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This has been bugging me for a while, so I figured I might as well ask it; I deeply love the idea of the fantasy novel mercenary company, but I don't actually know how OTL medieval mercenaries (as in, soldiers working for pay for anyone) actually operated. From what it looks like, they seemed to range the gamut from half-peasant hordes, to semi-disciplined regiments named after their founder, to long-lived, highly organized, and expensive companies with distinctive names, such as the Almogavars).

So how did they operate? How did they go about seeking work? How did monarchs keep them from seizing the monarch's land (which didn't always work, of course)?
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