Sir John Hawkwood (L'acuto) Story of a Condottiere; Translated from The
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SIR JOHN HAWKWOOD. Only Five hundred copies have been printed of " " Sir John Hawkwood, one hundred reserved for presentation to the Public Libraries, the Press, and Friends and hundred , Four numbered copies for the Public of which this is N 5. \IHIh JMVSIAOtAETAIfc SIR JOHN HAWKWOOD (V ACUTO). STORY OF A CONDOTTIERE TRANSLATED FROM THE ITALIAN OF JOHN TEMPLE-LEADER, ESQ. & SIG. GIUSEPPE MARCOTT1 BY LEADKR SCOTT. Bonbon, T. FISHEE UNWIN 26, PATERNOSTER SQUARE. 1889. [All rights reserved.} ^. FLORENCE : PRINTED BY . BARBERA, VIA FAENZA, 66. H4-L4- PREFACE. Alius alio jdttra incenire potest, nemo ontnia. Ausomus. The history of the mercenary companies in Italy no longer re- mains to be told it been in 1844 Ercole Ricotti ; having published by ; however, several successive monographs on the same subject have produced such a wealth of information from new sources that Ri- cotti's work, estimable as it is, almost requires to be rewritten. The Archlvio Storico Italiano has already recognised this by dedicat- ing an entire volume to Documents for the history of Italian ivarfare, from the 13"1 to the 16"1 centuries collected by Giuseppe Canestrini. These are of but even all great importance ; taking into account we owe to them, and to all that later historical researches have brought to light, the theme is not yet exhausted : truth is like happiness, and though as we approach we see it shining more intensely, and becom- ing clearer in outline, yet we can never feel, that we have obtained full possession of it. One of the most celebrated condottieri was the Englishman John " Hawkwood, or as contemporary Italian chroniclists put it Giovanni " " Acuto Villani as of war." ; whom Filippo proclaims grand master Giovio with elegant laconism defines hinig acerrimus bellator et cun- " ctator egregius, while Muratori recognises him as a brave and wary " captain," qualifying his praise however by adding a brigand of the " " first rank and he himself ; Ammirato says by many proofs showed valiant and courageous in his own person, astute in reaping advan- tages, and a man who could wait the results of action without hurry- ing to obtain fame." As for popular tradition, we have the testimony of Franco Sac- st chetti, who (in his 181 Novella) tells the story of certain monks 2 PREFACE. * " Peace on which he : who gave Hawkwood the greeting of replied monks excused "May the Lord takr awJ your alms." The alarmed " be and he ex- themselves, by saying they meant only to kind," ' that I live and that would plained: Do you not know by war, peace is true that beiny undoing V" and the story-teller adds: "It certainly other man ever llawkwood fought in Italy longer than any fought, to him : so did he and nearly every part of it became tributary we}l manage his affairs that there was little peace in Italy in his days." This charac- Warrior by trade, in peace his occupation was gone. truly : eo nomine ro- teristic story was paraphrased in Latin De qui pads di Filitimo 1560). ganti paupcri ni.'til dare voluit. (Facezie Ermotimo, It was said that if he had wished, he might easily have cut a have become Lord principality out of Tuscany for himself, or perhaps della of the whole province, a new Castruccio or Uguccione Fag- but either he lacked the or else he knew the place giuola ; ambition, and the times well enough to realise how impossible it would have been to found a lasting dynasty. In any way he was for more than thirty years one of the most effective dominators of Italian affairs, and in her history, military, and political, and social, he figures as a personage whose character actions have an importance more than sufficient to justify the simple curiosity of biographical erudition. It is now evident that there is more than a little to add and to rectify in his history : and taking into account several inedited do- cuments corroborating that which has, it is true, been already nar- rated, though neither clearly nor precisely it would seem that, a new monograph of John Hawkwood may well be attempted. Paolo Giovio gave a place to the English Condottiere in the Elo- it is gia virorum bellica virtutc iUustrlum ; but a short record with than in it more rhetoric biography it, more romance than history ; is a sketch in fine Latin prose with an ugly woodcut, and two un- verses Giulio Feroldo and as to the famous happy by ; truth, bishop of Coino always had (since Benedetto Varchi shewed up Paolo Giovio's errors in history) the most justifiable reputation of giving it quite a secondary importance. Domenico Maria Manui collected many valuable facts edited and inedited, and formed a praiseworthy biography (published in 17(50, in Vol. II of the appendix to Eerum Italicarum Scriptores), but it was incomplete and not always exact. From the literary correspondence in 1640-1G41 between Sir William Boswell English ambassador to the Hague, and J. de Laet of Leiden (British Museum, additional MSS. 6395) it results that Mr. John PREFACE. 3 Maurice had compiled, and written in English, a life of Sir John Hawkwood, profiting by the Italian authors existing in the ambassa- dor's library, and by Sir William Boswell's own observations. It is possible that this is the MS. biography of Hawkwood, which is pre- served in the Ashmolean Collection of Oxford (N 749). It consists of 100 pages folio, and diverges from the subject in long digressions on general contemporary history, complacently quoting Tacitus and other Latin writers. The author thus metaphorically announces his " subject on page 21 : I nowe applie my selfe to my intended theme, the life of the valiant and fam'd Sir John Hawkwood, or rather some few discourses, considerations, and observations on several passages of his life, and acts, for these we have growing at, our own home, and th' other must chiefly be imported from forraine parts where they grow too thinne." In any case the book would only have a very limited biographical value were it not for the documents which were furnished by the Italian archives. Thus if our subject is not without, precedent, neither is it yet exhausted. For the rest, in narrating and documenting the life of this soldier of fortune, it is enough merely to indicate, and not reproduce entire, those general facts of the time which are well known, or easily found in accredited histories. Uur labours refer to the career of the classical Condottiere in the midst of his soldiers, and to his relations with the princes and republics to whom he sold his sword; and it will suffice for this, if we throw some of the modern lights on the social and mi- th litary conditions of Italy, during the second half of the 14 century. To simplify chronology we have indicated the dates by marginal numbers. Dates of the old Florentine and Pisan styles have been reduced to modern style. I. THE HAWKWOOD FAMILY. FIRST ENGAGEMENTS IN FRANCE. [MOEANT, Hist, of Essex [1768] which cites the feudal registers of the Earls of Oxford CAMDEN'S Britannia FULLER, Worthies of England [1603] STOWE, Annals Will of Gilbert Hawkwood existing in the Harlff/an Charters 51, D. 6, pub. in Gentleman's Magazine, Vol 58, p. 1061 FILIPPO VILLANI, Cronica AMMIKATO, Istoiie Floren- tine SAMUEL SMILES, Life and Labour MATTEO VILLANI, Cronica BECKER, Adventurous Lives LAROUSSE, Dictionnuire uniterstl du A/A siecle FROISSART, Clironiques GUILELMUS DE NANOIS, Chronica PERRENS, Histoire de f'loremi.] On the left bank of the little river Colne in Essex, in the parish of Sible Hedingham not far from the ancient city of Colchester, there still exists an old house and estate named Hawkwood Manor, once a feudal dependance on the Castle of Hedingham belonging to the Earls of Oxford, and which was in the possession of the Hawkwoods as far back as the reigns of John Lack-Land and Edward III. Tradition says that our John Hawkwood was born here, and we have no reason to doubt it. The epoch of his birth is not proved : we only know that he died very old in 1394, and that in 1360 he was a of assured we therefore already captain reputation ; may conclude that he came into the world in the beginning of Edward the Third's reign, about the year 1320. John's father was named Gilbert and he was by trade a tanner a fact with his well-to-do ; perfectly compatible condition as a landowner. There are not wanting fabricators of marvellous gene- alogies, which make Hawkwood's ancestry originate with 6 HIS FATHER'S WILL. hand Fi- Memprecius King of the Frisians. On the other Hawkwood to be a lippo Villani and Ammirato believe recount- personal cognomen, rather than a family surname, " birth to a ing that the mother being about to give and here the child, had herself carried into a forest, boy was born," hence the name hawk and loood. The Florentine historians were better informed in say- " not of ing that his parents were well born although mercatanti e antichi grand lineage (gentil' huomini borghe- " n that used the aristocratic si). The fact they particle de," and that they possessed lands, goods, and money, is proved by some English documents, among which is the "Will of Gilbert de Hawkwood himself.* In this his last testament Gilbert de Hawkwood declares of Sible his wish to be buried in the church Hedingham ; then in the first place he leaves 2 solidi to the building of St. Paul's in London then 17 marks 10 solidi for fund ; his obsequies on the day of the funeral, and on the seventh and thirtieth days after it.