Fra' Moriale

Who was Fra' Moriale?

Giovanni Moriale d'Albarno, also known as Fra Moriale was a French mercenary and condottiero.

Born at Narbonne, he became a member of the military Order of Knights Hospitaller, better known now as the Knights of Malta. He arrived in Italy around 1345, and fought for Louis I of Hungary in the succession wars for the Kingdom of Naples. In 1349 he joined Werner von Urslingen's Great Company. Later he was hired by the Papal States, but he abandoned them due to insufficient payment.

In 1352, Galeotto I Malatesta besieged him in Aversa, where Moriale had amassed a large treasure during years of pillages. Forced to surrender, he was allowed to escape alive in exchange for all his wealth. After von Urslingen's death, he refounded the Great Company with German, Italian and Provençal mercenaries. Together with his kinsman, Bertrand de la Motte, he fought in Tuscany and Romagna with the aim of cutting out a state for himself.

In an attempt to rescue his brothers and fellow condottieri, Annebald and Breton, who had got entangled in quarrels at Rome, he was arrested with them by order of the Tribune Cola di Rienzo and condemned to death. He was beheaded in the Capitol Hill square on 29 August 1354, and buried in the nearby Basilica of Santa Maria in Aracoeli.