CIGARETTE PAPERS.

Southland Times, Issue 21652, 14 March 1932, Page 6

CIGARETTE PAPERS.

FREE COMPANIES. On the arid plain of Montiel, the Free Companies fought yelling “St Ives Gueschin!” and they crushed the tyranny of Peter the Cruel, King of Spain on that glorious March 14 in 1369. It was Bertrand du Gueschin, France’s great captain, who found the Free Companies this task, and the country was grateful—because it was willing to be rid of them. Had Kipling lived then he would have sung of those Tommies who fought with crossbows: It’s Tommy this an’ Tommy that, an’ “Chuck him out, the brute!” But it’s “Saviour of ’is country” When the guns begin to shoot. Kings welcomed the Free Companies in war-time, but found these bands of professional soldiers plaguey awkward in peace. The Treaty of Bretigny, in 1360, left France full of them. They contained many blackguards, but some fine soldiers, witness Sir John Hawkwood, the Essex fanner’s son —Giovanni Acute, as the Italians called him—who, when this treaty nut his White Company out of work, took them into Italy, to fight for the Pope as long as it paid, and against him when it did not. Joint stock concerns, these Free Companies, in which directors, or captains, must hold qualifying shares. The train of ideas lingered in Britain until 1871, when the purchase of Army commissions was abolished. —CRITICUS.