wood in May 1377 went over to the antipapal league, Bernabò Visconti giving him one of his illegitimate daughters, Donnina, in marriage. This, apparently, was Hawkwood's second marriage. It was celebrated at Milan with much pomp, feasting, and jousting. After spending the honeymoon at Cremona, Hawkwood returned to the Bolognese, where he passed the rest of the summer. Towards the end of August Hawkwood compelled Raimondo, a nephew of the pope, at the head of a force of Bretons, to raise the siege of Maremma and retreat into the Perugino, whence he drove him into the Sienese, and occupied San Quirico. There a deputation from Siena waited on him with rich gifts, and there he stayed for two months, receiving ambassadors, and attempting to mediate between the pope and the league. In December he marched to Florence, where he was received with distinction, although his peace proposals were not well entertained.
Early in March he escorted the papal ambassadors (the Cardinal of Amiens and the Archbishops of Pampeluna and Narbonne) to Sarzana, where Bernabò Visconti met them and opened the negotiations in form. They were interrupted by the death of Gregory XI (27 March), but the new pope, Urban VI, made peace on 24 July.
In April 1378 Bernabò Visconti sent Hawkwood and Count Lucius Landau with a force of English and Germans into the Veronese, to claim in right of his wife, Beatrice, the inheritance of her brother, Can Signore della Scala of Verona (d. 1371). They formed an intrenched camp under the walls of Verona, but were withdrawn on payment of four hundred thousand florins of gold, and promise of an annual tribute of forty thousand for six years.
At this time Francesco Carrara, marquis of Padua, was the head of a league which included the republic of Genoa and the king of Hungary, and was designed as a counterpoise to Venice. The Venetian senate accordingly made a handsome bid for Hawkwood's services, which he declined. Having collected reinforcements, Hawkwood and Landau re-entered the Veronese in August 1378, but encountering an Hungarian army under Stephen Laczsk, waiwode of Transylvania—a member of the anti-Venetian league—were driven back into the Bresciano, and so signally defeated that Bernabò Visconti concluded a truce of a month and a half. Hostilities were resumed in December. After a slow and difficult march, Hawkwood and Landau crossed the Adige, and advanced within six miles of Verona, but again recoiled before Laczsk, and only made good their retreat across the Adige with heavy loss. Bernabò Visconti thereupon stopped their pay. They indemnified themselves by pillaging the Bresciano and the Cremonese, and Bernabò put a price on their heads. They then crossed the Po, and marched into the Bolognese.
Meanwhile war was raging between Pope Urban and Robert of Geneva, who had been elected antipope as Clement VII in September 1378. Froissart's improbable statement that Hawkwood commanded for the pope at the defeat of the Breton forces of the antipope at Marino (28 April 1379) is uncorroborated.
Hawkwood separating from Landau retired to Bagnacavallo in July 1379. After he had rendered various services at a high price to Florence, which was menaced by Charles of Durazzo, nephew of Louis of Hungary, on his way to seize the crown of Naples, the Florentines in the spring of 1380 sent for him and five hundred lances, agreeing to pay them 130,000 florins of gold for six months' service, Hawkwood receiving an additional thousand florins as his personal salary. He zealously protected the city, and the engagement was thrice renewed for six months each time. In May 1382 he was appointed, jointly with Sir Nicholas Dagworth and Walter Skirlawe, dean of St. Martin's, English ambassador to the holy see. As he now contemplated a long term of service with the Florentine republic, he ceded in August his property of Bagnacavallo and Cotignola to the Marquis of Este for sixty thousand ducats of gold. In July 1382 the pope requested the Florentine government to place Hawkwood at the disposal of Charles of Durazzo, who was fighting against Louis of Anjou for the crown of Naples. This the government declined to do, but they allowed Hawkwood to go to Naples on his own account with two thousand horse (22 Oct.) The war languished, both armies suffering severely by the plague, and towards the end of 1383 Hawkwood returned to Tuscany. In June 1384 he occupied the castles of Montecchio, Migliari, and Badia al Pino in the Aretino. On 6 Feb. 1385 he was appointed, jointly with John Bacon, dean of St. Martin's, and Sir Nicholas Dagworth, English ambassador to the Neapolitan court, the republic of Florence, and other Italian states. In the following July he agreed to hold himself at the disposal of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, the ‘Count of Virtue,’ saving prior engagements, with thirty lances, for which he was to receive three hundred florins a month, and a premium of a thousand florins on entering the service of the count. He was at this time heavily
