Renaissance Italy was marked by both continuous
warfare and economic growth. Against this backdrop arose the Condotta, the contract system of hiring
mercenaries, which was arguably the most distinct characteristic of the period. Initially, soldiers
hired themselves out to the highest bidder as “free lances,” the lance being the smallest unit
of army organization at the time. This is the origin of the modern term “freelancer.” However,
these soldiers soon formed entire mercenary companies led by elected leaders, such as John
Hawkwood, who were seen as first among equals. The powerful and wealthy Italian cities, enriched
by their monopoly on maritime trade with the East, could easily hire these companies, but they
soon learned that doing so often brought more problems than they had bargained for.
Known as Free Companies or Great Companies, these mercenary groups saw themselves as
independent, self-governing adventurers always on the lookout for the most lucrative
offer. A rich Italian city, they soon realized, was a worthwhile target to plunder. It was not
long until they would become the bane of Italy. In this video, we investigate the phenomenon of Free
Companies and how they were eventually replaced by the arguably more famous mercenary captains,
the condottieri. Let’s start at the beginning. Chapter 1: The Business of Terror
By the mid-12th century, medieval Europe had become increasingly urbanized. The
climate was warming, allowing for better harvests, and forests were largely cleared, making room
for fields of barley, emmer, and wheat to help feed the growing population, especially in
the many new urban centers. It was against this background that the paid military service
of infantrymen gradually became an increasingly important factor in warfare. Urbanization led to
better fortifications of cities and more castles and thus to the proliferation of siege warfare.
These new siege specialists often offered their service for pay rather than fulfilling other
military obligations. Infantry was also needed to serve as long-term garrison troops of border
castles. As the historian Michael Mallet put it: “all pointed toward a growing role for infantry in
the warfare of the day.” Not everybody liked this change. Many denounced these new infantrymen as
brigands and outlaws because they tended to harass travelers and merchants in the absence of other
lucrative economic opportunities. Over the course of the 12th century, these infantrymen
formed distinct bands called Routiers, from the word rutta or route meaning band or small
group. While this term is most closely associated with the Hundred Years War, the phenomenon of
Routiers is actually quite a bit older. One famous example is the Brabançons, who were most
active from 1166 to 1214. According to the German historian Julia Knödler, the Brabançons were
in the business of spreading fear and terror. They were deployed to wage an economic war on
enemy territory, brutally ravaging the countryside and destroying resources to force the enemy to
surrender. Their destructive raids and plundering in Europe led the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick
Barbarossa and King of France Louis VII to sign a pact in 1167 forbidding the use of mercenaries,
and even the Church prohibited mercenaries in the Third Lateran Council in 1179. Despite these
bans, the Brabançons always found new employers, even in Frederick Barbarossa himself, who
in 1175 hired them for his Italy campaign. Unlike most peasant infantry, who were
mobilized based on feudal obligations, their pay enabled them to equip themselves
handsomely with mail armor and helmets. They were experienced fighters who usually relied
on pole weapons, long pikes, and knives. Over time, the crossbow gained popularity
among Routiers, especially after the Crusades. However, the adoption of the weapon
was initially delayed due to a papal ban on the use of crossbows against Christians. More
importantly, large-scale production of the new weapon in Europe was hindered due to various
economic and societal factors. It wasn’t until the middle of the 12th century that both the crossbow
and the long bow were fully established as popular infantry weapons. The increased firepower led
many armies to deploy large numbers of archers and crossbowmen. This demand led to new supply,
with many Pisans, Venetians, and Genoese offering their services abroad as crossbowmen. The new
missile firepower was directed against both enemy knights and infantry, which led to new defensive
methods. In Italy, for instance, infantry units were divided into pike men and shield bearers,
with the shield bearers resting their long shields on the ground to provide protection
for both the pikemen and the crossbowmen. This new need for protection also led to changes
in the cavalry division. The historian Michael Mallet explains: “the new threat from crossbow
bolts led to the gradual replacement of leather and mail armor by plate armor for cavalry. It also
provoked concern for the protection of horses and the introduction of horse armor.” With this change
came an increased need for spare horses to replace those slain in battle or exhausted from bearing
the weight of the new armor and equipment. Cavalry now required assistance from a small group of
pages and archers to lead the horses and provide covering fire. Mallet notes, “Out of these needs
grew the cavalry ‘lance,’ the small group of men attached to the armored man-at-arms, which was
to become the characteristic formation of late medieval cavalry.” The effectiveness
of this new combination of pikemen, crossbowmen, and knightly cavalry was vividly
demonstrated in the 1289 Battle of Campaldino, a clash between pro-papal and pro-imperial forces,
known respectively as Guelphs and Ghibellines and represented here in blue and red. Both armies
consisted of mostly feudal and communal forces, with small groups of Routiers coming from various
countries. The Ghibellines launched the first charge, committing the first two lines of cavalry
and the infantry to the fight. They succeeded in pushing back the Guelf advance guard, forcing
the main Guelph cavalry force to slowly give ground. The battle hung in the balance, with the
Ghibellines maintaining momentum until the Guelph forces were pushed back to their line of carts,
which served as a reserve and rallying point. At this stage, the bulk of the Ghibelline army found
itself overextended. Quickly, the Guelph infantry, many of them crossbowmen, pushed up on both
flanks. Caught in the crossfire from both sides, the Ghibelline reserve panicked and fled while
the Guelf reserve swept around the flanks and came in on the center rear of the trapped enemy. The
coordinated efforts of knights, crossbowmen, and pikemen secured a decisive victory for the Guelfs.
Routiers were employed in a manner similar to the Battle of Campaldino throughout Europe during this
period, but their prevalence gradually declined between 1250 and 1330. This is usually attributed
to a general resistance against them. For example, much like the pact of Frederick Barbarossa or
the papal ban, the Magna Carta of 1215 included clauses prohibiting the use of mercenaries. Other
historians ascribe the decline of the Routiers to the long domestic peace in France or changes
in warfare, such as the ever-heavier cavalry, which—at least on certain occasions—slaughtered
entire Routier formations. Whatever the reason, the phenomenon did not reappear prominently until
the beginning of the Hundred Years War in 1337, when the Routiers came to
be known as Free Companies. Chapter 2: Free Companies
In January 1340, Edward III of England proclaimed himself King of France
and later invaded French territory to assert his claim to the throne. This kicked off the
first major campaign of the Hundred Years War. The initial phase of the war was characterized
by mounted cavalry raids called chevaucheés. Like the aforementioned Brabançon strategy of
raiding and pillaging, the English raids on French territories were meant to weaken the enemy
economy and the French confidence in their king. Edward III even allowed some of these plunderers
to form somewhat autonomous bands, which became a real nuisance for the French. To make matters
worse, France lost two major battles—first at Crécy in 1346 and then at Poitiers in
1356. According to the historian Nicolas Savy, these losses prompted mercenary bands to exploit
the king’s vulnerability and “Edward III’s resolve to further weaken France in order to intensify
their marauding by ruining crops, extorting money from the rural populations, and forcing
entire villages to pay them protection money.” In 1360, the first phase of the war ended
with the Peace of Brétigny. This treaty mandated the transfer of numerous castles and
other territories between the English and the French. This led to a significant number of people
being uprooted and Routier armies terrorizing the French countryside. As many of them were mounted,
they could travel great distances, strike quickly, and leave before the local royal forces could
react. Unlike the Brabançons, the Routiers of the Hundred Years War were experts in mounted raids,
but also adopted English tactics from the battles of Crécy and Poitiers. More heavily equipped men
often dismounted and formed the infantry line while archers forced the enemy to attack. Their
combined expertise in mobile raids and open-field battles made them a force to be reckoned with.
In the writings of many historians, the bands of Routiers begin to be referred to
as “Free Companies” starting from the 1360s. The historian Kenneth Fowler explains that a
company consisted of groups of Routiers who banded together. The individual groups from different
regions and countries retained their identity but chose to combine their strength because
plundering and pillaging was much more lucrative and safer when carried out by large
bands. As the historian Michael Mallet notes: “For foreigners in a strange land, the larger the
band the better.” Primary sources describe these companies in Latin as gens sine capite, literally
people without a head, meaning they had no leader. Obviously, they had a leader in name, but he
was elected and seen as the first among equals. It is commonly assumed that the name “Free
Company” was meant as a deliberate rejection of Feudalism, or at least the hierarchical
structure of medieval society. However, there seems to be controversy among historians
on this point. At least part of this perspective emerged later and may be somewhat anachronistic.
What is clear is that those who did not plunder France on their own soon found
employment in various conflicts, including the War of Breton Succession,
the Franco–Navarrese War, the feud between the Counts of Foix and Armagnac in the
southwest of France, and, after 1364, the war in Castille. Historian Nicolas Savy
notes that in the early 1360s, plundering by the Free Companies was at its height and they had
formed veritable armies consisting of thousands of men. As these increasingly vast and powerful
companies rose to prominence, they, and others, soon adopted the term Great Companies.
Chapter 3: The Great Companies In 1360, the German Albert Sterz,
who had fought in the English army, formed a company of mercenaries with other
demobilized soldiers of fortune, such as the Englishman John Hawkwood. It was known as
Great Company, but it wasn’t the only group that bore that name. Most people associate the Great
Companies with either the Sterz–Hawkwood group, which would come to be known as the White Company,
or the Hundred Years War in general. However, it was not the English who first formed such
companies. Already in 1302, the German-Italian Roger de Flor commanded the Catalan Great Company,
a few thousand strong, on a spectacular campaign from Italy to Byzantium. There, they first
defeated many Turkish beylics, then the Byzantine emperor himself, and finally established their own
small state in Greece. In Italy, Great Companies were already in existence in the 1340s under the
Swabian knight Werner of Urslingen and later in the 1350s under an Italian known as Fra Moriale.
Only in 1361 would a Great Company mainly composed of Englishmen move to Italy. Initially,
it was just known as the English Company, but later it was called the White Company. The
White Company was made famous by an adventure story of the same name by Arthur Conan Doyle. The
historical company was later led by John Hawkwood, who was dubbed “the most sought-after mercenary
captain in Renaissance Italy.” All these companies have fascinating stories, each meriting their very
own video, so that’s what we’re going to do. Here, we’ll just refer to them as examples in
the general history of the Great Companies. Most of the famous Great Companies had at
least one thing in common: at some point, they tried their luck in Italy. There were
various reasons for this. One major motivating factor for the Germans, French, and English was
the bad economic situation in their homelands. In the 1340s and ’50s, trade and harvests were
severely impacted by the fallout from the Black Death, which had just ravaged large stretches
of Europe. Famine was at an all-time high and war was more common than peace. Italy was just as
affected by the Black Death as any other region, but it had a few economic advantages. As Michael
Mallet puts it: “Italy lay at the heart of the commercial revolution of the thirteenth century
and at the heart of the expanding money economy.” The wealth of cities like Genoa, Florence, and
Venice provided the necessary capital to finance entire mercenary armies. These cities were also
interested in freeing up their working population from the duty of war and, at least initially, were
more than happy to outsource military affairs to mercenaries. At the same time, this economic
expansion slowly led to more conflicts with neighboring city-states and an increased need for
armed forces. Space and resources were limited in Italy, and the lucrative trade routes from
the East increasingly became the target of ever-more-competitive cities and merchants.
Before long, numerous cities began claiming more land around their territories. This was
largely driven by the expanding populations’ need for wider and more secure hinterlands to
sustain themselves and a growing self-perception as important cities exacerbated political
rivalries. Proto-Renaissance Italy also saw the rise of banking, which provided funds
and credits for the growing merchant economies and was also a profitable target for the
Great Companies. Many mercenary companies simply traveled through Italy, wandering into the
territory of city states and forcing the Italians to pay them to wander back out again. Historian P.
W. Singer aptly notes that in the 1340s and ’50s, the Great Company of Werner of Urslingen
basically “ran an Italy-wide protection racket.” It didn’t help that Italian cities were
rarely unified in their responses to the mercenary companies. In fact, they tended to
be factionalized, with nobles fighting their own local rivalries, furiously disagreeing on
communal politics and economics. This fragmented and disunified response partially explains
why the Italian city-states could not do much against the Great Companies. William Carferro, an
expert on Renaissance Italy and mercenaries, also points to the simple fact that the Great Companies
outnumbered the forces of the city-states. Werner of Urslingen, for example, had 10,000 men, while
the English army at Agincourt only numbered around 6,000–9,000. A small Italian city-state that
had just been decimated by the Black Death could muster far fewer men than that. This became even
more extreme when the companies joined forces, as they often did. If an Italian city decided to
fight the Great Companies, it usually had to rely on paid mercenaries to bolster its numbers. This
became a problem when they lost on the battlefield because they had to make not just one payment,
but two—first paying their own mercenaries for their service and then providing a payoff to
the enemy Great Company. Even if the Italian cities managed to defeat the Great Companies, they
usually just split into small bands that remained in the region and redirected their efforts
toward plundering the countryside. So, while paying them off was the sensible solution, that
approach only served to attract more mercenaries. The same fact that brought so many mercenary
companies to Italy also ultimately led to their demise. The growing Italian economy produced
powerful states like 14th-century Venice, Genoa, Milan, and Florence. They developed a more
coherent and centralized political organization, which inevitably led to a greater emphasis on
permanent defense. Eventually, the companies could not survive against the growing military
strength of the states. The wealth that had drawn them to Italy in the first place and had fed
and nurtured them throughout the 1360s, ’70s, and ’80s was ultimately their downfall.
The mercenaries themselves, however, would continue to be active in Italy, albeit
in a different way. For example, John Hawkwood, the leader of the White Company, became
increasingly attached to the state of Florence in his later years. Michael Mallet explains: “Not
only was the position of the mercenary captain, the condottiere, now recognized but the process
of attaching him to the state had begun.” The Italian Alberigo da Barbiano is
usually considered the first condottiero, while his company is seen as the last of the Great Companies. After his victory over another company
at the Battle of Marino in 1379, the Pope hailed Alberigo as the liberator of Italy. However,
Hawkwood was also around for another 15 years, and the companies would operate in Italy for
the remainder of the 14th century. Nonetheless, Hawkwood and da Barbiano do represent a change
in mercenaryism: the gradual evolution from the companies to the mercenary captain, the
condottiero. The term comes from the Italian word “condotta,” meaning contract. Contracts
had also been utilized by the Free Companies, but the primary sources show a clear change:
In the 14th century, many members of the Free Companies would sign the condotta, but in the
15th century only the name of the captain—the condottiero—appeared, and he alone received the
money. The condottieri also relied on mercenaries, but they used state funds to recruit, commission,
train, and then lead them into battle. Under these mercenary captains, the Routier groups
that had made up the Free Companies became gradually less important. The gens sine capite,
the people without a leader, became followers of a leader. The condottiero was no longer
the first among equals but a general. Soon, the condottieri would be exalted by artists
and writers, admired by their employers, and feared by their enemies. In the 15th
century, they acquired entire duchies and asserted a claim to greatness. The 15th
century would be the age of the condottieri.
