CHAP. Vll.] 



DECLINE OF FEUDALISM. 



201 



thrown upon their own resources, their employment 

 gone, their pay and rations stopped, their chances of 

 plunder at an end, naturally closed together for mutual 

 protection, and made up their minds that if others did 

 not go to war they would do so, and still continue to 

 earn a living with their swords. A partisan named 

 Guarnieri, in 1343, was the first to unite these dis- 

 banded and dissatisfied mercenary cavalry under his 

 command. His plan was not to make war, but to levy 

 contributions and pay and support his troops by a 

 system which, without the dangers and risks of battle, 

 would sc^iire as good or better remuneration.^ 



From that time for many years companies of adven- 

 turers organised upon the same principle, were the 

 scourge and disgrace of Italy. A knight of Rhodes, 

 named Montreal or Moriale, annoyed with the King of 

 Naples, decided in the year 1353 to gather under his 

 orders as many as possible of the disbanded soldiers and 

 deserters who infested all parts of Italy. He con- 

 cluded that if he could organise these small bands of 

 petty thieves into a regular army of banditti, all Italy 

 would become subject to his imposts.^ His army soon 

 consisted of 1,500 men-at-arms of great reputation for 

 bravery, and more than 20,000 men of other grades. 

 His company was a moving republic, bound together by 

 a common danger and a common love of plunder. Im- 

 mense sums were extorted from the rich cities of Tuscany 

 and Romagna, to secure them protection from pillage, 

 Montreal was soon put to death by the Tribune Rienzi,' 

 in whose power he had incautiously placed himself. 

 After his death Conrad Lando commanded the " Great 

 Company," which had increased to 5,000 cuirassiers, and 

 to a total of 20,000 men. 



The greatest of all the partisan leaders of the age, 

 and he who, as a distinguished general acquired a greater 

 renown than all others, was an Englishman named Sir 

 John Hawkwood, who was known to the writers of the 

 time as Aucud or Agutus. He led a band of free 



^ Hallam, i. 470, 2 J)q Cerceau, Life of Rienzi, 346, 347. ^ Ibid. 

 393. 





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