[20] Platina, tom. i. p. 376, 377. Poggii Historia Florentina, lib. iii. Ammirato Istor. lib. xv.
[21] Platina, tom. i. p. 378.
[22] The English reader will probably be surprised to recognize in Giovanni Auguto, his countryman John Hawkewood. John was a soldier of fortune, and had been engaged in the war which Edward III. king of England, carried on with so much glory against France. On the conclusion of peace between those two countries, he led into Italy a band of 3000 adventurers, of restless spirits, and approved courage, who had engaged to fight under his banners, on behalf of any state which would give them a suitable remuneration for their services. In the year 1363, this army of desperadoes was hired by the republic of Pisa, and spread ruin and devastation through the territories of Florence, with which state the Pisans were then at war. They afterwards entered into the service of Bernabò Visconti, lord of Milan, and being again opposed to the Florentines, they defeated the Tuscan army, and made predatory incursions to the very gates of Florence. Being defrauded by Bernabò of the remuneration which his services merited, Hawkewood readily acceded to the terms proposed to him by the cardinal of Berry, legate of pope Gregory XI. and heartily engaged on the side of the pontiff in hostilities against the lord of Milan. Having assisted in the capture of nearly a hundred towns belonging to that prince, he had the satisfaction of seeing him reduced to the necessity of suing for peace. In the year 1375 he entered into the service of the Florentines. In the course of a little time he was promoted to the chief command of the Tuscan forces, in which capacity he merited and acquired the confidence of his employers, by the courage and skill with which he conducted the military operations of the Republic. He retained the office of Generalissimo of the Florentine army till the time of his death, which event took place in the latter end of the year 1393. The gratitude of the Florentines honoured him with a magnificent funeral, and his fame was perpetuated by an equestrian statue, erected to his memory at the public expense.
Poggii Historia Florentina, p. 29, 41, 46, 122, 123. See particularly note (x) p. 29, which settles the English appellation of Auguto.
In a volume of portraits of illustrious men, engraven on wood, entitled Musæi Joviani Imagines, and printed at Basil, An. 1577, there is a portrait of Auguto, who is there denominated IOANNES AVCVTHVS. BRITAN. Underneath this portrait is printed the following inscription.
“Anglorum egressus patriis Aucuthus ab oris,
Italiæ primum climata lætus adit,
Militiæ fuerat quascunque edoctus et artes,
Ausoniæ exeruit non semel ipse plagæ,
Ut donaretur statuâ defunctus equestri,