The Free Companies of the 14th Century
Professional Brigands that Plagued Europe in the 1400s
Aug 24, 2009
By the mid-fourteenth century the feudal system of warfare, whereby knights and barons performed military service to the king in return for their lands, was becoming obsolete. The outbreak of the Hundred Years War between England and France and conflicts between other states such as Castile and the Italian city-states, and the endless demand for soldiers that this state of constant war entailed, led to the development of professional contract armies as a counterpart to the traditional feudal host. This in turn led to the rise of a new officer class drawn from the lower ranks instead of the gentry, including men such as, Robert Knolles, Hugh Calveley and John Hawkwood, all of whom came of relatively humble stock and used the wars as a means of social advancement.
The Free Companies
These and others like them became the elected captains of the Free Companies. The Companies were made up of fighting men from every nationality in Europe and roved France, Italy and Castile as they pleased, owing no feudal allegiance but hiring their military services to the highest bidder. Their backgrounds were as diverse as their nationality and included restless knights, professional men-at-arms, veterans of the French wars and other assorted adventurers. They were usually well-organized with a clear hierarchy of command and democratic systems of electing captains and distributing plunder. Another characteristic was their habit of taking grandiose names such as the Great Company, the Company of St George and the Company of the Star.
Impact of Poitiers
The catalyst for the rise of the Free Companies as a threat to order in central Europe was the Battle of Poitiers in 1356. At Poitiers the mounted chivalry of France was annihilated by the English and, catastrophically for the French, their king was captured and shipped to England as a prisoner of war. The destruction of the French military and social elite and capture of the monarch led to the collapse of the authority of the French government. In addition the temporary end of the war meant that France was now full of large numbers of suddenly unemployed soldiers, and with no royal or central authority to suppress them these men banded together and took to pillaging the countryside.
The Chevauchee
One of the principal tactics of the Free Companies was the ‘chevauchee’, a term used to describe an army marching through enemy territory systematically burning and looting the surrounding countryside. This strategy of wholesale destruction was introduced to France by the King of England, Edward III. Edward used the chevauchee to cow the French populace and convince them to show loyalty to the King of England rather than the King of France. Originally a political and economic tool of the English king, the chevauchee was adopted by the Free Companies as a means of subsistence and profit.
Villains of Various Nations
The Free Companies also subsisted via terror and extortion. Large areas of central France were at their mercy and typically they would live off the land and terrorize the local populace, robbing from peasant and noble alike and extracting tolls and protection money from anyone they could force to pay. Often they would seize a castle as a base and pillage the surrounding countryside, moving on when the area was stripped of anything of value. Some of the Companies were very large: the Great Company of Robert Knolles numbered over 3,000, and local militias or the retinues of provincial nobles were inadequate to resist them. Only royal authority could raise the necessary troops for this and after the capture of the French King at Poitiers that authority no longer existed.
Destructive and lawless as they were, the Free Companies were also a very useful resource of professional soldiers. For instance, when war broke out again between England and France in 1360 the Great Company was employed by the English army. Both sides made use of the Companies but after the restoration of peace at the Treaty of Bretigny thousands of these fighting men were again left without money or employment and went back to their freebooting ways. When they descended upon Avignon in 1361 Pope Urban V bought them off and diverted them to Italy, which had long been ideal territory for mercenaries as the peninsula was constantly divided between warring city-states.
Rise of the Condottieri
The Free Companies were a presence in Europe throughout the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, particularly in Italy where the condottieri continued to ply their savage trade until 1494. In that year King Charles VIII of France invaded Italy with a huge professional army that crushed the divided Italian city-states and the mercenary armies they employed to try and fend off the French. Some condottieri captains went on to forge careers in other countries, notably Gian Giacomo Trivulzio in France and Andrea Doria, who became a general in the service of the Holy Roman Emperor. However the great days of the Free Companies and the condottieri were over, though the term ‘condottiero’ survived as a label for successful Italian soldiers fighting in the employ of foreign states.
Sources:
“The Reign of Edward III” by W.M. Ormrod, published by Tempus Publishing Ltd, updated edition 1st published 2000.
“By Fire & Sword: the Rise and Fall of English Supremacy at Arms 1314-1485” by Peter Reid, 1st published in the UK by Constable, an imprint of Constable & Robinson Ltd, 2007.
“Who’s Who in Late Medieval England” by Michael Hicks, 1st published 1991 by Shepherd-Walwyn (Publishers) Ltd.
