Mercenary (pronounced mur-suh-ner-ee)
(1)
Working or acting merely for money or other reward; venal; influenced by greed
or desire for gain (now less common except in fields like professional politics
or corporate structures).
(2) Hired
to serve in a foreign army, guerrilla organization etc; a professional soldier
hired to serve in a foreign army.
(3) Any
hireling (now rare).
(4) In figurative use, one paid to use skills in an ideological, political or commercial conflict in which they have otherwise no interest (often applied in a derogatory sense).
1350–1400: From the Middle English mercenarie (one who works only for hire, one who has no higher motive to work than love of gain), from the thirteenth century Old French mercenaire (mercenary, hireling) from the Latin mercēnnārius (working for pay, hired worker, mercenary, thought perhaps related to the earlier mercēnārius, the construct being mercēdin- (stem of mercēdō, a by-form of mercēs (wages), from mercēd- (payment, wage (akin to merx (goods) and source of the modern merchant)) + -ārius- (ary) (feminine -āria, neuter -ārium), the Latin first/second-declension suffix used to form adjectives from nouns or numerals.
The
original meaning was "working or acting for reward, serving only for
gain", hence the association with "sordid motives; ready to accept
dishonorable gain", a sense noted from the 1530s. The most familiar use in modern English, describing the age-old profession, that
of "a professional soldier available for hire by any (often foreign) service able to pay"
is from the mid-seventeenth century.
Condottiere: (pronounced kawn-duh-tyair-ey, kawn-duh--tyair-ee (Italian: kawn-dawt-tye-re))
(1) A
leader of a private band of mercenary soldiers in Italy, especially between the
thirteenth & sixteenth centuries.
(2)
Often (though technically imprecise) used to describe any mercenary; soldier of
fortune.
1794: From the Italian condotto (leadership), from condurre (to lead), the construct being condott(o) (from the Latin conductus (hired man, past participle of condūcere (to conduce (source of the modern conduct)) + -iere (from the Latin suffix –ārius (-ary). The noun plural is condottieri or the anglicized condottieres. The verb conduce dates from circa 1400 although the original sense "to lead, to conduct" is now obsolete. It was from the Latin condūcere (to lead or bring together, contribute, serve), from an assimilated form of com (with, together) + ducere (to lead (from the primitive Indo-European root deuk- (to lead). The intransitive sense of "aid in or contribute toward a result" is from the 1580s.
Giuseppe Garibaldi (1807-1882)
was an Italian nationalist general and politician. As a condottiere, Garibaldi
has been called the "hero of the two worlds" because of his military
enterprises in Brazil, Uruguay and Europe and is best remembered for his
personal command of many of the military campaigns which led eventually to
Italian unification in 1871. His
reputation as a romantic revolutionary has flourished because historians have
seemed always anxious to present his military adventures as noble causes rather
than apply the standards imposed on others, certainly since the Nuremberg trial
(1945-1946) codified matters such as “planning aggressive wars” and “waging
aggressive wars”. Clearly, when deciding
where things lie on the shifting spectrum of international morality, context
matters.
Garibaldi was certainly an appealing actor in a
drama-filled century of European history.
Even had he felt the political unification of the peninsular was either
desirable or inevitable, Count Cavour (1810–1861), prime ,inister of
Piedmont–Sardinia, showed no interest in pursuing the matter because, as an
astute politician of what would come to be known as the power-realist school,
knew the difficulties were insurmountable and the implications of any attempt
to achieve the goal were likely dark.
Garibaldi was interested in a united Italy, believed in miracles
and knew they could make real the the impossible. The unusual combination of circumstances at
home and abroad which existed in the aftermath of all that had happened between
the Congress of Vienna (1814-1815) and the revolutions of 1848 were made
Garibaldi’s project actually possible but it was the natural genius he
possessed as a condottiere which assured success. Notably, Cavour, sniffing the political winds
stirred when suddenly Garibaldi was by revolutionary means unifying Italy from
the south in a way Cavour knew couldn’t be achieved by diplomatic means from
the north, staged what would now be called a political flip-flop, ceasing
trying to thwart Garibaldi and instead claimed the whole campaign was his
policy.
Garibaldi’s part in the movement for Italian
unification (known as il Risorgimento
(Rising Again)) also produced a footnote in para-military fashion. His followers were known as the Garibaldini
and in lieu of a uniform, they wore the red shirts he favored, the popular
legend being it was to ensure they weren’t distracted from fighting were their
blood to be spilled. It was also an indication
the campaign was a popular insurrection, not one fought by conventional
military maneuvers or with traditional formations because, as the red-coated
British soldiers had discovered, red wasn’t a good color to wear on a
battlefield. The word Garibaldino (plural
Garibaldini) is used to refer to any volunteer soldier who served in the cause
and the red shirts (which were never standardized in shade, style or cut) are
often called garibaldino shirts or just garibaldinos.
The Swiss Guard
One of the oldest military formations in continuous active service, The Pontificia Cohors (Pontifical Swiss Guard; also often referred to as Papal Guard or, most commonly, Swiss Guard) is the ceremonial and armed force of the Holy See. Based in the Vatican, it provides security for the Pope and Apostolic Palace. The tradition of The Swiss Guard can be traced back to the pontificate of Sixtus IV (1414-1484; pope 1471-1484) when an alliance was formed with the Swiss Confederacy, barracks built in the Papal States should the need arise to hire Swiss mercenaries. The treaty was renewed under subsequent popes and the guard did see active service at times when the pope was in alliance with France but it was under the Borgia popes of the late fifteenth century it was reorganized as a conventional military formation, fielded not only by the Holy See but used also to augment the armies of France and the Holy Roman Empire. Their performance in battle during the war between France and Naples was noted by Cardinal Giuliano della Rovere (1443-1513; pope 1503-1513), a military-minded priest later nicknamed the warrior pope, his name chosen to render honor unto Julius Caesar. Upon assuming the papacy as Julius II, he requested the Swiss Diet (parliament) furnish a battalion (about two-hundred soldiers) of mercenaries for his protection. They entered barracks in 1506 and this is regarded as the formation of the Papal Swiss Guard.
Although from time-to-time the guard has been disbanded, once, after heavy battlefield losses even replaced for a while by German mercenaries, they’ve been an almost constant presence in the Holy See ever since. Having long ceased to be a military unit, their increasingly ceremonial role was reassessed in the late twentieth century as the threat profile evolved. The guard is now a professional security and personal protection operation, all members having undergone firearms and related training in the Swiss army.
Pope Francis (b 1936; pope since 2013) inspects the Swiss Guard.
The colors blue and yellow have been used since the sixteenth century and are believed to represent the Della Rovere coat of arms of Pope Julius II (1443–1513; pope 1503-1513); the red added to represent the Medici coat of arms of Pope Leo X (1475–1521; pope 1513-1521).
