Editing Mercenary (section)

====Medieval warfare====
{{See also|Routiers|Bertrand du Guesclin}}
[[Image:The body of Leo V is dragged to the Hippodrome through the Skyla Gate.jpg|thumb|[[Varangian Guard]]smen, an illumination from the 11th century chronicle of [[John Skylitzes]]]]
[[File:Turkic mercenary in Byzantine service - 1436 – PISANELLO.jpg|thumb|[[Oghuz Turks|Turkish]] mercenary in Byzantine service {{Circa|1436}}]]
[[File:Il Condottiere.jpg|thumb|[[Leonardo da Vinci]]'s ''Profilo di capitano antico'', also known as ''il [[Condottiero]]'', 1480. ''Condottiero'' meant "contractor" in its more literal sense but came to be applied to leaders of mercenary groups in [[Italy]] during the [[Late Middle Ages]] and the [[Renaissance]].]]
[[List of Byzantine emperors|Byzantine emperors]] followed the Roman practice and contracted foreigners especially for their personal [[corps]] guard called the [[Varangian Guard]]. They were chosen among war-prone peoples, of whom the [[Varangian]]s (Norsemen) were preferred. Their mission was to protect the Emperor and Empire and since they did not have links to the Greeks, they were expected to be ready to suppress rebellions. One of the most famous guards was the future king [[Harald III of Norway]], also known as Harald Hardrada ("Hard-counsel"), who arrived in Constantinople in 1035 and was employed as a Varangian Guard. He participated in eighteen battles and was promoted to {{lang|grc-Latn|akolythos}}, the commander of the Guard, before returning home in 1043. He was killed at the [[Battle of Stamford Bridge]] in 1066 when his army was defeated by an English army commanded by King [[Harold Godwinson]]. The point at which the Varangians ceased to be in the service of the Roman Empire remains unclear.

In England at the time of the [[Norman Conquest]], [[Flemish people|Flemings]] (natives of [[Flanders]]) formed a substantial mercenary element in the forces of [[William the Conqueror]] with many remaining in England as settlers under the [[Normans]]. Contingents of mercenary Flemish soldiers were to form significant forces in England throughout the time of the Norman and early [[House of Plantagenet|Plantagenet]] dynasties (11th and 12th centuries). A prominent example of these were the Flemings who fought during the English civil wars, known as [[the Anarchy]] or [[the Nineteen-Year Winter]] (AD 1135 to 1154), under the command of [[William of Ypres]], who was [[Stephen of England|King Stephen]]'s chief lieutenant from 1139 to 1154 and who was made Earl of Kent by Stephen.{{Citation needed|date=May 2007}}

In Italy, the {{lang|it|condottiero}} was a military chief offering his troops, the {{lang|it|[[condottieri]]}}, to Italian [[city-state]]s. The {{lang|it|condottieri}} were extensively used by the Italian city-states in their wars against one another. At times, the {{lang|it|condottieri}} seized control of the state, as one {{lang|it|condottiero}}, [[Francesco Sforza]], made himself the Duke of Milan in 1450.<ref>Lanning, Michael (2007), ''Mercenaries: Soldiers of Fortune, from Ancient Greece to Today's Private Military Companies'', New York: Random House, pp. 48–49</ref> During the ages of the [[Taifa]] kingdoms of the Iberian peninsula, Christian knights like [[El Cid]] could fight for a Muslim ruler against his Christian or Muslim enemies. The [[Almogavars]] originally fought for [[Count of Barcelona|the counts of Barcelona]] and [[Kingdom of Aragon|kings of Aragon]], but as the [[Catalan Company]], they followed [[Roger de Flor]] in the service of the [[Byzantine Empire]]. In 1311, the Catalan Great Company defeated at the [[Battle of Halmyros]] their former employer, [[Walter V, Count of Brienne]], after he refused to pay them, and took over the [[Duchy of Athens]].<ref>Lanning, Michael (2007), ''Mercenaries: Soldiers of Fortune, from Ancient Greece to Today's Private Military Companies'', New York: Random House, p. 44</ref> The Great Company ruled much of central and southern Greece until 1388–1390 when a rival mercenary company, the [[Navarrese Company]] were hired to oust them.<ref>Lanning, Michael (2007), ''Mercenaries: Soldiers of Fortune, from Ancient Greece to Today's Private Military Companies'', New York: Random House, p. 45</ref> Catalan and German mercenaries also had prominent role in the Serbian victory over Bulgarians in the [[Battle of Velbuzd]] in 1330.{{Citation needed|date=November 2019}}
[[File:Sack of the town.jpg|thumb|right|The [[Tard-Venus]] ''[[routiers]]'' pillage Grammont in 1362, from [[Froissart's Chronicles]]]]
During the later Middle Ages, [[Free company|Free Companies]] (or ''Free Lances'') were formed, consisting of companies of mercenary troops. Nation-states lacked the funds needed to maintain standing forces, so they tended to hire free companies to serve in their armies during wartime.<ref name="Lanning, Michael p. 42">Lanning, Michael (2003), ''Mercenaries: Soldiers of Fortune, from Ancient Greece to Today's Private Military Companies'', New York: Random House, p. 42</ref> Such companies typically formed at the ends of periods of conflict, when men-at-arms were no longer needed by their respective governments.<ref name="Lanning, Michael p. 42"/> The veteran soldiers thus looked for other forms of employment, often becoming mercenaries.<ref name="Lanning, Michael p. 42"/> Free Companies would often specialize in forms of combat that required longer periods of training that was not available in the form of a mobilized militia.

The {{lang|fr|[[Routiers]]}} formed a distinctive subculture in medieval France who alternated between serving as mercenaries in wartime and bandits in peacetime.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Strickland |first1=Matthew |title=War and Chivalry: The Conduct and Perception of War in England and Normandy, 1066–1217 |date=1996 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |isbn=052144392X |pages=291–300}}</ref> The {{lang|fr|routiers}} were very destructive and became a significant social problem. After the [[Treaty of Brétigny]] ended the war between England and France in 1360, the French countryside was overrun by Free Companies of {{lang|fr|routiers}} while the French Crown lacked the necessary military and economic strength to put an end to their activities.<ref>Paz González, Carlos (2007), "The Role of Mercenary Troops in Spain in the Fourteenth Century" pp. 331–344, in John France (ed.), ''Mercenaries and Paid Men: The Mercenary Identity in the Middle Ages'' Leiden: Brill, pp. 331–332</ref> To rid France of the rampaging mercenaries and to overthrow the pro-English King [[Peter of Castile|Pedro the Cruel]] of Castile, Marshal [[Bertrand du Guesclin]] was directed by King [[Charles V of France]] to take the Free Companies into Castile with the orders to put the pro-French [[Henry II of Castile|Enrique de Trastámara]] on the Castilian throne.<ref>Paz González, Carlos (2007), "The Role of Mercenary Troops in Spain in the Fourteenth Century", pp. 331–344, in John France (ed.), ''Mercenaries and Paid Men: The Mercenary Identity in the Middle Ages'', Leiden: Brill, 2007 pp. 337–338</ref> Guesclin's mercanaries were organized into the Big Companies and French Companies and placed a decisive role in putting Enrique on the Castilian throne in 1369, who styled himself King Enrique II, the first Castilian monarch of the House of Trastámara.<ref>Paz González, Carlos (2007), "The Role of Mercenary Troops in Spain in the Fourteenth Century", pp. 331–344, in John France (ed.), ''Mercenaries and Paid Men: The Mercenary Identity in the Middle Ages'', Leiden: Brill, pp. 338–341</ref>

The [[White Company]] commanded by Sir [[John Hawkwood]] is the best known English Free Company of the 14th century. Between the 13th and 17th centuries the [[Gallowglass]] fought within the Islands of Britain and also mainland Europe. A Welshman [[Owain Lawgoch]] (Owain of the Red Hand) formed a free company and fought for the French against the English during the [[Hundred Years' War]], before being assassinated by a Scot named Jon Lamb, under the orders of the English Crown, during the siege of Mortagne in 1378.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.100welshheroes.com/en/biography/owainlawgoch|title=Owain Lawgoch (English:Owain of the Red Hand, French:Yvain de Galles)|publisher=100welshheroes.com|access-date=26 May 2010|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100124191956/http://www.100welshheroes.com/en/biography/owainlawgoch|archive-date=24 January 2010}}</ref>