From what I understand about Giovanni, in the past he was a competent knight and because of his achievements he was given a fairly comfy role and made a lot of political connections. He's pretty old now though so his usefulness in combat is pretty low as a result and due to the fact they're wanted his political connections are also unreliable. He has done some useful stuff but his role is limited due to the circumstances. After things settle down a bit and they remove most of the rotting corruption, he'll probably be more important since he's the only one who really understands the politics