 On August 20 , 1393 — when the Signoria , at the suggestion of Coluccio Salutati , voted to erect a marble statue of Hawkwood in the Duomo , " that brave men may know that the commune of Florence recompenses true service " — Hawkwood was liquidating his Tuscan properties and preparing to return to England . It was unprecedented for the Signoria to vote to erect a monument to a living person in the cathedral . The ambiguous plans of the Signoria — which likely was aware of Hawkwood 's health status — might well have been for a tomb rather than a cenotaph ; Hawkwood died soon after , on March 17 , 1394 . The Signoria went to great lengths ( unsuccessfully ) to entice Donnina to remain in the city — voting to transfer various sums of money to her ( in exchange for Hawkwood 's Tuscan fortress ) , despite " thorny legal issues " which required multiple acts of the city council — indicating to some extent the market value of Hawkwood 's symbolic capital . 
