Modern organization dates from the close of the Feudal Epoch in the fifteenth century, after which wars were waged less for national purposes than for the furtherance of dynastic or State interests, and were no longer carried on by the levy of the nation, but by mercenaries hired by the Monarch or the State. This process originated in Italy, where the rivalry of the trading republics caused them to engage Swiss, English, and other mercenaries to fight their neighbours. Hence we find that military organization in its modern form originated in Italy, and that in consequence most military terms are derived from Italian, as may be seen in such words as _infantry_, _cavalry_, _colonel_, _squadron_, _battalion_, _regiment_. This nomenclature was definitely adopted by the French after their invasion of Italy in 1496, and, through French, has passed into universal use. Thus, by 1524, we find _Colonel_ used in France, whence it reached England in the time of Elizabeth, along with _Regiment_, _Cavalry_, and _Infantry_. Permanent regular forces are first found in France near the end of the fifteenth century, when the King raised _Companies_ of men-at-arms (gens d’armes) or armoured horsemen, and of foot archers and halberdiers, of whom his Scottish Guards were the finest type. Up to that time the “Lance”--that is, the fully armoured knight with his retinue of a squire, a page, and three or four mounted men--formed the principal element of every military force. A number of such independent Lances, jealous of each other, and untrained to act together, could not be _organized_ in the modern sense. Besides these mounted men, there was usually a mass of men on foot unarmoured and ill-armed, undisciplined and untrained. In feudal times it was only the English archers, the Genoese crossbowmen, and the Swiss halberdiers who had the discipline and training to make them of any account as Infantry. The word _company_ in its military sense denoted originally the gathering of feudal retainers who followed their lord to the wars; it then came to mean the band who obeyed a _Captain_ (_caput_, _head_), some noted leader among the mercenaries from whom regular armies sprang. The word _company_ is derived from the Old French _compainie_, the Latin _companion-em_ (_companion_), from _cum-pane_ (_with bread_), implying an intimate association of men in one mess. The Company of Horse was soon differentiated from that of Foot, by being called a _Troop_--a word of uncertain origin, by some connected with _turba_ (a _crowd_), by others with the root of the Teutonic _treiben_ (_drive_), and akin to a _drove_.