Provençals, Gascons, Bretons, Burgundians and Corsicans in the Italian Wars between 1285 and 1567
The military contribution of captains of French origin to medieval and Renaissance Italy is organized into two historically separate phases, not consecutive but divided from one another by almost a century. The first runs from the end of the thirteenth century to the early fifteenth: these are the Provençals, Gascons, Burgundians and Bretons of the Angevin season, of the fourteenth-century companies of fortune and of the anti-Visconti war. The second coincides with the Italian Wars proper, which saw foreign nation-states involved (1494-1559): now present are the Corsicans, all originating from an island nominally Genoese, who found in the profession of arms the only alternative to poverty.
The boundary between the two phases is sharp on the sociological level as well. The captains of the first season are nobles of the sword, barons or knights with feudal obligations, who bring their own arms into the service of crowns or republics; in the second season, the Corsican captains are constables of foot soldiers, sons of families of low social condition, who seek to rise socially through the profession of arms. The Great Company of fra Moriale, organized in 1353 with four secretaries, forty counsellors and a treasurer, represents the organizational peak of the first season; Pasquino Corso and Gigante Corso, both with a similar start to their military careers under the orders of the captain general of the Venetian infantry Renzo di Ceri, represent the fully realized type of the second period.
The captains of the medieval season (1285-1415)
Amerigo di Narbona (Amailrico II de Narbonne, Amaury di Narbona)
Provençal, viscount of Narbonne. He married Giovanna de l’Isle Jourdain and Vacquerie de Monteil-Adhemar. 1260 – 1328 (June).
Even before arriving in Italy he is recorded taking part in an expedition against the Aragonese under the orders of the king of France Philip III the Bold; he is captured at Perpignan. In 1285 he moves to Italy, into the service of the king of Naples Charles II of Anjou. He is engaged above all in Tuscany. In 1289, still in Angevin pay, he again confronts the Aragonese in Sicily; he is captured during a naval battle. Freed, in May he holds command of the Florentine troops to fight the Ghibellines centred on Arezzo. In mid-June he takes part in the victorious battle of Campaldino. He conquers a large part of the enemy territory and storms many castles, including that of Rondine at the gates of Arezzo. He is received in triumph at Florence. Having returned to France around 1290, he serves for some years in Flanders on behalf of king Philip the Fair. A sign of his importance at the French court is the assignment received from the sovereign (the source being the Gran Enciclopedia Catalana) to act as arbiter in the territorial dispute that set the king James of Majorca against the count of Foix-Béarn. The high regard of the French sovereign for him is also shown by his command in Armenia, where he had the task of leading a crusade in opposition to the Mongol invasion. Dino Compagni in his “Cronica delle cose occorrenti ne’ tempi suoi” judges him “A gentle man, young and most handsome of body, but not very skilled in feats of arms.” He is remembered, on the other hand, by the Florentines as victor of the battle of Campaldino and as such was immortalized by Dante Alighieri.
Simone di Belloc (Simone di Beullieux, Simone di Belloloco, Simone Bellotto)
Burgundian. Died around 1330.
In August 1311 he holds the office of podestà of Ravenna. In 1312 he serves the king of Naples Robert of Anjou in Romagna as lieutenant of the rector Gilberto di Santilla. His seat is Rimini; he receives the order from the sovereign to join him with the Catalan troops in Tuscany. In October 1313 he confronts the imperial forces in the Sienese territory. In November he is appointed rector of Romagna in place of Santilla. In December he puts up for sale, in the Forlì area, the castles of Frassano, Lanzolo and Salichio. His figure is that of the French military official whom Angevin policy installs in the territories of central Italy, in an age when the distinction between civil government and military command is very blurred.
Guglielmo di Noren
Originally from Artois. Died around 1330.
In November 1324 he is hired by the Florentines with 500 horse to fight the lord of Lucca Castruccio Castracani. In April 1325 he is involved in a plot by Tommaso di Lipaccio, an agent of Castruccio: with the scheme uncovered, the monk confessor of the French companies is condemned to life imprisonment and Tommaso di Lipaccio is beheaded. The captain general Raimondo di Cardona does not have him executed for fear of negative reactions from the French mercenaries serving under his orders. Dismissed, he pretends to take the road for the kingdom of Naples; instead he passes into the service of the lord of Lucca. In January 1326 the new captain general of the Florentines, Piero di Narsì, opens negotiations with some constables in Castracani’s service to obtain the surrender of Signa and Carmignano. The scheme is uncovered and ends with the beheading of two Burgundian constables and one Englishman. On that occasion all the French are dismissed, among them Noren. From this moment there is no further news of him.
Piero di Narsi
From Lorraine, of Naix-aux-Forges. Died 1326 (May).
He is a banneret knight of the district of Bar-le-Duc, that is, a noble knight with an income sufficient to maintain some thirty armed men fighting under his banner. Returning from a journey to the Holy Land, in September 1325 he is hired by the Florentines to face the troops of Castruccio Castracani. He takes part in the battle of Altopascio, where he loses a son in the fighting. Taken prisoner, he is forced to follow the victor in his triumphal entry into Lucca. After two months he is ransomed by the Florentines, who pay his ransom of 1,200 florins; he is freed on the promise of fighting Castracani no more. Against all expectation, in January of the following year he is appointed by the Florentines as their captain of war. He confronts his adversaries not only by breaking an oath but also by using treachery and subterfuge as his weapons. He negotiates with three constables stationed at Signa so that they will kill Castracani and hand Signa over to him. He promises them a contract for 200 horse. The conspiracy is uncovered and ends with the beheading of the three soldiers and capital punishment for six of their accomplices. Castracani is forced to dismiss all the mercenaries of French origin for fear of possible reactions. Meanwhile Narsi continues his schemes. Without waiting for the arrival of the Angevin reinforcements that should be brought to him by the duke of Athens Gualtieri di Brienne, he gathers 200 horse and 500 foot. He leaves Prato without informing the Florentines. He heads for Carmignano, where he tries to organize a plot similar to the previous one. Betrayed by one of his interlocutors, he falls into an ambush and is captured along with two constables, some knights with their squires (40) and many foot soldiers. They are all hanged from the battlements of the walls of Carmignano. Narsì is led to Pistoia and there is beheaded. Giovanni Villani, in his “Nova cronica,” judges him a loyal and valiant knight.
Gherardo di Castelnuovo
Of Toulouse. Died around 1340.
He operates in Italy in the first half of the fourteenth century in papal pay. He is one of the captains of southern France who arrive in the peninsula before the great mercenary wave of mid-century. In December 1333 he joins the Romagnol Guelphs led by Francesco da Calboli to oppose Ramberto Malatesta, lord of Cesena, and Francesco Ordelaffi, lord of Forlì. At the head of 2,000 horse and 6,000 foot he moves to the rescue of 130 Guelphs besieged by their adversaries in the fortress of Cesena. He storms several localities of the district; other castles he obtains by terms. For a month the countryside is sacked and the vineyards destroyed. The adversaries do not move against him, preferring to remain inactive in the two cities. There is no further news of him.
Gualtieri VI di Brienne
URL: https://condottieridiventura.it/the-chronicles-of-gualtieri-di-brienne/
Of Champagne. Son of Gualtieri V and of Giovanna di Chatillon. 1304-1356 (September).
Gualtieri VI di Brienne, duke of Athens (in name only), count of Lecce and of Brienne. Lord of Florence, Pistoia, Arezzo, Colle di Val d’Elsa, San Gimignano, Castelfiorentino, Volterra, Conversano, Casamassima, Putignano. He also holds fiefs in Champagne, in Greece and in Cyprus. On the death of his father Gualtieri at the battle of Cephissus against the Company of the Almogavars (1314), he takes refuge in Naples, where king Robert of Anjou confirms the fiefs in the kingdom to his mother. From 1326 he begins his military career in Italy in the service of the Florentines. In 1342 he is appointed captain general; in February he obtains the lordship of Florence for life. His power of government is controversial and brief: he favours the magnates and the minor guilds against the bankers, and shows despotic tendencies that rapidly alienate all support. In July 1343 a popular revolt drives him out; his expulsion from Florence becomes the subject of the famous painting by Stefano Ussi, a work today preserved in the Galleria d’Arte Moderna of Palazzo Pitti in Florence. He returns to France, takes command of the royal troops against the English in the Hundred Years’ War, and falls at Poitiers in September 1356. His is the figure of a French captain of high lineage who attempts to transform a military contract into a stable lordship over a great Italian city: his failure is due to the irreducibility of the Florentine communal liberties. The judgements of the Tuscan side on his conduct in Florence are unanimous, highlighting above all his physical appearance. “Cruel and avaricious, of brutish and unpleasant presence,” Ammirato. “Of little firmness and less faith, greedy and avaricious, small of person and brutish,” A. del Tura. “Small of person and brutish, and he seemed more Greek than French, very shrewd and malicious. And as he betrayed the commune, so by the citizens he was betrayed. He departed with much shame on his part, but with much money drawn from us Florentines, called blind by an old proverb on account of our defects and discords, leaving us with ill complaints,” Villani.
Astorgio di Durafort (Ettore di Durfort)
Of the Limousin, count of Romagna. He belongs to the Aurillac branch of the Durfort, related to the la Tour, the la Jugie and the Chateauneuf. He marries a niece of pope Clement VI. Died around 1360.
Durafort does not stand out from the numerous other relatives of the pontiff Benedict XII until the moment when, at the end of December 1347, he is entrusted with a task of great responsibility, the rectorate of Romagna. The task is to re-establish papal authority in one of the ecclesiastical regions where distance, first from Rome and then from Avignon, has favoured the initiatives of the local Ghibelline lords and the ambitions of the Visconti. All his activity can be summed up in terms of resort to subterfuge rather than to combat: this is due in large part to a chronic shortage of money on the part of the Apostolic Chamber, which, having pushed him forward, is then unable to meet the cost of his warlike enterprises. The matter occurs specifically in the early months of 1350, when he moves in the Bolognese territory. In conflict with Giovanni Manfredi, from whom he has seized the lordship of Faenza, he begins to weave a treaty in Bologna against his allies the Pepoli. Having convinced these lords that he is unaware of any internal plot in the city, he invites them to his camp at Solarolo, where he is intent on the siege of that castle. One of the two lords of the city, Giovanni with a nephew, son of his brother Giacomo, comes there with an escort of 200 horse. They are received in the count of Romagna’s pavilion with a sumptuous banquet. At the moment of departure they are all, lords and knights, taken prisoner. Durafort demands for their release the surrender of Bologna to the Church state. He promises each soldier double pay and a full month’s wages for every conquest. Meanwhile he has not the means to settle the pay already owed. The lord of Milan, the archbishop Giovanni Visconti, takes advantage of the situation, provides for the residual payment of the papal army’s wages, and enters Bologna without fighting. Durafort assails the city with force. His offensive is forced to halt, always because of the chronic delay in pay: once again the Apostolic Chamber is unable to support his initiative. In difficulty, in December he returns to Avignon. Back in France he too fights the English in the Hundred Years’ War. In November 1355 he falls into an ambush and is soundly defeated by the troops of the prince of Wales, the famous Black Prince. From this moment Durafort too vanishes from history. “A man of vast ambition, of very little faith and capable of any treachery,” so he is defined by G.B. Verci in his “Storia della Marca Trivigiana e Veronese.”
Fra Moriale / Montreal d’Albarno
Of the department of the Aude. From Narbonne, son of the lord of Bar-sur-Loup, knight of the order of Saint John in Jerusalem. Lord of Aversa. Brother of Arcimbaldo (doctorate in law at Perugia) and of Rimbaldo (priest); his nephew is Bertrando della Motta. Died 1354 (August).
Jean de Montréal du Bar, known as fra Moriale or Montreal d’Albarno, is the dominant figure of Italian mercenary activity in the first half of the fourteenth century. Very young, in 1345 he embarks in Provence on a galley bound for Naples. He is shipwrecked at the mouth of the Tiber; the inhabitants of the coast plunder the ship and seize his merchandise. He reaches Naples and enters the service of Charles of Durazzo. He takes the habit of knight of the order of Saint John and within a short time obtains command of those troops. In 1346, in the pay of the prince of Taranto Robert, he opposes the bands of Louis of Taranto and enters Castel dell’Ovo. In 1347 he passes into the service of king Louis of Hungary, who has come to Italy to avenge the killing of his brother Andrea, husband of queen Giovanna I of Anjou. He is recorded at the defence of L’Aquila. In 1348 he is hired by the Genoese against the Visconti; he grants the commune a loan of 10,000 lire in exchange for the castle of Lerici; he later returns to Hungarian pay and becomes, in effect, lord of Aversa. In 1349 he sacks several lands of Apulia and Campania; in January 1350 he concludes an agreement with the opposing party, Louis of Taranto, and for 120,000 florins cedes the strongholds in his hands. In 1352 he forms his own company of fortune and devastates the Neapolitan territory until, in December, he is forced to surrender by Pandolfo and Galeotto Malatesta allied with Niccolò Acciaiuoli. He hands over Aversa and immediately reconstitutes a new company of fortune made up of 500 barbute and 1,200 foot.
In September 1353 he serves under the cardinal Egidio Albornoz against the lord of Viterbo Giovanni di Vico; in September he defects with 400 horse and forms the Great Company: four cavalry secretaries, four constable secretaries, 40 counsellors and a treasurer guarantee fairness in the sale of plunder and in the distribution of profits. The company soon grows in numbers, in a short time fielding up to ten thousand armed men. In 1354 he devastates the March of Ancona, occupying or destroying 44 castles of the Malatesta; he then sacks Umbria and Tuscany, drawing from it plunder of over 200,000 florins. The Sienese, without success, even try to poison the company’s provisions. In August fra Moriale goes to Rome to pay homage to Cola di Rienzo. The latter invites him to the Capitol with his brothers and 40 constables; the tribune has him captured and tried as a public robber. On the morning of 29 August, after hearing Mass barefoot, he is led to the place of execution at the foot of the Capitoline staircase; there he is beheaded with his two brothers and the 40 captains. Cola di Rienzo seizes 100,000 florins; another 60,000 deposited with Venetian merchants are requisitioned by the pope. His last word has remained famous: “Homo so, come ciello fui ingannato” (“A man I am; like a bird I was deceived”). For him stand the praises addressed to him by Ercole Ricotti in his history of the companies of fortune in Italy: “A good soldier, a valiant captain, prudent, alert, temperate, fra Moriale was the first to govern with noble familiarity the unruly wills of a company of fortune, and to give it order and the form of a stable regiment. Nor did he lack a certain greatness of spirit and of conception, nor the corresponding esteem among his contemporaries: indeed there were among these those who, with good-natured exaggeration, doubted whether to compare him to Julius Caesar.” Certainly, in this context, negative observations are not lacking, such as those made about his figure by the German Ferdinand Gregorovius in his monumental “History of the City of Rome.” “The terrible band-leader never showed the slightest shadow of repentance for his own crimes which, in full harmony with the spirit of the times in which he lived, he regarded as glorious actions worthy of a heroic warrior, who has every right to go seeking fortune with the sword in this world of falsehood and misery.”
Bozzo
Probably a Corsican from the Boziu, a historic mountainous region of north-central Corsica. Died around 1445.
In June 1432 he takes part in the battle of San Romano in the service of Siena against Florence. In the spring of 1436 he serves the king Alfonso of Aragon in the Abruzzi: he is at the defence of Sulmona when the city is attacked by Jacopo Caldora; in mid-May he is forced to surrender and remains a prisoner for a few days. In June 1437, with Rosso d’Aversa and Palermo, he follows Orso Orsini on a raid into the territory of Terracina. In January 1440 he is on guard at Padula with 50 horse, in grave difficulty because of the delay in pay; the following month he defects to the Neapolitan camp and escorts René of Anjou to Lucera in Apulia with 50 lances. In the spring of 1441 he is recorded with 30 lances at the defence of Troia; in the summer of 1442, again against the Aragonese, he intervenes at Bisceglie in support of Lorenzo Attendolo. He dies around 1445.
Giovanni di Granville (Giovanni di Granvillar, Giovanni di Borgogna)
Burgundian. Died around 1375.
He is a captain of the second rank who serves the papal forces above all in Umbria. In November 1358 he is at Orvieto, contracted by the papacy for six months; in July 1359 he is re-engaged for four months. In November 1361 he is dismissed. In 1371 his service for the papacy is again recorded, in Emilia against the Visconti.
De la Neuf
Died around 1365.
A veteran of the Hundred Years’ War in France, he is recorded for the first time in Italy as a member of the White Company. In November 1362 he follows Albert Sterz into Italy; he fights in Piedmont in the service of the marquis of Monferrato against the count of Savoy. In the following two years he always operates within the orbit of that company.
Amerigo del Pomerio (Amanieu de Pommiers)
Gascon. Died around 1380.
In 1356 he is engaged in France in the Hundred Years’ War. He serves the English against the French under the orders of the prince of Wales, the Black Prince. He stands beside Giovanni Acuto at the battle of Poitiers. In October 1363, in command of the Gascon troops, he opposes in the valley of the Saône the advance of the adversaries led by Seguin de Badefol. With the dissolution of his company, in 1364 he joins the bands of the archpriest Armand de Cervole. In 1367 he serves in Spain for Henry of Trastámara (opposed by the English) alongside Bertrand du Guesclin. It is only in 1372 that his activity in Italy is recorded. In papal pay (captain general of the anti-Visconti league, with a contract of 500 lances) he confronts his rivals in Emilia. He puts the countryside of Sassuolo to fire and sword. Ambrogio Visconti comes against him and, after some skirmishes, forces him to withdraw by night into Reggio Emilia. In October a great brawl breaks out in his camp, for unknown reasons, involving numerous German horse and 1,500 Italian foot, mostly Bolognese and Romagnol. In the clashes 700 fall on both sides. The following month he enters Val Tidone with 300 lances together with Guido da Pruina and Gregorio Picino: various castles in the Piacenza area are recovered. He continues his campaign, bringing terror everywhere. In April 1373 he leaves Bologna and Ferrara with Enguerrand de Coucy and Giovanni Acuto. He crosses the Po at Stellata, passes through the Mantuan territory and reaches the banks of the Oglio. He is initially blocked there by the troops of the lord of Milan Bernabò Visconti. In May, again with the two aforementioned condottieri, he defeats the adversaries at Montichiari. Anichino di Baumgarten and Gian Galeazzo Visconti save themselves by flight, while Francesco d’Este is taken prisoner. He forces Jacopo dal Verme to fall back towards Cremona and advances into the Piacenza area. In January 1374, because of the quartan fever that has struck count Amedeo of Savoy, the papal army disbands. Amerigo del Pomerio returns to France and his trail is lost. The judgements of contemporary authors on his conduct are unanimous: a valiant captain, a captain of great worth.
Guido da Pruina (Guido di Prohins, Guy de Prohynis)
Provençal. Seneschal of Beaucaire and brother-in-law of pope Urban V. A great favourite of the subsequent pontiff, Gregory XI. Died around 1390.
Having moved to Italy in 1372, he serves the papacy against the Visconti of Milan. He enjoys a contract of 300 lances. In November he is recorded in the Piacenza area at the head of his Gascon horse alongside the captain general Amerigo del Pomerio and other captains of the league such as Dondaccio da Piacenza, the German Ulzio Trottinger, Ugolino da Savignano and the Burgundian Gregorio Picino. He crosses the Trebbia and enters Val Tidone, where he recovers numerous castles. In December he storms Borgonovo Val Tidone; other localities of the district surrender to him. In the end the cold and the impending rains push the attackers to return to the Piacenza area. In September 1376 he escorts pope Urban V from France to Italy. In August 1377 he is in Lazio with the task of negotiating peace between the Church state and the lord of Viterbo Francesco di Vico. He returns to France, where positions of importance are guaranteed to him on account of his curial connections. He dies around 1390.
Gregorio Picino
Burgundian. Died around 1375.
In November 1372 he serves with Amerigo del Pomerio and Guido da Pruina in the Piacenza area against the Visconti forces; with them he takes part in the operations to recover the castles of Val Tidone. He storms Borgonovo Val Tidone: all the defenders are taken prisoner to extract a ransom. He then attempts to seize Castel San Giovanni; he penetrates into the Pavia area, spreading terror everywhere. The campaign ends within a short time with a return to the Piacenza area because of the onset of the cold and the rains. He dies around 1375.
Silvestro di Budes / Sylvestre de Budes
URL: https://condottieridiventura.it/sylvestre-budes-a-tale-of-valor-and-violence-in-medieval-europe/
Breton. Lord of Ussel. Cousin of Bertrand and of Olivier du Guesclin. Around 1320 – 1380 (January).
His first years of service in the Hundred Years’ War are all spent alongside the Grand Constable of France Bertrand du Guesclin, whom he accompanies in the wars against the English, in victories as well as defeats. So it is in 1361 when he supports him in the Rouergue; in 1364 at the disastrous day of Auray; in 1367 in Spain, when at the head of 400 Breton horse he fights in favour of Henry of Trastámara against the latter’s brother, king Peter the Cruel, backed by the English. After various vicissitudes, including an imprisonment in the Châtelet of Paris, in 1374 he is recorded at Montpellier, again with du Guesclin and Giovanni di Malestroit, his companion for some years in many of his enterprises in France. In 1375 he takes part in the expedition of Enguerrand de Coucy against the duke of Austria and the Swiss cantons. The turning point in his career comes in May 1376 when, enrolled by the papacy (Gregory XI), he is sent to Italy to fight there in the War of the Eight Saints. He leaves France with 10,000 Bretons, English and Genoese crossbowmen; the lands of the count of Savoy are assailed, Emilia is devastated by raids, and the Florentine condottiero Rodolfo da Varano is besieged in Bologna. Always under the aegis of cardinal Robert of Geneva, the slaughter of the inhabitants begins, reaching its peak in February 1377 with the sack of Cesena. On that occasion between 2,500 and 8,000 people, according to the estimates of the various chroniclers of the time, are massacred by the Bretons, assisted moreover by the men of Alberico da Barbiano as well. “Wound, wound, kill, kill” is the Bretons’ battle cry. Lazio and Umbria undergo the same fate. In 1378 the Western Schism breaks out; Silvestro di Budes now fights for the antipope (with seat at Avignon) Clement VII (the cardinal of Geneva) against the militias of the Roman pontiff Urban VI. In July, with Piero di Sagra, he leads 2,000 Breton and Gascon horse to Anagni; he rides towards Rome and defeats the inhabitants near the Ponte Salario; he moves to Fondi. In April 1379 he is defeated and captured, along with many captains of the company of the Bretons, by Alberico da Barbiano. Freed on payment of a large ransom, he decides to return to France. He disembarks at Marseille and decides to resume his adventurous life. He is soon disappointed in his expectations. He is beheaded at Mâcon, in the first days of January 1380, on the charge of having years before seized in Romagna some mules carrying gold and silver vessels belonging to the cardinal of Amiens. To avenge his execution the Breton troops, formerly under his orders, take revenge by sacking the Comtat Venaissin in small bands, many of which return to Italy to serve under the banner of Giovanni di Maléstroit. His enterprises in Italy are recounted in a poem written by Guillaume de la Penne, “Gestes des Bretons en Italie.” “All shut within their antiquated ideological conformism made up of military honour and of contempt for the ‘vilains’ and, more generally, for the Italians, held to be cowards, traitors and inexpert in the profession of arms, these ‘soudiers’ show an implacable cruelty, and maintain ignorance and distrust of the urban world.” Varanini.
Giovanni di Malestroit / Jean de Maléstroit
URL: https://condottieridiventura.it/jean-de-malestroit-and-the-breton-companys-rampage-through-italy/
Breton, belonging to the cadet branch of the lords of Chateaugiron. He derives his name from the castle of Maléstroit located near Rennes. Died around 1385.
In 1371 he takes part in France in the Hundred Years’ War. Already from this date his name is often linked with Silvestro di Budes; with that captain he is set in charge of the guard of the castle of Saint-Bazile in the Périgord. In 1373 he is with the duke of Bar, sacking Bassinty and Gondrecourt in the Barrois. In June 1374 he is at Montpellier with Bertrand du Guesclin; in the period August-November he is recorded in Spain, again with du Guesclin and Budes, in the service of Henry of Trastámara against the king of Aragon Peter the Cruel, supported by the English: he occupies Prades, Villefranche, and moves into Cerdanya and to Urgell. With the death of Trastámara in February 1375, supplies to the troops begin to fail. The army disbands and Maléstroit is charged with leading it back to France. He remains idle because of the peace concluded between French and English, until, towards the end of the year, he passes into the pay of the cardinal legate Robert of Geneva to fight the Florentines and their allies in the War of the Eight Saints. He is appointed captain general of the Company of the Bretons, which initially consists of 6,000 horse and 4,000 foot. Under his orders serve also Norman, Burgundian, Gascon and English captains. He leaves Avignon and crosses the Dauphiné; arriving in Italy, he assails Cuneo. In June 1376 he leaves Piedmont and moves into Lombardy, devastating villages, living at the expense of the local population, burning, killing, raping. In the castle of Montegiorgio all the inhabitants are massacred, including children over six years of age. He besieges Bologna. From this moment the road of the Company of the Bretons is always marked by violence, reaching its peak with the slaughter of Cesena. Similar episodes are repeated in the following years until, in April 1378, the company is defeated at Marino by the troops of Alberico da Barbiano. According to one version he remains in Italy in the service of the queen of Naples Giovanna I of Anjou: he ends his days there in 1385 at Naples, of an unforgiving illness. According to other sources, on the contrary, he would have returned in 1382 to France to fight in the service of king Charles VI against the Flemings. Apart from the conflicting dates, the comment of Giovanni di Mastro Pedrino concerning his death, in the “Cronica dei suoi tempi,” is significant: “In the said year 1381 died the accursed creature messer Gohenne Malestretto. He was the one who put Cesena to the sack at the instance of the cardinal. He died at Naples, and there was buried, whose soul I believe Satan carried off.”
Enguerrand de Coucy
Of Picardy. 1340-1397 (February).
Lord of Coucy-le-Château in the Aisne, count of Soissons and of Marle, duke of Bedford. Nephew of count Amedeo of Savoy. His daughter Maria lives at the French court; the other, Filippa, remains in England with her mother. In 1356 he is among the forty French hostages following the battle of Poitiers. In 1366 he marries at Windsor Isabella Plantagenet, daughter of Edward III; the dowry consists of the barony of Bedford. He is also granted the Order of the Garter. In 1371, brought by his uncle Amedeo of Savoy, he enters Italy with 100 lances. He passes into the pay of cardinal Pietro di Bourges to fight in favour of the Church state against the lord of Milan Bernabò Visconti; he devastates the marquisate of Saluzzo. In 1372 he clashes with Giovanni Acuto at the siege of Asti. In April 1373 he leaves Ferrara with Acuto (who in the meantime has gone over to fight in the opposing camp) at the head of 800 lances; in May, at the battle of Montichiari, his frontal charge is repelled by the Visconti forces; Acuto reverses the outcome of the clash, completing the victory. Anichino di Baumgarten and the future duke of Milan Gian Galeazzo Visconti save themselves by flight. After the battle he reaches Modena with Raimondo di Turenna. In 1374 he is discharged; he is offered the office of marshal of France, which he refuses. In 1375 he organizes an expedition against the duke of Austria and the Swiss cantons: at the head of 22,000 English and Breton mercenaries, called “gugler” (from the type of helmet used, the Gugel, from the Latin cuculla), they plunder Alsace; the bishop of Strasbourg pays 3,000 florins not to be sacked; in December and January the Swiss defeat part of his army at Buttisholz and at the abbey of Fraubrunnen. In 1377 he returns the Order of the Garter to the king of England Richard II and fights for France in Gascony. In 1394 he is at the conquest of Savona. He dies in February 1397 a prisoner of the Turks at Nicopolis, captured in the crusade annihilated by Bayezid I in September 1396. His is the figure of the greatest European political stature among all the French captains present in Italy: the only one who moves as a great prince, not as a mercenary, even when he leads men for pay. Paul Durrieu, commenting on his activity in Italy (an invitation to read that part as well in the biography reported on the site), thus describes the personality of this figure in his work “La prise d’Arezzo (1984) par Enguerrand de Coucy”: “Enguerrand VII, the last of the members of the illustrious house of Coucy to have borne the title of sire of Coucy, is assuredly one of the greatest figures of our national history during the second half of the fourteenth century. Son-in-law of the king of England Edward III, allied to all the sovereign families, he plays as a man of war and as a diplomat a preponderant role: his name is mixed up with most of the high political questions then debated; the most delicate missions, the most perilous commands are entrusted to him. He is seen traversing with glory the battlefields of all Europe, distinguishing himself in Scotland, in Flanders, in Germany, in Italy and as far as Africa, before going to die a prisoner of the Turks in Asia Minor. His valour and his skill are further enhanced by the greatness of his character: he sacrifices his interests to the desire to serve his king, renouncing all the advantages assured to him by his ties of kinship with the royal family of England, and gives a magnificent example of disinterestedness in refusing, at the death of du Guesclin, the sword of constable of France, which he finds Olivier de Clisson more worthy of than himself.”
Bernardo della Sala / Bernard de la Salle
URL: https://condottieridiventura.it/bernardon-de-la-salle-warrior-and-strategist-in-france-and-italy/
Originally from the Auvergne or, more probably, from the diocese of Agen. Nicknamed Chicot. Relative of Guglielmetto della Sala; son-in-law of the lord of Milan Bernabò Visconti, whose natural daughter Ricciarda he marries. Brother-in-law of Giovanni Acuto and of Lucio Lando. Father of Bernardo della Serra. Around 1339-1391 (June).
Lord of Figeac, Soriano nel Cimino, Mornas and Caderousse. In 1359 he fights in the bands of Captal de Buch. In 1360, after the peace of Brétigny, he forms the Great Company with Séguin de Badefol, Albert Sterz and Giovanni Acuto. In 1361 he storms Pont-Saint-Esprit. Settled in Italy from 1373, he becomes one of the principal captains of the Company of the Bretons in the service of the Church. He is present at the sack of Cesena in February 1377. In the 1380s he oscillates between the Roman papacy and the antipope with the nonchalance of the unscrupulous mercenary. In 1385, with Rinaldo Orsini, he defeats John Beltoft near Viterbo. In 1387 he besieges the prefect of Viterbo Francesco di Vico; in October he surprises Beltoft at the bridge of San Luminato on the Paglia. In June 1391 he abandons Italy, only to die that same month in combat. Durrieu writes of him: “He had made a name for himself in Italy. A true routier’s career, a singular mixture of high deeds and acts of brigandage; which shows us the Gascon adventurer sometimes occupying an important place at the court of Avignon and treated with great regard by pope Clement, the cardinals and the entourage of king Louis II of Anjou, sometimes ranging the highways and extorting, by violence, money from the Sienese, the Pisans and the Lucchese; where one finds, so to speak, everything, except, however, a single act of cowardice or felony.” Two, in our opinion, are the guiding lines of his conduct, both in France in the Hundred Years’ War and in Italy: fidelity to the English cause and his constant hostile attitude towards the Angevins of Naples, as shown by his unfortunate support of the duke of Andria Francesco del Balzo in June 1373, with the aim of recovering his estates in Apulia at the expense of the queen of Naples Giovanna I of Anjou. In June 1391 he decides to return at once to the peninsula and that same month he meets his death. A personal enemy of his, Giovanni d’Armagnac, allies himself with the Florentines to fight the Visconti. Bernardo della Sala decides to return immediately to the peninsula to move in favour of the latter, with whom he is moreover related. He gathers 500 lances; he crosses the Alps and reaches the Moncenisio, 50 miles from the point where the adversaries must pass. The rival, on learning of his arrival nearby, takes 600 lances and by forced marches awaits him in ambush in a gorge of the mountain. He is soundly defeated. Taken prisoner, after having initially escaped capture, he is treacherously killed by three of his own knights. Armagnac in turn vents his hatred for him by having the principal captains of his company beheaded.
Guglielmetto della Sala
Gascon. Relative of Bernardo. Died 1390 (September).
In 1362 he is designated commissary of the French adventurers in the treaty for the evacuation of Figeac. In May 1378 he is in the pay of Urban VI; in July he changes sides and passes into the service of the antipope Clement VII with Bernardo della Sala. In the following twelve years he operates in Italy within the orbit of his kinsman, gravitating between the two obediences with the same oscillations as Bernardo. He is a captain of the second rank, who builds his own presence in the shadow of his more famous relative.
Raimondo di Turenna / Raymond de Turenne
URL: https://condottieridiventura.it/battles-and-sieges-led-by-raymond-de-turenne/
1352-1413 (April).
Viscount of Turenne and of Chalus, count of Valentinois, father-in-law of Boucicaut, the marshal of France Jean II Le Meingre; nephew of popes Clement VI and Gregory XI. In 1368 he confronts Bertrand du Guesclin in Provence. In 1371 he is at the siege of Cuneo with count Amedeo of Savoy: he is the first to assail the walls successfully. In 1372 he is knighted by Amedeo. In 1373 he serves against the Visconti forces: he crosses the Ticino and wins at Mapello; in May, at the battle of Montichiari, he is blocked with Otto of Brunswick before the final victory. After the battle he reaches Modena with Enguerrand de Coucy. After 1396 he returns to Provence, where he is a protagonist of the political struggles until his death in April 1413. “He made himself famous under the name of Scourge of Provence by struggling against Marie de Blois, countess of Provence, and the two Avignon antipopes Clement VII and Benedict XIII. Raymond de Turenne is one of those who customarily carry their good right at the point of their swords and their documents in their arms.” From a judgement of the Provençal writer M. Mauron reported by Wikipedia. “The viscount, one of the boldest captains of the fourteenth century, charged head down to defend his glory and his dignity, finding himself having to fight at once the papal troops, of whom he was still nominally the Captain, the army of Georges de Marles, Seneschal of Provence, that of the Rector of the Comtat, Odon de Villars, and that of his brother-in-law, Louis II de Poitiers, count of Valentinois. Raymond de Turenne, with that sense of the moment that men of great destiny possess and his extraordinary aptitude for seizing every opportunity, revealed himself not only a formidable warrior but also and above all a remarkable negotiator in everything that touched his own interests. Energetic and quick of repartee, perspicacious and active, his challenges and his diplomatic ruses did as much for the viscount’s reputation as the derisory and astonishing destiny of this peerless warmonger. And his gathering of gain uncovered a way of enriching himself. For this noble athirst with desire for vengeance, this life of hazard to which his bold temperament invited him could only end in these continual, expeditious wars; his impetuosity and his bravery made of him a war-leader as cruel and as savage as a wolf and as strong as a bear.” Wikipedia.
Piero di Sagra / Pierre de la Sagra
Breton. Died around 1380.
He takes part in Italy in the War of the Eight Saints. In July 1378, with Silvestro di Budes, he leads 2,000 Breton and Gascon horse to Anagni for the antipope Clement VII; he rides towards Rome and defeats the inhabitants near the Ponte Salario; he moves to Fondi. In April 1379 he takes part in the battle of Marino against the Company of Saint George commanded by Alberico da Barbiano. In command of the third squadron he attacks the right wing of the adversaries, at whose head is Galeazzo Pepoli. He is captured along with Louis de Montjoie and Bernardo della Sala. Led to Rome, he is freed within a short time. He is subsequently recorded serving in favour of the commune of Orvieto against that of Perugia and for the Roman papacy against the militias of the antipope.
Brigante
Breton. Died around 1390.
In 1380 he is in the Treviso area with the aim of fighting for the Venetians against the Carraresi. In February 1381 he rebels against the Serenissima because of the delay in pay and departs with Boino and 1,018 horse; he promises not to aid the enemies of Venice for four years, on pain of 1,000 ducats, for which Niccolò Donati and Betto Biffoli stand surety. On the road he assails Traverso da Monfumo while he is transporting wheat to Treviso. In March he reaches Bologna with 1,200 horse, passes into the pay of Astorre Manfredi and of the Bolognese against the Ordelaffi; he remains on guard at Bologna with 60 lances. The Venetians meanwhile denounce him to Bernabò Visconti as a traitor. In 1388 he is in Campania in the service of the antipope Clement VII; he abandons the camp with Pietro della Corona and Martino Polsort over disagreements with the captain general Louis de Montjoie. Having returned to the orders of the latter, in 1389 he takes part in the defence of Naples. He contacts the Florentines to pass into their pay. He dies in 1390. The chronicler defines him, together with Pietro della Corona and Martino Polsort, as “famous corporals of men-at-arms.”
Giovanni Jovon / Jean Yrion
Breton. Died around 1390.
In January 1380, with the office of marshal, he serves in Brigante’s company for the Venetians against the Carraresi of Padua. In February, because of the delay in pay, he leaves the camp of Mestre with Brigante, on the promise of not aiding the adversaries for four years on pain of paying a penalty of 1,000 ducats. The following month he stops at Padua, where his troops are supplied with provisions for a few days. In March he heads for Bologna, passes into the pay of that commune and of the lord of Faenza Astorre Manfredi to confront the Ordelaffi; in April he remains on guard at Bologna with 60 lances. The Venetians denounce him to Bernabò as a traitor. He tries to clear himself with the lord of Mantua Ludovico Gonzaga: the defection occurred only because of the financial straits of the Venetian camp. He subsequently serves in the company of Giovanni Acuto. In October 1380 he is recorded at Isola Romanesca for the drawing up of an agreement between Acuto, other condottieri and the Florentines. In March 1389 he is at Naples, in the pay of the antipope Clement VII, engaged in the conflict with the heir of the king of Naples Charles of Durazzo, the nine-year-old Ladislao of Anjou. It is on this occasion that he is approached by the Florentines to pass into their pay. He dies around 1390.
Bernardo della Serra / Bernardon de Serres
URL: https://condottieridiventura.it/bernardon-de-serres-between-italys-wars-and-french-rivalries/
Gascon, born in the diocese of Aire near Saint-Sever. Natural son of Bernardo della Sala. He marries the Umbrian noblewoman Romana di Baschi. Around 1359 – 1412 (April).
Lord of Tuscania, Malaucène, Mollans and Noves. He arrives in Italy in 1375 with his father. The beginnings of his career are similar to those of other Breton or Gascon condottieri then present in the peninsula. In 1379 he heads towards Rome, sacking the localities loyal to Urban VI along the march. In 1385 he defends Provence on behalf of the antipope Clement VII. In 1387 he serves with his father Bernardo della Sala in the service of Francesco di Vico; when Orvieto, a locality controlled by the lord of Viterbo, rises in favour of the papacy, he abandons the city with only six companions. In April 1392, with Nicola Farnese, he seizes Bolsena; he assails Corbara with 170 horse and 150 foot, setting fire to its village; he conquers and burns the castle of Ripa. In September 1394 he is enfeoffed by the antipope with Malaucène. The turning point comes in August 1396, when the Florentines offer him the captaincy general of their troops with a contract of 200 lances and 200 archers. He holds this office until 1398, and it will be offered to him again in 1401. He has occasion to oppose in Tuscany the Visconti forces commanded by Alberico da Barbiano. There are disorders in his camp because condottieri such as Bartolomeo Boccanera repeatedly challenge his authority and do not respect the orders received. Bernardo della Serra decides to put an end to this situation: he takes advantage of a day on which the captain refractory to his orders comes to visit him with a limited escort, has him captured and beheaded under the pretext of re-establishing discipline. Disorders immediately arise in the Florentine encampments because condottieri such as Paolo Orsini and Giovanni Colonna do not accept the principle that a captain general should have the right of death over his subordinates. The Signoria rules in his favour. Della Serra resumes the offensive and in a short time forces the rivals to withdraw into the Sienese territory. In October 1401 he renews his contract with the Florentines. He is sent to the aid of the lord of Bologna Giovanni Bentivoglio, again to face the Visconti forces. In May 1402 he is forced by his employers (the costs of keeping the troops active being heavy) to seek a pitched battle with the adversaries. The clash takes place in June at Casalecchio di Reno. He is completely undone and captured by the enemy, in whose ranks serve condottieri such as Barbiano, Francesco Gonzaga, Facino Cane, Jacopo dal Verme, Ottobono Terzi and Pandolfo Malatesta. He is accused by the Florentines of having chosen a weak position for the offensive deployment. Freed, in January 1404 he returns to France. He passes into the service of duke Louis of Orléans, in conflict with the duke of Burgundy. He is granted the office of governor of Asti. In May 1409 the duke of Orléans is assassinated by hired killers; della Serra’s role is diminished and he must soon cede his office to Louis de Montjoie. He dies in April 1412 in a clash with the troops of the duke of Burgundy near Villefranche, in the Beaujolais. His figure is treated in particular in the volume by F. Bargigia and A.A. Settia, “La guerra nel Medioevo,” in which his gifts as a condottiero are highlighted, gifts not always appreciated by historians of yesterday and today: “According to nineteenth-century Italian historiography (Ricotti, 1884) he was only one of the last (and not of the most celebrated) foreign captains active in the peninsula before, with Barbiano, the companies of Italians imposed themselves. Ercole Ricotti’s underestimation contrasts with the appreciation of Durrieu, whose biography of Serres (eulogistic here and there as well) remains to this day indispensable; French history saw in him an able and valiant warrior who, through the profession of arms, knew how to redeem himself from the narrow role of mere adventurer to which he seemed destined. Michael E. Mallett too summarily limits his career with a ‘not particularly brilliant’. Perhaps wrongly, because Serres was a figure not insignificant in his time, a not negligible exponent of a period of transition in Italian military history.” Bargigia.
Giannetto di Magnamonte
Breton. Died around 1425.
Chancellor of the Company of the Bretons of Bernardo della Sala. In June 1391, when his captain leaves Tuscany to return to France, he takes command of the remnants of the Company of the Bretons. In 1392 he takes refuge at Soriano nel Cimino, from where he carries out continual raids in the Viterbo and Siena areas. In the following years he operates in central Italy with a residual nucleus of the company, dealing from time to time with the local powers. His is the story of the survival of the Breton element after the departure of the great captains: a presence ever more marginal that slowly dies out in the early years of the fifteenth century. He moves to Florence, where he invests the money he has accumulated through so many devastations. Struck by sudden financial reverses, he falls into poverty. He dies in that city, sheltered in the hospital for the poor, the Ospedale Maggiore.
Jean Dudain / Giovanni Francese
Died around 1410.
In 1391 he follows into Piedmont Giovanni d’Armagnac, hired by the Florentines against the Visconti forces. With the defeat at Alessandria at the hands of Jacopo dal Verme, he forms his own company and takes to robbery in the lands of Savoy, Monferrato and Savoy-Acaia. In September-November 1394 he follows Enguerrand de Coucy at the conquest of Savona. In 1397, with Bertolino da Verona, he devastates the lands of the counts of Savoy-Acaia; he is captured and driven off. In 1398 he invades Chieri to avenge the hanging of a companion; he contents himself with the theft of two oxen. In November 1399 he ranges through the Cuneo area. In August 1400 he is put to flight, again at Cuneo, with heavy losses; his banners are hung up in a city chapel. His case is one of mercenary activity reduced to the scale of brigandage. A historian whose name we have lost defines him: “A proud and tenacious character, likeable in his French swagger and in his brigand-like conduct.”
Louis de Montjoie
URL: https://condottieridiventura.it/louis-de-montjoie-medieval-warrior-who-challenged-popes-and-kings/
Of Geneva. He belongs to one of the most ancient families of Alsace, the Froberg. Montjoie is the French translation of the German words “berg” and “fro.” Nephew of cardinal Robert of Geneva (the antipope Clement VII). Lord of Caselle. Died around 1415.
He is present in Italy in July 1376 in the train of his uncle, the cardinal legate who has the task of fighting the Florentines in the War of the Eight Saints; in February 1377 he is present at the slaughter of Cesena. With his kinsman’s accession to the Avignon papal throne, his career undergoes a rapid rise. In 1378 he is granted the title of marshal. He confronts the papal troops of the Roman pope Urban VI and is defeated and taken prisoner by Alberico da Barbiano at the battle of Marino (April 1379). Freed, he returns to France. He enters the good graces of the pretender to the kingdom of Naples Louis I of Anjou, in conflict with king Charles of Durazzo. In August 1382 he is again defeated and taken prisoner by Barbiano. He is once more in France. In October 1387 he intervenes a second time in Italy. He has the approval of his antipope uncle as well; his role in the campaign increases considerably. He has himself appointed viceroy and captain general in place of Tommaso da San Severino and Otto of Brunswick, who have long been fighting in Campania against the heirs of Durazzo. The two condottieri, indignant at his conduct, abandon the defence of Naples: the first returns to his possessions in Basilicata; the second, ever more disgusted, even goes over to fight in the opposing camp. This is, indeed, the notable trait of Montjoie. On the one hand “a most able man of war” (Cutolo) and on the other “very haughty. He disgusted the spirits of all,” Giorgio Petrone, “Della storia di Bari.” The rest is the story of a condottiero always on bad terms with the local authorities and captains. He is forced to return to France when Louis II of Anjou again attempts the enterprise of Naples, entrusting full powers to the cardinal of Santa Susanna. With the prelate recalled to the transalpine country, Montjoie returns to Naples: now it is the city authorities who refuse to accept his presence. Again in Provence, he once more obtains the office of viceroy; he clashes several times with success with the adversaries, until in May 1386 he is forced by the San Severino to leave the kingdom of Naples definitively. He passes into the service first of the duke of Milan Gian Galeazzo Visconti and then of the king of France Charles VII. Strong in his good relations with the royal court, in 1409 he is appointed by the new duke of Lorraine Charles as governor of Asti in place of Bernardo della Serra. From this moment his trail is lost. He dies around 1415.
Rinaldo di Provenza
Died around 1435.
In July 1416 he serves in the companies of Braccio da Montone at the battle of Sant’Egidio. In September 1423, with 36 horse, he passes into the pay of the Florentines: his presence is recorded at Cesena against the Visconti forces. In November he is at Forlì in command of the company of Jacopo Orsini, who has fallen ill in the meantime. In 1424 he is still in the service of the Florentine commune. He is remembered by Lorenzo Spirito in “L’altro Marte,” a poem dedicated to the deeds of the captains of fortune.
Matteo di Provenza
Died around 1425.
He serves in the companies of the lord of Perugia Braccio da Montone. In September 1419 he is at Todi with 2,000 horse; in October he has bonfires of joy lit on the walls to deceive Muzio Attendolo Sforza with the false news of the conquest of Assisi by Braccio. In the autumn of 1423 he is recorded in command of 300 horse in the pay of the king of Aragon. He takes part in the battle of L’Aquila, where he has command of the eleventh division. He supports Niccolò Piccinino in the attempt to drive back the inhabitants of the besieged city from joining the troops of Jacopo Caldora. He too is remembered by Lorenzo Spirito in “L’altro Marte.”
Bernardo di Provenza
Died around 1430.
In December 1416 he serves the duke Filippo Maria Visconti. He fights the Colleoni besieged in their castle of Trezzo sull’Adda. He directs the fire of the artillery, consisting of four mangonels and other small pieces. Each piece hurls stones weighing 500 pounds. Later he passes into the pay of the Venetians: in March 1426 he has command of 115 lances, at the head of which he opposes the Visconti forces under the orders of the Carmagnola. In 1427 he continues to serve the Serenissima against the Milanese duchy.
Giannotto Francese (Guerriero, Zanotto, Giannotto di San Martino)
Captain of Gascon foot soldiers. Died 1503.
In September 1495, on guard at Pisa with 700 foot on behalf of the French, he prevents the Florentines of Paolo Vitelli from seizing the city. Arrested by the Florentines for a fraud perpetrated during the passage of Charles VIII towards the kingdom of Naples, he is shut up in the Stinche; released with apologies, he reconnects with the French army. In December 1496 he is at Pisa in the service of the Pisans against Florence. His men come to a dispute with those of Gaspare da San Severino; the Pisans rule in his favour and San Severino is forced to abandon the city. He subsequently serves the lady of Forlì Caterina Sforza, the papacy of Cesare Borgia, and again the French in the kingdom of Naples against the Spaniards. He dies in 1503 in combat. Cardinal Pietro Bembo in his “Historia Veneta” praises him for his valour: “For his virtue he was named a Great Warrior.”
Zuchero / Jacques de Sucre (Cuchero)
Burgundian. Lord of Bellaing. Captain of light horse. He marries Antoinette d’Escalbes. Died 1545.
He serves the imperial forces against the Venetians from 1509 to 1517. In the autumn of 1509, with Pierre Bayard (Pierre de Terrail de Bayard, called “the knight without stain and without fear”) and Conty, he catches in an ambush at Isola della Scala Giampaolo Manfrone with 2,000 foot and 200 men-at-arms: 60 prisoners are led to Verona. In May 1511, again against the troops of the Serenissima, he is recorded at the defence of Verona at the head of 100 light horse. In May 1513 he leaves that same city with Nicola della Torre to range along the shores of Lake Garda; in June he is noticed again on guard at Verona when the Scaliger city is invested by Bartolomeo d’Alviano. More varied are his contracts from 1517 onwards. He begins by supporting Francesco Maria della Rovere in his attempt to recover the duchy of Urbino, only to defect within a short time to the opposing camp, that of the papacy. In 1521 he fights for the Florentines against the French and the Venetians; from 1523 to 1530 for the imperial forces against the French and the Florentines; at the end of 1531 he is sent by the papacy to Switzerland in aid of the Catholic cantons in difficulty before their Protestant adversaries; in 1532 he confronts the Ottomans and, subsequently, the French, always on behalf of the imperial forces. The exceptional length of his Italian career makes him one of the most long-lived figures of the entire list. Mambrino Roseo in his “Compendio dell’historia del regno di Napoli” qualifies him as a “valiant German Captain of horse.”
Leonardo Remulo / Leonardo Roncello
The surname is Italianized. Gascon. Died around 1540.
He operates predominantly in the service of Venice in the first half of the sixteenth century. In October 1516, at the head of 350 foot, he confronts the imperial forces and is present at the siege of Verona. On that occasion he represents his fellow soldiers in their protests over the delay in pay before the military authorities of the Serenissima (the provveditore generale Andrea Gritti). He subsequently serves the French, with the imperial forces always as adversaries. In November 1524 he is granted command of 400 foot. In February 1525 he takes part in the battle of Mirabello/Pavia. In November-December 1526 he leaves France to reach the Venetian camp; he meets with the provveditore generale Alvise Pisani to verify the settlement of the dues destined for the Grison and Swiss foot in the pay of the Serenissima. In 1528 he supports Lautrec in his attempt to seize the kingdom of Naples, and in 1529 he is recorded at the defence of Barletta under the orders of Renzo di Ceri. He dies around 1540.
The Corsican captains in the Italian Wars (1445-1567)
The Corsican presence in the panorama of Italian mercenary activity is an almost entirely sixteenth-century phenomenon. The Corsican captains arrive in Italy as constables of foot, not as feudal knights: they are men of a Corsica then nominally Genoese and militarily hardened, who find in the profession of arms the only avenue of social ascent available. The collective nickname “Corso,” by which they are identified in the sources, reflects the island origin; it is not a family surname but a geographical label.
The oldest of all is Leonetto Corso, active from 1445, who precedes the great sixteenth-century influx by almost two generations. Restorello Corso, active from 1450 for the Sforza and rewarded with the citizenship of Lodi in 1456, is the first to establish a stable and rooted presence in northern Italy. The full flowering arrives with the Italian Wars: Pietro Corso, Piero Corso, Vincenzo Corso, Carlo Corso, Paolo Corso, Mariano Corso, Gigante Corso and Pasquino Corso all operate in the context of the Venetian campaigns of the years 1509-1515 and then in the Lombard and Tuscan campaigns of the years 1520-1530.
Two are the points of biographical convergence of almost all the Corsican captains of the first sixteenth-century generation: on the one hand Renzo di Ceri, “a good captain, expert in infantry, energetic, bold, who did not, however, manage to contribute effectively, as at first he had given hope of doing, to the creation of a sound Italian infantry,” Piero Pieri (“Il Rinascimento e la crisi militare italiana”); and on the other Giovanni de’ Medici, alias Giovanni delle Bande Nere, also called the Great Devil, where his companies of foot represent “the best and most reputed infantry and the most feared. It was also the most insolent and the most rapacious and troublesome,” Ercole Ricotti (“Storia delle compagnie di ventura in Italia”).
Leonetto Corso
Died around 1460.
In 1445 he serves initially for the papacy against Francesco Sforza in the Marche; in June he defects to the Sforza camp. In 1453 he is in the service of the king of Naples: set in charge of the defence of Facciano (near Bagno di Romagna), the walls are battered by a large bombard managed by the men of Astorre Manfredi; at the end of August he surrenders on terms after resisting without relief for fifteen days. In December 1454 he is in the service of Siena against the count of Pitigliano Aldobrandino Orsini: he takes part in the long siege of Sorano at the head of 1,000 foot placed on the left wing of the formation; a sudden attack by the besieged routs his men. In 1455 he pursues the captain general of his own army, Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, on suspicion of treason. The lord of Rimini is surprised at Gioncarico and is forced to leave three companies of foot in the hands of his men. After a few months it is Leonetto Corso who is approached by Silvestro da Lucino, with the aim of serving in the company of fortune of Jacopo Piccinino, with which to sack the Sienese territory. In 1457 he passes into the pay of Everso dell’Anguillara. He operates mainly in Tuscany, the Marche and Lazio. “A soldier of supreme valour,” is the comment about him by a contemporary chronicler.
Andrea Corso
Died 1479 (September).
The first news of him dates to the summer of 1439 when, in papal pay against the Visconti, he besieges Francesco Piccinino in Sansepolcro. Subsequently, he serves the Florentines in 1441, and the lord of Rimini Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta in 1442. He enters Longiano with 300 foot; he sallies out with the inhabitants and assails the papal camp of Piccinino. Rich plunder for the inhabitants, who empty the tents of the enemy soldiers of their contents. In 1443 he is initially in Umbria alongside Francesco Sforza; soon, in June, he deserts to the papal camp when offered a larger contract than the one he currently enjoys. In the same year he is recorded in Corsica; he disembarks with his men on the island and obtains Corte with ease. There follows recognition of the power of the Church state in that region. The years always see him wandering from one state to another: the Florentines in 1449, the papacy from 1454 to 1461, the Venetians under the orders of Carlo da Montone. He is in the service of Florence in the war that convulses Tuscany in 1478. On the death of Carlo da Montone he deserts to the opposing, papal camp, on the offer of an annual provision of 6,000 ducats in time of war and 4,000 in time of peace. In September of the following year he is besieged by the Florentines at San Martino Delfico. Captured, he is hanged by Bernardino da Montone, being suspected of having had his father poisoned the previous year. Terse is the only judgement found concerning him: “A valiant constable,” Gaspare Broglio, in his “Cronaca malatestiana.”
Restorello Corso (Astorello Corso)
Died around 1480.
He is the first Corsican captain to establish a settled presence in northern Italy. From 1450 he serves Francesco Sforza; his foot are quartered in the Lodi area. In 1452 he confronts the Venetians, again in the pay of the duke of Milan. In March 1454 he defends Travagliato unsuccessfully against the attacks of Jacopo Piccinino. In 1455 he obtains from Sforza a free transport grant to carry grain to the lands he has rented at Crespatica, between Lodi and Crema, where he has settled with his own foot: it is one of the very rare cases of a foreign condottiero putting down roots in the territory of which he is a military guest. In 1456 Sforza orders the authorities of Lodi to grant him citizenship. In June-July 1467 he fights in Piedmont against the troops of Philip of Bresse; he is sent to Novara. In June 1472 he takes part in the Sforza expedition against Volterra commanded by Federico da Montefeltro, in command of 1,000 provisioned men and numerous arquebusiers; the city is hideously sacked. From 1473 to 1476 he is on several occasions on guard at Genoa with 100 foot on behalf of the Sforza; in 1474 he reconquers the fortress of San Francesco at Albaro during the disorders following the arrest of Prospero Adorno. He dies in 1480. He operates in Lombardy, Piedmont, Tuscany and Liguria.
Pierandrea Corso (Pietro Andrea Gentile)
Father of Girolamo Corso. Died around 1490.
In November 1482 he fights for the lord of Bologna Giovanni Bentivoglio in the War of Ferrara against the Venetians: he is recorded with 200 provisioned men heading for Castrocaro Terme in aid of the Este allies, then at Malalbergo with 150 foot and, lastly, at the defence of Massa Fiscaglia. In January 1483 he is captured by the Venetians in a night assault by Vittore Soranzo at the head of 2,000 foot: the Venetians ask him to pass into their pay. He refuses and will be freed only in the spring of 1484 under pressure from the doge of Genoa Battistino Fregoso. Having moved into the pay of the Florentines in 1486, he is sent with Pasquale d’Arezzo (500 foot and mounted crossbowmen) to the aid of Niccolò Orsini, blocked at Pitigliano by the papal forces of Roberto da San Severino. In 1487, again on behalf of the Florentines, he takes part in the War of Sarzana against the Genoese. He is remembered in a line of an octave of “Guerre in ottava rima,” entitled the war of Sarzana: “And messer Pierandrea came too, / who may be called a paladin.” He operates in Emilia, Romagna, Tuscany and Liguria.
Pietro Corso
Died 1509 (December).
In December 1480, in the service of the Genoese, he is recorded at Pietrasanta at the head of 600 foot. In 1509, in the pay of the Venetians, he confronts the troops of the League of Cambrai: he is at the camp of Pontevico with 250 foot incorporated in the column of Antonio Pio; he also has command of the Treviso ordinances (1,200 men). In July he enters Serravalle with 400 foot; with Giovanni Brandolini he moves initially to Belluno, which he must soon abandon because of the pressure of the adversaries. In August he is at the defence of Padua, on garrison at the Porta Codalunga, incorporated in the regiment of Zitolo da Perugia. In November he leaves Padua with 500 foot to oppose the Este forces: he sets fire to Crespino, Pontecchio Polesine and Guardizola; he repels an attack by cardinal Ippolito d’Este. In December he is surprised by night at a bastion in front of Ferrara by the assault of the inhabitants; the Venetian fleet is also annihilated at Polesella: he is probably killed by the galley convicts (Schiavoni) in the service of the Serenissima while he is negotiating surrender on terms with the marquis of Ferrara Alfonso d’Este. The cause of his death is his having excluded from the terms of the capitulation, for their excesses on land, the rowers of the galleys (the so-called galeotti, mostly Schiavoni, originating from Dalmatia). As justification for his murder there is a rumour of the possibility of his treason and of 4,000 ducats received in the surrender negotiations from the adversaries. The chronicler Cordo calls him “in arms a paladin.” He operates in Tuscany, Lombardy and the Veneto.
Piero Corso (Pereto Corso)
Died 1511 (May).
Another long career sees him a protagonist of the wars in Italy for nearly thirty years, from 1488 to 1511. In 1488, with 200 foot and 50 horse, he sacks Gavinana in the Pistoia area for the Florentines against the local exiles, supporters of the Panciatichi. In 1494, with 700 foot, he supports the Aragonese landed in Liguria to assail Genoa; defeated at the battle of Vallecristi/Rapallo, he is taken prisoner; he is quickly freed; in October he goes to Corsica to enroll foot on behalf of the Aragonese. In 1495, under the orders of Guglielmo di Villeneuve, he defends Trani (he is in the pay of the French) against the Venetians and Aragonese; he abandons the ranks of the transalpines with 31 soldiers. Then in the pay of Milan, he remains on guard at the Castello Sforzesco when duke Ludovico Sforza is forced to flee from the Milanese territory (1499). In 1500 he passes into French service and tries to make Piacenza rebel against the Sforza forces; after the defeat of the Milanese at Novara he offers his services to the marquis Francesco Gonzaga and to the emperor Maximilian of Austria, without success; he passes into the pay of the lord of Bologna Giovanni Bentivoglio, a city threatened by the papal forces of Cesare Borgia. In 1508, with 500 foot at 300 ducats of annual provision, under the orders of Bartolomeo d’Alviano, he defeats the imperial forces at Tai di Cadore; he conquers Pieve di Cadore; he reaches Riva del Garda, Verona, Postumia; he is at the ceremony in which the insignia of governor general are conferred on Alviano. In 1509 he takes part in the battle of Agnadello. He is then recorded at the defence of Padua. In May 1510 he fights in the service of the French against the Venetians and the papacy. In 1511 there follows a final change of coat: it is the turn of the papacy to have him in its ranks to oppose the French militias. He is killed in combat in May of that same year in a clash on the river Secchia: he dies of a quarrel (a crossbow shot) that strikes him on the head. He is remembered as “most valiant” by Sanudo; “Pereto Corso, most avid of war: / one of grim aspect and harsh brow,” Cordo; and finally by the Renaissance poet Niccolò degli Agostini, “of spirited heart / who is not wont to have pity on the enemy.” He operates in Tuscany, Liguria, France (Corsica), Apulia, Piedmont, Lombardy, Emilia, the Veneto, Trentino, Friuli, Slovenia and Romagna.
Piero Corso
Died 1514 (November).
He serves the Venetians from 1510 to 1514. In July 1510 he has command of 100 foot. In September 1511, with the crossbowmen of Giano Fregoso and Guido Rangoni, he moves towards Cologna Veneta; in the expedition numerous French men-at-arms are captured. In November he is dismissed by the provveditore Andrea Gritti for having declared in several musters a number of men under his orders higher than the real one. Re-engaged in January of the following year, in February 1512 he is recorded with Damiano di Tarsia at the defence of Motta di Livenza: a first assault by the imperial forces is repelled. When the enemy approach the walls with many pieces of artillery, he abandons the locality by night and reaches Venice by river. In July 1514 he supports Antonio da Castello at the conquest of Este: he scales the walls, many Spaniards are killed: 250 mounts, 10 oxen, gold and silk cloths worth 10,000 ducats form part of the plunder. In November 1514 he is hanged by Bartolomeo d’Alviano on suspicion of treason with another captain: the two are uncovered through the decryption of some Spanish ciphered letters fallen into Venetian hands. He operates in the Veneto only.
Girolamo Corso
Son of Pierandrea Corso. Died around 1525.
In 1498, set in charge with 50 provisioned men of the guard of the bastion of Ripafratta, he fights the Florentines in favour of the Pisans. In 1505 he serves, on the contrary, the Florentines against the Pisans; in August, with Martinello Corso, he is sent to Campiglia Marittima to make 100-150 Corsican foot desert from the company of fortune of Bartolomeo d’Alviano, who is ranging through Tuscany to restore in Florence the lordship of Piero de’ Medici. He is subsequently sent to the aid of the lord of Piombino Jacopo d’Appiano. In 1513 he is part of the army of the Serenissima: besieged in Padua, with ten other captains he challenges eleven Spaniards to a duel. The site of the clash should be, according to the agreement, near the church of Santa Sofia: the Germans do not appear at the appointment. In 1515 he is at Florence with Lorenzo de’ Medici; he has command of 40 lances spezzate of Orsino Orsini. In 1517 he serves in the Marche with Giovanni de’ Medici against Francesco Maria della Rovere, bent on the reconquest of the duchy of Urbino. In 1519 he supports Medici at Rome in a brawl with the men of Camillo Orsini: with Marcantonio Corso and 20 foot he assails the partisans of the Orsini at the Bridge of Castel Sant’Angelo and enters the castle; in the action the enemy captain Brancaccio is killed. In 1520 in the Marche, at the battle of Falerone, he mortally wounds Ludovico Euffreducci with a pike blow from the neck to the middle of the shoulder. In November 1521 he crosses the Adda with Giovanni de’ Medici; he defeats the French at Vaprio d’Adda; a few days later he is guilty of a most serious crime and is condemned to hanging: he is pardoned by Prospero Colonna at the intervention of Giovanni delle Bande Nere. He dies around 1525. He operates in Tuscany, the Veneto, the Marche, Lazio and Lombardy.
Tristano Corso
Died 1524.
In 1503, in the service of the Spaniards, on guard at Roccaguglielma: besieged by the adversaries he is taken prisoner by the French. From that date he seems to vanish from the military history of the Corsicans, until his trail is found again in 1514, when he is recorded in the pay of the Serenissima against the Spaniards and the Sforza forces. In that campaign he supports Renzo di Ceri at the defence of Crema. In June 1515 he distinguishes himself at the defence of Padua. In 1516 he serves the papacy in the companies of Giovanni de’ Medici; he supports that condottiero in Lazio and the Marche. Another interval of time and he reappears in 1523 in the pay of the Spaniards. In the same summer he follows Medici in his defection from the Spanish camp to the French. He dies in combat in 1524. He operates in Lazio, Lombardy, Friuli, the Veneto, the Marche and Emilia.
Vincenzo Corso (Vinciguerra Corso)
Brother of Francesco and of Battistino Corso. Died 1526 (September).
In 1509 he is engaged by the Venetians, at Rome, with 100 Corsican foot. Stationed first at Ravenna and then at Pontevico, in May his company is increased to 400 foot. He takes part in the battle of Agnadello, inserted in the third column under the orders of Antonio Pio. The non-intervention of these armed men in support of the action of Bartolomeo d’Alviano causes the rout of the Venetians. In 1510 he is stationed in the Polesine; he is recorded also at the defence of Cavarzere and of Rovigo. He is transferred, according to the various phases of the conflict, to the guard of Monselice, Padua, and again Rovigo. In 1511 he fights in the Verona area; in July he is present at the defence of Treviso. Captured and freed by the French on the promise of payment of a ransom, he has occasion, with his movements of coming and going from the two encampments, to inform the Venetians of the movements of the enemy army. In 1512 he is on garrison at Brescia. There is no news of him from this period until 1526, when he returns to the ranks of the army of the Serenissima to face the imperial forces. He is killed in September of that year in a sortie made by the defenders of Cremona against the trenches whose guard he has been set in charge of. For his death the Venetians promise his sons a contract when they reach the age of conscription, and each of his daughters an annuity of 400 ducats a year. “Very valiant,” judges Sanudo. He operates in Lazio, Romagna, Lombardy, the Veneto, Friuli and Emilia.
Carlo Corso (Carlo della Rocca)
Died around 1520.
A very long presence in the pay of the Venetians in the Veneto and in Friuli from 1509 to 1514. In 1509 he is recorded at the camp of Pontevico at the head of 400 foot. In June he enters Belluno with Alessandro Greco; in July he is forced to abandon that locality because the inhabitants open the gates to the imperial forces. In 1510 he returns to Belluno; his men behave so insolently as almost to provoke a city revolt; there follow operations by him at Feltre, Cividale and Treviso. In 1511 he is at the defence of the latter city with the task of watching the stretch of walls running from San Tomaso to the bastion of the Sile; in October he is captured by the French while trying to protect the podestà Andrea Donato. Freed, in December he supports Renzo di Ceri in an expedition into Friuli. In 1512 he moves to Liguria in the service of Genoa; he besieges Capo di Faro; he is captured near the monastery of San Benigno. To obtain his freedom he reaches an agreement with the adversaries, allowing them to introduce provisions for payment into the fortress where the French garrison has barricaded itself. Discovered, he is shut up in the Castelletto; he is freed within a few days thanks to negotiations conducted by Giano Fregoso, of whom he is probably a relative. In 1514 he returns to the service of the Venetians and distinguishes himself at the defence of Crema, again under the orders of Renzo di Ceri. In 1515 his presence is noted at Modena, in the pay of the papacy and under the orders of Guido Rangoni. The chronicler degli Agostini thus describes his conduct at the battle of Ombriano of 1514: “Carlo Corso, prized in arms, / shows how skilled he is in battles, / dealing to the enemies upon that field / blows that all come from the master.” Sanudo too judges his conduct positively, defining him “a valiant man and a person not to be lost in these times.” He operates in Lombardy, the Veneto, Liguria and Emilia.
Paolo Corso (Poletto Corso)
Died 1530 (August).
In 1509, in the service of the Venetians, he is recorded at the defence of Padua in command of 150 foot incorporated in the regiment of Zanone da Colorno. Initially on guard at the Porta di Ognissanti, he subsequently supports the provveditore Piero Gradenigo at the guard of Monselice: the French are repelled in the first assaults until they manage to break through the walls with artillery: all the defenders still in arms are killed. In 1514 he confronts the Spaniards in Liguria on behalf of the French: he attempts a daring stratagem to relieve the troops besieged at Genoa in the Lanterna. He enters the harbour pretending to transport wheat, throws himself to the left under the cannons of the fortress and introduces there gunpowder, projectiles, 200 mine of grain and the hull of the boat as timber; captured, Houdetot asks for a rich reward for his capture. After a decade he is recorded in the pay of the Florentines against the imperial and papal forces. In December 1529, with other captains of the commune such as Tinto da Battifolle, Ercole da Brisighella and Goro da Montebenicchi, he confronts the adversaries at San Gimignano and at Colle di Val d’Elsa; at Volterra his soldiers pretend to rebel, move under a gate and seize the city. In 1530 he is again involved in the defence of Florence: in July he leaves Pisa with 13 ensigns of foot under the orders of Francesco Ferrucci. After a month he is killed in the battle of Gavinana. Cordo and Roseo both define him in the same way: “bold and proud.” He operates in the Veneto, Liguria and Tuscany.
Marcantonio Corso
Of Bastia. Died around 1530.
In March 1517 he is in the Marche under the orders of Giovanni de’ Medici to oppose the project of Francesco Maria della Rovere, eager to reconquer the lost duchy of Urbino. He takes part in the conquest of Sorbolongo; attacked by Costantino Boccali, he withdraws pursued by the stradiots. In March 1519, at Rome, he again supports Giovanni de’ Medici in his brawl with the men of Camillo Orsini: with Girolamo Corso and 20 foot he assails the partisans of the Orsini at the Bridge of Castel Sant’Angelo; in the action an enemy captain of the Brancaccio family is killed. In November 1521 he crosses the Adda for the papacy: the French are defeated at Vaprio d’Adda. In December 1524 he is recorded with 350 foot at Casalmaggiore for the distribution of pay that takes place on Christmas Day; that same night more than 100 men desert. In November 1525, in the pay of the duke of Milan Francesco II Sforza, he is besieged by the imperial forces in the Castello Sforzesco. In November 1526, lastly, he is present at the battle of Governolo in which his lifelong commander, Giovanni de’ Medici, is mortally wounded. With Bartolomeo del Monte a Santa Maria and Paolo Luzzasco, “All men-at-arms whom French or Spaniards or princes or republics sought to have on their side because, if in those times Italy was conquered and despised, the Italians, valiant champions, were held in honour.” Thus Ettore Allodoli in his biography dedicated to Giovanni delle Bande Nere. Marcantonio Corso operates in the Marche, in Lazio and in Lombardy.
Mariano Corso
Son of a Corsican captain named Biancone. Died 1529 (September).
A very long career, his, from 1484 to 1529. In 1484 he is at the siege of Paliano for the papacy against the Colonna. In 1494 he is at the Aragonese camp in Romagna. In November 1503 at Monopoli for Venice, he replaces in command of the company his father Biancone. In 1513 at Treviso and in Friuli with 102 foot; in October he takes part in the battle of Creazzo. In 1514 he is recorded at Cividale del Friuli with 150 foot led together with Michele Schiaveto; assailed by the imperial forces he abandons the city. In March he distinguishes himself at the battle of Pordenone, where he is present, again under the orders of Bartolomeo d’Alviano: the adversaries defeated, the city is sacked. In June he besieges Marano Lagunare: he is wounded by a stone during an assault on the bastion of San Giovanni; the provveditore Girolamo Savorgnano praises the conduct he kept in the circumstance. In July he is captured at Castions with the provveditore Giovanni Vitturi; both are led to Gradisca. Freed, he resumes fighting in the ranks of the Venetians. In 1515 he intercepts a convoy in which, besides provisions, 600 ducats destined for the pay of the imperial garrison of Marano Lagunare are also intercepted; 80 Bohemian arquebusiers are captured. In March 1518 he is sent to Cyprus with Toso da Bagnocavallo. In 1519 at Famagusta the enmity with Bagnocavallo grows ever stronger: both captains are transferred to other postings. Still in Cyprus in the musters of 1521 with 71 foot, he leaves the island in 1526 to face the imperial forces. Set in charge of the guard of Bassano del Grappa, he watches the movements of the landsknechts of Georg Frundsberg bound for Lombardy. In December he too is transferred to that region. On garrison first at Brescia and in 1528 at Verona. He dies in September 1529. “A valiant man” for Sanudo. He operates in Lazio, Romagna, Apulia, the Veneto, Friuli, Cyprus and Lombardy.
Martinello Corso
Died around 1530.
In 1505 he serves the Florentines against the Pisans; in August he is at Campiglia Marittima with Girolamo Corso to make the Corsican foot desert from the company of Bartolomeo d’Alviano; he is subsequently sent to the aid of the lord of Piombino Jacopo d’Appiano. In 1506 he is recorded, again in the pay of the Florentines, with Diotaiuti da Prato near Chiusi and Castel Focognano. In 1510 he serves the French in the Veneto; he offers to pass into the service of the Venetians; he is stationed in the lower Padua plain; he contacts the Serenissima again from Montagnana. Only after a decade, in July 1526, is he recorded serving in the pay of the Venetians: he is at the camp of Melegnano with 200 foot incorporated in the regiment of Francesco Maria della Rovere. In August he follows Malatesta Baglioni in the attack on Cremona; in the assault towards Porta Po, after the muster, 21 dead, 30 wounded and 34 fugitives are counted among the men of his company. In December 1526 he takes part in the muster of his company (still 200 foot) held at Palazzolo sull’Oglio by the provveditore generale Domenico Contarini. In 1527 he supports in Tuscany the provveditore generale Alvise Pisani. He dies around 1530. Defined simply as “a famous captain” by the sources. He operates in Tuscany, the Veneto and Lombardy.
Pasquino Corso (Pasquino di Sia)
By some sources held to be from Perugia. In reality he is originally from Sia, an ancient region of western Corsica in the area of Porto north of Ajaccio. Died 1532 (July).
In the pay of the Venetians and under the orders of Renzo di Ceri, in 1514 he takes part in the battle of Ombriano. He then serves in the Bande Nere of Giovanni de’ Medici. In 1524 he is in the service of the French against the imperial forces; in June 1526 in Tuscany for the papacy against Siena; in August, with Iacopo Corso, he assails Porta Camollia with 800-1,000 foot, battering the walls with artillery; the adversaries put him to flight with a sudden sortie. In October 1527 he serves again in the Bande Nere, now commanded by Orazio Baglioni; he is noted at Monterotondo with 320 foot alongside the captain general, the duke of Urbino Francesco Maria della Rovere. In 1529 he has command of the 2,000 Corsican foot engaged in the defence of Florence; the troops obey the captain general Malatesta Baglioni rather than the city authorities. In November he tries in vain, with Amico d’Arsoli, to bring relief to the defenders of the castle of La Lastra: he arrives too late; at the end of the month he assists Stefano Colonna in an action at Santa Maria a Montici. In a report of his the commissary Francesco Ferrucci compares the foot of Pasquino Corso and those of another Florentine captain, Otto da Montauto, to his own: the former are fine to see and comparable to tabby cats, beautiful but incapable of catching mice. Those of Ferrucci, on the contrary, are cats of unhandsome aspect but very expert. In January 1530 he requests advance payment for his militias: otherwise he threatens to abandon the defence of Florence. He is imprisoned by Ferrucci; he is freed within a short time after the Florentines themselves, to cajole him, have increased his contract. In June he again supports Colonna in a night attack on the enemy camp of San Donato a Polverosa. The assault looks favourable, until his men scatter, giving themselves over to pillage. Inevitable in such a case is a rapid retreat, enriched, moreover, with much plunder. With the surrender of the Florentines he passes into the pay of the papacy. He dies in July 1532 at Rome. His figure in the literature of the time is not much in tune with the results described in his biographical entry. Mambrino Roseo sees him as “A man of wit, strength and great valour; / he has much about him, of the Corsican confine, / which everyone will show, who has heart in his breast. / His ensign shines with turquoise, / for there is not in the world so divine a colour.” Another poet who has occasion to illustrate his deeds at the battle of Ombriano also uses the same eulogistic terms (the event, moreover, takes place in the early years of his career): “Pasquino the Corsican acts like a lion / and through the field darts like a serpent, / putting the enemies into confusion, / and he puffs and snorts, for the great anger.” Niccolò degli Agostini.
Giacomo da Bozzo
Died around 1540.
In January 1526 he has command of 500 foot in the service of the imperial forces. He is in the Monferrato, tries in vain to occupy Montalero; he sets fire to Bistagno. He then moves towards Incisa Scapaccino and Alessandria: he is repelled. Having passed into the pay of the French against the same imperial forces, in 1529 he supports at Barletta, at the head of a regiment of foot, the defensive action prepared by Renzo di Ceri: he takes part in the meeting in which it is decided to level the buildings around the walls for a radius of a mile and a half. In June he puts himself at the head of the troops mutinied over the delay in pay; Renzo di Ceri intervenes with the artillery and forces him to await the arrival of a paymaster officer; he is accused of treason and arrested; led first to Trani and then to Venice, he is freed at a later time. He passes at once into the pay of the Church state. In October, at the head of 2,000 Bolognese and Corsican foot, he supports Girolamo Pepoli at Barberino di Mugello against the Florentines: assailed by Otto da Montauto coming from Prato with 1,000 foot and 50 horse, he withdraws into the local castle. He dies around 1540.
Gigante Corso (Giocante della Casabianca)
Of Casabianca, a commune located in the department of Haute-Corse, thirty kilometres south of Bastia. Died around 1558.
A very long career, rich in memorable episodes. In May 1511, with his provisioned men (92-150 foot), he supports the Venetian provveditore Paolo Capello in Romagna; in August he is at Treviso; in September-October at Motta di Livenza, where he comes into conflict with another captain of the Serenissima, the Slovene Damiano di Tarsia; in November he supports Renzo di Ceri in the reconquest of part of Friuli at the expense of the imperial forces; he occupies Venzone and Chiusaforte. In 1512 he is set on the guard of Udine with 119-105 foot. In 1514 he passes into the pay of the Genoese to oppose the French. He is noted at the siege of Capo di Faro; by night he embarks on a pontoon with its sides protected by sacks of wool to lead some sappers to dig a mine at the foot of the castle; the French illuminate the sea from the bastions with bonfires; the pontoon is hit and sinks; Gigante Corso throws himself into the sea and manages to reach the shore by swimming. In 1524, in the pay of the French, he obtains command of a regiment of Corsican foot destined to leave Liguria to fight the imperial forces in France; in July he is at the defence of Marseille with Renzo di Ceri; he harasses the adversaries with continual sorties. In January 1525 he is at Varazze; Ugo di Moncada lands on the beach at the head of 3,000 Spanish foot. Gigante Corso leaves the city with Simone Tebaldi, confronts the Spaniards, captures Moncada with other captains and puts the rest of the army to flight; the prisoner is led to Savona to the marquis of Saluzzo. In July he returns to the service of the Venetians. In July 1526 he is at the camp of Melegnano with 350 foot; in August, at the siege of Cremona: he is wounded in a leg in an assault made between Porta San Luca and the castle. He goes to Brescia to be treated; recovered, he returns with 341 foot to the assault on Cremona. His action now unfolds towards Porta Po; the outcome is again negative and among his men are counted 7 dead, 31 wounded and 7 missing. In December, over a dispute of 70 ducats, he comes to blows with Malatesta Baglioni; no negative influence on his career, indeed he soon obtains command of a regiment of 500 foot. In 1527 he operates in Umbria; with Federico Gonzaga da Bozzolo (August) he imprisons Gentile Baglioni, suspected of wishing to defect to the imperial camp. The prisoner is handed over to him. That same evening the man is killed with two nephews by dagger blows from some hired assassins acting on behalf of Orazio Baglioni. In 1528 he follows Lautrec in his unhappy expedition into the kingdom of Naples. Captured at Aversa, he regains his freedom at the beginning of the following year. He returns to Lombardy in the service of the Venetians until the end of the conflict (1530). In 1532 he returns to Genoa in the pay of the republic. In January 1547 he has the task of guarding the palace of Fassolo where Andrea Doria resides. He hears a distant noise made by the armed men of Gian Luigi Fieschi; he gives the alarm but his warnings are disregarded. In the end the revolt is suppressed. He dies around 1558. Constant are the praises of his name, whether of the Venetian Sanudo, “What a valiant man he has been in all the wars,” or of the Genoese Uberto Foglietta in “Della repubblica di Genova,” “A man of much experience and knowledge in the matters of war.”
Francesco della Brocca (Francesco della Rocca, Francesco Corso)
Died 1530 (August).
In 1529 he is at the defence of Florence, besieged by the imperial and papal forces. With two other condottieri (October) he is sent by the commissary Francesco Ferrucci to Castiglion Fiorentino. The three captains break down the gate of the castle and enter its interior through a breach. The imperial commissary manages to save himself by throwing himself down from the walls. Sixteen prisoners are taken, on whom a ransom is imposed. Some twenty animals between horses and mules form part of the plunder. Taken prisoner in January 1530, freed, he returns to fight the adversaries at the defence of Volterra. Some attacks made on the city by Alessandro Vitelli are repelled; the population rebels and with his foot he is forced to take refuge in the citadel. He takes part in other clashes; in July he leaves Pisa to support Ferrucci in his march on Florence. In August he takes part in the battle of Gavinana. He is killed in the course of the fighting by an arquebus ball that strikes him on the forehead. Francesco D. Guerrazzi, in his biography dedicated to Francesco Ferrucci, remembers him as “a most strenuous Corsican, as well as well-mannered.” A better eulogy Francesco della Brocca could not have. He operates in Tuscany only.
Tommaso Corso
Died 1530.
He serves in the Bande Nere under the orders of Giovanni de’ Medici. In November 1526 he takes part in the battle of Borgoforte, with the landsknechts as adversaries. He continues to be present in the same contingent even when it, after the death of Medici, is entrusted to Orazio Baglioni. In 1529 he passes to the defence of Florence. He dies of illness in the early months of the following year. “A true soldier, and a perfect warrior, / in arms expert and near to honour, / as much as today he stands, in the martial trade. / I could not tell you with what fury / Thomassin has entered into the battle, / dealing blows of such valour / that no shield resists, nor fine mail. / The Corsicans make tumult, and great uproar, / each one testing whether his sword cuts.” Mambrino Roseo. He operates in Lombardy, Campania and Tuscany.
Iacopo Corso (Jacopo di Bozi, Giacomo della Fica)
Originally from the Boziu, a region of Haute-Corse. Died 1529 (November).
For this captain too the career proves very long, almost half a century. It all begins in August 1478 when, in the pay of the Florentines, he confronts the Aragonese of Naples. In August 1484 he is recorded in the service of the Serenissima; in August 1503 in that of Pisa; in 1507 he serves the Genoese to repel the invasion by the French. He is set, with other captains, in charge of the defence of the capital at the head of 8,000 men. In April he falls into an ambush prepared by Mercurio Bua with 3,000 German foot. He is unable to keep united the ranks of the ordinances (the soldiers of the contado), so that in the end his foot also take to flight. He escapes capture and in October passes into the pay of the French (contract, 450 foot). In 1508 he supports Gian Giacomo da Trivulzio against the imperial forces in Trentino in support of the troops of the Serenissima. In May 1509 he serves in the pay of the marquis of Mantua Francesco Gonzaga in the Veneto: with the Venetians as adversaries. In 1514 he is recorded in the pay of the Florentines. Thanks to the proposal of Niccolò Machiavelli he obtains the captaincy of the infantry of the republic. In 1525 it is the imperial forces who have him in their service: he confronts on their behalf the French in Piedmont. His last campaign sees him in the service of the papacy against Siena. He goes unheard when he tries to oppose the siege of the city on account of his knowledge of the city fortifications. In July his troops encamp in a suburb with no outlets on the flanks; the only way out is occupied by the stalls of the sutlers, so that the space for moving effectively is much reduced. Four hundred foot come out of Siena and assail the artillery. The oxen drawing the pieces become unnerved, contributing to increase the confusion. The Corsican foot take to flight. Seventeen pieces of artillery are abandoned on the ground. Iacopo Corso takes refuge at Castellina in Chianti. He subsequently serves in the Bande Nere under the orders of Orazio Baglioni. In 1529 history says he serves the Florentines for the last time. He is killed in November of that same year by an arquebus shot fired at him by one of his own fellow soldiers, both for personal reasons and in order to pocket the bounty placed on his head by the Sienese. The murderer is immediately hanged. A portrait of Iacopo Corso, a work by Vasari, is found in the Palazzo Vecchio of Florence. “A captain of incredible valour,” according to Benedetto Varchi. A similar judgement is expressed by other historians of his time such as Giovio and Foglietta. He operates in Tuscany, Liguria, Emilia, Lombardy, Trentino, the Veneto, the Marche, Piedmont and Campania.
Guglielmo Corso
Died around 1530.
He is remembered for having served in favour of the Serenissima for a long period, from 1509 to 1521. In this span of time he is noted in 1509 at the defence of Padua, and in 1513 (under the orders of Bartolomeo d’Alviano) again at the defence of Padua and at the battle of Creazzo. In 1526 he moves into the pay of the Florentines engaged in assailing Siena. In August he is taken prisoner in a sortie by the defenders; freed, he passes into the service of the latter to oppose the same Florentines. He recovers for a brief period Orbetello after scaling its walls by night. He dies around 1530. He operates in the Veneto and in Tuscany.
Micheletto Corso
Died around 1535.
Another Corsican captain who serves predominantly in the pay of the Venetians. In 1509 he is at the defence of Padua. He subsequently confronts the French in the Verona area (1510), in Romagna and in Emilia (1511). In March he is recorded at Modena. While on his rounds to check the guards of the Porta Saliceto, he is wounded in the face by three foot soldiers. These are captured while sleeping and are immediately hanged. In 1517 he leaves the pay of the Serenissima to oppose in the Marche, in the pay of the papacy, the action of Francesco Maria della Rovere in his attempt to reconquer the lost duchy of Urbino. With Tristano Corso he defends Corinaldo for twenty-two days against the attacks of the adversaries: these are forced to desist from the siege operations for want of provisions. In 1524 he is in Lombardy in the service of the duke of Milan Francesco II Sforza. He distinguishes himself at the defence of Arona. His last contract is of 1533 with the papacy. He dies around 1535. He operates in the Veneto, Romagna, Emilia, the Marche and Lombardy.
Cruciano Corso
Died around 1520.
Like numerous Corsican captains, for a considerable period of his career he serves in the pay of the Venetian republic. He confronts the French in 1510. Set in charge of the defence of Monselice, his foot clash with their colleagues of Sardinian origin belonging to the company of Francesco Rondinelli. In 1512 he is on the guard of Pontecchio Polesine. He gets the worst of a clash with the Este forces, allies of the adversaries. Another failure he is forced to undergo in June 1514 in an assault made on Marano Lagunare (controlled by the imperial forces), because not sufficiently supported by other Venetian companies. He is in any case praised for his conduct by the authorities of the Serenissima. In 1516 he moves into the pay of the papacy. He confronts the troops of Francesco Maria della Rovere, determined to recover the lost duchy of Urbino. A remarkable episode concerns him closely: at Fano he takes part with another condottiero in a city assembly aimed at preventing and punishing the acts of indiscipline of the soldiers present in the locality. He dies around 1520. He operates in the Veneto, Emilia, Romagna, Friuli and the Marche.
Corsetto
Died around 1500.
He serves initially in the companies of Roberto da San Severino. In 1478, in the pay of the Florentines, he confronts the Aragonese. He takes part with other condottieri (Niccolò Vitelli, Bernardino di Todi and Bernardino da Montone) in a raid towards Sinalunga: along the way houses, huts and crops are set on fire, with the death of many people suffocated by the smoke. On the way back he falls into an ambush and is taken prisoner. He subsequently serves Siena (1481), the Aragonese (1482; he is captured at the battle of Campomorto) and the Venetians. He dies around 1500. He operates in Piedmont, Tuscany, Lazio and Lombardy.
Cesare Farina
Died around 1535.
In the service of the papacy in 1521 and of the French in 1526. He is part of the Bande Nere of Giovanni de’ Medici. He confronts the landsknechts at the battle of Governolo, in the course of which his captain is mortally wounded. In February 1527 he takes part with other arquebusiers in an assault on an imperial encampment: the plunder is rich, comprising horses, arms and flasks of wine. In November he is dismissed with Morgante da Parma from the Bande Nere because of the disorders provoked by the men of the two companies. The following year Giano Fregoso puts pressure on the Venetians to have him hired. In August 1529, in the pay of the Serenissima, he is recorded in Lombardy, near Brescia, at the head of 300 foot. He dies around 1535. He operates in Emilia and in Lombardy.
Battista Farina (Battista Corso)
Died 1536 (August).
Like other Corsican captains, his first experiences take place under the ensigns of the Venetians. In August 1526 he takes part in the clash with the imperial forces at Governolo, the battle in which Giovanni de’ Medici is mortally wounded. In December of the same year he confronts the same adversaries in the service of the papacy. With Lucantonio Cuppano he moves into Lazio to assail the fortresses held by the Colonna, allies of the imperial forces. The villages of Rocca di Papa and Artena are set on fire, and the nearby districts of Genazzano, Ceccano and Supino are devastated. In January 1527 he is noted at the defence of Frosinone. With Alessandro Vitelli and Giovambattista Savelli he surprises in an ambush many Spanish horse. Among the imperial forces there are more than 80 dead and many prisoners as well. In May following he accepts the contract proposed to him by the Venetians, with whom he remains until the end of the conflict (1530). He then passes into the pay of the Genoese. In August 1536 the city is attacked by the French troops led by Guido Rangoni and Cesare Fregoso. He is killed in an assault made by the enemy on the walls of Fassolo on the hill of Granarolo. He operates in Lombardy, Lazio, Tuscany and Liguria.
Giorgio di Vailate (Giorgio Vailla)
Father of Ottaviano. Died 1526 (September).
A captain of foot who serves in the pay of the Venetians. In March 1516 he defends Asola successfully with other condottieri of the Serenissima; that same autumn he takes part in the siege of Verona, a city that will be conquered the following year. He remains there on garrison. In July 1517 there occurs an episode that, on the one hand, concerns him closely and, on the other, is a kind of litmus test for the atmosphere that prevailed in the cities in time of war. One of his soldiers is accused of homicide by the city podestà Alvise Contarini. The official orders his arrest; some foot of his company, with the complicity of a son, prevent the carrying out of the measure by threatening to kill Contarini. The College of the Pregadi (the supreme deliberative organ of the republic) orders the transfer of the company, the dismissal of Vailate and the imprisonment of the son. Teodoro da Trivulzio, governor general of the Venetian army, intervenes in his favour. He makes of it a personal matter; in the end he is satisfied. Vailate is re-engaged, while the foot involved in the dispute with the podestà are dismissed. He remains for a few years on the guard of Verona until, in July 1526, he returns to the front to assist Malatesta Baglioni in his attempt to conquer Cremona. There is an assault on the walls made by his company (300 foot); at the end of the fighting, in the subsequent muster, 13 dead, 46 wounded and 5 missing are counted. He is killed the following month, by an arquebus shot to the face in an attack on Pizzighettone. He operates in Lombardy and in the Veneto.
Ottaviano di Vailate
Son of Giorgio. Died around 1535.
He serves for a decade in the pay of the Venetians, from 1522 to 1532. Sometimes dismissed, he is at once re-engaged to be sent to another front, as happens, for example, in the summer of 1529 with his transfer to the defence of Trani. In May 1532 the College of the Pregadi assigns him with 150 foot to the defence of the island of Corfu following the threats of the Turks. He refuses to depart and is immediately dismissed. He dies around 1535. He operates in Lombardy, Apulia and the Veneto.
Piero Corso
Died around 1540.
He serves, in succession, in the pay of the Florentines (1495), of the Este forces in 1511 (a contract of 500 foot), of the Venetians (1515), and again of the Florentines in the period 1517-1530, the year in which he leaves Pisa to support the offensive action of the commissary Francesco Ferrucci. His last service is recorded in 1536. In April he is stationed in the Piacenza area with Giovanni di Torino on behalf of the French against the imperial forces. At a certain moment the transalpine troops give themselves over to pillage instead of proceeding with the war operations: the Corsican foot are surprised by a sortie of the inhabitants of Piacenza, who put his soldiers to flight and recover the booty. He dies around 1540. He operates in Tuscany, the Marche and Emilia.
Antonio Corso (Antonio di Sant’Antonino)
Of Sant’Antonino, a medieval village at 500 metres of altitude in the region of the Balagne. Died around 1554.
In a single year, 1525, he changes “employer” three times: he begins in February with the duke of Milan Francesco II Sforza, continues with the French, and finishes in August with the Venetians. In August of the following year he follows Malatesta Baglioni at the conquest of Cremona. At the head of 195 foot he takes part in an assault on the walls towards Porta Po. At the muster following the clash, among his men 8 dead and 18 wounded are counted. In 1529 he serves the Florentines against the imperial and papal forces. There follows a long span of time before finding him again in 1533 in Corsica, opposing the French of Termes on behalf of the Genoese. He dies around 1554. He operates in Lombardy, the Veneto, Tuscany and France (Corsica).
Angelo Santo Corso (Angelo Santi dalle Vie, Angelo Santo di Levre)
Of Levie, a commune located in the department of Corse-du-Sud. Died around 1555.
He fights in Apulia for the Venetians against the imperial forces. In 1529, under the orders of Camillo Orsini, he is noted at the defence of Trani; in August he embarks on the fleet of Giovanni Contarini Cacciadiavoli. He is at his side in an attack concluded happily against Brindisi; the inhabitants surrender after seeing the preparation of the artillery against the city positions. Years later, in 1553, he offers himself to the Genoese to confront the French in Corsica. He conquers Bastia. The following year, on the contrary, he passes into the service of the French against the same Genoese. He joins with Sampiero Corso and bars the way to the enemy army: in the clash 1,000 foot are captured. He dies around 1555. Paolo Paruta in the “Historia venetiana” remembers him as “a man of the greatest daring, and a great inventor of artificial fires.” He operates in Apulia, Tuscany, Piedmont, Lombardy and France (Corsica).
Battistino Corso (Battista di Leca)
Brother of Vincenzo and of Francesco. Died around 1555.
He is a captain of infantry who, according to Mario Troso (“Le armi in asta delle fanterie europee 1000-1500”), was “present in all the feats of arms, battles and sieges of his time, in which an uncle of his and three of his cousins fell.” He is present in the Italian Wars already in 1509, when he serves the Venetians. He takes part in the defence of Padua and Treviso, and in 1512 he supports Renzo di Ceri in his expedition into Friuli at the expense of the imperial forces. His service in favour of the Serenissima extends over time until April 1537, when he passes into the pay of the French to oppose, again in Piedmont, the imperial forces. He has, with Vincenzo Strozzi, command of 500 provisioned men: under the orders of Piero Strozzi he obtains on terms the castle of Barge, at whose defence is Annibale Brancaccio. In the course of the fighting 100 men are left on the ground and Brancaccio is taken prisoner. He continues his action, which ends with the conquest of other centres such as Boves and Cherasco (with Cesare Fregoso). In August 1546 he is recorded fighting for the imperial forces at the defence of Genoa, assailed by the troops of Guido Rangoni. An enemy ensign-bearer manages to scale the walls and plant there the French standard. Battistino Corso intervenes, throwing the adversary into the ditch below. At the end of his years, towards 1550, he returns to serve the Serenissima. He dies around 1555. He operates in the Veneto, Friuli, Lombardy, Tuscany and Piedmont.
Sampiero Corso
Of Bastelica. He marries Vannina d’Ornano. 1498 (May) – 1567 (January).
He is by far the most important figure among the Corsican captains and one of the most significant condottieri of the entire Italian sixteenth century. In 1522 he serves in the company of Giovanni de’ Medici: he takes part in the battle of the Bicocca and protects the retreat of Lautrec; in this period he comes into conflict with another captain of the Bande Nere, Giovanni di Torino; Giovanni de’ Medici, seeing that his two captains do not reconcile, shuts them in a room with half a cape and a great sword. Sampiero wounds the adversary on the forehead; the rival allows him to bind it, then resumes the duel; in the end Medici finds them both stretched on the floor unconscious and forces them to make peace. In 1524 he is at the defence of Marseille. In 1527 in the Bande Nere for Florence against the Empire. In 1530 he serves the Empire against Florence. In 1536 he is recorded at the defence of Mirandola for France. In the following decades he fights in numerous campaigns in Italy and abroad. The second half of his life is inseparable from the struggle for the liberation of Corsica from Genoese rule: he carries forward this cause with extraordinary tenacity until his death at the hands of his adversaries in January 1567. His ashes are buried at Bastelica. For fuller information about him the reader is invited to consult the biography included on the site. Here it pleases us to recall some of the numerous citations expressed about him over time. We begin with Giuseppe Volpe (“Storia della Corsica italiana”): “Some have exalted him as a warrior, as a politician, as an ardent and sincere patriot; others have seen in him only violent passions, thirst for vengeance, personal interest.” Carlo Botta (“Storia d’Italia continuata da quella del Guicciardini sino al 1789”): “A valiant man in war, like one who from the first years of his youth had always exercised himself in arms.” Vito A. Vitale (“Breviario della storia di Genova”): “A valiant soldier, a restless and cruel man, animated by ferocious hatred against Genoa.” Mambrino Roseo (“Delle historie del mondo. Aggiunte dell’historia di Giovanni Tarcagnota”): “A brave soldier, who from low estate had, by his valour and his honoured labours in so many wars in various parts, become rich and famous; but since he was by his nature restless and very haughty, he knew not how to rest and be quiet with the world.” Federico Donaver (“La storia della repubblica di Genova”): “Sampiero in the sixteenth century was the champion of Corsican independence, as in the fourteenth century Arrigo della Rocca had been and in the eighteenth Pasquale Paoli. Boldness, courage proof against all trials, and uncommon political and military ability were his virtues.” He operates in Tuscany, the Marche, Lombardy, France (various departments), Emilia, Piedmont, France (Corsica) and Turkey.
Concluding note
The picture that emerges from the whole set of entries is that of a constant presence of French condottieri and captains in the Italian Wars, though structurally different in two historical phases. In one, the medieval, the French captains, besides being valiant soldiers, are also great organizers: fra Moriale invents the great bureaucratic company; Bernardo della Sala, after the defeat of Marino, maintains the Company of the Bretons as a settled garrison for almost thirty years; Enguerrand de Coucy is the prince who brings into Italy the heavy cavalry with the stature of a political interlocutor. In the more recent, the sixteenth-century, it is the Corsican captains who dominate with their presence: they are resistant to hardship; they are many and available cheaply; they are often ready to defect to the opposing camp for a better engagement, with the nonchalance of those who have no feudal ties to honour; they do not hold back in combat; still others keep an ambiguous conduct, so that some die in violent circumstances, executed. The constable Andrea Corso, captured by the Florentines, is hanged by Bernardino da Montone because suspected of having poisoned his father before deserting in favour of the papacy; Piero Corso, another constable, is hanged by Bartolomeo d’Alviano for treason; Girolamo Corso is himself on the point of being hanged for a crime committed, until he is pardoned through a decisive intervention by his captain Giovanni de’ Medici.
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