Sir John Hawkwood was an English mercenary or condottiere in 14th century Italy. The French chronicler Jean Froissart knew him as Haccoude and Italians as Giovanni Acuto. Hawkwood served first the Pope and then various factions in Italy for over 30 years.
Hawkwood's youth is shrouded in tales and legends and it is unclear how he exactly became a soldier. According to the most accepted tales, he was a second son of a tanner in Sible Hedingham in Essex and was apprenticed in London. Other tales also claim that he was a tailor before he became a soldier.
Hawkwood served in the English army in France in the first stages of the Hundred Years' War under Edward III. According to different traditions Hawkwood fought in the battles of Crécy and/or Poitiers but there is no direct evidence of either. Different traditions claim that the King or Edward, the Black Prince knighted him but there is no record of that - he might have just taken the noble title himself with the support of his soldiers. His service ended after the Treaty of Brétigny in 1360.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Hawkwood 
Sir John Hawkwood of Essex 
