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'Guards at the Court of Justice’ in a manuscript from Bologna madę c. 1356. (Cod. 2048, f.

149r, Ósterreichische Nationalbibliothek, Vienna)

BELOW A scene from ‘The Execution of St. James and his companions’ on a silver altar panel madę by Leonardo di Ser Giovanni in 1371. (In situ, Pistoia cathedral; author’s photograph)

Men who served as militiamen might seek employment as mercenaries elsewhere if their hometown was not at war. Many were recruited within their own cities by agents for an employer elsewhere. Feudal barons from Naples, Romę, the Romagna and Lombardy similarly offered entire units of their own followers to friendly cities: these men were then paid by the city and were not strictly mercenaries. Cities would lend militia to their allies too. In addition, individual travellers would recruit soldiers for protection, particularly in the middle and later 14th century when banditry reached epidemie proportions. Some of tliose hired had howeeer been bandits themsehes, and would return to it when no better-paid employment could be found.

A surviving Genoese contract dated 13 April 1254 States that Giordano the Crossbowman recruited Giovanni the Crossbowman for 29 weeks, as well as Ughetto the Crossbowman, who was to replace the lale Aimerico of Barbagetala. Most of these men came from the Coastal monntains of Liguria rather than Genoa itself, though the citv remained the centre of reeruitment. Other so-called ‘Genoese’ emsshowmen came front far away. A list of these men in French service in 1378 slums that it was leci by Guy of Pisa, and consisted of William, Ambony and Hitgh from Pisa, Antony from Lucca, Antony from Yenice, Mas from Messina. Richard from Naples, as well as many non-Italians. Among the Italians contmanded by Antoide Quinaille that same year were Daniel and Peter from Yenice, Bernard from Monaco, John from Modena and Antony from Sicily.

Piedmont and Savoy were a further source of infantry. The troops from the Yal d’Aosta were regarded as experts in mountain siege warfare. Also, crossbowmen from Mantua served in many locations, infantry from Lucca’s contado took senice under foreign flags, and foot soldiers from San Bancrazio appeared in late-13th-century Florentine army lists. In the latter, we also know that Catalan mercenaries were replaced by men from France and Southern Italy in 1314-15. Men from Spoleto served in Siena, where a three-man commission called the Lords of the Masnada mon-itored ntercenary performance, the best being rewarded with bonus pay. By the mid-13th century, a large part of the Papai army consisted of Tuscan infantry. Italian professional infantry could also find themsehes being sent on crusade, as in 1366 when Gian Galeazzo Visconti of Milan recruited 300 brigandi, mostly from Genoa, then ‘loaned’ them to the Count of Savoy who sailed off to capture Gallipoli in Turkey. These brigandi garrisoned the city, but were carefully watched by