Funerary Monument To Sir John Hawkwood - John Hawkwood

John Hawkwood

Hawkwood had a long military career and a complicated relationship with Florence. He fought for England during the Hundred Years War and then with the "Great Company" which harassed the Avignon Papacy. After gaining command of the "White Company" from Albert Sterz in the 1360s, Hawkwood led the company across the Alps in 1363 in the employ of John II, Marquess of Montferrat, to take part in his war against Milan. Hawkwood and the "White Company" remained in Italy, accepting money from many city-states, both to wage war and to refrain from it. Hawkwood's reputation as one of the ablest condottieri in the peninsula developed in the ensuing decades, during which he was employed (by both sides) in the Pisan–Florentine War (1363–1364), notably winning the Battle of Cascina (1364) for Florence, in the wars of Perugia against the Pope (1369), and in the service of Bernabò Visconti in his war against a coalition that included Pisa and Florence, and even (in 1372) the Marquis of Monteferrato.

Hawkwood then entered the service of Pope Gregory XI in his wars against Milan (1372–1375) and in the War of the Eight Saints (1375–1378), during which Hawkwood helped put down the Florentine-instigated rebellions in the Papal States. During the conflict, Hawkwood was paid 130,000 florins—which was extracted from local clergy, bishops, abbots, monasteries, and ecclesiastical institutions—to confine his activities to suppressing the rebellions in the Papal States, rather than directly attacking Florence. Hawkwood also received a 600 florin annual salary for the next five years and a lifetime annual pension of 1,200 florins.

Hawkwood married Donnina, the illegitimate daughter of Bernabò Visconti, in 1377. In that same year he defected to Florence. Hawkwood's 1377 massacre at Cesena during the twilight of his papal employment in the War of the Eight Saints continues to tarnish his legacy. Thus, until 1377, Hawkwood had principally served the Visconti of Milan and their allies in Pisa, Lucca, and Siena, usually against the interests of Florence, making him an ironic candidate for a monument in the Duomo of Florence. At the bidding of Pisa, Hawkwood attacked the Brunelleschi family's Villa Petraia in Castello, burned Florentine subject territories around Incisa after defeating Florentine condottiero Ranuccio Farnese il Vecchio, and even taunted Florence from outside the city walls.

However, Hawkwood was the de facto commander-in-chief (Captain-General) of Florence's military from 1377 until immediately prior to his death in 1394. Hawkwood won many victories for Florence, including his suppression of the Ciompi revolt in January 1382, but contemporary Florentines would have regarded Hawkwood's successful retreat from Milan late in his career, across three rivers—including the notorious Oglio—and across a barren countryside, as his "greatest military feat".

Hawkwood, now in his seventies, made preparations to return to England, where he had been sending money to acquire land, and set up a chantry. Just as he was liquidating his affairs in Italy, he died, on March 17, 1394.

In 1395, Richard II of England petitioned Florence for the return of Hawkwood's body, as he had done for Robert de Vere, Duke of Ireland, the local magnate to the Hawkwood family in England, in whose service he had begun his military career. Florence acquiesced to Richard II's request in a June 3, 1395 letter:

Our devotion can deny nothing to the eminence of your highness. We will leave nothing undone that is possible to do, so that we may fulfill your good pleasure. So, therefore, although we consider it reflected glory on us and our people to keep the ashes and bones of the late brave and most magnificent captain John Hawkwood, who, as commander of our army, fought most gloriously for us and who at public expense was interred in the principal church of Santa Reparata nevertheless, according to the tenor of your request, we freely concede permission that his remains shall return to their native land.

However, it remains an open question whether Hawkwood's remains were ever transferred to England, to the tomb prepared for him at St. Peter's in Sible Hedingham, or whether his remains were reburied in 1405 under the old choir of the Duomo, of which record has been lost since it was repaved in the 16th century. In any case, the tomb monument would have run into difficulty, as a ban on tombs above floor level in the Cathedral was passed on April 5, 1400.