Alberico Da Barbiano
Part of The Encyclopedia of Southern Italy.
Alberico Da Barbiano (Alberico il Grande): (b. c1348, Barbiano di Cotignola; d. Apr. 26, 1409, Città della Pieve). Nobleman and condottiere. Count of Cuneo, he belonged to a well-established noble family of the Romagna, which claimed connections to the Carolingians. He was one of the earliest of the famous mercenary captains of Renaissance Italy, the Condottieri. After service in the company of the English captain, John Hawkwood, during the 1370s, Alberico formed his own force, the Compagnia di San Giorgio (“St. George Company”). At first only numbering about 200, it would eventually grow to between 4,000 and 7,000 (depending on the source). Alberico would become the first of the great-Italian-born captains, replacing the foreign mercenaries who previously dominated Italy’s battlefields.
Alberico’s first great feat was the capture of Cesena (1377). On April 23, 1379, while commanding his force in the pay of Pope Urban VI, he defeated the mercenary Gascon/Breton army of the antipope Clement VII. He dealt the same force another defeat near Rome on June 29, 1379.
Soon Alberico became involved in the struggles over the crown of Naples. As the captain of Charles of Durazzo, he defeated Otto of Brunswick on June 18, 1381, and soon took Naples. Charles, now King Charles III, appointed Alberico gran conestabile” (“chief of staff”). During the two years of peace that followed, he returned to Tuscany. In 1383, Alberico was recalled by Charles to face a new threat when Louis I of Anjou invaded the Kingdom of Naples with an army of 40,000. Over the next few years, as the rule of Naples was fought over, Alberico’s fortunes waxed and waned, but he continued to be victorious in battle. Following the death of Charles III in 1387, Alberico gave his loyalty to Charles’s son, Ladislaus. After a period of time in the Romagna, he was recalled by Ladislaus to deal with the invasion of the kingdom by Louis II of Anjou. It was during this conflict that Alberico suffered his first defeat. On Apr. 10, 1392, he was captured and imprisoned at Ascoli Piceno. He was eventually ransomed of 3,000 florins by Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Lord of Milan. Alberico now gave his military talents to that ruler, expanding his power for the next several years.
In 1403, he returned to the service of Ladislaus. In 1409, as Ladislaus was preparing for an invasion of Tuscany, he sent word to Alberico to meet him at Città della Pieve, in Umbria. While enroute, however, he died.
Alberico Da Barbiano is often consider the first of the true Italian condottieri, and later mercenary captains used him as their model.