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Six hundred years ago, Sir Johan Hawkwood arrived in Italy with a band of soldiers and settled
near Florence. He soon made a name for himself and came to be known to the Italians as Giovanni Acuto.
Whenever the Italian city-states were at war with each other, Hawkwood used to hire his soldiers to
princes who were willing to pay the high price he demanded. In times of peace, when business was bad,
Hawkwood and his men would march into a city-state and, after burning down a few farms, would offer to
go away if protection money was paid to them. Hawkwood made large sums of money in this way. In spite
of this, the Italians regarded him as a sort of hero. When he died at the age of eighty, the
Florentines gave him a state funeral and had a pictured painted which was dedicated to the memory of
'the most valiant soldier and most notable leader, Signor Giovanni Haukodue.'