Amazon.com description: Product Description: Reprint of the 1889 edition. Hardbound. Oversized octavo. Book 370 p. : ill. ; [Florence] ; London : T.F. Unwin [Printed by G. Barbèra], 1889 . HAWKWOOD, SIR JOHN (d. 1394), an English adventurer who attained great wealth and renown as a condottiere in the Italian warsof the 14th century. His name is variously spelt as Haccoude, Aucud, Acuto, &c, by contemporaries. It is said that he was the son of a tanner in Essex, and was apprenticed in London, where he joined the English army under Edward III and the Black Prince. It is said also that he obtained the favor of the Black Prince, and received knighthood from King Edward III., but though it is certain that he was of knightly rank, there is no evidence as to the time or place at which he won it. After several campaigns in various parts of central Italy, Hawkwood in 1368 entered the service of Bernabo Visconti. In 1369 he fought for Perugia against the Pope, and in 1370 for the Visconti against Pisa, Florence and other enemies. In 1372 he defeated the marquis of Monferrato, but soon afterwards, resenting the interference of a council of war with his plans, Hawkwood resigned his command, and the White Company passed into the papal service, in which he fought against the Visconti in 1373. During the 1390's, in the Florentine war against Gian Galeazzo Visconti (who had murdered Bernab), Hawkwood was appointed condottiere, mercenary general of the army. Upon the death of Sir John Hawkwood in 1394, Florence gave him a great public funeral, and decreed that a marble monument was to be erected in the cathedral. For one reason or another, it never happened. Then in 1436, Paolo Uccello was commissioned to paint Hawkwood's portrait within the cathedral, where it still remains. At the behest of Hawkwood's son(s) to King Richard II of England and to Florence, Sir John Hawkwood was returned to England and supposedly buried at Hedingham Sibil, where he was born. Co-published with Owl at the Bridge.