Here, at one time, the Gonfaloniere received the Standard of the People, and here, at a somewhat later date, the batons of command were given to the condottieri who led the mercenaries in the pay of the Republic.
The soldiers of the condottieri were almost entirely heavy armoured cavalry (men-at-arms).
The condottieri played a very important part in Italian history from the middle of the 13th to the middle of the 15th century.
In our fourteenth chapter, we had occasion to consider the change which military affairs underwent in Italy about the time of the first French invasion, and we have seen in Duke Federigo of Urbino one of the last condottieri of the old sort.
The same rule of self-interest that actuated Italian condottieri was too often followed by literary adventurers in that country, conscience and glory being generally made subservient by both to a livelihood.
It was known that the members of the noble house, nearly all of them condottieri by trade, and eminent for their great strength and skill in arms, took few precautions for their safety.
The knights thus made already contained within themselves the germ of those Condottieriwho reduced the service of arms to a commercial speculation.
One of the ablest and wealthiest Condottieri of his time, one of the best instructed and humanest of Italian princes, he combined in himself the qualities which mark that period of transition.
The men-at-arms of the Condottieri still glittered in gilded hauberks.
During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries literature was cultivated and art was encouraged by a large proportion of the sovereigns and feudatories of Italy, when the bravest condottieri were often their most liberal patrons.
But his military force was uncertain, for the condottieri were not to be trusted.
To this end condottieriwere employed to carry on the several campaigns.
These condottieri were military leaders who made war a business.
Lucchino del Verme, one of the most famous condottieri of his time, had commanded troops in the service of the Visconti, at whose court he made the acquaintance of Petrarch.
Here, too, was his friend Pandolfo Malatesta, one of the bravest condottieri of the fourteenth century, who had been driven away from Milan by the rage and jealousy of Barnabo.
The German cuirassiers, with whom the Emperor Robert descended into Italy, could not cope with the condottieri of Jacopo Verme, who protected the states of Gian Galeazzo Visconti.
But the power of these foreign condottieri was not perpetual.
In amiable conversation with them all, and riding between Vitelli and Francesco Orsini, the duke passed from the borgo into the town itself, and so to the palace, where the condottieri disposed to take their leave of him.
It looked as if the condottieri agreed to this, for on October 11 Vitelli seized Castel Durante, and on the next day Baglioni was in possession of Cagli.
It happened, however, that when the Florentine ambassador reached him with this reply the duke was already over the frontier of Tuscany with the excluded condottieri in his train.
He lent Vitelli no aid; but neither did he attempt to restrain him or any other of the Borgia condottieri who were allied with him.
There is even confirmation of the statement that the condottiericonceived that he was weakened by the departure of the French lances and left with only a few followers of no account.
These were the only troops with the condottieri in Sinigaglia; the remainder of their forces were quartered in the strongholds of the territory at distances of from five to seven miles of the town.
Giovanni di Appia, called in the old chronicles Gianni di Pa, one of the most esteemed condottieri of France, to sustain his interests as rector of the Church.
He therefore dispatched an emissary with sufficient funds to retain some minorcondottieri of Lombardy and Romagna, and to persuade Malatesta to march at their head into the Abruzzi.
Footnote *63: Which among the condottieri is worthy of what Dennistoun seems to regard as only to be bestowed on the best of men?
Wherever war was intended, the Count of Urbino's services were naturally in request, for his name stood foremost on the roll of condottieri since the death of Giacopo Piccinino in July, 1465.
The condottieri then of greatest name were Nicolo Piccinino and Francesco Sforza, names which will soon be familiar to our pages.
Indeed, his description of all the battles in which none of the greatcondottieri were engaged, is merely ludicrous.
He joined one of the great companies, rose by the force of genius and courage, and in the end became one of the two most famous condottieri in Italy.
The influence of astrology in war was confirmed by the fact that nearly all the Condottieri believed in it.
A striking feature of this epoch is the attempt of the Condottieri to found independent dynasties of their own.
From the death of Piccinino onwards, the foundations of new States by the Condottieri became a scandal not to be tolerated.
The conduct of the Venetian government to the Condottieri in its pay has been spoken of already.
Often the place of wit is taken by mere insolence, clumsy trickery, blasphemy, and obscenity; one or two jokes told of Condottieri are among the most brutal and malicious which are recorded.
The cubs were often given to allied States and princes, or to Condottieri as a reward of their valor.
Even the Condottieriwho had obtained their dominions by inheritance, never felt themselves safe.
It is characteristic of the moral aspect of the situation that the Condottieri had often to give their wives and children as hostages, and notwithstanding this, neither felt nor inspired confidence.
In Italy it was probably the Condottieri who first ventured to boast so loudly of their fortune.
In this same month of October occurred the disaffection of Cæsar's condottieri which nearly ended in his overthrow.
In her fatherland she left a son of the same mettle as herself, Giovanni Medici, the last of the great condottieri of the country, who became famous as leader of the Black Bands.
They were powerful in other states besides Perugia; captains of Condottieri in Venice, in Florence, also in the States of the Church.
Perugia was never weak; rather she was in all things powerful, and she produced a race of the most renowned Condottieri of Italy, the bloodthirsty Baglioni.
Bracceschi, the (Condottieri bands formed by Braccio da Montone), i.
In his school the great condottieri Braccio da Montone and Sforza Attendolo were formed; and henceforth the battles of Italy were fought by Italian generals commanding native troops.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "condottieri" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
