Arms as Profession in Fourteenth-century Italy

1. Arms as Profession in Fourteenth-century Italy

14th c. statue of Cangrande della Scala, signore of Verona (r. 1311-29) ?

2. Italy: A Patchwork of Competing States

� Italy: �[A] patchwork of competing states that jostled one another for position within limited geographical confines.� (Caferro) � Major aggressors included the VISCONTI of Milan and Pavia; their attempts to take Bologna, a papal city, precipitated four Visconti-papal wars in the period 1350-75 � Southern Italy belonged to the Kingdom of Naples, since the 13th ruled by ANGEVINS (but contested by different branches of that clan) The political divisions of Italy in 1400

3. Italy: Locus of Foreign Intervention

� the Hungarian Angevins kept interest in Naples � Aragon opposed French interests in Sicily � German Emperors �visited� frequently: Henry VII (1310); Ludwig of Bavaria (1327); Chas. IV (1355 and 1363) � Despite a tight connection between the English crown and Florentine banks, France had close diplomatic and trade ties with Florence

4. Conditions Favoring Employment of Mercenary Bands

� large number of independent states � great wealth from trade, banking, and industry � in most major commercial centers, a �middle class� or popolo (�people�) that strove to exclude nobles from politics � Italian nobles, when exiled from their native communes, frequently contracted as mercenaries themselves (they were, after all, warriors by birthright) � the pope was an �absentee ruler of an amorphous papal state�; forced to recruit mercenaries to fight his wars � frequent foreign interventions left behind scores of soldiers needing employment: Germans, Catalans, Hugnarians, French and English

5. Compagnie di Ventura

� there were so many mercenaries as to allow the formation of �autonomous units, the largest of which had their own hierarchies of command, with corporals and captains distinct from the rank and file� (Caferro) � when dismissed from service, these units gathered into �Companies of Adventure� or �Free Companies� � These sustained themselves by ravaging the countryside, ransoming people, and extorting bribes from cities

6. Companies of Adventure: History

� contemporary Italian writers often identified the Germany captain WERNER of URSLINGEN and his band of 1339 (the Magna societas, or �Great Company�) as the first large mercenary band in Italy � Urslingen's personal tag, worn on his shield: �Enemy of God, mercy, and pity� � but Urslingen drew on the example of ROGER de FLOR, a Catalan adventurer, who formed the original GREAT COMPANY in 1302

7. Roger de Flor (d. 1305)

-- at age 8, snuck aboard a boat of the KNIGHTS TEMPLARS, and showed exceptional potential as a mariner -- later dismissed by the Templars for malfeasance; hired himself as a mercenary in S. Italian wars -- after the Italian wars, formed a mercenary brigade, which he called the GREAT COMPANY (1302); most of its members were Catalans Catalunya (Catalonia) is the NE corner of the Iberian peninsula, around and including Barcelona. The region has its own language and distinct cultural traditions, with historically close ties to France. Spain in 1270.

8. �Catalan Revenge� on the Byzantines

-- the GC found employment in a civil war in Byzantine Empire -- the GC so successful it made its employer, the emp. ANDRONICUS, nervous; Andronicus had Roger murdered at a banquet in his honor -- hence followed the "Catalan revenge": four years of retribution by Roger's company -- the GC captured the Emp's son and killed him slowly with 13 knife wounds, the last on the face -- it then entered the service of WALTER of BRIENNE, the DUKE of ATHENS -- but it turned on Walter, defeated him, captured Athens, held it for the next 63 years The Byzantine world in 1300. The Beyliks are Turkish principalities. The Duchy of Athens was created by the knights of the Fourth Crusade (1204). Note that the island of Crete belongs to Venice.

9.

� Ursinglen put his GC together from veterans of a war between Pisa and Florence � Ten years later, another GC formed under, MONTREAL D'ALBARNO (d. 1354), a Provencal adventurer � Montreal took his GC along the east coast of Italy, taking 44 castles; when D'Albarno died in 1354, German KONRAD von LANDAU (d. 1363) took command for the next 9 years � Other brigades: Co. of the Star, of the Hat, Flower, Rose, Hook, and at least three companies of St. George

10. Companies of Adventure: Nationality

� Companies usually formed around a single nationality: Urslingen's GC was mostly Germans � A Hungarian capt., John Horvati, formed a Co. in 1380 of mostly Hungarians � bands took their national identity seriously � but they were never homogeneous; Hawkwood's White Company was English, but included Italians, Germans, and Hungarians

11. Women with the Companies

� Italian writers often wrote of the companies as comprised of base people, but in fact they recruited talented and high-ranking men � Women were attached to the companies; they included whores, of course � but some were wives and loved ones � there are even records of women putting on armor and fighting in the field if the number of men grew short

12. Companies as Social Units

� Each mercenary band had a hierarchy of military commanders; but they also had treasurers to manage finances, and chancellors and notaries who performed legal and diplomatic functions

13. Military Officers

� at the head of the band: the CAPT.-GENERAL � beneath him: MARSHALS and CORPORALS � the Captain-Gen'l was usually elected; how these elections operated is unknown � Marshals and corporals had much autonomy; they had contingents that answered directly to them � Major operational decisions made by consensus of capt-gen'l and his officers; when in service to a state, decision-makers included the local captain of war and govt. officials

14. Legal and Financial Officials

� Legal and financial positions in mercenary bands usually filled by Italian citizens seeking profit and adventure � Chancellors were notaries, judges, and the like; i.e., men with training in law � Chancellors drew up legal documents and negotiated with governments on behalf of the company � The Treasurer of a mercenary company was often a merchant skilled in handling money

15. Mercenary bands = CORPORATIONS

Caferro: �Mercenary bands were corporate in structure. The captain stood at the head of his brigade in a manner similar to the way a modern CEO stands at the head of his firm. When the captain decided to leave, the company did not disband but retained its name and elected another man.� Wm. Caferro

16.

� a band did not call itself an �army� (exercitus), but a �society� (societas) � Societas was the same term used by Italian business firms; a bank or a cloth-trading partnership was a �society� � captains, marshals, and corporals, with their relative autonomy over their own contingents, were analogous to owners or shop managers, the rank-and-file to artisans and craftsmen

17. The Condotta

� the mercenary company employment contract, specifying, length of service, size of brigade, rate of pay � there were similar contracts in England and France, but the Italian condotte were much more detailed and sophisticated, in accordance with the advanced business and legal culture in Italy � put into effect by ceremony; soldiers placed on hand on the Gospels and heard the terms read aloud � usual stint: 4-6 mos., but sometimes for up to a year � governments pleased with the service of a band would offer serial contracts; some captains served a single employer for many years

18. Types of Cavalry Units

� individual horsemen, or standard units: � barbuta = one knight and one page � lance = one knight, one squire, one page � the German bands favored barbute; the English, the lance, which also became standard in Italian armies

19. Not only cavalry...

Condotte also specifically called for other types of soldiers: archers, crossbowmen, various infantrymen

20. Salaries

-- figured monthly -- wages for captains depended on size of their bands -- sometimes determined by a formula; e.g., so much per barbuta or lance -- famous mercenary captains always had high salaries; others were subject to the marketplace � the size of a captain's pay did not determine that of a cavalryman's; this could be quite low despite the captain's reputation

21. How good was the pay?

� hard to say, since scholars have not determined precisely the standard of living in Italy after the Black Death � 1390, Florence, daily wages, in soldi (silver shillings): � construction worker and farm laborer - 9.4 � wool thread spinner - 12.7 � master builder - 17.1 � Hawkwood's salary that year: 500 gold florins (37,500 s.) / mo.; 72x the master builder, 140x the construction worker � Lance unit in Hawkwood's brigade: 18 fl./mo. (44 s./day); but split among three men, less expenses for the three horses � Crossbowman in Florentine service: 4 fl./mo. (9.7 s./day); other infantry men were paid as low as 3.8 s./day � Estimated subsistence rate: 3 s./day � Cost of a kilo of grain: 2.1 s.; a liter of wine: 2.3 s.

22. Other Compensation

� Soldiers sometimes paid part of their salaries in commodities; e.g., gold-embroidered silk and purple velvet given to one German mercenary in service to Lucca in 1383 � Captains' regular salaries sweetened with bonuses, in the form of payment for �dead� (non-existent) lances or barbute, or cash payments disguised as loans or gifts

23. Employers' Distrust

� Governments had little trust in mercenary captains; they zealously guarded against fraud with a variety of contract clauses � including the right to monthly inspections � to levy fines for poor inspection results � to intervene in affairs of justice within the company � states tried to limit the taking of BOOTY by contract clauses, but in reality there was little they could do to stop troops taking movable wealth for themselves � mercenaries had to hand over POLITICAL prisoners to the state; but they could hold others for ransom � RANSOM was the major source of revenue for soldiers; in reality it was hard to draw the line between political exile and simple enemy combatant

24.

� Employers often failed to pay salaries on time, due to the high cost of war � E.g., Visconti Milan, 1390, paid 288,720 fl. for 1203 lances in war against Florentine republic; this amount was 4x the income of a mid-sized Italian city � War tax burdens fell heavily on citizens; the govt of SIENA felt forced to send armed soldiers to citizens' homes to collect war taxes in 1371 (and the soldiers rode off with the collected cash!) � When not paid, soldiers fended for themselves by looting and robbing; they complained about having to do this in crudely written letters

25. Feuds & Brawls between Bands

� states rarely relied on just one mercenary contingent, and of course they also had native troops and auxiliaries from allied or subject cities � But bands of different nationalities often did not get along, and feuded with each other on campaigns � German and English mercenaries were notoriously hostile to one another, an issue that tripped up Hawkwood's operations more than once

26. Composition of Armies

� No army was really typical; they varied widely in size depending on the particular conflict � The most conspicuous element: the CAVALRY � after 1350 almost always arrayed in LANCE UNITS (3 men, 3 horses) � Florentine legislation of 1387 describes the LANCE: I. the MAN-AT-ARMS, or CORPORAL: armored, with bacinet, mail shirt, breastplate, arm pieces, leg pieces, iron gloves; weapons: sword, dagger, lance or pole; job: bear the brunt of combat, bear financial responsibility for the unit II. SQUIRE, or RIDER - breastplate, simple helmet, iron gloves; weapons: sword, dagger, lance (optional); job: transport baggage and booty, procure food, serve as saccomano (setter of fires to fields and farms) III. PAGE � no armor, rode a pony; job: care of the horses

27. Composition of Armies

� traditional scholarship has minimized the role of infantry in the 14c; Caferro discovers that they were actually quite important � old estimates were that cavalry vastly outnumbered men on foot � but "where figures are available, they indicate that infantry size was often comparable to or greater than that of the cavalry" (Caferro) 1351: a Milanese army had 7000 horses and 6000 footmen; the opposing force had 1500 horse and 3500 infantry 1390: a Paduan army had 500 lances and 2000 infantry

28. Other Infantrymen

� For sieges, there were special infantry called GUASTATORI (Sappers) -- set fires, dug ditches, mined below fortifications -- they were often rustics who formed irregular contingents -- CROSSBOWMEN � much used in the 13th c., less in the 14th; 1366: Pope's army of 3000 lances had also 1500 crossbowmen -- SHIELD BEARERS � protectors of crossbowmen � the English experimented with integrating mounted archers into LANCE units � they also conceived a "double archer" - one archer with longbow and horse attended by a page and pony; this was a missile version of the conventioanl lance unit

29. Perpetual Warfare

� Armed hostilities in late medieval Italy did not end with treaties or surrender; rather �demobilized mercenaries coalesced into free companies around notable commanders and corporals � These free companies operated as traditional armies did, raiding the countryside, torching local houses, stealing livestock, ransoming citizens � Popular targets: Churches and monasteries; any place where resistance would be little and the pickings large

30. Another Favorite Target Area: Roads

� Free mercenary bands especially liked roads; in particular, the VIA FRANCIGENA, a highway that ran from France to Rome, and served pilgrims and merchants

31. Bribing Cities

-- Free companies could extort spectacular BRIBES from frightened cities: 1357: Great Co. extorted 100,000 fl. from Naples 1364: Co. of the STAR prised 38,650 fl. from SIENA, a sum equal to more than half the city's annual expenses � bribe attempts ended legalistically; in fact, in contracts similar to condotte -- States did form anti-mercenary leagues; but these, ironically, had to employ mercenaries to operate