Mercenary. Captain-general of Florence. Duke of Spoleto. Born in Sible Hedingham, England to Gilbert Hawkwood, a free tenant of John de Vere, Seventh Earl of Oxford, and reportedly a tanner by trade. In 1338, he joined his lord as an archer when he was raising troops to support Edward III in his claim to the French throne. He reportedly fought at Crecy in 1346, and at the battle of Poitiers ten years later. It is generally accepted that either Edward III or his son, Edward, later called the Black Prince, knighted him for his service, although his knighthood may actually have been Italian in origin. After the treaty of Bretigny in 1360, without an income to support him, Hawkwood remained in France and formed a mercenary band, becoming leader of the famous White Company. After campaigns in Champagne, Burgundy, and Dauphine, the Company threatened Avignon, at that time the residence of the Pope, who gave him absolution and bribed him to leave France. He moved to Italy, then just a collection of city-states, and sold his service to the marquis of Monferrato against Milan, and then to the Pisans against Florence. In 1368, he entered the service of Bernabo Visconti, Duke of Milan, and became involved in arranging a marriage between Edward III's third son, Lionel, Duke of Clarence, to Violanta, daughter of the Duke. In 1370, he led troops against Pisa and Florence. In 1372, he defeated former employer, Monferrato. He fought both for and against Milan, Pisa, Florence, Perugia, Siena, and the Papacy during his career. In 1378, he entered the service of Florence, serving until 1382, when he was appointed an English ambassador at the papal court. He fought for the marquis of Padua against Verona in 1386, and in 1390, served as commander of the Florentine troops when they again went to war against Milan. He apparently then retired to a villa in Florence. From that state, he received money, land, and citizenship, all while making plans to return to England, but died some four years later in Florence. The Florentines conducted a grand funeral, and buried him with great ceremony in the Cathedral where a memorial fresco of him as a military figure on horseback was painted with the Latin translation of his name: Ioannes Acutus. In 1395, Richard II of England petitioned Florence for the return of Hawkwood's body. Whether the remains were ever repatriated or not remains unknown. There exists, however, a memorial in the church of Saint Peter in Sible Hedingham where a chantry was founded in 1412 for a priest to sing masses for his soul.