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Medieval Warfare VIII-1 13

THE DARK SIDE OF A HEROTHE MASSACRES AT FAENZA AND CESENA

In 1394, the city of Florence marked the pass-ing of John Hawkwood with an elaborate state funeral. Further tributes followed for the “grand master of war,” creating a larger-than-life image for Hawkwood, which has significantly influenced subsequent scholarship. Historians have strug-gled, however, to reconcile this heroic legacy with Hawkwood’s participation in the massacre of civil-

ians at Faenza in 1376 and at Cesena in 1377.

By David Balfour

Medieval Warfare VIII-1 13

The events at Faenza and Cesena occurred within the context of the War of the Eight Saints, an off-shoot of the larger strug-gle by the popes to re-establish themselves in

Rome following the period of the Avignon Papacy (1309-1376). Named for the eight-man council that oversaw military operations for Florence, the War of the Eight

Saints erupted after Milan and the papacy set-

tled long-standing hostilities in June

1375. With

Pope Gregory XI having relieved the papacy from any immediate danger posed by Milan, the Flor-entines feared that he would now turn his aggression against them. Their fears appeared to be con-firmed when shortly afterwards, Hawkwood – then in the em-ploy of the papacy – launched a raid into Tuscany. The mercenary captain was possibly acting on his own initiative in this instance and, in a pre-arranged deal, had agreed not to attack Florence di-rectly in exchange for a payment of 130,000 florins. Nevertheless, the Florentines perceived the campaign as a papally-orches-

trated threat to their city, and they took up arms.

“The Greatest Cruelty Ever”Florence’s anti-papal rebellion expanded rapidly through Tusca-ny and into neighboring regions. In Romagna, the town of Faenza was soon swept up in the con-flict. It is unclear whether Faenza was in open rebellion or only threatening to break from the papacy when Hawkwood and his company were summoned there by a papal official in Febru-ary of 1376. The English troops, along with a company of Italian condottieri, entered the town in the following month. Leonardo Bruni’s description of what fol-lowed is generally representative of contemporary accounts:

[O]nce inside the walls [the mercenaries] inflicted eve-rything on its citizens that is usually inflicted on stormed and captured cities. For eve-rything was laid open to pil-lage, the men were either beaten or killed, the women raped, and things both sacred and profane were wretchedly and impiously polluted by the cruelty of the barbarians.

Young women were a particular target of the marauders. While many inhabitants were driven from the city amidst the looting and de-struction, the young women were “kept [by the soldiers] to violate.” Why would Hawkwood al-low his company to engage in such unbridled violence against civilians? The simplest answer is that he was a soldier-for-hire

The Piazza del Popolo is located in the historic center of Cesena, and was designed at the end of the fourteenth-century.© Marco Musmeci / Wikime-dia Commons

14 Medieval Warfare VIII-1

A papal coin of Pope Gregory XI.© Marianne Casamance / Wikimedia Commons

following the directives of his em-ployer. Hawkwood regularly adhered to the strict letter – if not always the full spirit – of his contracts. His repu-tation as a condottiere who could be counted upon to fulfill his obligations was instrumental in securing high-paying commissions, and finances were always the primary considera-tion in his decisions as an independ-ent military contractor. The months prior to Faenza had brought particu-larly rich rewards in cash and proper-ties to Hawkwood personally. Greg-ory XI, however, proved to be a very dilatory paymaster, and by 1376 the captain’s prosperity did not extend to his troops, whom Filippo Bastari char-acterized as ‘paupers.’ Consequently, there was considerable dissension in the ranks. As succinctly stated by the

chronicler Stefani, Hawk-wood “was not at the

time content with his men, nor they with him.” Before the massacre at Fae-nza, Hawkwood’s

enemies were al-ready trying to lure

away his disaffected troops with lucrative of-fers, and, in the follow-

ing months, the Flor-entines successfully

recruited several hundred of them into the employ of the city. Had Hawk-wood denied his impoverished fol-lowers the opportunity to enrich them-selves on the plunder from Faenza, his company may have disintegrated en-tirely at that point. As it was, during the sack his men frequently clashed with each other over the spoils. However, while Hawkwood allowed his men to indulge themselves at Faenza largely to stifle dissension, he did not entirely neglect his own purse; he later sold the city to a Ferraran nobleman for 50 to 60,000 ducats.

“The Rape of Cesena”The Bolognese chronicler character-ized the sack of Faenza as “the greatest cruelty ever,” but in the following year, the town of Cesena in Romagna would be the scene of even greater butchery. The events that culminated in a blood-bath in February of that year began with a relatively minor – and for the time routine – quarrel involving food. Although Cesena had resisted entreat-ies from Florence to join the anti-papal cause, since the fall a contingent of Breton mercenaries in the hire of the Pope had been stationed outside the city walls. Competition over food led to friction and occasional violence be-tween the mercenaries and the towns-people. On November 24, Robert of Geneva, a cardinal legate serving as the local papal governor, ordered the city opened to the Bretons in the hope that giving them access to the markets within would serve to defuse the situ-ation. Predictably, this decision only made things worse. Food grew scarcer in the winter months, and tensions increased as the Bretons “devoured, consumed and forced everything out of men and women.” Sources differ as to the incident that finally com-pelled the townspeople to strike back at their abusers. Whether prompted by the looting of the butcher shops, the murder of four leading townsmen, or some combination of these and other

factors, in February 1377, a mob of townspeople shouting “Death to the Bretons! Long live the Church!” turned on their oppressors, killing one hun-dred or more of them. On the following day, Robert of Geneva – holed up in the fortress of Rocca Murata, situated on a rocky rise overlooking the city – responded with apparently conciliatory ges-tures. He offered the townspeople clemency on the condition that they turn over their weapons and surren-der fifty hostages. The townspeople complied, and Robert immediately released the hostages in another indication of seeming good faith. In the meantime, however, he had summoned Hawkwood and twelve hundred of his men from Faenza. In a meeting with Hawkwood in the governor’s stronghold, Robert’s private demeanor was radically dif-ferent from his public face, and he angrily demanded that the English troops punish the town’s inhabitants severely. Hawkwood was clearly not eager to participate in another action against civilians, and he proposed in turn that his troops simply extract a pledge from the townspeople to sub-mit to Robert’s authority in the future. Robert, who emerges from the sourc-es as the worst villain in an episode entirely lacking in heroes, curtly dis-missed Hawkwood’s suggestion and apoplectically demanded “blood, blood, and justice.” Hawkwood pleaded with Robert to reconsider, but in the face of the legate’s furious intransigence, he finally acquiesced. The Breton mercenaries had en-tered Italy in 1375 with a reputation as the most bloodthirsty warriors in Europe. Since their arrival, the Italian populace had dreaded a possible coa-lition of the fierce Bretons and Hawk-wood’s remarkably efficient fighting men. At Cesena, their fears were real-ized. Unleashed by Robert, the Bret-ons and English subjected the city’s inhabitants to three uninterrupted days

πSLAUGHTER IN CESENA ‘The angry Bretons lost no time in avenging the slaughter of their fellows and, sparing neither age nor sex, they slaughtered with the utmost cruelty the wretched and harmless populace. The number of those killed was around three thousand, and the whole city was sacked as though it were an enemy town.’

- Leonardo Bruni, Florentine historian and statesman.

© Marek Szyszko

16 Medieval Warfare VIII-1

This western European sword was made about the year 1400, and was probably made for ceremonial use rather than as a fighting weapon. A Latin quotation is inscribed on the pommel, which reads in translation, "here, too, virtue has its due reward," a line from Virgil’s Aeneid.© Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bust of Robert of Geneva, who was named the anti-Pope Clement VII a year after the events at Cesena. This piece can be seen at the Mu-sée de Petit Palais in Avignon.

© David P. Henry / Wikimedia Commons

and nights of killing, savage assault, looting, and destruction. A chronicler from Rimini struggled to convey the magnitude of the horrific events:

As any men, women and nurselings as they found, they slaughtered, all the squares were full of dead. A thousand drowned themselves in trying to cross the moats – some fled by the gates with the Bretons pursuing, who murdered and robbed and com-mitted outrages, and would not let the handsomest women es-cape, but kept them as spoil; they put a ransom on a thousand little boys and girls, neither man nor women remained in Cesena.

Houses and public buildings were gutted and torched. Infants were “torn from their mothers’ arms and sliced up in front of them.” Those attempting to flee found the city gates locked and guarded against them. A group that managed to breach one of the gates was ambushed and killed by troops waiting on a bridge beyond the walls. Dogs feasted on the dead that littered

the streets, and many of the

corpses that

filled the moats and wells in and around the city were still being unearthed years later. Estimates vary widely, but all told, several thousand died. As summed up by the Archbishop of Florence, “the rape of Cesena was total”. At Cesena, the noted feroc-ity of the Bretons was whetted by their violent determination to avenge the deaths of their coun-trymen at the hands of the towns-people. The sources specifically cite the Bretons as the perpetrators of the most heinous atrocities, and, following the first three frenzied days, their depredations in Cesena continued into August, by which time the city had been “complete-ly consumed…inside and out.” The English, though far from blameless in their conduct, were motivated more by greed than anger. Whereas the Bretons were bent on wholesale slaughter, the English sold survivors for ransom, and rather than indulg-ing in indiscriminate destruction, they transported seized furnishings and valuables to be sold elsewhere.

Hawkwood himself appears to have taken part in extorting money

from the towns-people through the threat or application of violence. Nev-ertheless, even the generally hostile Chroni-con Estense asserts that he was “not to be held entirely

infamous,” since in the midst of the carnage he arranged for one thousand women to be trans-ported out of danger to Rimini. Perhaps memories of the outrag-es committed against women at Faenza compelled him at least to take this limited measure, which, in itself, did not seriously cut into his profits. In any event, in spite of Hawkwood’s gesture, many

women at Cesena were still subject to rape and other appalling brutality at the hands of the mercenaries. In September of the same year, Hawkwood severed his ties to the papacy and sold his services first to the anti-papal league and then, exclusively, to Florence, in whose service he remained for the rest of his life. Several historians have sug-gested that this step was prompted by Hawkwood’s ‘disgust’ over the events at Faenza and Cesena. There is, however, no direct evidence to support such speculation, and other obviously compelling factors likely played a larger role in his decision. In sharp contrast to Gregory XI’s notorious tightfistedness, the anti-papal forces offered Hawkwood

Medieval Warfare VIII-1 17

several inducements to join their side, including a highly advanta-geous marriage to the illegitimate daughter of the Lord of Milan. Meanwhile, Hawkwood’s former employer, Gregory XI, died in March of the following year. The Italian Bar-tolomeo Prignano was elected as his successor and established himself in Rome as Pope Urban VI. But a fac-tion of mainly French cardinals who objected to this choice held a second election outside of Rome and chose Robert of Geneva, who styled himself as Pope Clement VII. The erstwhile ‘Butcher of Cesena’ set up his rival papal court at Avignon, and the crisis of the so-called Avignon Papacy me-tastasized into the ‘Great Schism.’

Why then a hero?Hawkwood’s actions at Faenza and Cesena need to be assessed within the context of his time. In neither case did his conduct strictly violate the standards of fourteenth-century warfare. Nonetheless, it is clear from contemporary accounts that, even if they are deemed less culpa-ble than the Bretons, the behavior of Hawkwood and his company in

these instances outraged the norms of larger society. Florence’s posthumous venera-tion of Hawkwood may have been prompted, at least in part, by genu-ine gratitude. In his later years, after all, Hawkwood successfully defend-ed and arguably saved the city from its most formidable enemy, Gian-galeazzo Visconti, the ‘tyrant’ of Mi-lan. It should be recalled, however, that over his career Hawkwood took as hard-headed an approach to Flor-ence as he did to any other Italian city. On more than one occasion he extorted protection payments from the Florentines, and he exacted exorbitant fees for the services he actually ren-dered. William Caferro has demon-strated the propaganda value that ex-ploiting Hawkwood’s legacy had for a city still facing grave threats from hos-tile neighbors. In spite of its influence on later historians, Florence’s exalta-tion of Hawkwood reveals more about the city’s determination to promote its own self-interest than it reflects any valid measure of the man. MW

David Balfour is a Professor of His-tory at the College of St. Joseph.

(Top left) Scene of warfare from a manuscript cre-ated in Milan between the years 1380 and 1385.© Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS Français 343

(Top right) The famous Florentine painter Giotto created this scene of The Massacre of the Inno-cents in the early fourteenth-century.© Public domain

(Bottom right) A Biblical scene showing soldiers killing people with swords and daggers.© Bibliothèque nationale de France, MS Français 9561 fol.66v