THE MASSACRES AT FAENZA AND CESENA “The Greatest Cruelty Ever” Florence’s anti-papal rebellion expanded rapidly through Tusca- ny and into neighboring regions. In Romagna, the town of Faenza John Hawkwood in Italy was soon swept up in the con- THE DARK SIDE OF A HERO flict. It is unclear whether Faenza was in open rebellion or only THEME: In 1394, the city of Florence marked the pass- threatening to break from the ing of John Hawkwood with an elaborate state papacy when Hawkwood and funeral. Further tributes followed for the “grand his company were summoned there by a papal official in Febru- master of war,” creating a larger-than-life image ary of 1376. The English troops, for Hawkwood, which has significantly influenced along with a company of Italian condottieri, entered the town in subsequent scholarship. Historians have strug- the following month. Leonardo gled, however, to reconcile this heroic legacy with Bruni’s description of what fol- lowed is generally representative Hawkwood’s participation in the massacre of civil- of contemporary accounts: ians at Faenza in 1376 and at Cesena in 1377. [O]nce inside the walls [the mercenaries] inflicted eve- By David Balfour rything on its citizens that is usually inflicted on stormed he events at Faenza and Pope Gregory XI having relieved and captured cities. For eve- Cesena occurred within the papacy from any immediate rything was laid open to pil- the context of the War of danger posed by Milan, the Flor- lage, the men were either the Eight Saints, an off- entines feared that he would now beaten or killed, the women shoot of the larger strug- turn his aggression against them. raped, and things both sacred gle by the popes to re- Their fears appeared to be con- and profane were wretchedly establish themselves in firmed when shortly afterwards, and impiously polluted by the Rome following the period of the Hawkwood – then in the em- cruelty of the barbarians. TAvignon Papacy (1309-1376). ploy of the papacy – launched a Young women were a particular Named for the eight-man council raid into Tuscany. The mercenary target of the marauders. While that oversaw military operations captain was possibly acting on many inhabitants were driven from for Florence, the War of the Eight his own initiative in this instance the city amidst the looting and de- Saints erupted after Milan and, in a pre-arranged deal, had struction, the young women were and the papacy set- agreed not to attack Florence di- “kept [by the soldiers] to violate.” tled long-standing rectly in exchange for a payment of 130,000 florins. Nevertheless, Why would Hawkwood al- hostilities in June low his company to engage in 1375. With the Florentines perceived the campaign as a papally-orches- such unbridled violence against trated threat to their city, and civilians? The simplest answer is they took up arms. that he was a soldier-for-hire The Piazza del Popolo is located in the historic center of Cesena, and was designed at the end of the fourteenth-century. © Marco Musmeci / Wikime- dia Commons Medieval Warfare VIII-1 13 recruited several hundred of them into factors, in February 1377, a mob of SLAUGHTER IN CESENA the employ of the city. Had Hawk- townspeople shouting “Death to the π wood denied his impoverished fol- Bretons! Long live the Church!” turned ‘The angry Bretons lost no time in avenging the slaughter of their fellows and, sparing neither lowers the opportunity to enrich them- on their oppressors, killing one hun- age nor sex, they slaughtered with the utmost selves on the plunder from Faenza, his dred or more of them. cruelty the wretched and harmless populace. company may have disintegrated en- On the following day, Robert of The number of those killed was around three tirely at that point. As it was, during the Geneva – holed up in the fortress of thousand, and the whole city was sacked as though it were an enemy town.’ sack his men frequently clashed with Rocca Murata, situated on a rocky each other over the spoils. However, rise overlooking the city – responded - Leonardo Bruni, Florentine historian and statesman. while Hawkwood allowed his men to with apparently conciliatory ges- © Marek Szyszko indulge themselves at Faenza largely tures. He offered the townspeople to stifle dissension, he did not entirely clemency on the condition that they following the directives of his em- neglect his own purse; he later sold turn over their weapons and surren- ployer. Hawkwood regularly adhered the city to a Ferraran nobleman for 50 der fifty hostages. The townspeople to the strict letter – if not always the to 60,000 ducats. complied, and Robert immediately full spirit – of his contracts. His repu- released the hostages in another tation as a condottiere who could be “The Rape of Cesena” indication of seeming good faith. counted upon to fulfill his obligations The Bolognese chronicler character- In the meantime, however, he had was instrumental in securing high- ized the sack of Faenza as “the greatest summoned Hawkwood and twelve paying commissions, and finances cruelty ever,” but in the following year, hundred of his men from Faenza. were always the primary considera- the town of Cesena in Romagna would In a meeting with Hawkwood in tion in his decisions as an independ- be the scene of even greater butchery. the governor’s stronghold, Robert’s ent military contractor. The months The events that culminated in a blood- private demeanor was radically dif- prior to Faenza had brought particu- bath in February of that year began ferent from his public face, and he larly rich rewards in cash and proper- with a relatively minor – and for the angrily demanded that the English ties to Hawkwood personally. Greg- troops punish the town’s inhabitants ory XI, however, proved to be a very time routine – quarrel involving food. severely. Hawkwood was clearly not dilatory paymaster, and by 1376 the Although Cesena had resisted entreat- eager to participate in another action captain’s prosperity did not extend to ies from Florence to join the anti-papal his troops, whom Filippo Bastari char- cause, since the fall a contingent of against civilians, and he proposed in acterized as ‘paupers.’ Consequently, Breton mercenaries in the hire of the turn that his troops simply extract a there was considerable dissension in Pope had been stationed outside the pledge from the townspeople to sub- the ranks. As succinctly stated by the city walls. Competition over food led mit to Robert’s authority in the future. chronicler Stefani, Hawk- to friction and occasional violence be- Robert, who emerges from the sourc- wood “was not at the tween the mercenaries and the towns- es as the worst villain in an episode time content with people. On November 24, Robert of entirely lacking in heroes, curtly dis- his men, nor they Geneva, a cardinal legate serving as missed Hawkwood’s suggestion and with him.” the local papal governor, ordered the apoplectically demanded “blood, Before the city opened to the Bretons in the hope blood, and justice.” Hawkwood massacre at Fae- that giving them access to the markets pleaded with Robert to reconsider, nza, Hawkwood’s within would serve to defuse the situ- but in the face of the legate’s furious enemies were al- ation. Predictably, this decision only intransigence, he finally acquiesced. ready trying to lure made things worse. Food grew scarcer The Breton mercenaries had en- away his disaffected in the winter months, and tensions tered Italy in 1375 with a reputation troops with lucrative of- increased as the Bretons “devoured, as the most bloodthirsty warriors in fers, and, in the follow- consumed and forced everything out Europe. Since their arrival, the Italian ing months, the Flor- of men and women.” Sources differ populace had dreaded a possible coa- entines successfully as to the incident that finally com- lition of the fierce Bretons and Hawk- pelled the townspeople to strike back wood’s remarkably efficient fighting A papal coin of Pope at their abusers. Whether prompted by men. At Cesena, their fears were real- Gregory XI. the looting of the butcher shops, the ized. Unleashed by Robert, the Bret- © Marianne Casamance / Wikimedia Commons murder of four leading townsmen, or ons and English subjected the city’s some combination of these and other inhabitants to three uninterrupted days Medieval Warfare VIII-1 14 and nights of killing, savage assault, This western European sword was made looting, and destruction. A chronicler about the year 1400, and was probably from Rimini struggled to convey the made for ceremonial use rather than as magnitude of the horrific events: a fighting weapon. A Latin quotation is inscribed on the pommel, which reads As any men, women and in translation, "here, too, virtue nurselings as they found, they has its due reward," a line slaughtered, all the squares were from Virgil’s Aeneid. © Metropolitan Museum of Art full of dead. A thousand drowned themselves in trying to cross the filled the moats and wells in and moats – some fled by the gates around the city were still being with the Bretons pursuing, who unearthed years later. Estimates murdered and robbed and com- vary widely, but all told, several mitted outrages, and would not thousand died. As summed up by let the handsomest women es- the Archbishop of Florence, “the cape, but kept them as spoil; rape of Cesena was total”. they put a ransom on a thousand At Cesena, the noted feroc- little boys and girls, neither man ity of the Bretons was whetted nor women remained in Cesena. by their violent determination to Houses and public buildings were avenge the deaths of their coun- gutted and torched.