John Hawkwood: An English Mercenary in Fourteenth-Century Italy

Abstract

THE last full-length life of John Hawkwood which could boast any scholarly pretensions was that of Temple-Leader and Ricotti published in 1889. Accordingly, William Caferro's book meets a real need. He has already written valuable studies on the history of war in Italy, notably on Mercenary Companies and the Decline of Siena (1998), and in this present work draws upon a great deal of previously untapped source-material. After opening with an interesting account of Hawkwood's historiography and ‘myth’, he considers Hawkwood's early years, looks at the relations of his family with such Essex notables as the Coggeshales and Bourchiers and shows that his father and elder brother were quite prosperous landowners in the Colne valley. For his career in France there is little reliable information. Caferro believes that he fought at Crécy and Poitiers. While this is quite likely, his argument here—that they resembled Hawkwood's own battles at Casciano and Castagnaro—seems strained. And one important piece of evidence for the period is passed over: this is the royal pardon of 1377 for misdeeds under arms, which is introduced only later in the book and in a different context. Yet this makes it plain that Hawkwood, like others among his companions in Italy, had been found guilty of serious offences in the French wars and that in the 1360s it might have been dangerous for him to have returned to England.