Hawkwood had a long military career and a complicated relationship with Florence. He fought for England during the Hundred Years War and then with the "Great Company" which had harassed the Avignon Papacy.[4] After gaining command of the "White Company" from Albert Sterz in the 1360s, Hawkwood led the company across the Alps in 1363 in the employ of John II, Marquess of Montferrat, to take part in his war against Milan.[4] Hawkwood and the "White Company" remained in Italy, accepting money from many city-states, both to wage war and to refrain from it.[5] Hawkwood's reputation as one of the ablest condottieri in the peninsula developed in the ensuing decades, during which he was employed (by both sides) in the Pisan–Florentine War (1363–1364), notably winning the Battle of Cascina (1364) for Florence,[6] in the wars of Perugia against the Pope (1369), and in the service of Bernabò Visconti in his war against a coalition that included Pisa and Florence, and even (in 1372) the Marquis of Monteferrato.[7]