Condottiere

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Condottiere [ ˌkondottiˈɛːre ] (plural: Condottieri ) is the name of a mercenary leader as employed by the Italian city-states from the late Middle Ages to the mid-16th century.

The term is derived from the Italian condotta 'line' . The form condottiere corresponds to the form used in Italian or Tuscan around 1500, in today's Italian the singular is condottiero . The Italian plural condottieri has become international. In German, the singular is formed in analogy to other Italian job titles with the ending -iere .

history

Portrait called "Condottiere" by Antonello da Messina from 1475 ( Louvre )

Origin and heyday

In the 13th and 14th centuries, Italian city-states such as Venice , Florence and Genoa had become rich through their oriental trade. However, these cities had only weak armed forces and were therefore targeted by foreign powers as well as envious neighbors. The ruling nobility tried to defend their countries by hiring mercenary troops who signed a condotta ( pay or pay contract) and were then known as compagnia di ventura . Each compagnia was headed by a condottiero .

Due to constant internal disputes between the aristocratic families, the top management of the city was often handed over to people from outside who were referred to as Podestà for a year at a time. The condottieri were also recruited from outside Italy. During the pauses in combat in the Hundred Years War , many mercenaries hired themselves in Italy. Lower Swabian aristocrats , who had no fixed fiefdom ties, also increasingly moved across the Alps.

The condottieri soon sensed that they had a monopoly on military power in Italy and began to dictate the terms of their employers. Many condottieri such as Braccio da Montone or Muzio Attendolo Sforza became powerful figures on the political stage in the 14th century.

The Condottieri troops were notorious for their whims. They often switched sides for better pay, not just before but in battle. For reasons of prestige, they also involved each other in fights, which mostly remained bloodless.

Downfall

The condottieri did not adapt quickly enough to more modern methods of warfare. They clung to armored knights and medieval armament and tactics when modern armies of pikemen and arquebusers had already been set up in large parts of Europe .

When French troops marched into Italy in 1494 and the Papal State had to call for help from Spain , the lavishly decorated but ineffective condottieri were defeated by each of the foreign armies that invaded one after the other. They could no longer offer any defense against Swiss pikemen, French cavalrymen and Spanish arquebusiers. By 1550 the condottieri and their troops disappeared completely.

Famous condottieri

literature

  • Michael Mallett: The Condottiere. In: Eugenio Garin (ed.): The man of the Renaissance. Campus-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1990, ISBN 3-593-34270-7 ; Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 1996, ISBN 3-596-12605-3 ; Magnus-Verlag, Essen 2004, ISBN 3-88400-403-4 , pp. 49-78.
  • Stig Förster , Christian Jansen , Günther Kronenbitter (eds.): Return of the Condottieri? War and the military between state monopoly and privatization. From antiquity to the present (= war in history. Volume 57). Schöningh, Paderborn u. a. 2010, ISBN 978-3-506-76754-7 .

Web links

Wiktionary: Condottiere  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Commons : Condottieri  - collection of images, videos and audio files