Related Research Articles
Gil Álvarez Carrillo de Albornoz more commonly Gil de Albornoz, was a Spanish cardinal, archbishop, Chancellor of Toledo and ecclesiastical leader. He was a descendant of the kings of León and Aragón and founder of the Collegio di Spagna, an academic institution of Bologna.
Condottieri were Italian captains in command of mercenary companies during the Middle Ages and of multinational armies during the early modern period. They notably served European monarchs and Popes during the Italian Wars of the Renaissance and the European Wars of Religion. Notable condottieri include Prospero Colonna, Giovanni dalle Bande Nere, Cesare Borgia, the Marquis of Pescara, Andrea Doria, and the Duke of Parma.
Sir John Hawkwood was an English soldier who served as a mercenary leader or condottiero in Italy. As his name was difficult to pronounce for non-English-speaking contemporaries, there are many variations of it in the historical record. He often referred to himself as "Haukevvod" and in Italy he was known as "Giovanni Acuto", meaning literally "John Sharp" referring to his "cleverness or cunning". His name was Latinised as Johannes Acutus. Other recorded forms are "Aucgunctur", "Haughd", "Hauvod", "Hankelvode", "Augudh", Auchevud", "Haukevvod", "Haukwode" and "Haucod". His exploits made him a man shrouded in myth in both England and Italy. Much of his enduring fame results from the surviving large and prominent fresco portrait of him in the Duomo, Florence, made in 1436 by Paolo Uccello, seen every year by 4 1/2 million tourists.
The Duchy of Milan was an Italian state located in northern Italy. The Duchy was created in 1395 by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, then the Lord of Milan, and a member of the important Visconti family, that had been ruling the city since 1277.
Werner von Urslingen was a mercenary of German-speaking origins in the Holy Roman Empire. He is also known as Werner of Urslingen.
The War of the Eight Saints (1375–1378) was a war between Pope Gregory XI and a coalition of Italian city-states led by Florence that contributed to the end of the Avignon Papacy.
Alberico da Barbiano was the first of the Italian condottieri. His master in military matters was the English mercenary John Hawkwood, known in Italy as Giovanni Acuto. Alberico's compagnia fought under the banner of Saint George, as the compagnia San Giorgio.
The Wars in Lombardy were a series of conflicts between the Republic of Venice and the Duchy of Milan and their respective allies, fought in four campaigns in a struggle for hegemony in Northern Italy that ravaged the economy of Lombardy and weakened the power of Venice. They lasted from 1423 until the signing of the Treaty of Lodi in 1454. During their course, the political structure of Italy was transformed: out of a competitive congeries of communes and city-states emerged the five major Italian territorial powers that would make up the map of Italy for the remainder of the 15th century and the beginning of the Italian Wars at the turn of the 16th century. They were Venice, Milan, Florence, the Papal States and Naples. Important cultural centers of Tuscany and Northern Italy—Siena, Pisa, Urbino, Mantua, Ferrara—became politically marginalized.
The Republic of Pisa was a de facto independent state centered on the Tuscan city of Pisa, which existed from the 11th to the 15th century. It rose to become an economic powerhouse, a commercial center whose merchants dominated Mediterranean and Italian trade for a century. before being surpassed and superseded by the Republic of Genoa.
Astorre Manfredi was an Italian condottiero. He was the son of Giovanni Manfredi, who had been lord of Faenza and other castles in the area before the Papal reconquest. Astorre lived for a while in Pistoia after his father had lost his last possession in Romagna; three years after the latter's death, in 1375, he managed to recover Granarolo.
Malatesta II Malatesta, best known as Guastafamiglia was an Italian condottiero and lord of Rimini.
Giovanni Visconti (1290–1354) was an Italian Roman Catholic cardinal, who was co-ruler in Milan and lord of other Italian cities. He also was a military leader who fought against Florence, and used force to capture and hold other cities.
Lodrisio Visconti was an Italian condottiero.
The Great Company was a group of mercenaries, chiefly of German origin but operating in the Italian peninsula, who flourished in the mid-14th century. At its height, the company numbered approximately 10,000-12,000 men, chiefly armored cavalry. The Great Company's power set the pattern for later condottieri who came to dominate Renaissance Italian warfare.
A free company was an army of mercenaries between the 12th and 14th centuries recruited by private employers during wars. They acted independently of any government, and were thus "free". They regularly made a living by plunder when they were not employed; in France they were the routiers and écorcheurs who operated outside the highly structured law of arms. The term "free company" is most applied to those companies of soldiers which formed after the Peace of Brétigny during the Hundred Years' War and were active mainly in France, but it has been applied to other companies, such as the Catalan Company and companies that operated elsewhere, such as in Italy and the Holy Roman Empire.
The Battle of Canturino was a clash of two condottiere companies, the long-established Great Company under Konrad von Landau and the newer White Company under Albert Sterz and John Hawkwood near Novara, north-west of Milan.
The Compagnia di San Giorgio was the name of several companies of mercenaries in Italy during the 14th century.
The Battle of Portomaggiore took place near Portomaggiore in the province of Ferrara, Italy on 16 April 1395. It was fought between the Este troops of the Ferrara Regency Council fighting in the name of the young Niccolò III d'Este, Marquis of Ferrara and the rebel forces of his uncle, Azzo X d'Este, pretender to the Lordship of Ferrara.
The La Compagnia della Stella was the name of two separate companies of mercenary soldiers which operated in northern Italy at different times in the 14th century.
Konrad Wirtinger von Landau, known in Italy as Conte Lando, was a German military adventurer and condottiero who was active in north and central Italy.
References
- ↑ "ALBERTO STERZ" . Retrieved 29 March 2017.
