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Sienese for ces at the battle of Sinalunga, 1363, in which Siena defeated the freebooting condottieri Compagnia del Capello led by Niccoló da Montefeltro. This fresco by Lippo Vanni is in the Palazzo Pubblico, Siena. Notę crossbow emblem on flags.

Campaigns

Lucca (1329 30)

The Republic of Lucca had long been a rival of Pisa, which in turn was a deadly rival of Genoa. Thus Lucca was squeezed between two larger and mutually antipathetic neighbours. Despite its lack of a major port, Lucca had dominated much of western Tuscany under the leadership of Castruccio Castracani, a one-time condottiere. After his death in 1328 Lucca remained prosperous and had clearly already extended beyond its new walls, enclosing suburbs which themselves had spread beyond the original Roman defences. These new fortifications of 1260 included a deep ditch. In 1329 a large army under the Holy Roman Emperor, Louis of Bavaria, was based at the neighbouring city of Pisa. Some 800 German mercenary cavalry, perhaps behind with their pay, deserted the Imperial camp and madę an unauthorised attack on Lucca. They probably marched along the old road around Monte Pisano, although such a mounted force might have attempted to bypass the Luccan frontier castle of Nozzano by going directly over Monte Pisano, a route followed by the modern main road. How much surprise the Germans achieved is unclear, for they were unable to seize a gate and, lacking siege eąuipment, could not attempt the walls. Nevertheless the eastern suburbs provided plenty of loot. The raiding force then retired to neighbouring hills, probably Monte Serra to the south, where, at an unidentified spot, they established a winter camp called the Cerruglio. The Emperor Louis sent a nobleman named Marco Visconti to negotiate with the German mercenaries but, in the event, they elected him as their leader and named themselves the Company of the Cerruglio. The following spring this condottieri company again swooped on Lucca and this time seized the city in a coup de main. Morę loot was acąuired, to which the Company added 30,000 gold florins by selling the city to its increasingly powerful neighbour, Genoa. The Company of the Cerruglio

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