Fabrizio Maramaldo
Fabrizio Maramaldo (1494December 1552) was an Italian Condottiero. An illiterate native of Naples or Calabria, his exact origins are unknown, though he hailed from the Kingdom of Naples, and was perhaps of Spanish origin. He fled Naples after having murdered his wife and sought protection at the Gonzaga under Federico II, Duke of Mantua, and in the Republic of Venice. In 1526 he was absolved of the crime of uxoricide by Charles V, the Holy Roman Emperor. He fought the Ottomans in Hungary, and the French in Piedmont. He suffered a grievous setback in the siege he laid  to the city of Asti in 1526 where, after having breached the walls by cannon fire for a final assault, legend narrates that victory was snatched from his grasp by the intervention of the town's patron saint, St.Secondus of Asti who is said to have appeared in the sky. Fighting on the imperial side, he took part in the Sack of Rome the following year, and three years later, in the siege of Florence. He gained a reputation as a ruthless mercenary and ravager. The murder of Francesco Ferrucci. The black name he earned in Italian history and  popular memory came from the way he despatched Francesco Ferrucci, the captain of the Florentine army. Maramaldo fought for the Duke of Orange, for the restoration of the Medici, against the army of the Florentine Republic. The two forces clashed in the town of Gavinana on the 3rd. of August 1530, and Maramaldo murdered his old enemy, who had been grievously wounded and taken prisoner, against the principles of chivalrous conduct in wartime. There are many differing accounts of the episode, the incident being much favoured in early historical accounts and fiction. Massimo d'Azeglio in his historical novel reimagined the  scene, as recounted by the character Fanfulla, thus:- Maramaldo in the Italian language. The phrase, 'you are killing a dead man', in Italian, "tu uccidi un uomo morto", became proverbial. However, there are notable differences in contemporary Renaissance accounts of Ferrucci's last words. The version here is comes from the contemporary historian Benedetto Varchi's "History of Florence". Paolo Giovio, in his "Historiarum sui temporis libri XLV,"(1550–1552) has Ferrucci saying, 'If you kill me, you will gain neither profit nor the approbation of praise from my murder'. A third minor contemporary source, given in the Tuscan dialect, has Ferrucci  say, 'Tu darai a un morto'(You'll be bashing a corpse), which may be more probable. Ten days later, Florence surrendered, and was forced to accept the return of the Medici. The feats of the Neapolitan condottiere, particularly this last incident, impressed themselves on the popular imagination, to the point that his name became synonymous with maltreatment of the weak or anyone incapable of defending himself, or for the type of person who shows himself ready to overcome or betray others as soon as he detects some weakness. Thus, in the Italian language, the substantive "maramaldo" and the adjective "maramaldesco" ("Maramaldesque ) has become eponymous of ruthless", "villainous". One occasionally comes across the verb, "maramaldeggiare" in the sense of 'treat someone badly by ruthless mockery'