Abstract

The article aims to address the cultural and social profile of Hungarian subjects as mercenaries in Italy, focusing on the period between the late 1370s and early 1380s. The cultural and social impact of foreign mercenaries in Italy was likely the strongest in this earliest phase of their appearance when complete mercenary troops of foreign origins were hired by the corresponding polities. Soldiers’ migration from the Kingdom to various Italian cities followed a migratory pattern exhibited also by other migrants belonging to a wide spectrum of occupational categories. Unlike their Western European colleagues, they also showed the same linguistic and ethnic diversity which characterized the Kingdom. Their mercenary captains kept a close relation to their king. Louis I commanded them remotely and upon their return he raised many of them to high secular offices in Hungary. They were also functioning in diplomatic capacities for the king so to shape Italian domestic politics