Giovanni dalle Bande Nere Lodovico de Medici also known as Giovanni dalle Bande Nere ( 5 April 1498 – 30 November 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 . From an early age , he demonstrated great interest and ability in physical activity , especially the martial arts of the age : horse riding , sword - fighting , etc . He committed his first murder at the age of 12 , and was twice banished from the city of Florence for his unruly behavior , including involvement in the rape of a sixteen - year - old boy , Giovanni being about thirteen at the time . He had a son , Cosimo ( 1519 – 1574 ) , who went on to become Grand Duke of Florence . Giovanni became a " condottiero " , or mercenary military captain , in the employ of Pope Leo X ( Giovanni di Lorenzo de ' Medici ) and on March 5 , 1516 led the war against Francesco Maria I della Rovere , Duke of Urbino . He thenceforth formed a company of his own , mounted on light horses and specializing in fast but devastating skirmishing tactics and ambushes . In 1520 he defeated several rebel barons in the Marche . The following year Leo X allied with Emperor Charles V against King Francis I of France to regain Milan , Parma and Piacenza ; Giovanni was called in under the command of Prospero Colonna , defeating the French at Vaprio d ' Adda in November . As a symbol of mourning for the death of Pope Leo X ( December 1 , 1521 ) , Giovanni added black stripes to his insignia , whence comes his nick - name , Giovanni dalle Bande Nere ( or Giovanni of the Black Bands ) . In August 1523 he was hired by the Imperial army , and in January 1524 he defeated the French and the Swiss at Caprino Bergamasco . In the same year another Medici , Giulio di Giuliano , became Pope , and took the name of Clement VII . The new Pope paid all of Giovanni ' s debt , but in exchange ordered him to switch to the French side of the ongoing conflict . He did not take part in the battle of Pavia , but was soon severely wounded in a skirmish and later had to move to Venice to recuperate from his wounds . In 1526 the War of the League of Cognac broke out . The League ' s captain general , Francesco Maria I della Rovere , abandoned Milan in the face of the overwhelming superiority of the [ Imperial army led by Georg von Frundsberg . Giovanni was able to defeat the Landsknecht s rearguard at the confluence of the Mincio with the Po River . Death . On the evening of November 25 he was hit by a shot from a falconet in a battle near Governolo . According to a contemporary account by Francesco Guicciardini the ball shattered his right leg above the knee and he had to be carried to San Nicolò Po , near Bagnolo San Vito , where no doctor could be found . He was taken to Aloisio Gonzaga ' s palace in Mantua , where the surgeon Abramo , who had cared for him two years earlier , amputated his leg . To perform the operation Abramo asked for 10 men to hold down the stricken " condottiero " . Pietro Aretino , eyewitness to the event , recalled in a letter to Francesco Albizi : Despite the surgery Giovanni de ' Medici died five days later , supposedly of septicemia , on 30 November 1526 . Giovanni ' s body was exhumed in 2012 along with that of his wife to preserve the remains , which were damaged in the 1966 flood of the Arno river , and to ascertain the cause of his death . Preliminary investigation revealed that his leg was not amputated above the knee . No damage was found to the thigh , where the shot supposedly hit . The tibia and fibula , the bones of the lower leg , were found sawed off from the amputation . There was no damage to the femur . It is now thought that de ' Medici may have died of gangrene . Legacy . Giovanni ' s premature death metaphorically 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 . He is therefore known as the last of the great Italian " condottieri " . His lasting reputation has been kept alive in part thanks to Pietro Aretino , the Renaissance author , satirist , playwright and " scourge of the princes " , who was Giovanni ' s close friend and accompanied him on some of his exploits .