A great book...somewhat exhausting to read.

The world of 14th century Europe was a place where many rulers tried to increase their political power over principalities and territories. The king of England made a claim on France, Italy was divided into warring states, and even Popes made a power play. Achieving their political aims had to be done with military force and it was supplied by free companies of mercenaries like Sir John Hawkwoods White Company which fought for money and plunder and did all their contracted employers dirty work. These companies were not held in high regard by anyone but were employed because they were useful. The mercenaries were not reliable, broke contracts for better offers, and bleed their employers dry. Sir John Hawkwood was a capable commander but he was not worthy of being made into a hero since he was not honorable man.

Begins briskly enough, but halfway through she gets bogged down in the minutiae of fourteenth century Florentine politics, which puts the Byzantines to shame. Nice to get a glimpse of Geoffrey Chaucer along the way.

Una lettura piacevole e affascinante. Un ritratto dell'Italia dei mercenari con tutto ciò che ruotava attorno alle libere compagnie: si incontrano una Santa Caterina rockstar, un malefico cardinale Albornoz e vari pendagli da forca (compreso il protagonista).
Altamente consigliato.

Hawkwood is a larger than life character, who’s is a fiction writers dream. This book brings his life and the 1400s right up in front of the reader, you can smell the rotting corpses and hear the dying screaming. This is non fiction at its best,which tells the story of one mans pursuit of glory and gold in the tribal society that was Italy.Spanning more than 50 years of war, famine, plague, death and intrigue. .....

An engaging and well-researched biography of an unscrupulous but successful mercenary captain in one of Europe's most violent periods, it transcends mere military history to give the reader a broader and more interesting picture of a fractured society midway between complete disintegration and dramatic cultural rebirth.

Abandoned on page 100 of 350. Just couldn't face any more. Interesting bits but a bit to jumbled and confusing.

This is more a history of 14th century Italy built around the life of Hawkwood. I learned lots about the papacy, Northern Italian states and life i that time than I did about the ‘diabolical Englishman’. That’s probably because we just don’t have much in the way of primary sources related to Hawkwood. It’s clear thee are big gaps, and certain aspects of his relationships are pure speculation (like what is the deal with Catherine of Siena - lots is intimated with no facts). The history is interesting if a bit repetitive at times. I learned less than I expected about the condotieri and more than I expected about the corruption of the Catholic church.

The Vatican, Avignon, and Italian city-states employ mercenary companies in petty wars with each other; leave it to an Englishman to profit of it for three decades.

As the title implies, this book is a biography of John Hawkwood, an englishman who following the Treaty of Brétigny, becomes a freebooter and sells the services of himself and his company of mercenaries to whatever Italian city-state offers more. It isn't only about Hawkwood the man, though, but so much more; Saunders also gives a portrait of the times he lived in. It is a brief and not very penetrating portrait, but a lot more balanced than than the popular image of the 'Dark Ages'. For as she points out these are the times not only of famine, war, superstition and misery but times of intense life, culture and joy.

Whilst I cant say I am warming to Mr Hawkswood, who was an Essex man gone to the devil, I think Historian Frances Stonor Saunders has written a remarkable book - one of those books where you learn not one but five ( or more!) new facts per page -and I read a lot of history books these days! For those who have visited Florence Cathedral there is a fresco painting by no less an artist that Paulo Uccello of this "Diabolical Englishman" - Ioannes Acutus - recognised in Florence for having laid waste to Pisa - he had been bought off by the Florentines whilst laying waste to Florence! He was an English Mercenary left unemployed in France after the battle of Crecy in 1346 - a band of such brothers raped, pillaged, murdered and laid waste to much of France before being sent by the Pope in Avignon to take on Italy and the other Pope in Rome!!

This is serious history. After reading I had a great desire to see the fresco of John Hawkwood in the duomo in Florence (Firenze). To read this book does require some context regarding European history in the late middle ages. It also provides a background to the Italy of today--a nation somewhat united of regions that six centuries ago were fighting bloody battles against each other.