ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the impact of the mercenaries on Italian cities. It discusses what recourse was available to towns in guarding against mercenary attacks, and sketches the far-reaching economic and political consequences of what was, along with plague and famine, one of the most severe scourges of the era. Although mercenaries had plied their trade for centuries, the bands of the fourteenth century were particularly burdensome. But it was in Italy, where they were known as "Companies of Adventure" and their captains as condottieri, that they committed their worst crimes. With its wealthy cities and contentious communal politics, Italy provided a particularly fertile field for mercenary activity. The small body of literature devoted to the companies deals primarily with their growth and development, stressing most often the events of the fifteenth century when condottieri such as Francesco Sforza of Milan emerged from their companies and took control of the states they served.
