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difficult to change. To further complicate t' ' situation, a parallel system of nine podesłanie (police districts) was established under the authority of the Podesta, with differing boundaries to the nine vicariates still within the authority of the Capilano del Popolo.

Complicated as such systems were, the city States of Tuscany at least enjoyed effective authority over their territories. The neighbouring Papai States did not. Here, demands or even pleading requests for the various cities to send their military units were often ignored. At best it resulted in the despatch of a few cavalrymen, with a notable unwillingness to send militia cross-bowmen. In Sicily, economic collapse meant that a pool of militarily skillecl manpower was available. Much of the interior of the island was now inhabited by just a smali number of semi-nomadic pig farmers and brigands, and here the ordinary people were noted for their hunting skills. Crossbows as well as composite hand-bows, javelins and spears were all used during wide-ranging boar-lnints which resembled military expeditions. Morę modest though equall\ exotic sources of militiamen and mercenaries were the overseas colonial outposts of Yenice and Genoa.

Mercenarv infantrymen were not necessarily full-time professionals. Most seem to have come from upland or mountainous regions ofltaly. 0\er-population in the Alps and northern Apennines meant that soldiering became a secondary occupation for much of the rural population. They were also regarded as being different to the inhabitants of the cities: independent-minded, physically strong, impulsive and aggressive but poor, they were in fact ideał military materiał. Those in commancl of mercenary infantry units were usually Italian, whereas cavalry leaders recruited a large number of non-Italians into their ranks. Sources show that many officers commanding Genoese crossbowmen in 14th-century France were highly experienced. For example, a certain Conrart Grimaldi served from 1370 to 1395, and had fought in Italy in 1369: also, Odet d’Ansart, a constable in command of 19 mounted crossbowmen, was a ‘squire from the territory of Genoa’ whose coat-of-arms consisted of a chevron and two stars en clief, a crossbow en pointę and a champ festonne, marked with a bundle of arrows. Some officers came from the noble families of Spinola, Doria and Grimaldi: others were known in the simple form of ‘Martin of Parma’, ‘Guy of Pisa’, ‘Francis of Naples’ or ‘Anthony of Piacenza’.

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