Blood for Gold

Condottieri. Landsknechts. Cossacks. Wild Geese. Hessians. Ronin. These names echo across five centuries of warfare — and they were all mercenaries.

The period from the Renaissance to the Age of Empires transformed war from a feudal obligation into a professional business. Mercenary captains became the CEOs of violence. Trading companies fielded armies larger than most nations. Entire peoples — the Swiss, the Irish, the Hessians — became known as “export commodities,” their warriors sold abroad by the tens of thousands.

Blood for Gold: Knights of Fortune is the second volume of a groundbreaking three-volume series covering the complete global history of mercenaries. This volume spans the years 1500 to 1900 — an era when private warfare reached its most spectacular and varied forms.

Inside this volume, you will encounter:

• The Condottieri — Italian mercenary captains who transformed warfare into a business, founding dynasties and inspiring Machiavelli’s most famous warnings
• The Swiss pikemen — legendary warriors who fought on both sides at Marignano (1515) and whose descendants still guard the Pope today
• The Landsknechts — the rock stars of Renaissance warfare, with their outrageous costumes, massive zweihänder swords, and the notorious Sack of Rome (1527)
• The Lisowczycy — Polish “Horsemen of the Apocalypse” who rode 150 km per day, received no regular pay, and terrified German mothers for generations
• The Cossacks — whom Napoleon called “the best light cavalry” — serving Russians, Poles, Swedes, and anyone else who could afford them
• Ronin and the Saika Ikki — masterless samurai and Buddhist warrior-monks with muskets who democratized death in feudal Japan
• The Black Flag Army — Chinese bandits who became Vietnam’s mercenary heroes, killing French commanders and fighting the Foreign Legion to a standstill
• The Wild Geese — 500,000+ Irish soldiers who died in French service alone, fighting with the cry “Remember Limerick!” at the Battle of Fontenoy
• The San Patricios — Irish immigrants who deserted the U.S. Army to fight for Mexico, becoming heroes in two countries
• William Walker — a Tennessee lawyer who conquered Nicaragua with 58 men and declared himself president
• Baloch mercenaries — warriors serving the Sultan of Oman for over 300 years, comprising 40% of the Omani army to this day

...plus the Hessians in the American Revolution, the East India Company’s corporate armies, Barbary corsairs, the Gurkhas, and American Civil War veterans who served as Egyptian pashas.

Each chapter provides specific details: battles, dates, troop numbers, key figures, tactical innovations, and the stories that bring these warriors to life. This is military history that spans every continent and overturns the Western-centric narrative that dominates the field.

Volume 2 covers 1500–1900 in 24 chapters. Volume 1 (Swords of Antiquity) covers the ancient and medieval periods. Volume 3 (Corporations of Violence) covers the modern era through 2025.