Hawkwood was, in Hallam's words (Middle Ages, i. 501), ‘the first real general of modern times.’ The genius for organisation which enabled him to convert a band of freebooters into something like a regular army, his rude but effective strategy, his energy and resource distinguish him from all his mediæval predecessors. He was recognised by his contemporaries as not only the ablest and most intrepid, but also the most trustworthy of condottieri. His fidelity, however, was by no means above suspicion, but to the Florentine government he was uniformly faithful. That he was not without humour is shown by an anecdote narrated by Sacchetti (Novelle, clxxxi.) Two mendicant friars presented themselves at Montecchio, and greeted Hawkwood, with the customary ‘God give you peace,’ to which he curtly replied, ‘God take from you your alms.’ The friars disclaimed all offence; Hawkwood rejoined, ‘How, when you come to me and pray that God would make me die of hunger? Do you not know that I live by war and that peace would undo me?’
Hawkwood's name figures in Froissart as Haccoude, in the Italian chronicles usually as Acuto, Aguto, or Aucud, with other variations too numerous to instance. In official documents he is commonly addressed as ‘Magnificus et Potens Miles’ or ‘Dominus Johannes Haucud.’ He himself spelt his name indifferently Haucud, Haucwod, Haukcwod, and Haukutd. That he held the rank of knight there is no doubt, but it is uncertain when or where he won his spurs.
[The principal authorities are the contemporary, or nearly contemporary, chronicles in Muratori's Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, with the supplement by Tartinius and Manni, cited as R. I. S. and R. I. S. Suppl.; the Archivio Storico Italiano, cited as A. S. I., vol. vi. pt. ii. and vol. xvi. pt. i.; the Chronicles of Marchionne di Coppo Stefani in the Delizie degli Eruditi Toscani, Donato Velluti, Goro Dati, San Antonino and Leonardo Bruno, commonly called Leonardo Aretino; the Documenti Diplomatici Milanesi, edited by Osio; the Calendar of Venetian State Papers, edited by Rawdon Brown, vol. i.; the Letters of St. Catherine of Siena, Salutato and Vergerio (R. I. S. vol. xvi.), and a variety of original documents, chiefly from the archives of Italian cities, printed for the first time in Temple-Leader and Marcotti's Giovanni Acuto, Florence, 1889 (English translation by Leader Scott, London, 1889). Secondary authorities are the histories of Florence by Buoninsegni, Ammirato, and Poggio Bracciolini (R. I. S. vol. xx.); of Milan by Corio; of Pisa by Roncioni (A. S. I. vol. vi. pt. i.); of Perugia by Pellini; of Bologna by Ghirardacci, and the Annales Ecclesiastici of Raynaldus. Ricotti's Storia delle Compagnie di Ventura in Italia, Gregorovius' Rom im Mittelalter, and Sismondi's Histoire des Républiques Italiennes du Moyen Age, illustrate the part played by Hawkwood in the military and political history of Italy. Of Lives the most important are the following: (1) that by Manni in R. I. S. Suppl. ii.; (2) a somewhat fuller but very inaccurate account contributed by Gough to the Bibliotheca Topographica Britannica, vol. vi.; (3) a clear and good sketch by J. G. Alger in the Register and Magazine of Biography, vol. i.; and (4) the elaborate work by Temple-Leader and Marcotti above mentioned, which, though marred by diffuseness of style and strange inaccuracy in the citation of authorities, is the only approximately complete account of the great condottiero that has yet appeared. See also Black's Catalogue of Ashmolean MSS. No. 823; Addit. MS. 6395; and Hist. MSS. Comm. 5th Rep. App. 322 b, and 7th Rep. App. 247.]
HAWLES, Sir JOHN (1645–1716), lawyer, second son of Thomas Hawles of Moanton in Wiltshire, by Elizabeth Antrobus of Hampshire, was born in the Close at Salisbury in 1645. His father, whose name is sometimes spelled Hollis, belonged to the family of Hawles of Upwimborne, Dorsetshire, and was probably the second son of Edmond Hawles of that place. During the civil war he was leader of the band known as the ‘club men’ in Salisbury, who took the side of the parliament. John Hawles was educated at Winchester, and in 1662 entered at Queen's College, Oxford, but left the university without taking a degree. He entered at Lincoln's Inn, was called to the bar, and soon rose to great eminence in his profession. ‘Upon the turn of affairs made by the Prince of Orange,’ says Wood, ‘he became a great Williamite.’ On 25 March 1689 he was returned to the House of Commons as M.P. for Old Sarum. But in 1691 he was not able to secure the recordership of London in competition with Sir Bartholomew Showers [q. v.] On 1 July 1695 Hawles was appointed solicitor-general in succession to Sir Thomas Trevor. In October of the same year he was returned for the borough of Wilton in Wiltshire, and in 1695 was knighted. When a fresh parliament was summoned in 1698, Hawles sat for St. Michael in Cornwall, and was also returned for Beeralston in Devonshire. In the parliament of 1700–1 he represented Truro, and for the short session of 1702 was member for St. Ives in Cornwall. In 1702 he ceased to be solicitor-general, but continued to sit in parliament for Wilton until 1705, and from that year until 1710 for Stockbridge in Hampshire. As a prominent whig lawyer he was appointed one of the managers of the impeachment of Sacheverell in 1710. He resided for some years on the family estate at Upwimborne, and died on 2 Aug. 1716.
