John Hawkwood

English mercenary soldier and landholder

• Born: c. 1320
• Birthplace: Sible Hedingham, Essex, England
• Died: March 16-17, 1394
• Place of death: Florence (now in Italy)

Hawkwood from all accounts was the most successful of the foreign mercenaries, or condottieri, who amassed great fortunes from payments for military service to the various rival governments in fourteenth century Italy. He used his earnings to purchase vast landholdings in Italy and England, accumulating an estate that rivaled, and in some cases exceeded, those of European royalty.

Sources of wealth: Government; real estate; investments

Bequeathal of wealth: Spouse; children

Early Life

John Hawkwood was the second son of a well-to-do merchant in rural England. When his father died, Hawkwood left home and worked briefly as a tailor before joining the army of King Edward III. He fought with the English forces in France during the last stages of the Hundred Years’ War; he was almost certainly involved in the fighting at the Battles of Crécy (1346) and Poitiers (1356). When peace was declared, Hawkwood joined a group of discharged English soldiers who chose to stay on the Continent and offer their services to the leaders of rival factions engaged in civil wars in Italy. Leaders of these mercenary bands came to be known as condottieri because they signed a condotta, or contract, to fight in the service of one or another of these factions for a specified period of time. Sometime before Hawkwood left England for good he married and had a daughter; she would eventually marry one of Hawkwood’s lieutenants and inherit a portion of his English estate.

First Ventures

Hawkwood began his career as a soldier of fortune as a member of the group known as the Great Company, which first earned notoriety by traveling to Avignon to extort money from the pope, who was in exile there. As temporal ruler of the Papal States, a large section of central Italy, the pope was frequently engaged in disputes with other rulers of the various city-states in the north and the Kingdom of Naples in southern Italy. The pope hired the Great Company to fight against the Milanese, who were threatening his control over a portion of the Papal States. Hawkwood went with this force to Italy, where it soon came to be called the White Company. Initially he was a minor official in this force, but by 1364 he was commander of the company and in a position to negotiate contracts that would make him very wealthy.

Mature Wealth

From 1364 until his death, Hawkwood served as a soldier-for-hire. His first leadership position came in service to Pisa. Although his first campaign was not auspicious, within five years Hawkwood had earned a reputation as a loyal employee, a sound tactician, and a hard negotiator. Over the next two decades he was at times in the employ of both the pope and the city of Milan, in which the autocratic and bellicose ruler Bernabò Visconti eventually rewarded Hawkwood by allowing him to marry Visconti’s illegitimate daughter Donnina. In 1379, while employed by Padua, Hawkwood achieved a great victory at Castagnola. During the 1380’s he secured employment with Florence and remained on that city’s payroll until he died.

Hawkwood was able to negotiate lucrative contracts for himself and the forces that served him because he mastered the art of war as it was practiced in the Middle Ages. In addition to assembling a competent fighting force and hiring trustworthy lieutenants, many of whom were English like himself, he developed a network of informants that kept him abreast of military and political affairs throughout the country. He was a shrewd tactician adept at battlefield maneuvers developed during England’s fight against France. Skilled at preserving his forces, he was a master of feints, delay tactics, strategic retreats, and night movements. By the 1370’s he was the most sought-after leader among the dozens of condottieri available to rulers wishing to extend their influence or defend their territory from rivals.

Because the Italians had difficulty pronouncing his English name, he became known by a dozen or more appellations, but one reflects something of his professional personality: “Giovanni Acuto,” or John the Sharp, a title testifying to Hawkwood’s military and political acumen. Hawkwood always considered himself an Englishman, and at times he served as an ambassador for the English kings in various negotiations with Italian and papal leaders.

Hawkwood was adept at negotiating with both sides in a conflict, driving up the bidding for his services. He was not above resorting to veiled threats of retaliation if his financial demands were not met. Although he had initially earned a reputation for loyalty by refusing to desert Pisa in favor of a more lucrative proposition from a rival city, throughout his career Hawkwood showed a willingness to accept offers based on the size of the payment rather than the justness of an employer’s cause. Like most mercenary commanders of his day, he accepted personal payments outside the terms of the contract—what would later be termed bribes—to commit his forces. Typical of this kind of negotiating tactic was Hawkwood’s effort in 1375. He extracted a payment of 130,000 florins to withhold his forces from attacking Florence, then obtained a payment of 30,500 florins from Pisa for the same reason, identical payments from Lucca and Siena for the same guarantee, and similar payments from Pisa, Bologna, and Naples. While some of this money went to his troops, Hawkwood certainly pocketed a notable percentage of these settlements. Hawkwood also learned early in his career the value of intimidation, and he parlayed his reputation as a successful commander into substantial annual retainer fees. By the time he sold his services to Florence, he was already collecting “pensions” from a number of cities, including Lucca, Naples, and Milan. These annual payments were actually a form of extortion paid by city officials to guarantee either that Hawkwood would lead their forces or that he would refrain from attacking their cities if he were not in their employ.

Most frequently Hawkwood was paid in cash, usually gold florins, the most widely used currency of the day. During the thirty years he served as a captain of forces, his earnings ranged between 6,000 and more than 80,000 florins annually. By comparison, the annual earnings for the chief executive of Florence were approximately 100 florins per year, and for a skilled craftsman were about 30 florins. Hawkwood supplemented this income with bribes and with ransoms collected for prisoners taken during military operations. From time to time he was awarded entire towns as part of his pay, so he was able to generate additional revenues from taxes and fees paid by the towns’ citizens.

Hawkwood invested a large portion of his money in land. During his career he accumulated estates throughout Italy, chiefly in Lombardy, Romagna, Umbria, Pavia, Naples, and Tuscany. For years he made a practice of purchasing property in England near his boyhood home in Essex. He was also involved as an investor in Venice and Florence, putting some of his money to work in financing public debt. In his later years Hawkwood began making provisions for the children he had with Donnina. He convinced Florentine officials to provide generous dowries for his three daughters and to allow his son to inherit his Italian property.

Legacy

Hawkwood did not make a will before he died, so it is exceedingly difficult to estimate the value of his estate. In the years before his death he began liquidating his holdings in Italy, ostensibly so he could return to England with his fortune. After Hawkwood’s death his widow, Donnina, made an attempt to claim his English holdings, but she met with little success. With the help of the Crown, however, his son John was able to establish his claims to Hawkwood’s English landholdings and eventually took over sizable manors and other properties.

Although the era of the condottieri came to an end soon after Hawkwood’s death, his legacy as a soldier of fortune is easier to document. He was celebrated in Florence after his death as one of the city’s greatest champions, and his career is chronicled by a number of late medieval and Renaissance historians. Additionally, his exploits have served as the basis for a number of novels.

Bibliography

Caferro, William. John Hawkwood: An English Mercenary in Fourteenth-Century Italy. Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006. Exceptionally well-researched assessment of Hawkwood’s personal and professional life, correcting many errors and misconceptions in earlier works. Offers sound analysis of his character and detailed information on his finances.

Cooper, Stephen. Sir John Hawkwood: Chivalry and the Art of War. Barnsley, England: Pen & Sword Military Press, 2008. Detailed examination of Hawkwood as a military commander, defending his actions as consistent with the contemporary code of chivalry. Makes clear the reasons his services were sought by various Italian leaders, who found him reliable, loyal, and exceptionally skilled in military tactics.

Deiss, Joseph J. Captains of Fortune: Profiles of Six Italian Condottieri. New York: Crowell, 1967. Includes a chapter on Hawkwood cataloging his accomplishments in leading his mercenaries in several key engagements for leaders of Milan, Padua, Florence, and the Papacy.

Mallett, Richard. Mercenaries and Their Masters: Warfare in Renaissance Italy. Totowa, N.J.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1974. Provides a sound overview of military operations in fourteenth century Italy, placing Hawkwood’s career and achievements in a larger political context.

Murphy, David. Condottiere, 1300-1500: Infamous Medieval Mercenaries. Oxford, England: Osprey, 2007. Brief but highly informative discussion of the system under which Hawkwood and other mercenaries were hired and recompensed for their services.

Saunders, Frances Stonor. The Devil’s Broker: Seeking Gold, God, and Glory in Fourteenth-Century England. New York: Fourth Estate, 2004. Hawkwood’s career figures prominently in a wide-ranging commentary on the mercenary’s role in internecine struggles among Italian rulers during the fourteenth century.

Trease, Geoffrey. The Condottieri: Soldiers of Fortune. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston, 1971. Contains a lengthy discussion of Hawkwood’s career, outlining his accomplishments in supporting various Italian nobles in their struggles to extend their political power. Also comments on Hawkwood’s personal life.