Mercenaries and Their Masters

The eminent Renaissance historian’s classic study of warfare between Italian city-states between the 13th and 16th centuries.

Michael Mallett’s lucid account of the age of the condottieri—or mercenary captains of fortune—and of the soldiers who fought under them is set in the wider context of the Italian society of the time and of the warring city-states who employed them. Mallett presents a colorful portrait of the mercenaries themselves, as well as their commanders and their campaigns, while also exploring how war was practiced in the Renaissance world.

Mallett puts special focus on the 15th century, a confused period of turbulence and transition when standing armies were formed in Italy and more modern types of military organization took hold across Europe. But it also looks back to the middle ages, and forward to the Italian wars of the sixteenth century when foreign armies disputed the European balance of power on Italian soil.

First published I 1974, Mallett’s pioneering study remains an essential text on the subject of warfare in the late medieval period and the Renaissance.