Routiers Routiers were mercenary soldiers of the Middle Ages . Their particular distinction from other paid soldiers of the time was that they were organised into bands or " routes " . The term is first used in the 12th century but is particularly associated with free companies who terrorized the French countryside during the Hundred Years War . Routiers of the 12th and 13th centuries . Although paid soldiers were known before the 12th century , the phenomenon of distinct bands ( German " Rotten " , French " routes " ) of mercenary soldiers , often mainly footsoldiers , appears to date from the mid 12th century . Exactly what distinguishes these mercenaries from simple paid soldiers is disputed by scholars but common elements include fighting for profit ( as opposed to other reasons such as fealty or faith ) and a " foreigness " of coming from a different geographical area to that in which they were fighting . Numerous different terms were used for these troops , some geographical ( e . g . " Brabançons " from Brabant , " Aragones " from Aragon , " Bascoli " from the Basque country ) and others nicknames ( e . g . " cotereaux " or " cotereli " , perhaps from the knife they carried ) . Mercenary bands were mainly seen in France , Aquitaine and Occitania but also Normandy , England and the lands of the Holy Roman Emperor . They were noted for their lawlessness , with many complaints from the church about their depredations , leading to an explicit condemnation by the Third Lateran Council in 1179 . Mercenary bands continued to be used but by the early 13th century they began decline . While useful , they became increasingly unpopular . In England , not only was their brutality condemned , but the rise of mercenary leaders of lowly origins to high office caused friction within the nobility . King John ' s use of mercenaries in his civil wars led to condemnation and banishment of mercenaries in Magna Carta in 1215 . Mercenary bands also fell from favour in France in the early 13th century , the end of the Albigensian Crusade and the beginning of a long period of domestic peace removing the context in which the routiers flourished Routiers in the Hundred Years War . The Hundred Years War , which lasted from 1337 to 1453 , was the backdrop to their pillaging . The Hundred Years War was fought between two royal families over control of the French throne . The Plantagenets from England , and the House of Valois from France . The War , which is divided into three stages ; the Edwardian War ( 1337 - 1360 ) , the Caroline War ( 1369 - 1389 ) , and the Lancastrian War ( 1415 - 1429 ) , saw the development of new tactics and weaponry that revolutionized warfare during that time period . By 1348 the Black Death was tearing though Europe , England was bankrupt , and Edward was invading mainland France . In 1347 Edward besieged the city of Calais on the English Channel . Capturing Calais was a major strategic victory , which allowed the English to permanently keep troops in France . King Edward ’ s son , The Prince of Wales , who led a large band of routiers , captured the French King John II , and soon the French government began to fall apart . Origins . The routiers ' history can be traced back to a few years after the start of the Hundred Years War , to Brittany in the early 1340s . No revenue was being generated from the revenues of the Duchy for the English army , which meant that the English soldiers had to live off the land . This “ living off the land ” began as simple freebooting , but quickly transformed into " patis " , or “ ransoms of the country ” . A village near a garrison would usually be ransacked for any supplies . Subsequently the village would be forced pay the respective garrison for future protection . This system soon caused much instability in the region for a few reasons . The " patis " system did not generate any revenue for the English cause but it made small fortunes for individual captains . These captains , whose income depended on controlling an area , rather than wages from the Duchy , were hard to control . While in theory , the King ' s Lieutenant could rely on his garrisons in time of war , they were scarcely enthusiastic combatants . Furthermore , garrisons that were stationed in fringe territories were subject to boredom , which was relieved by random brutality . That state , coupled with the fact that they were surrounded by hostile inhabitants , caused a lot of animosity between the peasants and soldiers , which in a few instances even led to skirmishes and made the task of governing the Duchy harder . The problem was not confined to Brittany . Lusignan was a fortress near Poitiers captured by Earl of Lancaster in September 1346 . When the Earl withdrew from the area he left a garrison under the command of Bertrand de Montferrand . Many of his troops were men with questionable pasts ; criminals and misfits . Despite a truce between 1346 - 1350 , the garrison laid waste to over fifty parishes , ten monasteries , and destroyed towns and castles throughout southern Poitou . In May 1347 , a French force was sent to recapture the fortress but were ambushed by the garrison and forced to retreat . Nature of the Companies . Geographical origins . Routiers were usually referred to as “ Englishmen ” by their victims , but they were actually composed for the most part by Gascons , after the name of the region of what is now South - West France in which they resided . But the Gascons were considered then as a distinct people from the French . The full demographic that filled the ranks of the routiers included Spaniards , Germans , English , and Frenchmen . Although there had been major raiding campaigns led by English noblemen such as the Prince of Wales , many individual " routes " were led by Gascon officers . Kenneth Fowler has examined the origins of 166 named captains . Ninety one of these were involved in the Great Companies . 36 were English , 26 from English Aquitane , 19 were Gascons , five from Béarn and five from Germany . In addition to these , there were a group of 45 Breton captains and a further group from Navarre . Organisation . Unlike the earlier routiers companies , the " routes " of the Hundred Years War were primarily mounted forces . Their main fighting men were men - at - arms , sometimes accompanied by mounted infantry including mounted archers . For example , the companies operating around Auverne in September 1363 were estimated at 2 , 000 lances of men - at - arms and 1 , 000 mounted infantry . In addition , the companies could be accompanied by groups of pillagers . A route operating around Beaune in September 1364 were numbered as 120 " good lances " , 100 other combatants " not including pillagers " , suggesting these last were not considered as militarily significant Larger companies of routiers could be surprisingly well organized . They each had a command structure with a staff that even included secretaries to collect and disperse their loot . A few of the groups had their own uniforms , such as the notorious Bandes Blanches of the Archpriest Arnaud de Cervole . Examples of routiers . John Hawkwood is the most famous of the English routiers . Beginning as a routier , he ultimately spent three decades as a mercenary captain in Italy .