Condottiere, born in Forlì, Emilia-Romagna, N Italy. The son of Giovanni de' Medici and Caterina Riario Sforza, he joined the army at a young age and served first Urbino and then Pope Leo X. He fought with the French in 1522 and he led the Italian forces in the League of Cognac war.
Giovanni de' Medici, also known as Giovanni dalle Bande Nere (April 5, 1498 - November 30, 1526) was an Italian condottiero.
Biography
Giovanni was born in the Northern Italian town of Forlì to Giovanni de' Medici (also known as il Popolano) and Caterina Sforza, one of the most famous women of the Italian Renaissance.
Giovanni became a condottiere, or mercenary military captain, in the employ of Pope Leo X (Giovanni di Lorenzo de' Medici) and underwent his baptism by fire on March 5, 1516 in the war against Francesco Maria della Rovere, duke of Urbino.
As a symbol of mourning for the death of Pope Leo X (December 1, 1521), Giovanni added black bands to his insignia, whence comes his nick-name, Giovanni dalle Bande Nere (or Giovanni of the Black Bands).
After a short, but illustrious, career Giovanni de' Medici died of septicemia at Mantua on November 30, 1526, four days after being shot in the leg by a small cannon at a battle near Governolo against the Imperial Landsknechte (lead by Georg von Frundsberg). Giovanni's premature death signaled the end of the age of the condottieri, as their mode of fighting (which emphasized armored knights on horseback) was rendered practically obsolete by the introduction of the mobile field cannon.
Ermanno Olmi's 2001 film, Il mestiere delle armi, faithfully follows Giovanni dalle Bande Nere in his last week of life, as he engages in battle with the Imperial forces amidst the cold, damp fields of the Lombard countryside.
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