Editing Condottiero (section)

===Rise===
The first mercenary company with an Italian as its chief was the "Company of St. George" formed in 1339 and led by [[Lodrisio Visconti]]. This company was defeated and destroyed by [[Luchino Visconti (died 1349)|Luchino Visconti]] of Milan (another condottiero and uncle of Lodrisio) in April 1339. Later, in 1377, a second "Company of St. George" was formed under the leadership of [[Alberico da Barbiano]], also an Italian and the Count of Conio, who later taught [[military science]] to condottieri such as [[Braccio da Montone]] and [[Muzio Sforza|Giacomuzzo Attendolo Sforza]], who also served in the company.<ref>{{cite book |last=Machiavelli|first=Niccolò|author-link=Niccolò Machiavelli|title=The Prince |title-link=The Prince|translator-last=Rebhorn|translator-first=Wayne A.|chapter=12|year=2004|page=57|publisher=Barnes & Noble Classics|isbn=1593083289}}</ref>

Once aware of their military power monopoly in Italy, the condottieri bands became notorious for their capriciousness and soon dictated terms to their ostensible employers. In turn, many condottieri, such as Braccio da Montone and Muzio Sforza, became powerful politicians. As most were educated men acquainted with Roman military science manuals (e.g. [[Vegetius]]'s ''[[De re militari|Epitoma rei militarii]]''), they began viewing warfare from the perspective of military science, rather than as a matter of valour or physical courage—a great, consequential departure from [[chivalry]], the traditional medieval model of soldiering. Consequently, the condottieri fought by outmanoeuvring the opponent and fighting his ability to wage war, rather than risking uncertain fortune—defeat, capture, death—in battlefield combat.

[[File:Malpaga10.JPG|thumb|Detail of the frescoes, with soldiers]]

The earlier, medieval condottieri developed the "art of war" ([[military strategy]] and [[Military tactics|tactics]]) into military science more than any of their historical military predecessors—fighting indirectly, not directly—thus, only reluctantly endangering themselves and their enlisted men, avoiding battle when possible, also avoiding hard work and winter campaigns, as these all reduced the total number of trained soldiers available, and were detrimental to their political and economic interest.{{sfn|Mallett|1974|p=6}} [[Niccolò Machiavelli]] even said that condottieri fought each other in grandiose, but often pointless and near-bloodless battles. However, later in the Renaissance the condottieri line of battle still deployed the grand armoured knight and medieval weapons and tactics after most European powers had begun employing professional standing armies of [[pikemen]] and [[musketeer]]s; this helped to contribute to their eventual decline and destruction.{{Citation needed|date=November 2007}}

In 1347, [[Cola di Rienzo]] (Tribune and effective dictator of the city) had Werner von Urslingen executed in Rome, and Konrad von Landau assumed command of the Great Company. On the conclusion (1360) of the [[Treaty of Brétigny|Peace of Bretigny]] between England and France, Sir [[John Hawkwood]] led an army of English mercenaries, called the [[White Company]], into Italy, which took a prominent part in the confused wars of the next thirty years. Towards the end of the century, the Italians began to organize armies of the same description. This ended the reign of the purely mercenary company and began that of the semi-national mercenary army which endured in Europe till replaced by the national standing army system. In 1363, Count von Landau was betrayed by his Hungarian soldiers, and defeated in combat, by the White Company's more advanced tactics under commanders [[Albert Sterz]] and John Hawkwood. Strategically, the {{lang|it|barbuta}} was replaced with the three-soldier, mounted {{lang|it|lancia}} (a {{lang|it|capo-lancia}}, a groom, and a boy); five {{lang|it|lance}} composed a {{lang|it|posta}}, five {{lang|it|poste}} composed a {{lang|it|bandiera}} (flag). By that time, the campaigning condottieri companies were as much Italian as foreign: the [[Astorre I Manfredi]]'s {{lang|it|[[Compagnia della Stella]]}} (Company of the Star); a new {{lang|it|[[Compagnia di San Giorgio]]}} (Company of St. George) under Ambrogio Visconti; Niccolò da Montefeltro's {{lang|it|Compagnia del Cappelletto}} (Little Hat Company); and the {{lang|it|[[Compagnia della Rosa]]}} (Company of the Rose), commanded by Giovanni da Buscareto and Bartolomeo Gonzaga.

[[File:Ermanno Stroiffi - Portrait of a Condottiero.jpg|thumb|''Portrait of a condottiero'' by [[Ermanno Stroiffi]]]]

From the 15th century hence, most condottieri were landless Italian nobles who had chosen the profession of arms as a livelihood; the most famous of such mercenary captains was the son of [[Caterina Sforza]], [[Giovanni dalle Bande Nere]], from [[Forlì]], known as ''The Last Condottiere''; his son was [[Cosimo I de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany]]; besides noblemen, ''princes'' also fought as condottieri, given the sizable income to their estates, notably [[Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta]], Lord of [[Rimini]], and [[Federico da Montefeltro]], Duke of [[Urbino]]; despite war-time [[inflation]], soldier's pay was high:
* 1,900 monthly [[Italian coin florin|florins]] in 1432: [[Micheletto Attendolo]] (Florence)
* 6,600 monthly florins in 1448: [[William VIII of Montferrat]], from [[Francesco Sforza]] (Milan); the enlisted soldier's pay was 3,300 florins, half that of an officer's
* 33,000 yearly [[scudi]] for 250 men in 1505: [[Francesco II Gonzaga]] (Florence)
* 100,000 yearly scudi for 200 men in 1505: [[Francesco Maria I della Rovere]] (Florence)

The condottieri company commanders selected the soldiers to enlist; the {{lang|it|condotta}} was a consolidated contract, and, when the {{lang|it|ferma}} (service period) elapsed, the company entered an {{lang|it|aspetto}} (wait) period, wherein the contracting city-state considered its renewal. If the {{lang|it|condotta}} expired definitively, the condottiere could not declare war against the contracting city-state for two years. This military–business custom was respected because professional reputation (business credibility) was everything to the condottieri; a deceived employer was a reputation ruined; likewise, for maritime mercenaries, whose {{lang|it|contratto d'assento}} ({{literally|contract of assent}}) stipulated naval military-service terms and conditions; sea captains and sailors so-contracted were called {{lang|it|assentisti}}. Their principal employers were [[Genoa]] and the [[Papal States]], beginning in the fourteenth century, yet [[Republic of Venice|Venice]] considered it humiliating to so employ military sailors, and did not use naval mercenaries, even during the greatest danger in the city's history.

In 15th-century Italy, the condottieri were masterful lords of war; during the [[wars in Lombardy]], Machiavelli observed:

{{quote|None of the principal states were armed with their own proper forces. Thus the arms of Italy were either in the hands of the lesser princes, or of men who possessed no state; for the minor princes did not adopt the practice of arms from any desire of glory, but for the acquisition of either property or safety. The others (those who possessed no state) being bred to arms from their infancy, were acquainted with no other art, and pursued war for emolument, or to confer honour upon themselves.|''History'' I. vii.}}

In 1487, at [[Battle of Calliano (1487)|Calliano]], the [[Republic of Venice|Venetians]] successfully met and acquitted themselves against the German [[landsknechte]] and the Swiss infantry, the best soldiers in Europe at the time.

[[File:Bellini, Giovanni - Giovanni Emo - NGA.jpg|thumb|[[Bartolomeo d'Alviano]], one of the condottieri who took part in the [[Battle of Garigliano (1503)]]]]

In 1494, the French king [[Charles VIII of France|Charles VIII]]'s royal army invaded the Italian Peninsula, initiating the [[Italian Wars]]. The most renowned condottieri fought in these conlicts. Since the mid-16th century, mercenary captains decline in importance. However, they continue to exist into the sixteenth and the seventeenth centuries. The political practice of hiring foreign mercenaries also did not end. For example, the [[Vatican City|Vatican]]'s [[Swiss Guard]] are the modern remnants of a historically effective mercenary army.