Braccio da Montone

Braccio da Montone (born 1368, Perugia [Italy]—died June 5, 1424, Aquila) was one of the greatest of the condottieri (leaders of bands of mercenary soldiers) who dominated Italian history in the 14th and 15th centuries. He was the first condottiere to found a state.

Born of a noble Perugian family, Braccio became the pupil of Alberico da Barbiano, the first great Italian condottiere, initiating a lifelong rivalry with another of Alberico’s followers, Muzio Attendolo Sforza. During the first quarter of the 15th century, hardly a major city of Italy carried on a campaign without employing either Braccio or Sforza. Braccio’s political ambitions led him to invade papal Umbria (north of Rome) from 1416 to 1419. He seized Perugia, a conquest legitimated by Pope Martin V in 1420, when Braccio was granted the title of papal vicar. In the 1420s the two condottieri found themselves on opposite sides in a struggle between Queen Joan II of Naples and King Alfonso V of Aragon; Braccio was in Alfonso’s employ and Sforza in Joan’s. In a campaign in the Abruzzi (east-central Italy) in 1424, the rivals died within a few weeks of each other, Sforza by drowning and Braccio as a result of wounds suffered in battle against Sforza’s son Francesco. After Braccio’s death, the Umbrian principality reverted to the papacy.