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The Castello Estense in the centre of Ferrara was built in 1383. Being sited on fiat, low-lying ground it employed a regular plan with rectangular corner towers and a water-filled moat. Brick rather than stone was also characteristic of the broad alluvial Po Valley.

notable for another aspect of generalship. The battle of S. Egideo came about because Bracchio, a Perugian condottiere, took advantage of a lapse in Papai authority over the Papai States to attack Perugia. Having been given Bologna by a now deposed Pope, he sold that city to its own citizens and used its price of 82,000 florins to enlarge his own following of mercenaries. The Perugians, however, not only put up an effective resistance but paid another condottiere, Carlo Malatesta, to march to their relief with 5,000 men. Bracchio and Malatesta met on 15 July 1416 outside the hamlet of S. Egideo, near where the road from Perugia to Assisi crossed the River Tiber. Neither had a large army, and the battle seems to have been a pre-arranged affair.

Malatesta, as a follower of the Sforzeschi school, drew up his troops in a wide semicircle between the Tiber and the hills, hoping to lure Bracchio into an impetuous attack and surround him. Malatesta then retired to his tent to await the outcome. Bracchio, however, foresaw a long day’s skirmishing and as the weather was going to be hot he ensured that his camp was filled with jars of water sufficient for both men and horses. Bracchio now took the initiative, sending forward selected units to harry his static foe. These units then retired, reformed and if necessary refreshed themselves while others moved forward. This went on for seven hours. Perhaps the solid Malatesta ranks failed to attack their fragmented enemy because their commander still hoped to lure all of Bracchio’s army into his trap. If so, he left it too late. Malatesta’s troops, tortured by heat and dust in their armour, began drifting in ones and twos down to the river to drink. Soon others were breaking away in scores and although many probably returned to their positions, this unco-ordinated wandering led to considerable disarray. Bracchio now ordered a generał assault which completely broke the exhausted foe. Casualties were light, but a large part of the relieving army was captured, including Carlo Malatesta himself.

Maclodio (1427)

Francesco Bussone Carmagnola was one of the most highly paid condottieri ofhis day. In 1427 he was fighting for Venice, but had recently suffered a serious injury, and was no longer young. The most interesting, and unanswerable, ąuestion about his victory at Maclodio was whether Carmagnola played up these weaknesses to make his foes over-confident. The previous year Brescia had been captured from the Milanese by Car-magnola’s subordinate, and during the summer of 1427 he himself led the Venetian army in a series of marches, skirmishes and the building of entrenched camps. Meanwhile the Milanese commander, Carlo Malatesta, and his two young subordinates Francesco Sforza and Niccolo Piccinino failed to bring him to battle. The Venetian government was also getting impatient; when Carmagnola wished to retire into winter ąuarters in September, they angrily ordered him out again.

Then, quite suddenly, the Venetian army advanced from Brescia towards the Milanese entrenched camp at Maclodio. Since this lay 15 kilometres down the Roman road towards Lodi, and as Carmagnola was able to get his men into well-concealed ambush positions by the morning

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