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ABSTRACT
This article compares two military formats employed in late Medieval Europe. Italian cities contracted out entire military campaigns whereas European monarchies recruited mercenaries in their armies, led by national commanders. How effective were these private armies? When did mercenaries threaten their employers? The article investigates the enterprises of mercenary captains Castracani and Hawkwood in Italy, and mercenaries in France. Private armies were often effective on the battlefield, though public authorities were not always able to control them. Mercenaries’ military strength and governments’ ability to sanction them were decisive for the outcome of these embryonic forms of civil-military relations.
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank the editors of this special issue Dr. Eugenio Cusumano e Dr. Christopher Kinsey for their invaluable support and their many and useful comments to this article. Then, I would also like to thank Bob Parr and the anonymous reviewers for their comments and corrections.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
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2. Finer, State and National-building in Europe.
3. Feaver, “Civil-military Relations”. Mello, Democratic Participation in Armed Conflict.
4. Kier, Imagining War. McKenna, “Towards the Army of the Future”.
5. Huntigton, The Soldier and the State. Brooks, “Paradoxes of Professionalism”.
6. Paret, Napoleon and the Revolution in War.
7. Fitzsimmons, Mercenaries in Asymmetric Conflicts. Griffith, The Mercenaries of the Hellenistic World. Parrott, Europe, The Business of War; and Thomson, Mercenaries, Pirates, and Sovereigns.
8. Avant, The Market for Force; and Kinsey, Corporate Soldiers.
9. Caferro, Mercenary Companies; and Mallett, Mercenaries and their Masters.
10. Grygiel, “The Primacy of Premodern History”; Bunker and Ligouri Bunker, “The Modern State in Epochal Transition”; Friedrichs, “The Meaning of New Medievalism”; Van Creveld, The Transformation of War.
11. McFate, The Modern Mercenary.
12. Osiander, Sovereignty.
13. Mockler, The Mercenaries, 204.
14. Ibid., 245; Rufini, Braccio da Montone.
15. Singer, Corporate Warriors, 226.
16. Rotberg, State Failure.
17. Bull, The Anarchical Society, 20–9.
18. Jachtenfuchs, “The Monopoly of Legitimate Force”.
19. Parrott, Europe, The Business of War.
20. Parrott, Europe, The Business of War, 33–47; and Riemann, “As Old as War Itself?”.
21. Brunner, Land and Lordship. Tilly, Coercion, Capital and European States.
22. Casiraghi, “Weak, Politicized, Absent”. Liu and Kinsey. “Challenging the Strength of the Antimercenary Norm”. Percy, Mercenaries. Thomson, Mercenaries, Pirates, and Sovereigns.
23. Cusumano, “Bridging the Gap”. Fitzsimmons, Mercenaries in Asymmetric Conflicts.
24. Borgogni, La Guerra tra Siena e Perugia. Mallett, Mercenaries and their Masters, 52.
25. Ricotti, Storia delle Compagnie di Ventura.
26. Nicolle, French Armies.
27. Skinner and Price, Machiavelli: The Prince.
28. Procacci, Machiavelli nella Cultura Europea.
29. Casiraghi and Testini, “Appeals to Authority”.
30. Lyall, Divided Armies, 8–12.
31. Gutiérrez-Sanin and Wood, “Patterns of Political Violence”.
32. Dupuy, Numbers, Predictions, and War.
33. Bettalli, Mercenari. Pieri, La Crisi Militare Italiana.
34. Mallett, Mercenaries and their Masters.
35. Parrott, Europe, The Business of War; and Riemann, “As Old as War Itself?”.
36. Hunt and Carlson, Mercenaries, 108.
37. Roeck, and Tönnesmann, Federico da Montefeltro.
38. Mallett, Mercenaries and their Masters, 50–9.
39. Sestan, L’Italia del Petrarca.
40. Grillo, Cavalieri e Popoli.
41. Contamine, War in the Middle Ages, 101.
42. Barlozzetti, L’Arte della Guerra. Fowler, “Sir John Hawkwood”.
43. Grillo, Cavalieri e Popoli.
44. Black, Absolutism in Renaissance Milan.
45. See note 40 above.
46. Rufini, Braccio da Montone.
47. Covini, Condottieri.
48. Duby, The Legend of Bouvines, 139–43.
49. Tilly, Coercion, Capital and European States.
50. Nicolle, French Armies, 3–5.
51. Peterson, The War of the Eight Saints.
52. Machiavelli, La Vita di Castruccio Castracani.
53. Villani, Nova Cronica, 744.
54. Ibid., 753.
55. Onori, Città del Potere.
56. Green, Castruccio Castracani.
57. Green, Lucca under Many Masters.
58. Breschi and Malanima, Demografia ed economia in Toscana.
59. Mallett, Mercenaries and their Masters, 28–9.
60. Fowler, “Sir John Hawkwood”.
61. Barlozzetti, L’Arte della Guerra.
62. Caferro, John Hawkwood, 180–5.
63. Ibid., 260–5.
64. Ibid., 41, 157, 268.
65. Mallett, Mercenaries and their Masters, 47.
66. Hunt and Carlson, Mercenaries, 133.
67. Balestracci, Le Armi, i Cavalli, l’Oro.
68. Mallett, Mercenaries and their Masters, 94.
69. Honig, “Reappraising Late Medieval Strategy”.
70. Curry, The Hundred Years’ War.
71. Rogers, “The Efficacy of the English Longbow”.
72. Schnerb, Vassals, Allies and Mercenaries.
73. Prestwich, The Battle of Crécy.
74. Ayton, The Battle of Crécy.
75. Hunt and Carlson, Mercenaries, 28.
76. See note 72 above.
77. Lambert, “Henry V and the Crossing to France”.
78. Toureille et al., Guerre et Société.
79. Hunt and Carlson, Mercenaries, 25.
80. Contamine, War in the Middle Ages, 291.
81. Barlozzetti, L’Arte della Guerra.
82. See note 74 above.
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Matteo C.M. Casiraghi
Matteo C.M. Casiraghi is a post-doctoral researcher at the Department of Social and Political Sciences, University of Milan. His research interests focus on international norms, conflict studies, mercenaries and private military and security companies, parliamentary debates, and rhetorical political analysis. His most recent articles appeared on the British Journal of Politics and IR, the Journal of Global Security Studies and Parliamentary Affairs.