ABSTRACT
One objection to the morality of the mercenary, and one that often underpins claims of abhorrence, lies in the view that willing participation in organised violence is wrong period. The mercenary’s killing motives are morally inappropriate because they are in a determining sense financial. One of the inherent difficulties in discussing the issue of commercial soldiering is the pejorative usage of the term ‘mercenary’ as a synonym for ‘venal’. This way of characterising common case financial incentives avoids the question-begging that the ordinary sense of the term ‘mercenary’ often invites. The mercenary soldier is condemned because of his lucrepathology not because of his so-called mercenary motives. The English mercenary Sir John Hawkwood was loyal to his country of birth. No matter whose service he was in, he never ceased to think of himself as an Englishman; in his contracts he always insisted on a clause excusing him from participation in a war against the King of England.
