Everything about John Hawkwood totally explained
Sir John Hawkwood (
1320 –
1394) was an
English mercenary or
condottiere 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's 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's no direct evidence of either. Different traditions claim that the King or
Edward, the Black Prince knighted him but there's 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 wouldn't work for their enemies.
When Hawkwood needed money, he could threaten his employers with
desertion or
pillage if he wasn't 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'd promised the people that they'd 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'd 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's a Hawkwood memorial chapel and a Hawkwood Road. In
Romagna there's 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
Barbara Tuchman - A Distant Mirror (Chap. 10)
Kenneth Fowler - Sir John Hawkwood, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
Stephen Cooper - An Unsung Villain: The Reputation of a Condottiere (History Today January 2006)Further Information
Get more info on 'John Hawkwood'.
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