Condottieri (singular condottiere (in English) or condottiero (in Italian) were mercenary leaders employed by Italian city-states from the late Middle Ages until the mid-sixteenth ...
con·dot·tie·re (k n d-tyâr, -tyâr) n. pl. con·dot·tie·ri (-tyâr) A leader of mercenary soldiers between the 14th and 16th centuries. [Italian, from condotta, troop of ...