Mid term elections are underway in the USA, but if you thought modern-day politics could get a trifle heated from time to time, you should try the fourteenth-century Italian equivalent: as Frances Stonor Saunders explains in Hawkwood, that had a tendency to verge on the positively nasty.
Top players on the Italian scene back then were the Visconti family up in the north of the country; and the Pope in Rome and the Papal States. The fact that the papacy — and its vast accumulated wealth — spent most of the fourteenth century holed up in Avignon certainly didn’t stop the Popes of the time from meddling in Italian affairs; on the contrary, they were among the most active combatants of the time.
Around 1360, in the early days of the Hundred Years War, England and France declared a truce. Instead of returning to England though, large numbers of now unemployed soldiers were left to wander around France, causing mayhem wherever they went. (Saunders suggests that this may have been a deliberate tactic on the part of the English king, Edward III, to ’soften up’ the French, hoping that they would make concessions in return for Edward calling off his troops. And who am I to argue?)
Essex boy, John Hawkwood, was already in command of a whole company of troops, and his men were no different from any other soldiers of the time. Forget all those old ideas of mediaeval chivalry and damsels in distress; freelance soldiering was all about extorting ransom money from individuals or entire towns. If a ransom was paid, then the person or town in question might be spared further harrassment (although this was by no means guaranteed).
But the wily old Pope, who was himself under pressure from Hawkwood’s troops, saw a chance to kill two birds with one stone. How? By persuading Hawkwood to take his men to Italy and bother the Viscontis instead. Hawkwood would therefore be working for the Pope. (Mediaeval religion was quite a bit different then from how it is today; clearly, things were a lot more action-packed back then.)
Both the Pope and the Viscontis had reason to employ mercenary, John Hawkwood, at various times. It was while he was in the pay of the Pope that Hawkwood became embroiled in one of the worst massacres of the Middle Ages, at Cesena. Whether this was carried out on the direct orders of the Pope is still a matter for speculation.
While reading this book, I lost count of the number of times Hawkwood changed sides. If the Pope was a bit tardy with the payments Hawkwood would simply transfer his allegiances to the Viscontis. And vice versa. (And if he and his men were at a loose end, they were not averse to doing a bit of pillaging and laying waste to the countryside to wile away the hours.)
Hawkwood isn’t just about one man though. It brings the whole of the latter half of the fourteenth century to life in ways that you never dreamed possible. All sorts of other people are woven into the narrative, from Chaucer (yes, the Chaucer) who based some of the characters in his Canterbury Tales on real people of the time, possibly even including John Hawkwood himself; and the frankly oddball Catherine of Siena, who later went on to become a saint.
As for what happens to Hawkwood in the end, well, you’ll have to read the book for yourself to find out. But it’s a good read, and no mistake.
In conclusion, there was a time, not so long ago either, when, if you had given me a copy of Hawkwood and said, “Here’s a book about fourteenth century Italian history,” I would have laughed derisively at you, mumbled my thanks and promptly filed it under ‘miscellaneous’ (meaning: “What a dull subject. This can go straight to the bottom of my personal slush pile.“). Frances Stonor Saunders’ Hawkwood has opened my eyes to a whole new world.
This is the first major cross-stitch project I’ve done in years. The kit is by 