medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

I think this is one for us!
I am quite happy to forward the OBNDLIFEOFTHEDAY to the list if the subject 
is pre-1600 and if the list want it, and if Rosemary H-M doesn't think I am 
poaching.

BMC

.
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Sent: Saturday, March 07, 2009 12:00 PM
Subject: The Italian jobs - Oxford DNB Life of the Day


New biography podcast: Lawrence Oates, polar explorer: 
http://www.oup.com/oxforddnb/info/freeodnb/pod/

There's more on Captain Scott's 1912 Antarctic expedition in Max Jones's 
'reference group' essay http://www.oxforddnb.com/public/themes/95/95247.html 
and many more groups in Themes:  http://www.oxforddnb.com/themes/


5 March: first Oxford DNB print supplement published - biographies of 819 
men and women who died between 2001 and 2004

http://www.oup.com/oxforddnb/info/print/supplement/



========================================================================



To read this Life of the Day complete with a picture of the subject,
visit http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/lotw/2009-03-07



Hawkwood, Sir  John  (d. 1394), military commander, was the second son of 
Gilbert Hawkwood, a tanner and minor landowner at Sible Hedingham, Essex, 
where the family had held land since the beginning of the thirteenth 
century. The date of his birth is not recorded, but he was evidently in his 
early manhood by the time of his father's death in 1340, since, along with 
his elder brother, also called John, and the vicar of Gosfield, he was made 
one of the executors who secured legal possession and power of 
administration of the properties mentioned in Gilbert's will.

Military apprenticeship and early campaigns

Little is known about Hawkwood's life before 1340, or his whereabouts during 
the next twenty years. The tradition that he was apprenticed to a London 
tailor has generally been dismissed, although his father had important 
connections with the London merchant community, and apprenticeship of sons 
of the gentry was not uncommon. The story may have arisen from a misreading 
of Matteo Villani's chronicle, but it is also recounted by the generally 
reliable Monk of Westminster, who believed the apprenticeship was to a 
hosier. That he was recruited for service in Edward III's wars in France is 
certain. This may have been as early as the campaigns in Brittany in 1342-5, 
and tradition has it that he fought at Crecy and Poitiers, on one of which 
occasions he may have won his spurs; but it is equally possible that he did 
not see service in France much before the great campaign of 1359-60. The 
appearance of his arms in an Anglo-Scottish roll of arms, which can be dated 
to the years 1357-61, is more likely to indicate his participation in a 
tournament at Smithfield on St George's day 1358, than his involvement in a 
crusade to Prussia during these years.

The first real evidence of Hawkwood's life as a soldier is from 1360, when, 
following the peace concluded at Bretigny in May, he was serving in one of 
the brigades (routes) of freebooters, the 'great companies' (grandes 
compagnies), sometimes known as 'latecomers' (tard-venus) because they had 
formed together from different bands following the conclusion of peace, and 
were in many cases raiding territories already plundered and devastated in 
previous raids. During the night of 28-29 December, in an abortive attempt 
to seize a part of the money collected for the ransom of Jean, king of 
France, a number of these companies occupied Pont Saint Esprit in the Rhone 
valley and blockaded Avignon, before being bought off by the pope. Some of 
them (as many as three-fifths of the total, according to Froissart; 
constituting some 3500 cavalry and 2000 infantry according to Matteo 
Villani) including Hawkwood, were recruited to serve the marquess of 
Montferrat in his war against the Visconti of Milan. When they first 
appeared in Italy, they were known as the great company of English and 
Germans (magne societatis Anglicorum et Alamanorum) and subsequently as the 
English White Company (compagne bianca degli inghilesi; societatis albe 
Anglicorum), and were commanded by a German mercenary called Albert Sterz, 
who had seen service in the French wars, and according to the Italian 
chronicler Piero Azario was 'so valiant in the field as to inspire others 
with courage'  (Azario, col. 380), and who had the advantage that he could 
speak English. Before advancing into the Milanese, they created havoc in 
Piedmont, which at the time formed part of the territories of the count of 
Savoy, who was then allied to the Visconti, taking the count and some of his 
principal barons prisoner in a surprise attack on the town of Lanzo in the 
autumn of 1361, and ransoming them for 180,000 florins. Some contingents, 
Hawkwood apparently among them, may then have returned to France, where they 
joined forces with other routes of the great companies, together defeating a 
French army commanded by Jacques de Bourbon at Brignais (6 April 1362), 
before returning to Italy to rejoin Sterz, who remained in Montferrat's 
service until July 1363. Here, they devastated the countryside on either 
side of the River Po from Novaro to Pavia and Tortona, crossing the Ticino 
to proceed within 6 miles of Milan, before returning to Romagnano and 
defeating the Milanese forces commanded by another German mercenary, Konrad 
von Landau, at the bridge of Canturino on 22 April.

Following this victory, in July 1363 Sterz was appointed captain-general of 
the Pisan army for six months, the republic at that time being allied to 
Milan and at war with Florence; but on the expiry of his contract in 
December, Hawkwood replaced him as commanding officer, and the companies 
under his command were reformed. Sterz, an Englishman called Andrew Belmont, 
and later Haneken Bongard (another German mercenary hired by Montferrat), 
became Hawkwood's subordinate officers until they deserted Pisan service for 
that of Florence in the following summer. Thereafter Hawkwood never left 
Italy, and when he was not fighting on his own account he was successively 
employed by Bernabo Visconti of Milan (1368-72) principally in his wars with 
the Florentine league, by Pope Gregory XI in his attempts to restore papal 
authority in Italy (September 1372-April 1377), and subsequently in the 
service of the Florentine republic. He fought in the kingdom of Naples for 
both Charles of Durazzo (1382-3) and Queen Marguerite (1386 and 1388-9), and 
in the Veronese for Francesco Carrara, marquess of Padua (1386-7). But 
during the last fourteen years of his life, from the spring of 1380, his 
services were principally, although by no means exclusively, contracted to 
Florence, latterly as captain-general of the army of the republic.

Hawkwood was undoubtedly one of the ablest military commanders of his day, 
and acknowledged as such by his contemporaries; but he was not crowned with 
success immediately. He suffered several fairly serious set-backs in the 
1360s, and fortune did not come his way until several years into the next 
decade. There was no real stability in the composition, nor continuity in 
the command, of the various English brigades serving in Italy before they 
were brought together under his command in the service of the church in 
1372; but from that time onwards his reputation was in the ascendant, 
despite continuing evidence of insubordination in the English forces serving 
under him. When Sterz and Bongard deserted Pisan service in the summer of 
1364, joining forces to form the Company of the Star, which headed south for 
the kingdom of Naples, the majority of the English contingents formerly 
serving with Hawkwood had joined a new Anglo-Hungarian White Company, of 
which Hugh Mortimer, lord of La Zouche, was captain-general, and Hawkwood 
was left with only 800 of his men in Pisan pay. The war with Florence went 
badly, and his forces suffered continual set-backs and a serious defeat at 
the hands of the Florentine army, which had an overwhelming numerical 
superiority. After a revolution in Pisa, in which he played no small part, 
the Pisans were obliged to make peace on humiliating terms.

Thereafter, although the Florentine republic twice sought Hawkwood's 
services (in July 1365 and the spring of 1367), he refused them, preferring 
to resume his old profession of free-lance in the Perugino, and still 
hankering after Pisan employ. Perhaps it was a mistake. Defeated with 
considerable losses in a pitched battle with Bongard on 25 July 1365, he 
joined his English forces for a while with those of Ambrogio, one of Bernabo 
Visconti's illegitimate sons, to form the Company of Saint George, but 
abandoned it in the spring of 1366. In June 1369 he was taken prisoner by 
two other German mercenaries, Johann Flach von Reischach and Johann von 
Riedheim, who were then in papal service. While in the service of the 
Visconti the fortunes of his brigade among predominantly German forces were 
mixed. Defeated by a Florentine army before Reggio in August 1370, Hawkwood 
subsequently surprised the forces of the Florentine league in an ambush near 
Mirandola, taking their commanders-in-chief prisoner. Then, on 2 June 1372, 
only a matter of months before quitting Milanese service, he defeated a 
considerably larger army under Lutz von Landau, which was coming to the aid 
of the marquess of Montferrat, who was once again at war with the Visconti. 
After switching from Milanese to papal service in the autumn of 1372, he 
pursued and virtually annihilated the Milanese forces on the Panaro between 
Modena and Bologna in the following January, but subsequently failed to 
effect a junction with the count of Savoy's forces when they crossed the 
Ticino in February, an essential part of the strategic plan of campaign in 
that year.

The English companies

Hawkwood's military fortunes were in part determined by the composition of 
the forces serving under him. The mercenary companies employed by the 
different Italian states in the second half of the fourteenth century, 
placed under the command of one or more captains-general, were made up of a 
variable number of brigades, each under a captain or constable, depending on 
the number of units of which they were composed. Among the English 
contingents the essential unit was the lance, introduced to Italy by the 
White Company, with its distinctive three-man lance component (two 
men-at-arms and a page), and its combination with archers, equipped with 
longbows, some accompanied by a page. A lance thus normally constituted four 
or five men. The men-at-arms were mounted on war-horses or dextriers, the 
archers and their pages on lighter horses or rouncies. Hawkwood's personal 
brigade was almost always small in comparison to the total forces under his 
command or in which he served; but it was the essential nucleus, with a 
greater continuity in its personnel than in the companies under his command, 
where the number and personnel of the brigades fluctuated, often because of 
the recruitment policies of rival employers. The Visconti had been 
accustomed to employing German and Hungarian mercenaries, and it was 
alongside these contingents, always in the majority, that he had fought for 
Bernabo from 1368 to 1372. However, following his engagement in papal 
service in September 1372, the forces which were brought under his command, 
and which were styled the English Company (compagnie seu societatis 
Anglicorum), was an amalgam of the English brigades that had previously 
operated under different commanders, and of which he became captain-general 
following the conclusion of the offensive of 1373. A significant number of 
the constables serving with him came from Essex, some of the more notable 
among them from villages and manors in the neighbourhood of Sible Hedingham. 
The English brigades were also distinguished by their habit of dismounting 
to fight on foot, and being accustomed to riding at night and fighting deep 
into the winter.

These essential features of the forces at his disposal served Hawkwood well; 
but they were brought into play by his real talent as a military commander: 
in effecting long marches, creating diversions, and pulling victory out of 
failure. He also built up a well-organized intelligence service, and was 
adept in the use of disinformation, seeking safe conducts for routes he had 
no intention of taking, dispatching letters detailing sensitive troop 
movements which were intended to be leaked to the enemy, feigning a retreat 
while he placed his troops in ambush, or disguising another with a 
smokescreen of presence. He was well aware that careless words cost lives, 
and played his cards close to his chest. Even his closest councillors were 
frequently kept in the dark about his true intentions until the last minute, 
and there is ample evidence to show that outside informers were invariably 
perplexed as to what his next moves might be.

Hawkwood's military achievements

These characteristics of Hawkwood's military genius were displayed on many 
occasions. Following his defeat by Giangaleazzo Visconti at Montechiaro on 8 
May 1373, he rallied his forces, pursued the Milanese, routed them, and took 
their principal officers prisoner. In command of the Paduan forces in 1387, 
he was pursued by a much larger Veronese army which threatened to cut off 
his supply lines, and was forced to fall back to Castelbaldo on the northern 
bank of the Adige. Here he decided to make his stand at Castagnaro, on the 
south side of the river, where he was able to take up a battleground of his 
own choosing, with the river at his back, on firmer land with his flanks 
protected by marshy ground bisected by irrigation canals. Dismounting his 
cavalry, he drew them up in close array, concealing archers, crossbowmen, 
and a few cannon on the flanks, pushed forward of the main position. The 
Veronese thus had to attack him across a difficult terrain, under heavy 
fire, and Hawkwood only gave orders for his men-at-arms to move in after the 
archers had done their work and gaps had begun to appear in the Veronese 
ranks. The Scaliger army collapsed under the onslaught, and the rout was 
complete. Almost half of the Veronese forces were taken prisoner, including 
nearly eighty captains and subordinate officers, and the number of killed 
and wounded was also high.

Four years later, when Florence finally decided to make a stand against 
Giangaleazzo Visconti, an essential part of the republic's strategy was to 
take the Milanese armies in a pincer movement in which Hawkwood would join 
up forces on the Po with a mercenary army recruited in France by the count 
of Armagnac. On this occasion Hawkwood led an army of 2000 lances and a 
large number of infantry to within 10 miles of Milan; but the plan for a 
simultaneous attack on two fronts was shattered by Armagnac's failure to 
keep to the prearranged timetable, which allowed the Milanese captain, 
Jacopo dal Verme, to concentrate his attention on Hawkwood's forces and 
pursue them as far as the Adige, where the enemy had broken the dykes, 
turning the country into a vast lake around Castagnaro. Hawkwood knew the 
terrain well, but his success in getting the greater part of his forces 
through the deep waters and across the river to safety at Castelbaldo was a 
stroke of military genius which the republic duly acknowledged in a letter 
to him of 27 July 1391, praising the forces under his command and his 
'incomparable leadership', which would be proclaimed and commended 
throughout Italy; they recalled his 'inextinguishable glory', which they 
would extol in the future, granting him every favour  (Florence, Archivio di 
Stato, Signori, Missive, 1 Cancelleria, reg. 22, fol. 148). In the following 
month, when dal Verme invaded Tuscany, Hawkwood impeded his advance by a 
succession of attacks, forcing him to retreat towards Lucca and driving him 
into Liguria during the course of September. There can be little doubt that 
his actions saved Florence from Milanese expansion at a critical juncture. 
In two further letters, dated 21 and 23 September, and penned, like that of 
27 July, by Coluccio Salutati, the chancellor of the republic, the Signoria 
had encouraged him to achieve a glorious victory, for which they would 
'magnanimously carry out that which we owe you, to throw light and glory on 
your eternal and inextinguishable fame', urging him to emulate Scipio 
Africanus, one of Rome's greatest generals, skilful alike in strategy and 
tactics, and with the faculty of inspiring his soldiers with confidence 
(Florence, Archivio di Stato, Signori, Missive, 1 Cancelleria, reg. 22, 
fols. 160v-161r). They did not have long to wait. During the night of 24 
September, as the enemy continued to retreat up Monte Albano, Hawkwood 
forced dal Verme's rearguard to battle, and completely routed it at the 
entrance to the Val di Nievole to the west of Pistoia. The Signoria had 
already granted him substantial financial rewards for his services earlier 
in the campaign, and it seems that they were now thinking of some monument 
to commemorate his victories. It was Hawkwood's last major campaign, and it 
sealed his reputation.

The material rewards of service and Hawkwood's investments

There can be little doubt that Hawkwood amassed considerable wealth, not 
only from ransoms and booty, and in bribes extracted from different Italian 
communes to secure his departure from their contados or to ensure his 
goodwill, but also in lands and pensions. The extent of his takings in the 
first category is not easily computed. While in the course of his military 
career the forces under his command evidently acquired substantial booty and 
numerous prisoners, of which he had his share, the surviving evidence does 
not permit his gains to be quantified, or his own ransom payments to be 
balanced against those extracted from others. More precise calculations can 
be made of the moneys paid as bribes by the Italian communes, but even here 
there are difficulties, since the global sums negotiated with the communes 
had to be divided between him and his subordinate officers, and had 
frequently also to be shared with one or more fellow commanders. In 1375, 
for instance, Hawkwood extracted 30,500 florins from Siena; but a further 
68,000 florins paid over a period of five years between 1379 and 1385 had to 
be shared with co-commanders. Moreover, there were often additional payments 
to the main sums that were paid out to individual captains and officers, and 
these were frequently substantial. When the companies were operating 
independently, some of these moneys were effectively in lieu of pay. It is 
thus easier to compute the cost of the mercenary activities to the communes 
than it is to calculate the profits of military captains. Nevertheless, the 
rewards were sometimes considerable. During the course of three months in 
1375, the bribes paid by Florence, Pisa, Siena, Lucca, and Arezzo together 
amounted to more than 204,500 florins, that is, in excess of 723 kilograms 
of gold.

With regard to his lands and property, some of these were acquired by 
conquest, or came to him in lieu of pay, which was by no means negligible; 
others were granted by appreciative employers, or as bribes similar to those 
referred to above. In April 1391, during the course of the campaign against 
the Visconti, the annual pension of 1200 florins first awarded to him by the 
Florentine republic in 1375 to secure his goodwill was raised to 3200 
florins, a jointure of 1000 florins per annum settled on his wife, and 2000 
florins granted on the marriage of each of his three daughters. In addition 
he and his male heirs were granted Florentine citizenship, excepting the 
right to hold office. The lands and property he acquired were extensive and, 
like the campaigns he fought in, were geographically widely spread. From his 
service with the church he secured castles and lands in the Romagna and in 
the marches of Ancona, notably Castrocaro, Bagnacavallo, Cotignola, 
Conselice, and Montefortino, and a house in Bologna. While in Neapolitan 
service he acquired estates in Naples, Capua, and Aversa, and secured a 
number of strongholds in the Aretino (notably the castle of Montecchio and 
the strongholds of Badia al Pino and Migliari), possibly acquired while 
returning to central Italy from that service in 1384. He had a house called 
Polverosa in the Florentine suburb of San Donato di Torre, an estate called 
La Rochetta in the Val d'Elsa near Poggibonsi, a property at Gazzuolo in the 
Cremonese (probably granted to him by Ludovico Gonzaga, either in 
appreciation or as a bribe), and a mansion with a cloister in Perugia, 
granted to him by the priors of that city in 1381. What explanation can 
therefore be given for Hawkwood's claim, in the summer of 1393 that, 
considering his innumerable daily expenses, his income was insufficient to 
support his family? It is probable that the administrative costs of his 
numerous estates were high, and there is little doubt that he had been 
scrupulous in paying and rewarding the men who had served him both in war 
and peace. He may also have been living beyond his means, or in modern 
parlance have been capital-rich but income-poor; but there was another 
factor which sheds much light on his ambitions and how he saw himself in the 
world.

The lure of the ancestral lands

Hawkwood clearly had no desire to carve out a patrimony and establish a 
dynasty in Italy. From as early as 1375 he had sought and secured an 
assurance that the annual pension of 1200 florins then offered to him by 
Florence would be paid to him even if he left that country, and this was 
confirmed by the Signoria in July 1376. From this period in papal service he 
was sending some of his pay and subsequently other moneys back to England by 
way of Luccese merchants operating through Bruges, and these were used to 
buy property in London and Essex, and to advance some moneys to the English 
crown in aid of the war in France. Some time between June 1377 and February 
1380, through his agents in England (including, perhaps significantly, John 
Cavendish and Robert Lyndeseye, a draper and tailor of London, 
respectively), he acquired the reversion of the Leadenhall in London from 
the widow of Sir John Neville, with whom he may have served in the 
expedition to Brittany under the earl of Northampton in 1345, and whose 
family seat was at Wethersfield in Essex, less than 5 miles from Sible 
Hedingham. However, the story was not altogether a happy one. Other moneys 
he advanced to the Luccese in 1382 were not passed on to his agents and were 
the subject of subsequent litigation, and some of the lands that he 
purchased, and which were enfeoffed to his use, were subsequently detained 
by his feoffees. Hawkwood's intention to return to England was thus evident, 
but there were hurdles to be overcome, some of them new, others dating from 
his past life in France. In the parliament held at Westminster in January 
1377 he had sought, and in the following March secured, a royal pardon for 
his youthful misdemeanours 'in like manner to that granted to Sir Robert 
Knowles'  (RotP, 2.372). The latter had embraced, among other things, 'all 
disobediences, takings of towns, castles and fortresses and prisoners 
surrendered without licence, breakings of truces and safe-conducts, sales of 
castles, cities and boroughs, towns, manors, lands, rents, services and 
prisoners to the king's enemies and others'  (CPR, 1374-7, 435). In the 
fragmented political structure of fourteenth-century Italy, where the king 
of England had no claims and where the royal writ did not run, he had 
encountered no such obstacles. But two months after his pardon had been 
granted he married Donnina, one of Bernabo Visconti's illegitimate 
daughters, which brought him, in addition to handsome presents and the 
benefits of a sizeable dowry, powerful family connections, which included 
his fellow condottiere, Count Lutz von Landau, who was married to Donnina's 
sister, Elisabetta, on the same day, and doubtless for the same reasons. The 
unity of purpose between Florence and Milan at this juncture was also 
critical, for it allowed Hawkwood simultaneously to serve two masters, who 
were subsequently bitterly opposed, to take up his appointment as commander 
of the forces of the Florentine league, and to enjoy the benefits of the 
life annuity granted to him by the republic, now apparently backdated, on 
the conditions already noted.

In 1387, following the conclusion of his services with the Carrara of Padua, 
Hawkwood may once again have considered returning home. Later that year he 
disposed of his properties in the kingdom of Naples and was planning the 
sale of those at San Donato and La Rochetta; but it was not until five years 
later, on the conclusion of the war with Milan, and when he was doubtless 
aware that his days were numbered, that the die was cast. During the winter 
of 1392-3 he was making the necessary dispositions: providing husbands for 
his two eldest daughters by Donnina, who were of marriageable age, settling 
his debts, attempting to recover sums of money and other properties due to 
him and his wife in Milan and Bologna, and seeking the necessary safe 
conducts for his passage to England. Allowing for the possibility that he 
might die before his return, he made known to Thomas Coggeshall of Essex, by 
way of a nuncupative will, his wishes with regard to the disposal of his 
properties in England. These included the sale of the Leadenhall, and the 
foundation of chantries in the church at Sible Hedingham and in the priory 
of Castle Hedingham with some of the proceeds. In the event of Donnina's 
surviving him and coming to England, she was to be enfeoffed with his 
properties of Liston in Gosfield and Hostages in Sible Hedingham, to be held 
during her lifetime with reversion to their son John. Hawkwood's other 
properties in England were to be held by his feoffees until his son came of 
age, when they were to be surrendered to him.

A year later, in March 1394, 'weary by reason of his great age', and, as he 
himself asserted 'weighed down by infirmity' and wishing to return 'to his 
old country'  (Florence, Archivio di Stato, Capitoli, reg. 1, fol. 164v), 
Hawkwood concluded an arrangement with the Florentine Signoria for the 
commutation of the pensions and other payments granted to himself and his 
family, and the disposal of his remaining possessions in the Aretino. It is 
clear that by this time Hawkwood was confined to his house at San Donato, 
and then to his bed. Five days later, during the night of 16-17 March, he 
died of a stroke. On the 20th the republic gave him a magnificent funeral, 
and his body was temporarily laid to rest in the choir of Santa Maria del 
Fiore (Florence Cathedral). It was left to Sir John's widow and his 
Florentine attorney to conclude the arrangements for the disposal of the 
patrimonial estate in Italy and the liquidation of the accounts between 
Hawkwood's heirs and the Signoria.

Two cenotaphs and two families

Even before Hawkwood's death, in August 1393, the Signoria had determined 
that an elaborate marble tomb would be constructed in his honour, and early 
in 1395 they commissioned Taddeo Gaddi and Giuliano d'Arrigho to design and 
paint a monument in fresco on the north wall of the cathedral. In the event 
the tomb itself was never executed, following a request from Richard II that 
Hawkwood's body be returned to England, and on 3 June 1395 the Signoria 
acceded to this request. In 1436 the original fresco was replaced by another 
in terra-verde by Paolo Uccello, which represents Hawkwood mounted on an 
ambling charger, wearing a short doublet over his armour, a light cap or 
berret in place of the helmet worn in battle on his head, and carrying the 
baton of a captain of war in his right hand. In the early nineteenth century 
the painting was transferred to canvas and moved to the west wall of the 
church. As for Hawkwood's remains, there is no reason to doubt that they 
were returned to Sible Hedingham, and buried in the parish church of St 
Peter, where a noble cenotaph was constructed with the moneys raised by his 
feoffees. The tomb recess, and parts of the canopy with spandrels bearing 
carvings of a hawk and other animals in a wood, may still be seen; but the 
tomb chest itself has long since vanished. Unfortunately, there is no 
mention of the church in John Leland's account of his tour through England 
and Wales in 1535-43, and by the time John Weever published his Ancient 
Funeral Monuments (1631) the tomb had largely been destroyed. But both 
Weever and Philip Morant, in his History and Antiquities of the County of 
Essex (1768) were of the opinion that it had been paid for by the abundant 
money Hawkwood sent back to England, and Morant, who must have seen some old 
drawings, adds 'From the effigies on this monument it should seem that he 
had two wives'  (Morant, 2.288).

Neither the date nor the fact of Hawkwood's first marriage has been 
established, but before his marriage to Donnina he had two sons, who may or 
may not have been legitimate, but who were only boys when they were held 
hostage in Bologna in 1376. He also had a daughter, Antiocha or Mary, who by 
March 1379 was married to Sir William Coggeshall, apparently the cousin of 
Sir Thomas, afterwards of Codham Hall, Essex, then in Hawkwood's service in 
Italy and residing in Milan. There may also have two other daughters: 
Fiorentina, who married a Milanese noble, Lancellotto del Mayno, and 
Beatrice, who married John Shelley, an ancestor of the poet. With Donnina 
Hawkwood had one son, John, and three daughters. The eldest daughter, 
Giannetta, was married on 7 September 1392 (aged fifteen) to Brezaglia, son 
of Count Lodovico di Porciglia, formerly captain of the Bolognese forces, 
subsequently podesta of Ferrara and, for a brief period after Hawkwood's 
death, captain of the Florentine forces. The second, Caterina, was married 
on 20 January 1393 (aged fourteen), to Konrad von Prassberg, a German 
captain who had served with Hawkwood. In March 1395 the Signoria had 
envisaged that the son and the third daughter, Anna, who were both under 
age, would go to England with their mother, as Hawkwood and Donnina had 
clearly planned. However, it seems unlikely that mother and daughter ever 
made the journey, and Anna was subsequently married to Ambrogiuolo di Piero 
della Torre of Milan; but the son, John, went, and settled on the ancestral 
lands at Sible Hedingham. Naturalized in 1407, two years later he secured 
possession of the estates in Essex purchased by his father, which were then 
released by his principal feoffee, who in 1412 also obtained licence to 
found the two chantries his father had envisaged, where three priests were 
to incant the offices and pray for the souls of his father and two of his 
military companions, both from Essex, who had also died in Italy, namely 
John Oliver and Thomas Newenton. That no will has come to light in Italy is 
not surprising. Hawkwood had realized his estate there, and made settlements 
on those members of his family who were to remain behind when he left. 
Doubtless the greater part of the proceeds were sent to England, but too 
late to make the formal testamentary bequests, of which the essentials were 
conveyed orally to Thomas Coggeshall by way of one of Hawkwood's squires, 
John Sampson, in two of the earliest private letters in the English language 
to survive. The oral testament was drawn up in the form of an indenture on 
Sampson's arrival in England, which gave the necessary instructions to his 
feoffees, who had now become his executors.

Noblesse oblige?

There can be no doubt that Hawkwood was one of the greatest military 
commanders of his day, but what distinguished him from other condottieri of 
his own generation, and others who came before him, was the loyalty that he 
showed to his principal employers, firstly Pisa and then, more notably, 
Florence. This was a quality also evident in his relations with the men 
serving under him, and with his compatriots from Essex. It gave a greater 
cohesion and esprit de corps to his own brigade than was common in other 
companies (including other English brigades) in the period. His failure to 
obey Bernabo Visconti's orders during the siege of Asti in 1372, and his 
desertion of Milanese service, may well have been connected with the 
position in which he then found himself, rather than a question of pay. For 
among the opposing forces attempting to relieve the town were other English 
contingents under his old comrade-in-arms, John Musard, an Englishman from 
Worcestershire who had risen to eminence and respectability in the service 
of Count Amadeus (VI) of Savoy, a founder member of the count's order of the 
Collar, and who had fought with him in France, notably at Pont Saint Esprit. 
Nor was money the reason for his switching from papal to Florentine service 
in April 1377. He may well have been disillusioned by the way the church 
leaders were conducting the war, especially after the massacres of 
significant numbers of the civilian population at Faenza and Cesena in March 
1376 and February 1377 respectively, in which the forces under his command 
had played their part. He had in fact been courted by the Florentine 
republic for some time, and remained loyal to his employer; but the evidence 
suggests that the life pension promised to him, and the possibilities of a 
more permanent contract, if not a contract for life, were a tempting 
prospect, which held out new opportunities as well as greater stability and 
the chances of a family life. What he got, initially, was in effect a series 
of short-term contracts, of which some were a specie of condotta in aspetto, 
which allowed the republic to secure the first option of his services during 
periods in which he was free to serve elsewhere. It is against this 
background that his military career after 1377 must be interpreted.

Many questions remain to be answered about Hawkwood's life, not least why he 
should have wished to return to England when he had been so successful in 
Italy, was well married and powerfully connected, and probably prosperous 
enough, for all his protestations to the contrary; he was respected, even 
revered in governing circles in Florence, with whom he was on easy terms as 
he was also with some of her leading citizens. That he spoke reasonably 
fluent Italian seems certain, frequently attending meetings of the war 
council, the Ten of War, when he was in Florence, and arguing details of 
military policy with them. Was it some distant memories of youth that 
beckoned him to return to his native soil, and to Sible Hedingham in 
particular? For it was there that he early decided to extend the family 
patrimony, and that ambition never deserted him.

Kenneth Fowler

Sources  Chancery records + A. H. Thomas and P. E. Jones, eds., Calendar of 
plea and memoranda rolls preserved among the archives of the corporation of 
the City of London at the Guildhall, 3 (1932) + M. Villani and F. Villani, 
Istorie, ed. L. A. Muratori, original edn, 28 vols., Rerum Italicarum 
Scriptores (1723-51), 14, cols. 9-770 + P. Azario, Chronicon, vol. 16 of L. 
A. Muratori, Rerum Italicum scriptores, 25 vols. in 28 (1723-51), cols. 
297-424 [and other works in this edn and the new ser., from 1900, in 
progress] + Chroniques de J. Froissart, ed. S. Luce and others, 15 vols. 
(Paris, 1869-1975) + Oeuvres de Froissart: chroniques, ed. K. de Lettenhove, 
25 vols. (Brussels, 1867-77) + L. C. Hector and B. F. Harvey, eds. and 
trans., The Westminster chronicle, 1381-1394, OMT (1982) + J. Temple-Leader 
and G. Marcotti, Sir John Hawkwood: story of a 'condottiere' (1889) + K. A. 
Fowler, Medieval mercenaries [forthcoming], 1-2  (2001-) + K. A. Fowler, 
'Sir John Hawkwood and the English condottieri in Trecento Italy', 
Renaissance Studies, 12 (1998), 131-48 + K. A. Fowler, 'Condotte e 
condottieri. Mercenaires anglais au service de Florence au XIVe siecle', 
Melanges Contamine [forthcoming] + F. Gaupp, 'The condottiere John 
Hawkwood', History, new ser., 23 (1938-9), 305-21 + D. M. B. de Mesquita, 
'Some condottieri of the Trecento and their relations with political 
authority', PBA, 32 (1946), 219-41 + W. Caferro, Mercenary companies and the 
decline of Siena (1998) + M. Mallett, Mercenaries and their masters: warfare 
in Renaissance Italy (1974) + B. G. Kohl, Padua under the Carrara, 1318-1405 
(1998) + W. Paravicini, 'Heraldische Quellen zur Geschichte der 
Preussenreisen im 14. Jahrhundert', Ordines Militares 4: Werkstatt des 
Historikers (1987), 111-28 + A. H. Thomas, 'Notes on the history of 
Leadenhall, 1195-1488', London Topographical Record, 13 (1923), 1-22 + An 
inventory of the historical monuments in Essex, Royal Commission on 
Historical Monuments (England), 1 (1916) + J. Weever, Ancient funerall 
monuments (1631) + P. Morant, The history and antiquities of the county of 
Essex, 2 vols. (1768) + S. L. Thrupp, The merchant class of medieval London, 
1300-1500 (1948) + RotP, vol. 2 + Archivio di Stato, Florence, Capitoli, 
reg. 1 + Archivio di Stato, Florence, Signori, Missive, 1 Cancelleria, reg. 
22
Likenesses  P. Uccello, fresco transferred to canvas, 1436, Santa Maria del 
Fiore, Florence [see illus.]



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