the Black Prince after the Battle of Poitiers in 1356. What we do know about Hawkwood comes from the period shortly following the battle. He was the leader of the famous White Company: a band of men at arms that left France when the Anglo-French War came to a temporary halt and the work ran out in 1360. After a short stint of plundering the Papal enclave in Avignon, they made their way to Italy. There, their commander entered into the role of a condottiero, a ruthlessly efficient mercenary willing to fight for the highest bidder.
Hawkwood fought first for Pisa against the Florentines before shifting allegiance to Pope Gregory XI in the War of the Eight Saints (1375). Things soon turned ugly, however, and after being coerced into carrying out the massacre of civilians in Cesena in 1377 he switched sides, allying himself with Milan, Florence, and their allies. His greatest victory came at the Battle of Castagnaro in 1387. In command of a Paduan army, he managed to completely outflank the Veronese by hiding his cavalry in a nearby wood. His last few years were spent fighting for the Florentines against the Milanese.
For foreign adventurers, Italy was a playground in which they could earn their fame and fortune through endless fighting opportunities. Few exploited this more effectively than John Hawkwood. But for normal Italians, these foreign adventurers were a scourge. We are told that John Hawkwood was once greeted at the gates of the Italian city of Montecchio by two clergymen. They wished him peace, to which he replied: “Do you know that I live by war and that peace would be my undoing?” It’s easy to see how, with such a moral code, many wouldn’t have seen him as a chivalrous knight, but as a bandit.
John Hawkwood died in Florence in 1394. He was buried in the Basilica Santa Maria del Fiore (known more commonly today as “the Duomo”. But the Florentines, eternally grateful to the man who had once been their general, did not stop there. To commemorate his memory, the Florentine Republic commissioned the artist Paolo Uccello to design a fresco of him. The fresco was placed inside the Duomo. And it remains there to this day, gawked at by masses of tourists every day. Not bad for an obscure English knight.
Sources For Further Reading:
Classic of Strategy and Diplomacy – Geoffroi de Charny, The Book of Chivalry
BBC – William Marshal: A combination of ‘Muhammad Ali and Kissinger’
History Channel – Chivalry Was Established to Keep Thuggish, Medieval Knights in Check
History Net – The Genius of El Cid
Camino Del Cid – Biography Of El Cid: Life and Facts
Historic UK – Edward the Black Prince
Medievalists – John Hawkwood: Florentine Hero and Faithful Englishman