The Devil's Broker: Seeking Gold, God, and Glory in Fourteenth-Century Italy

by Frances Stonor Saunders

Book Overview

"There were good ways to die, and there were bad ways to die." So begins this effervescent history of an Italy about to shake itself free of the medieval age and move confidently into the Renaissance. First, though, there was an ordeal to pass through, one worthy of the imagination of Dante. Unleashed by a pause in the cataclysmic Hundred Years' War, hordes of soldiers with an appetite for pillage swooped down on the opulent city-states of Italy --...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 006077729X
• ISBN13: 9780060777296
• Release Date: May 2005
• Publisher: Harper
• Length: 352 Pages
• Weight: 1.65 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Fascinating glimpse into a crazy time

If you like intrigue, surprises, and being transported into another time and place - and to learn more about isn't taught in history books, this is a good book for you. If you love Italy, the history of the Catholic church, and have a mind for details, this is REALLY a book for you! I am bewildered at what it must have taken to research and COMPILE the details in this book. Payments for ransom, ledgers of the city of Siena, how many horsemen went into a particular battle. Although Hawkwood is the central character in this book, it was an era - and his life was intertwined into so many people and places important to the era - that the book provides a fascinating travelogue to the mid- to late 1300s. Who knew that one Pope (John XXI) died when a ceiling fell on him? There were more homicides in spring, when competition for paltry food supplies from last year's harvest gave motive - the book is chockablock full of details like this that bring the era alive, even if you don't keep a scorecard to remember who was ruling where, against whom, or married to whom. I even found many of the asides interesting [travel is derived from "travail", meaning "work." Indeed, travel continues to be work today.....]. If you ARE a details junkie, this book is really for you. If you aren't, no worries, it's still a great read.

Brutal! Savage! More offensive than Mandingo!

YES! It's about time we get a book in the historical realm that is not about either World War II or the holocaust or the sod-cutters of stoneybutt-upon-whitheridgecum. Finally, a respite from the boring, written-for-an-academic-professor-who-is-uptight style of history we have been force fed for years! This book kicks buttock, and I can't imagine anybody on earth not liking it, period(.). Francis Stonor Saunders is an author with real balls, except that said balls would be theoretical, because the author is a woman. No matter! Reading this book will GROW meaty man-balls on you, whether you are a woman, man, eunuch, ACLU member, whatever. I, Myself, have grown a second pair after reading about the thrilling exploits of John Hawkwood, and now I am twice as popular at the roller rink on friday nights. Plus, I learned a new word-"palimpest". Sweet!

The Devil's Broker: a brief review

Fourteenth century Italy was a maelstrom of political intrigue,military turmoil, and populated with deceiving and fascinating characters. Frances Stonor Saunders' new book uses Sir John Hawkwood, an English mercenary, as its center to create a world both thrilling and repugnant. To state that this is a book one "cannot put down" is risky, but it is nonetheless true. It is a captivating and well written account! The book moves rapidly through the era yet it does not sacrifice detail and description, but contains enough of both to hold the reader in its grasp. The character of Hawkwood is deftly interwoven into the fabric of medieval Italy. Although he was English he was a survivor. That was no mean feat as Sauders so impressively relates. It is superbly written and recommended most highly.

Portrait of a Freebooter

In the cathedral of Florence is a large fresco of a surprising figure. It was painted in the fifteenth century by Paolo Uccello, as a measure of respect to a Florentine fighter. Oddly, the figure is that of an Englishman, not an Italian, and one who fought for Florence simply because it was paying better than any of the many other sides during his tumultuous times. Sir John Hawkwood died in 1394, and in _The Devil's Broker: Seeking Gold, God, and Glory in Fourteenth-Century Italy_ (Fourth Estate), Frances Stonor Saunders tells what she can of his life. It must have been a tough task to get this history together. Hawkwood was a military leader in a turbulent continent, and "long cultivated an aura of inscrutability." There are two brief letters he wrote in 1394, which happen to be the oldest extant letters in English, but he was, as Saunders admits, a man of few words. This is necessarily an incomplete portrait; we can't tell too much about his relationships with his family nor with those (sometimes on opposing sides) who hired him. Saunders has, however, thoroughly steeped herself in details of the history of an extraordinary time, and delights in laying them out at length. She mentions several times the famous work covering the same period in another fashion, Barbara Tuchman's _A Distant Mirror_, and anyone who enjoyed one will enjoy the other. Hawkwood was born in Essex in 1320, and by the time he was forty, he was poor and unnoteworthy, and had a criminal record. Perhaps he had no other options than to become a mercenary soldier, a freebooter, and by luck or skill, he became the best there was. He was ready to be hired to the side that had the best offer for him, and to go over to the opposite side if it beat the first offer. He was amoral and greedy. When a pair of friars greeted him with "God give you peace," he snarled back at them, "God take away your alms." In peace, a soldier for hire has no trade. During Hawkwood's thirty year career, "...popes and princes would cringe before his approach, denounce him as the Devil incarnate, and rush to hire him nonetheless." As the head of his White Company, he had a reputation as the ablest military commander of the middle ages. The climax of his ruthlessness and cruelty came in the destruction of the Italian town Cesena in 1377. He happened at the time to be working for Pope Gregory XI. Gregory had been in France, and was returning the papacy to Italy, the subjugation of which was his obsession. Gregory took no steps to distance himself from Hawkwood's slaughter of 8,000 civilians who had given up their weapons because their cardinal told them to. Hawkwood was particularly fortunate in his final battle, where his troops had to retreat back to Padua. His army had been defeated, but he managed the "swift and precipitous flight" of the retreat so adroitly that it won him more fame than his greatest victories. It was greeted as a miracle, but it wasn't his first one. In combat a

An Excellent Read

I have the hardcover edition of this book. The quote on the back of the dust jacket states "Simply the most vivid account of the late medieval world I have ever read." I totally agree. This book is an excellent exploration of medieval Italian life during the 14th century. It bring to us the life of John Hawkwood, a famous English mercenary captain, Saunders also describes the country, its politics, its religion(s), battles, the plight of the common people, and many of it's other famous figures. I heartily recommend this book for anyone interested in the late medieval period.