Tercio

For its meaning in bullfighting, see Bullfighting § Order of the bullfight.

For other uses, see Third (disambiguation).

Spanish tercio

The Surrender of Breda, by Velázquez. Ambrosio Spínola (right), commander of the Spanish tercios, receiving the keys to the city.
Active	1534–1704 (Dissolution)
Allegiance	Spanish Empire
Branch	Army
Role	Security, control and defense of the Hispanic Monarchy.
Notable commanders	Great Captain Juan de Austria Emmanuel Philibert Duke of Alba Alexander Farnese Juan del Águila Ambrosio Spínola Cardinal-Infante Antonio de Leyva Álvaro de Sande Julián Romero Sancho Dávila

A tercio was a military unit of the Spanish Army during the era of the House of Austria. The tercios were famous for their resilience on the battlefield, forming the elite of the military units available to the kings of the Hispanic Monarchy of the time. The tercios were the essential element of the land hegemony, and at times also the maritime hegemony, of the Spanish Empire. The tercio is considered the rebirth of infantry on the battlefield, comparable to the Roman legions or the Macedonian phalanxes.

The Spanish tercios were the first modern European army, understood as an army made up of professional volunteers, instead of the levies for a campaign and the hiring of mercenaries typically used in other European countries. The care taken to keep a high number of "old soldiers" (veterans) in the units and their professional training, together with the particular character imprinted on them by the hidalgos of the lower nobility who filled their ranks, were the basis for their being the best infantry for a century and a half. In addition, they were the first to efficiently combine pikes and firearms (arquebuses).

From 1920 onward, the regiment-sized formations of the Spanish Legion also bear this name; the Legion is a professional unit created to fight in the colonial wars of North Africa, and it was inspired by the military feats of the historical tercios. The Spanish Legion also bears certain similarities to the Foreign Legion of the French army.

Origin of the tercios

Landing of Spanish tercios at the Battle of Terceira Island, in the Azores islands, fresco by Niccolò Granello in the Hall of Battles of the Monastery of El Escorial.

Although they were officially created by Charles I of Spain (the so-called Tercios Viejos, or Old Tercios) after the reform of the army by a decree addressed to the Viceroy of Naples of 23 October 1534 and the ordinance of Genoa of 15 November 1536, where the word tercio is used for the first time, as a garrison for the Spanish possessions in Italy and for expeditionary operations in the Mediterranean, their origins probably go back to the troops of Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba in Italy, organized in coronelías that grouped together the captaincies. With these Spanish troops established in Italy, Charles I, in his ordinances of 1534 and 1536, organized his army into three tercios: one in the Kingdom of Sicily, another in the Duchy of Milan (or Kingdom of Lombardy) and another in the Kingdom of Naples. In reality, they began to take shape in the Peninsula. During the reign of the Catholic Monarchs and as a consequence of the war of Granada, the model of the Swiss pikemen was adopted; shortly afterwards the troops were divided into three classes: pikemen, shield-bearers (swordsmen) and crossbowmen mixed with the first portable firearms (espingarderos and escopeteros). It did not take long for the shield-bearers to disappear and for the men with firearms to go from being a complement to the crossbows to replacing them completely. The Spanish victories in Italy against the powerful French armies took place when the process had not yet been completed.

The first three tercios, created from the troops stationed in Italy, were the Old Tercio of Sicily, the Old Tercio of Naples and the Old Tercio of Lombardy. Shortly afterwards the Old Tercio of Sardinia and the Tercio de Galeras (which was the first marine infantry unit in History) were created. All later tercios would be known as New Tercios. Unlike the system of levies or mercenaries, recruited for a particular war, typical of the Middle Ages, the tercios were formed with professional and volunteer soldiers who served in the ranks permanently, although at first each locality had to provide one out of every twelve men for the service of the King if he needed them for war. However, there was never a shortage of volunteers.

The Battle of Pavia (1525), in which the Spaniards defeated the French.

At first, then, the tercio was not, properly speaking, a combat unit, but an administrative one, a headquarters staff that had under its command a series of companies that were garrisoned dispersed across various strongholds in Italy or that could fight on fronts very distant from one another. This peculiar character was maintained when they were mobilized to fight in Flanders. The command of the tercio and that of the companies was granted directly by the King, so the companies could be attached to or detached from the command of the tercio as was convenient. In this way, the tercio maintained its character as an administrative unit, more similar to an 18th-century brigade than to a regiment of the time, until the mid-17th century, when the tercios began to be raised by nobles at their own expense, who appointed the captains and were the effective owners of the units, as happened in the rest of the European armies.

They were inspired by the Roman legion, which is why some historians believe that they may have been so named because of the tercia, the Roman legion that operated in Hispania. They were regular units always on a war footing, even when there was no imminent threat. Others would be created later for specific campaigns and were identified by the name of their maestre de campo or by the theater of their operations. The origin of the term «tercio» is uncertain. Some think that it was because, originally, each tercio represented a third of the total forces deployed in Italy. Others maintain that it was because they had to include three types of combatants (pikemen, arquebusiers and musketeers) in accordance with an ordinance for "men of war" of 1497, in which the formation of the infantry was changed into three parts:

«The foot soldiers (the infantry) were divided into three parts. One, a third with lances, as the Germans carried them, which they called pikes; and the other had the name of shield-bearers (men with swords); and the other, of crossbowmen and espingarderos (crossbowmen and espingarderos would later be replaced by the arquebusiers)».

There are also those who consider that the name comes from the three thousand men, divided into twelve companies, who made up its original complement. This last explanation seems the most accurate, since it is the one given by Maestre de Campo Sancho de Londoño in a report addressed to the Duke of Alba at the beginning of the 16th century:

«The tercios, although they were instituted in imitation of the (Roman) legions, can be compared to them in few things, for their number is half, and although formerly they were three thousand soldiers, which is why they were called tercios and not legions, they are now so called even though they have no more than a thousand men».

So, the name tercio may come from the fact that the first Italian tercios were composed of 3,000 men. Most likely it simply referred to a part of the troops, as in boarding actions, where the men were divided into three «tercios» or «trozos» (portions).

History and first battles

Siege of Gravelines, where the Battle of Gravelines took place, with a Spanish victory over the French troops that forced the French King to sign the peace and give up invading Italy. This battle was fought after the Battle of San Quintín, and in honor of this victory, King Philip II ordered the construction of the Monastery of El Escorial.

The Spanish military structure, innovated by the Catholic Monarchs in the conquest of Granada and in their campaigns in Italy, was strongly influenced by the so-called «Swiss model». The triumphs of the steadfast Swiss infantry against the heavy cavalry of Burgundy in a series of pitched battles revolutionized medieval methods of warfare. At last the infantry was gaining ground on the cavalry, the undisputed queen of medieval warfare. It was quite logical that in Spain the lesson would be learned that well-formed squares of pikemen could defeat any cavalry that came before them. Numbers prevailed over the futile efforts of the proud knights, as Machiavelli had already pointed out in The Art of War.

The combat effectiveness of the Hispanic tercios was based on a weapons system that joined the bladed weapon (the pike) with the firepower of the arquebus, achieving a complete synthesis of a dual infantry equipped with compact firearms. The superiority of the tercio over the model of the compact Swiss square lay, moreover, in its greater capacity to divide into more mobile units down to individual hand-to-hand combat, a tactical fluidity that favored the combative disposition of the Spanish infantryman.

The fact is that from the conquest of Granada (1492) to the campaigns of the Great Captain in the Kingdom of Naples (1495), three ordinances already laid the foundations for the military administration of the Spanish armies. In 1503, the Great Ordinance reflected the adoption of the long pike and the distribution of foot soldiers into specialized companies. In 1534 the first official tercio was created, that of Lombardy, and a year later it helped in the conquest of the Spanish Milanese. The Tercios of Naples and Sicily were created in 1536, thanks to the ordinance of Genoa, promulgated by Charles I of Spain.

At the Battle of Mühlberg, in 1547, the imperial troops of Charles V defeated a league of Protestant princes in Germany thanks, above all, to the performance of the imperial pikemen.

Ten years later, in 1557, the Spanish army completely defeated the French at the Battle of San Quintín, an event that was repeated with an identical result at Gravelines in 1558, which led to peace between the two States with great advantages for Spain. In all these battles the effective performance of the tercios stood out.

Character and way of life

A tercio in battle.

The soldiers of the tercios were proud men, extremely careful of their personal honor, so much so that they preferred death to dishonor, and of their reputation as soldiers. They were aggressive, disciplined troops with enormous self-confidence, but difficult to deal with if not handled with care. For example, the Spaniards did not tolerate being punished by being struck with the hands or a rod, as in other armies, since they considered it unworthy, and preferred to receive punishment with weapons such as the sword, despite how dangerous this was, because they considered it more noble. On one occasion a soldier whom an officer touched with a stick did not hesitate to put his hand on his sword, despite knowing that such an act of rebellion was punished with death (as indeed happened). It was even debated whether touching someone with a rod such as the shaft of a weapon was offensive, even if it was by accident.

Such an obsession with matters of honor and reputation meant that the Spanish soldiers had a reputation for being quarrelsome, and duels were not rare. It also meant that the officers had to treat them with care, although it was very useful to use their own pride to keep them in check.

When they fought alongside tercios of other nationalities or allies, it was common for the Spaniards to demand, in order to defend their reputation, the most important, dangerous or decisive posts in the battle, as in fact they were employed.

One way of encouraging the care of weapons was to select for the front lines of combat, the most dangerous and therefore the most distinguished, those whose equipment was in the best condition, and the Spanish army was the only one of the time that had to include punishments for those who broke formation out of eagerness to fight or to distinguish themselves before the enemy.

The Spanish soldiers were the troops who were slowest to mutiny over lack of pay, enduring years without being paid and living in conditions of misery before rebelling. Instead of doing so before an important battle, as was common to press for their pay, they only did so after it, so that it could not be said that they had not fulfilled their duty, but rather that it was their commanders who had not fulfilled theirs by not paying them. In the event of mutiny, they elected their leaders and maintained a discipline equivalent to that of the army. Such soldiers were excellent, but discipline had to be iron-hard to control them. And in fact it could be very harsh.

When Portugal was conquered, Philip II took great interest in ensuring that civilians were not harassed. But the logistics of the time simply could not sustain a large army without the soldiers searching for food in the area. Despite knowing this, the general hanged so many soldiers that he even wrote to the King to tell him that he was worried about running out of ropes. On another occasion, when a Prince of England (who was fighting with the tercios) wanted to attack without permission, the French Count who accompanied him told him that he did not know how far the discipline of the tercios went, for if he attacked without permission he did not know whether his royalty would be enough to save his neck.

Organization of the tercios

The organization of the tercios varied enormously during their existence (1534–1704). The original structure, characteristic of the tercios of Italy, whose bases are found in the ordinance of Genoa of 1536, divided each tercio into ten captaincies or companies, eight of pikemen and two of arquebusiers, of three hundred men each, although the army could also be divided into twelve companies of two hundred and fifty men each. Each company, apart from the Captain, who always had to be of Spanish nationality and chosen by the King, had other officers: an ensign (alférez), who was in charge of carrying the company's flag in combat; a sergeant, whose function was to preserve order and discipline among the soldiers of the company; and 10 corporals (each of whom commanded thirty men of the company). Apart from the officers, in each company there was a certain number of auxiliaries (quartermaster officer or furriel, chaplain, musicians, the Captain's page, barbers and healers (these last two usually filled the same role), etc.). Over time, one of the companies of arquebusiers was replaced by another of musketeers.

Graphic representation of the hierarchy and organization within a tercio.

Later, the tercios of Flanders adopted a structure of twelve companies, ten of pikemen and two of arquebusiers, each made up of two hundred and fifty men. Each group of four companies was called a coronelía. The staff of a tercio of Flanders had as its principal officers the colonels (one for each coronelía), a maestre de campo (supreme commander of the tercio appointed directly by royal authority) and a sargento mayor, or second in command to the Maestre de Campo. Over time, the companies reduced their complements, although not the number of officers and non-commissioned officers, which consequently grew in proportion to the number of soldiers they commanded.

The tercios usually appeared on the battlefield with the pikemen grouped in the center of the formation, escorted by the arquebusiers, with some of the latter left free in what were called mangas (sleeves), to harass and annoy the enemy.

The personnel of each unit were always volunteers and trained specifically within the tercio itself, which makes these units the seed of the modern professional army. The Spanish armies of that time were made up of soldiers recruited in all the dominions of the Hispanic and German Habsburgs, as well as other territories where soldiers of fortune and mercenaries abounded: Germans, Italians, Walloons, Swiss, Burgundians, Flemings, English, Irish, Spaniards, etc. In the army as a whole, the proportion of Spanish troops properly speaking was usually less than 50%, and even less: as low as 10–15% throughout almost the entire war in Flanders. However, they were considered the combat core par excellence, select, entrusted with the hardest and riskiest tasks (and consequently, with the best pay). Initially only Spaniards from the Iberian Peninsula were grouped into tercios, and throughout the entire period in which these units operated the prohibition on soldiers of other nationalities serving in these tercios remained in force. In the 1580s the first tercios of Italians were formed, whose quality rivaled that of the Spaniards, and at the beginning of the 17th century the tercios of Walloons were created, considered to be of lower quality. The German Landsknechts in the service of the Hispanic King were never organized into tercios and fought in companies, since they were mercenaries and did not fit the military organization of the tercios.

Company flag (mid-17th century).

The army of the Duke of Alba in Flanders, in its entirety, was composed of 5,000 Spaniards, 6,000 Germans and 4,000 Italians. When the tercio needed to enlist soldiers, the King granted a special permit signed in his own hand (a «conducta») to the designated captains, who were assigned a recruitment district and had to have enough men to form a company. The Captain then unfurled the flag in the agreed place and enlisted the volunteers, who came flocking thanks to the great fame of the tercios, where they expected to make a career and a fortune. These volunteers ranged from humble farmhands and peasants to ruined hidalgos or younger sons of noble families with ambitions of military fame, but normally neither those under 20 years of age nor the elderly were admitted, and it was forbidden to recruit friars or clerics as well as those with contagious diseases. The recruits underwent an inspection review, in which the Veedor (inspector) checked their qualities and admitted or rejected those who were or were not fit for combat. Unlike other armies, in the tercios the soldier was not obliged to swear fidelity and loyalty to the King.

Enlistment was for an indefinite period, until the King granted discharge, and it established a kind of tacit contract between the Crown and the soldier, although apart from the King the captains general could also discharge the troops. It was taken for granted that the oath was tacit and effective from this recruitment. Those fortunate enough to enter the tercio received a salary in advance at the outset to equip themselves, and those who already had their own equipment received a «socorro» (relief payment) on account of their first month's salary.

There is no doubt that these conditions were sometimes overlooked because of personal roguery or the temporary needs of the army, but in general it was always required that the soldier be healthy and strong, and that he have good teeth in order to eat the hard biscuit that was distributed among the troops. In Spain, the largest recruitment areas were Castile, Andalusia, the Kingdom of Valencia, Navarre and Aragon. Honor and service were highly valued concepts in Spanish society of the time, based on the hidalgo and courteous character, simple but brave and daring, of every good soldier. Although it must be added that there was no shortage of enlisted volunteers while the royal coffers overflowed with money, that is, until the first decades of the 17th century.

There were no training centers, because training was the responsibility of the sergeants and squad corporals, although the truth is that novice soldiers and squires were trained on the job. Efforts were made to distribute the novices among all the companies so that they would better learn the techniques of the veterans and not endanger the lives of the whole. It was also common for groups of comrades to form in the companies, that is, five or six soldiers united by special bonds of friendship who shared the details of the campaign. This type of fraternity strengthened forces and morale in combat to the extent that it was greatly favored by the command, which even prohibited soldiers from living alone.

The usual practice was to send the new companies of recruits to serve in Italy, from where the veterans later departed for Flanders. Until well into the 17th century, it was unusual to send green troops to Flanders.

Promotion was due to aptitude and merit, but seniority and social rank also counted for a great deal. To be promoted it usually took at least five years from soldier to corporal, one from corporal to sergeant, two from sergeant to ensign and three from ensign to captain. The Captain of a tercio company was the supreme commander who had to answer to the sargento mayor, who in turn was the right hand of the Maestre de Campo (appointed directly by the King and with full military, administrative and legislative authority).

The pay of the soldiers who made up a tercio was lower than that of the contemporary German regiments. A pica seca (unarmored pikeman) received three escudos a month; a coselete (armored pikeman), four; a musketeer, six; and an arquebusier, four.

Military and administrative posts in a tercio, with their functions

The maestre de campo

The maestre de campo is a Captain appointed by the King who commands his own company and the entire tercio; we could say that he was the general of the tercio. His was the only post in the tercios that had a personal guard, of just 8 halberdiers.

To become Maestre de Campo, many years of military experience, fame and recognition were required; with this the King could appoint them commanders of a tercio. Normally, at first one was Maestre de Campo of foreign troops (Walloons, Italians, Germans...); when he had done a good job, the King gave the Maestre de Campo a tercio of Spaniards. Many of the tercios were named either after their place of origin (Tercio of Málaga), or where they operated (Old Tercio of Lombardy), or with the name or surnames of [their commander]. Thus the famous Maestre de Campo Lope de Figueroa commanded the Lope de Figueroa tercio. In general, he was in charge of command, of administering justice within the tercio and of managing and ensuring that the troops were supplied.

Famous maestres de campo were Juan del Águila, Sancho de Londoño, Sancho Dávila, Julián Romero, Lope de Figueroa, Rodrigo López de Quiroga and Álvaro de Sande.

The sargento mayor

The sargento mayor was the principal aide to the Maestre de Campo, and was therefore second in command in the tercio. He could be considered the chief of staff. He did not have his own company, but he had authority over the other captains. He relayed the orders of the maestre of the tercio to the captains by word of mouth, said how the tercio should form on the battlefield, where the companies would be quartered, etc. It was, without doubt, the job of greatest responsibility. He had an aide who was usually the alférez of his former company. The evolution of these two posts has given rise today to the ranks of major and lieutenant colonel.

The drums and fifes

The drums or cajas and fifes were in charge of conveying the Captain's orders in combat by means of the calls of their instruments. They also had a double purpose: to raise the men's morale in combat and to carry orders, since in the heat of battle it was impossible to give orders by voice. There were many calls, among the basic ones march, halt, gather (sound the retreat), respond (to enemy fire), etc.

The furriel mayor

The furriel mayor (chief quartermaster) was in charge of quartering the soldiers, of the tercio's stores and of pay. He was in charge of logistical matters. Each company in turn had a furriel who was responsible for carrying out the orders of the furriel mayor. Each furriel kept the company's accounts, the list of soldiers, and the weapons and ammunition needed by the soldiers and the Captain. To be a furriel one needed to know how to read, write and basic concepts of mathematics.

Medical corps

The tercios did not have a medical corps like present-day armies. This role was performed by a professional physician, the surgeons of each company and the barber, who usually acted as nurses and had to know how to bind and bleed wounds (in each company there was only one surgeon and one barber). The stretcher-bearers were usually the servant lads who accompanied the soldiers into combat, or the soldiers themselves carrying their own comrades.

Spiritual corps

The tercios, as a Christian army, had to have a chaplain for each company to minister the faith to the soldiers, teach the gospel, celebrate holy mass and give extreme unction to the wounded and to those who were about to die. At first the chaplain was hired by the soldiers. It was arduous work, since the chaplains had to move across the battlefield to give extreme unction to the fallen and were often the object of hatred from enemies opposed to the Catholic Church (Protestants and Muslims).

In 1587, the order of the Jesuits became responsible for providing the chaplains of the tercios. With the ordinance of 1632 the post of chief chaplain was created, who was responsible for choosing the chaplains of the companies and was chaplain of the Maestre de Campo's company. In addition, they were the only ones who could judge other chaplains.

Judicial corps

The judicial corps of the tercio was made up of an Oidor (judge), a notary, two bailiffs, the jailer and the executioner. This group of people was responsible for carrying out the internal judicial proceedings of the tercio, as if it were a military tribunal. They were also in charge of the soldiers' wills.

In the tercio there was also a military police corps, commanded by the provost. It was in charge of order among the troops, the cleanliness of the camps, the security of the buildings where the soldiers were to be quartered and preventing the soldiers from straggling during marches.

Bartolomé Scarion de Pavía, in his work entitled Doctrina militar, in Lisbon in 1598, would state that "An army on campaign must have a provost, who is the supreme justice of the army, as in the tercios are the field barracheles, against evildoers and those who break the proclamations. However, the barracheles can only arrest, and not execute or release without the order of the general, or of the maese de campo, or of the auditor; and the provost is an absolute judge to hang and punish such sorts of delinquents." (A Leal-Bernabeu, 2019; Pavía, 1598)

The captain

The captain was a person appointed by the King to command a company; it was he who decided with which arm the company would be formed (when there was no mixing of arms): pikes, arquebuses or muskets.

The Captain had to report the mishaps that occurred to his superiors, and did not have the authority to punish his soldiers, nor to wound them, unless he was present, in which case he could use the sword, but he could not kill the soldiers. If he wounded a soldier he was not to strike a part of the body useful for war. The Captain was not to take advantage of the soldiers, nor mistreat them when they had done nothing, with the sole purpose of safeguarding the discipline of the soldiers of the company. He could give a soldier leave to move from one company to another, but he could not give him leave to leave the tercio, much less the army; that was the task of the Maestre de Campo and the King. The captains normally had a paje de rodela (shield page), since he carried it, who was also called paje de jineta. These boys were in the worst-off part of the combat, in front of the Captain to protect him with the shield.

He held the highest rank in the companies, which also had an ensign, a sergeant and a squad corporal.

The alférez

Uniforms of the Tercios in the 17th century according to Serafín María de Sotto: depiction of an ensign, musketeer, arquebusier and pikeman.

The Alférez (ensign) was in charge of carrying and defending the company's flag in combat. The flag was the insignia of the company and they had to protect it with their lives. There are known cases of ensigns who lost both arms in combat and, so that the flag would not fall to the ground (which meant the company had lost the fight), the Alférez held it with his mouth, an arduous task, since the pike on which the flag was carried weighed 5 kg. The flag always had to be carried vertically, never on the shoulder, because if the soldiers saw the flag falling or being dragged along the ground, morale would drop. The Alférez could take charge of the company if the Captain authorized it when the latter was absent. On marches, the Alférez had another aide, called the sotaalférez, who was in charge of carrying the flag when there was no fighting. This lad was also called sota or standard-bearer.

The sergeant

Each company had a sergeant, in charge of transmitting the captains' orders to the soldiers, of ensuring that the troops were always well prepared for combat (weapons, ammunition, protection, etc.) and that the troops in combat moved in good order.

In night duties, the sergeant is in charge of posting the sentries, and must check them throughout the night. The sergeant can punish those who do not fulfill these duties, and if force were required he could use the gineta, a special halberd carried only by sergeants, trying only to wound and not to maim the punished soldier.

The cabo

The cabo (corporal) was a veteran soldier who had twenty-five men under his command. They were in charge of lodging the soldiers in camaraderías (smaller groups of soldiers). They had to train the soldiers, see that they carried out the Captain's orders, that they fought well and that they did not cause trouble. If there were any, the corporal could not punish the soldiers and had to tell the Captain of any disorders that had occurred.

Squadron and techniques

Tercios marching in formation during the Battle of Nieuport, in 1600.

From left to right: halberdier, ensign and arquebusier.

The framework of the Tercio had three classes of combatants: pikemen, arquebusiers and musketeers. It also had artillery, and on occasion, cavalry (e.g.: Battle of Cerignola).

The pikemen used the pike, between 3 and 6 m long, and also carried their sword tied to the belt. According to their defensive equipment they were divided into «picas secas» (dry pikes) and «picas armadas» (armed pikes: coseletes or heavy pikemen). The former wore half armor and sometimes a capacete (helmet) or morion. The latter protected themselves with a sallet or morion, breastplate, backplate and tassets that covered the thighs, hanging from the breastplate. The sword was their great asset in any hand-to-hand combat, and in its handling the Spaniards had a highly accredited reputation. It was normally double-edged and usually measured no more than one meter to make it lighter and more portable.

The musketeers carried equipment very similar to that of the arquebusiers, but differed in that, instead of an arquebus, they used a musket, that is, of greater range and caliber, which also required firing it supported on a fork planted in the ground; and instead of a morion, a chambergo hat. Their range allowed them to leave the closed formation and take refuge in the squadron after opening fire. They were an extraordinary innovation in their time thanks to the intelligence of the Duke of Alba, who decided to introduce muskets into the tercios in 1567, when previously they had only served in the defense of walled strongholds, especially in the presidios of Barbary, in the north of Africa.

The Spaniards retained military hegemony during the 16th century and a large part of the 17th, although their enemies drew on the same techniques to confront them. Armies increased their numbers and began to suffer enormous casualties. The generals of the time then chose not to fight great battles, but to concentrate their efforts on taking important cities in order to force a treaty that would lead to the end of the war, whether temporary or long-term. An aphorism of the Landsknechts of those times very aptly said: «God give us a hundred years of war and not a single day of battle».

The great formations of the tercios arose according to the technique baptized by the Spaniards as the «arte de escuadronar» (art of forming squadrons), and the treatises of the time are full of formulas and tables for composing squadrons of up to 8,000 men. By then the individual feats that in the Middle Ages enjoyed so much fame and prestige for the soldier had completely disappeared, for the infantry was based entirely on anonymity. The officers and distinguished soldiers had a horse for long marches, but all fought on foot, integrated into large square or rectangular formations, with a strictly imposed discipline in movements of alignment and maneuver. During journeys, the troops were accustomed always to travel in column, but then fought grouped in geometric blocks.

These blocks easily repelled cavalry and fought skillfully in combination with the rest of the infantry, but they had to avoid coming within range of artillery, since they could then suffer serious damage and casualties. The threat of enemy artillery in a battle became quite clear to all the armies of the time, especially from the Battle of Marignano, in which the French artillery pounded the Swiss squares. All generals then kept this factor in mind, although in fact the artillery pieces were of short range and very difficult to move over rough or muddy terrain, as for example in the fields of Flanders. It should be noted, however, that the infantry was the arm best able to move in the narrow spaces left by canals, dikes, bridges or walls in Flanders.

The tercio's most typical formation was the so-called squadron of pikes. The rest of the forces—cavalry and arquebusiers—had to support its action by placing themselves on its mangas or flanks to prevent the enemy from enveloping it, although at times they also formed small squares at its corners. This tactic was the most used in open country, with orders transmitted through the sargento mayor to the sergeants of the companies and their captains, who moved the troops. All movements were carried out in absolute silence, so that only at the moment of the clash was it permitted to shout «Santiago!» or «España!». In reality, the tactics employed by the units that made up the tercios were very flexible and adapted to the type of combat they had to fight. It was common to bring together companies from different tercios to increase the number of weapons of a particular type, or to employ only the companies that carried them if it was convenient. For example, for the assault on static positions, where it was advisable to have great firepower, units of arquebusiers and musketeers from various tercios could be brought together.

The doctrine of the time established opposing pikes to horses, pitting the arquebusiers against the pikemen and launching cavalry against the enemy arquebusiers, since these, once the first shot had been fired, were very vulnerable until they loaded the weapon again. The arquebusiers acquired great importance in the tercios: they wore a capacete, a mail gorget and a leather jerkin (coleto), sometimes breastplate and backplate. Their great weapon was the arquebus, an iron barrel mounted on a wooden stock with a butt. The equipment also included a bandolier for the gunpowder charges and a bag for the ammunition, the match and the lighter. The arquebusier received a certain amount of lead and a mold in which he had to cast his own bullets. At the end of the 16th century, each tercio had two or three companies of arquebusiers (which gives an idea of their elitism), made up of young soldiers able to withstand hard work. For that same reason they were also favored with special treatment that exempted them from standing night guard (unlike the rest of the companies) and guaranteed them one more ducat of pay per month. Artillery was available when circumstances so required: from bronze or cast iron cannons, half-cannons, culverins and falconets. Given the importance of firearms in attack and of pikes in defense, and that the former predominated in the tercios and the latter in the regiments, there was a tendency to combine the two types of unit to take advantage of the benefits of both.

During the first volleys, so that the casualties would not leave too many gaps in the squadron of pikes, the soldiers moved forward to take the place in front when it became empty, which made it possible to continue presenting a compact image in which the whole company supported itself as a single block. The squadron of pikes had four formations: the square squadron (the same front as depth); the prolonged one (three squares joined together), with the variant of the half-moon or cornuto, in which the wings curved to protect the center; the wedge or triangular one, which took the form of a pincer or saw when it joined others at the base; and the rhombus.

If it was a siege, the tercios carried out entrenchment works to surround the stronghold and bring the cannons and mines closer to the walls. One of the squadrons was kept in reserve to repel any attempted counterattack by the besieged. Even if it was necessary to withdraw, efforts were made to carry out the withdrawal in the utmost secrecy, with a security squadron always covering the rearguard.

Armament and clothing

Tercios de Flandes by Enrique Estevan.

There was never true uniformity in clothing. The most common equipment comprised a ropilla (short garment over the doublet), breeches, two shirts, a doublet, two pairs of half hose, a broad-brimmed hat and a pair of shoes, but each man could dress as he wished if he paid for it out of his own pocket. As for weapons, the soldiers received those given to them by the King (Royal Munition), which were deducted from future pay, but in addition they could acquire and use any other they found convenient: swords, crossbows, pikes, muskets, arquebuses, left-hand daggers, etc., and so they trained on the basis of skill and much practice.

Every soldier could take with him the lads and servants he could afford according to his social position and resources. They were a kind of squires who learned from their superiors the art of war and the care of weapons and horses. A large number of dependents and non-combatants accompanied the army of tercios on its march, from mochileros (porters) to carry the baggage to merchants with carts of food and drink, canteen-keepers, servants, etc., and even prostitutes. The latter, although quite numerous, could not spend the night with the troops because a certain limit of measures for maintaining order had to be respected, so they had to leave the camp at nightfall.

17th-century arquebusier

As the years went by, the tercios both decreased in number of men and increased the proportion of arquebusiers and musketeers relative to pikemen, eliminating any vestige of some weapons still common at the time the tercio was created (for example, the crossbow or the round shield or rodela). The Spanish army was among those that most quickly adopted firearms in its units, although later their proportion remained stable. Their number was high in the tercios, although pikes, considered necessary for defense, were not dispensed with. The musket was included among the tercio's weapons in 1567 and brought a notable increase in the firepower of the units, mainly because of the penetrating power of the projectiles it fired and its range.

In practice, the tercios never had all their posts filled, and the companies often had only half or less of their theoretical strength. Companies were frequently dissolved («reformed») to fill a minimum of posts in the others. The captains of the disbanded companies were reduced to the role of soldiers, albeit elite ones. Because of this, their structure was never rigid, but rather very adaptable to the circumstances of the moment.

Desertion was relatively tolerated if it was to join another, more prestigious company. Fleeing to Spain was not looked upon very badly, although it was not common. However, going over to the enemy was another matter. On the few occasions it happened, and if the deserters had the misfortune to fall into the hands of their former comrades, they could expect no mercy.

Many of the actions of war were not great battles, but a succession of raids, skirmishes, small battles and sieges. In all these cases, the tercios proved very efficient, especially in surprise attacks («encamisadas»).

Food and health

The rank-and-file soldier's food comprised approximately a kilo of bread or biscuit, a pound of meat and half a pound of fish and a pint of wine, plus oil and vinegar, which provided from 3,300 to 3,900 kilocalories a day. It should be noted that the soldier had to prepare his own food, although the preparation of some foods was the responsibility of each of the comrades at the camp's cooking fires.

Each tercio had a physician, a surgeon and an apothecary. All the companies had a barber for first aid, and the seriously wounded were taken to the general hospital, where there were nurses, physicians and surgeons. This hospital was funded by the soldiers themselves through the so-called «real de limosna» (an amount deducted from their salary), the sale of the personal effects of the sick who died without making a will, or the donations that someone made voluntarily. There was approximately one physician or surgeon for every 2,200 soldiers, although the wounded could become so numerous that they overwhelmed their capacity. The fact was that most veteran soldiers were covered in scars, and many ended up crippled or mutilated without any compensation. Amputations were followed by cauterization, and wounds were treated with macerations of wine or aguardiente and some ointments, but at times this did not stop infection or suppuration, which ended up degenerating into gangrene or other contagious diseases.

The importance of religion

The tercios maintained their enormous fighting morale through the implicit support of religion on campaign. Their best general, Alexander Farnese, did not hesitate, for example, to make his soldiers kneel day after day before fighting to pray the Hail Mary or a prayer to Santiago, patron saint of Spain.

Likewise, every morning the Virgin Mary was saluted with three bugle calls, and when necessary several masses for the dead and numerous funerals were also celebrated. Each tercio had a chief chaplain and a preacher, and each company a chaplain.

List of the Tercios

Flag of the Tercio de la Liga (c. 1571).

Flag of a company that took part in the Siege of Breda (1625).

Flag of the Tercio de Alburquerque (1643).

Flag of the Tercio Morados Viejos (1670).

Flag of the Tercio Amarillos Viejos (1680).

Great Old Tercios

• Tercio Ordinario del Estado de Milán (1534), later Gran Tercio Viejo de Lombardía (1560), also known as "el Osado" (the Daring).
• Tercio de Nápoles y de Sicilia (1534), later divided into
  • Gran Tercio Viejo de Nápoles (1536)
  • Gran Tercio Viejo de Sicilia (1536)
• Gran Tercio Viejo de Cerdeña (1536), also called Gran Tercio Viejo de Málaga, dissolved by the Duke of Alba after the defeat at Heiligerlee (1568).

Fixed Provincial Tercios

• Tercio Fijo Provincial de Burgos (1663)
• Tercio Fijo Provincial de Córdoba (1663)
• Tercio Fijo Provincial de Madrid (1663)
• Tercio Fijo Provincial de Toledo (1663)
• Tercio Fijo Provincial de Valladolid (1663)
• Tercio Fijo Provincial de Valencia (1689)

Other Spanish tercios

• Tercio de Diego de Castilla (1537), later Tercio de Saboya
• Tercio Ordinario de las Milicias de la Costa de Granada (1558), later Tercio Provincial de Granada and Tercio de Constanzo (1700)
• Tercio Provisional de Lombardia (1560), later Tercio Gemelo de Lombardia (not to be confused with the Gran Tercio Viejo de Lombardia), Tercio de Logroño, Tercio de Garciez, Tercio Viejo de Flandres, Tercio Departemental de Flandres (1590) and Tercio Primero de los Países Bajos (1700)
• Tercio de las Palmas (1573)
• Tercio de Don Gabriel Niño de Zúñiga (1579), later Tercio Departemental de Portugal (1580), Tercio de la Fanteria Española de la Ciudad de Lisboa (1593) and Tercio de Lisboa.
• Tercio de don Francisco Arias de Bobadilla (1580), later Tercio de Las Azores, Tercio de Don Gaspar de Bonifacio (1651), Tercio Departemental de Holanda (1585), Tercio de Flandres II (1702) and Tercio de Valois (1713)
• Tercio de Don Luis de Queralt (1587), or Tercio de los Valones Españoles, or Tercio de los "Papagayos" (the "Parrots").
• Tercio Departemental del Brabante (1591), or Tercio Viejo de Brabante
• Tercio de Arauco (1603)
• Tercio de Canarias (1626), later Tercio de Castillo (1632), Tercio de Canarias (1680), Tercio de Alverado (1662), Tercio de Canarias (1680) and Tercio de Castillo (1684)
• Tercio de Don José García Salcedo (1633), called "La Escuela de Flandes" (the School of Flanders), later named after its commanders as Tercio de Velasco, de Manrique, de Pantoja, de Mancheño and de Villescasas
• Tercio del Conde de Fuenclara (1634)
• Tercio de Voluntarios de Alava (1637), or de Alaveses
• Tercio de Jorge de Castellví (1640), or Tercio de Cerdeña III
• Tercio Viejo de Extremadura (1643)
• Tercio de Saavedra (1641), later Tercio del Duque de Alburquerque and Tercio Nuevo de Jaén (1694)
• Tercio de las Milicias de Badajoz y de Llerena (1641), later Tercio Provincial Nuevo de Extrmadura (1694)
• Tercio de Bernardino de Ayala, Conde de Villalba (1642)
• Tercio de don Jerónimo de Benavente y Quiñones (1657), later Tercio de Amarillos Viejos (1668)
• Tercio del Casco de Granada (1657)
• Tercio de Don Diego Fernandez de Vera (1661), later Tercio Provincial de Toledo (1664), and Tercio de Azules Viejos (1693)
• Tercio de Cordova (1662), later Tercio de Castilla (1664), Tercio Provincial de Sevilla (1668) and Tercio de Morados Viejos (1691)
• Tercio Provincial de Madrid (1664), later Tercio de Colorados Viejos (1694)
• Tercio de Portugal (1665), later Tercio Provincial de Valladolid (1668) and Tercio de los Verdes Viejos (1691)
• Tercio del Consell de Cent (1667)
• Tercio de la Ciudad de Barcelona (1674)
• Tercio de Aragón (1678)
• Tercio de Cataluña (1689)
• Tercio Provincial Nuevo de Burgos (1694), later Tercio de la Cerda (1700)
• Tercio Provincial Nuevo de Gibraltar (1694), later Tercio de Colorados Nuevos (1697)
• Tercio Provincial Nuevo de León (1694), later Tercio de Amarillos Nuevos (1700)
• Tercio Provincial Nuevo de Murcia (1694), later Tercio de Azules Nuevos (1699)
• Tercio Provincial Nuevo de Segovia (1694), later Tercio de Los Blancos
• Tercio Provincial Nuevo de Toledo (1694), later Tercio de Morados Nuevos
• Tercio Provincial Nuevo de Valladolid (1694), later Tercio de los Verdes Nuevos (1701)
• Tercio de las Milicias de Málaga (1701)
• Tercio de Asturias (1703)
• Tercio de Guipúzcoa (1703)
• Tercio Permanente de Ceuta (1703)
• Tercio de Don Felipe de Araujo (1705)
• Tercio de Don José de Espinar (1706)
• Tercio de el Marquis de Caracena
• Tercio de Don Joan Copons
• Tercio de Darnius
• Tercio del Don Lucas de Espinola, merged with the Tercio de Lisboa in 1689
• Tercio de Alonso Gaspar Fernández de Córdoba-Figueroa y Alvarado
• Tercio de la Generalitat
• Tercio del Conde de Himares, merged with the Tercio de Lisboa in 1653.
• Tercio de Los Arcos
• Tercio de Don Diego de Meneses
• Tercio de Monroy
• Tercio de Mortora
• Tercio de Nueva Leva
• Tercio de Sagunto
• Tercio de Seralvo
• Tercio de Don Clemente Soriano
• Tercio de Valencias y de el Conde de Garcies
• Tercio de don Antonio de Velandia
• Tercio Viejo de Lesaca
• Tercio de Villar
• Tercio de Gaspar Zapena, or Capena

Tercios of the Navy or Tercios of the Sea

• Tercio de Figueroa (1566), later Tercio de la Armada del Mar Océano (1567), Tercio de la Liga Católica (1571), Tercio de la Armada (1580), Tercio de las Terceras (1586), Tercio Viejo de la Armada Real del Mar Océano (1603), Tercio Provincial de Cordoba (1664), Tercio Viejo de la Armada Real del Mar Océano (1667) and Tercio Primero de la Armada (1700)
• Tercio de Galeras de Sicilia (1566)
• Tercio de Don Pedro de Padilla (1567), later Tercio Nuevo del Mar de Nápoles (1567), Tercio del Mediteraneo (1632) and Tercio Fijo del Mar de Nápoles (1663)
• Tercio Viejo de la Armada del Mar Océano y de Infanteria Napoletana (1571), heir to the Compañías Viejas del Mar de Nápoles (1537)
• Tercio Nuevo de la Armada y del Mar Océano (1682)

Italian tercios

• Tercio Viejo de Infantería Italiana de Flandes (1682)
• Neapolitans:
  • Tercio Nuevo de Nápoles (1566)
  • Tercio de Torrecuso, or Terracusa (1631)
  • Tercio de Cárdenas (1633)
  • Tercio de Guasco, or Guassio (1634)
  • Tercio de Alfonso de Ávalos y de Aquino, or de San Severino (1634)
  • Tercio de Toraldo, or Toralto, or Torralto (1634)
  • Tercio de Capua
• Lombards:
  • Tercio de Panigarola, or Paniguerola (1631)
  • Tercio de Lunati, or Lunato, or Lonato (1634)
  • Tercio del Duque de Doria
  • Tercio de Giovanni de Liponti
  • Tercio de Alonso de Strozzi
  • Tercio de Luis de Vixconti

Irish, Scottish and English tercios

• Tercio Irlandés del Conde de Tyrone (1605), later called Tercio Viejo de Irlandeses
• Tercio Escocés del Conde de Argyll (1620)
• Tercio Inglés de Lord Vaux (1622)
• Tercio Inglés de Parham (1623), later called Tercio de Ingleses or, after its commanders, Tercio de Tresham, Gage, Norris, Nelson, Touchet (Condé de Castlehaven), Jouavet and Porter.
• Tercio Irlandés del Conde de Tyrconell (1624)
• Tercio Irlandés de O'Donnell (1632)
• Tercio Irlandés de O'Neill (1634)
• Tercio Irlandés de Preston (1634)
• Tercio Inglés de Gage (1638), later merged with the Tercio de Tresham
• Tercio Irlandés de Fitzgerald (1639)
• Tercio Inglés de Norris (1645), later merged with the Tercio de Gage
• Tercio Irlandés de O'Sullivan (1646), later merged with the Tercio de Murphy
• Tercio Inglés de Cobb (1647), later merged with the Tercio de Norris
• Tercio Irlandés de Murphy (1647)
• Tercio Irlandés de Netterwill (1651), later merged with the Tercio de Murphy
• Tercio Irlandés de Dillon (1653), later merged with the Tercio de Murphy
• Tercio Irlandés de Cussack (1656)
• Tercio Irlandés de O'Reilly (1656)
• Tercio Irlandés del Conde de Bristol (1657)

German tercios

• Tercio de Ambisi
• Tercio de Giulio Frangipani
• Tercio de Ottavio Guasco
• Tercio de Rittberg

Burgundian tercios

• Tercio de Arberg, or Alberg (1633)
• Tercio de la Tour, or Moncley, or Monclé (1633)
• Tercio de Balanzon
• Tercio del Conde de Saint-Amour

Walloon tercios

• Tercio de Beaufort (1617)
• Tercio del Conde de Bucquoy (1617)
• Tercio del Conde de Henin (1617)
• Tercio de Verdugo (1617)
• Tercio de Wyngaarde (1621)
• Tercio del Príncipe de Barbençon (1622)
• Tercio de Filipe de Gand y Mérode, Conde de Isinguien (1622)
• Tercio del Señor de Cocqhove (1625)
• Tercio del Conde de Isenghien (1629)
• Tercio del Barón de Wacken (1630)
• Tercio del Vizconde de Alphen (1631)
• Tercio del Vizconde de Bruselas (1631)
• Tercio de Conde de Fresin (1631)
• Tercio del Barón de Grimbergen (1631)
• Tercio de Frederic Micault (1631)
• Tercio del Conde de Stassin (1631)
• Tercio del Conde de Baucignies (1640)
• Tercio del Conde de Beaumont (1640)
• Tercio del Conde de Fauquemberghe (1640)
• Tercio del Señor de Conteville (1642)
• Tercio del Marquès de Trazegnies (1644)
• Tercio de Gante (1646)
• Tercio de Molin (1646)
• Tercio des Pais de Alost (1646)
• Tercio del Conde de Roeulx (1646)
• Tercio de Stoppelaar (1646)
• Tercio de la Villla de Amberes (1646)
• Tercio de la Villa de Bruselas (1646)
• Tercio del Conde de Gammerages (1648)
• Tercio del Conde de Noyelles (1648)
• Tercio del Señor de La Granges
• Tercio del Principe de Ligne
• Tercio del Conde de Meghen
• Tercio del Baron de Ribeaucourt

Portuguese tercios

• Terço da Armada da Coroa de Portugal (1618)
• Tercio de Muñíz Barreto (1625)
• Tercio de Valladares
• Tercio Viejo de Portugal

The Black Legend

Main article: Spanish Black Legend

The bad reputation of the Spanish Tercios forms an inseparable part of the Black Legend spread by Anglo-Saxon, French and Dutch historiography to damage the political image of Spain from the time—above all—of Philip II. These prejudices are based on certainly regrettable events that were the work of the rough and fierce soldiers in some episodes of disorder and indiscriminate plunder accompanied by cruel massacres, although it was less than what was spread. During the tenure of the third Duke of Alba as head of the Tercios, hatreds were exacerbated, above all as a result of the policy of a firm hand and repression promoted by the nobleman, who is still considered today a true bête noire by the Protestant Flemish and Dutch. Although all the armies before and after that era committed and would commit the same excesses, the bad reputation of the Spanish tercios was increased by Dutch and Protestant hatred of an invader that they saw as a double threat: political (accusing Spain of imperialism) and religious (fighting against the Catholicism that the Austrias wanted to impose at all costs in the territories where the Protestant Reformation had taken deep root). The worst outrages of the tercios were caused by the continual delays in sending their pay. Salaries were low to begin with, but with that salary it must be borne in mind that the soldier paid for his clothing, his upkeep, his weapons and sometimes even his lodging, although exceptionally some nobles offered to bear the costs of a specific war in order to gain merit and prestige before the King of Spain.

If pay took more than 30 months to arrive (as happened at some times), the tercios mutinied and were capable of the worst, although they never called into question their full loyalty to Spain and the King. It was then that uncontrolled plunder became the only system for making up for the lack of money, and this plunder could come both from the capture of enemy baggage and from pillaging towns and cities. Booty was forbidden when a city voluntarily agreed to surrender before the besiegers had set up their artillery, but if this did not happen, the stronghold was then at the mercy of the victor. One of the darkest episodes of the tercios took place in the Sack of Antwerp in 1576, which lasted more than three days and reached inhuman extremes of barbarity and devastation. On 4 November 1576, the streets were strewn with corpses of every kind and condition, with fingers and ears cut off to take the personal jewels that the soldiers so craved. Entire families were tortured in search of money.

Similar episodes occurred in Catalonia and in Portugal, which rebelled against the Crown of the Austrias because of the lack of agreement on matters of internal economic policy and, above all, the extremely costly upkeep that the tercios on campaign represented. The stationing of the tercios on the Catalan border with France and the controversial Union of Arms planned by the valido of Philip IV, the Count-Duke of Olivares, pooling the money and manpower of all the Hispanic kingdoms and lordships, ended up lighting the fuse of the powder keg that the Principality of Catalonia and the Kingdom of Portugal had become, totally opposed to such measures because they seriously damaged their economic prospects, while at the same time violating their privileged fueros of medieval origin. The Tercios were a pressure cooker wherever they went, and adding to this the favorite's lack of tact and the stubborn royal authoritarianism of Philip IV, plus the equally obstinate reluctance and distrust of the Catalan and Portuguese cortes, the result was so chaotic that it simultaneously plunged the Iberian Peninsula into two fronts in rebellion against the King. The tercios stationed in Catalonia weighed like a millstone on the means of the humble and popular classes because of their expenses and excesses. The mutiny of the soldiers was added to the popular rebellion in response to their atrocities. Entire towns were sacked and burned in the Catalan Principality in 1640, beginning the so-called Reapers' War and the temporary secession of Catalonia from the Empire thanks to the calculated political maneuvers of Cardinal Richelieu, valido of Louis XIII. After several negotiations and the resigned loss of Portugal, which became independent with the Braganzas as its new national dynasty, the government in Madrid managed to settle the situation at the cost of accepting all the conditions set by the Catalan Generalitat and letting France consolidate its annexations north of the Pyrenees, where it occupied several Catalan districts.

The end of a myth

Main article: Battle of Rocroi

Rocroi, el último tercio, by Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau (2011).

The Battle of Rocroi, on 19 May 1643, marked a turning point in the legendary history of the Spanish tercios. It was a true moral defeat, in the midst of the Thirty Years' War, which plunged the soldiers into confusion and discouragement, to the point of making an impact across the whole continent by shattering the myth that the Spanish tercios were invincible.

The tercios besieging the French city of Rocroi started with several disadvantages when facing the troops that appeared to relieve the besieged stronghold. They fought, to begin with, outnumbered, and another of the errors they suffered from was their lack of foresight or their overconfidence before an enemy they underestimated, when a single spy could have detected the arrival of the French forces. French hegemony in Europe was decided from that episode onward.

To send its reinforcements to the area, the Spanish Crown had to put into operation the so-called Spanish Road, a vital itinerary that ran by land (the sea route was cut off by the English, French and Dutch) from the Milanese through the Franche-Comté, Alsace, Germany, Switzerland and Lorraine until reaching Flanders. The Duke of Alba (1507–1582) was the first to use this route in 1566, and it was so successful that it managed to remain in use until 1622. It was in that year that France managed to strangle the Road by reaching a pact of interests with the Duke of Savoy, who allied himself with the French to prevent the passage of Hispanic troops through his territory. This forced the Spaniards to seek a new alternative, and they found it in an itinerary that ran somewhat further east, also starting from Milan and crossing the Swiss valleys of the Engadine in the Grisons and the Valtellina to Landeck, in the Tyrol, and from there, skirting southern Germany, it crossed the Rhine at Breisach and reached the Low Countries through Lorraine. This second Spanish Road held until the French invaded the Valtellina and Alsace and also occupied Lorraine. An attempt was then made to reach the coast of Flanders by sea from the Galician and Cantabrian ports, but the naval defeat at the Battle of the Dunes (many historians consider more serious this land and naval defeat suffered by the Spaniards, in which the French Marshal Turenne had the support of the English fleet of the dictator Cromwell) definitively doomed the vital axis that allowed the Empire to supply its forces in Flanders. The last victory of the tercios would be at the Battle of Valenciennes (1656), against the French.

The military decline of the Spanish Empire was already visible as a consequence of the failure to rethink the structure and training of the tercios, which had inevitably become obsolete in the face of rapid renewals of armament in which both France and Holland or England were already far ahead. The Spanish Crown had suffered an unstoppable drain of money, men and all kinds of resources in order to fight the Protestants and maintain its dominions in Flanders and Italy against Dutch and French expansionism. Combat casualties, disease and desertions caused the organizational chart of the tercios to collapse completely. It was impossible to pay for a renewal of techniques and armament because the deficit, which swallowed all the gold and almost all the silver that was becoming ever more costly to extract from the Spanish American colonies (it was running out), was simply devastating. The tercio was a very expensive force, and given that the economy of the Hispanic kingdoms was too decentralized and did not have interests that were easy to reconcile, the minor Austrias (Philip III, Philip IV, Charles II) found it increasingly difficult to achieve an economic agreement with the Cortes of each State of which they were kings. The King's bankers used to advance money in the form of loans, but when the State's money ran out, the bankers closed their purses and the consequences were irremediable. The war in Flanders, for example, lasted from 1568 to 1609 and from 1621 to 1648 (Peace of Westphalia), with only a cold interlude with the Twelve Years' Truce achieved by Philip III. That conflict devoured the Royal Treasury for more than 80 years for nothing: the United Provinces became independent from the Empire and were compensated with two more provinces (north of the Scheldt River, which ruined the river outlet of Antwerp), apart from the colonies they had already occupied in the East Indies.

After 1648 it was France that gradually invaded territories to the south, ending up forcing in 1659 the Peace of the Pyrenees, which already meant the loss of a considerable part of territories to the south and east of Belgium. And Spain had open fronts with almost all the powers: French, English, Dutch, German Protestants and Swedes.

The Genoese bankers and the foreign mercenaries who supported the Hispanic armies demanded ever higher payments, the Crown already being drowned in the extravagance of the Court, the lack of political vision of the monarchs and their increasingly incompetent validos, and in a series of interminable wars that devastated Europe until they completely sank the policy of a multinational and Catholic empire such as that of the Austrias.

Under the reign of Charles II the Bewitched the French attacks continued in order to finish off the little that remained of Hispanic Flanders. Through the Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle (1668), Spain once again lost strongholds in the region. Five years later, Louis XIV proposed exchanging Flanders for Roussillon and half of Cerdanya, districts lost north of the Pyrenees in 1659, but Charles II flatly refused, which once again meant the outbreak of war. The Peace of Nijmegen again diminished the Hispanic dominions, which ended up disappearing at the beginning of the 18th century with the Peace of Utrecht, which put an end to the War of the Spanish Succession between Philip V and Archduke Charles of Austria for the Spanish throne. The Holy Roman Empire was the new owner of Flanders from then on.

Legacy

Although Philip V dissolved the tercio in his reform of 1704, this name is still preserved today in regiment-type units of the Spanish legion and of the Spanish marine infantry, the latter being heir to the old tercios of the sea.

At present, various units of the Spanish Armed Forces retain the name of Tercio. In the Legion we find the Tercio «Juan de Austria», the Tercio «Alejandro Farnesio», the Tercio «Gran Capitán» and the Tercio «Duque de Alba».

Furthermore, in the Spanish Navy the Marine Infantry is organized into tercios. Its main expeditionary unit is the Tercio de Armada, direct heir of the Old Tercios of the Navy or Tercios of the Sea of Naples. The rest of the Marine Infantry is organized into three other garrison tercios called the Tercio del Sur (San Fernando), the Tercio del Norte (Ferrol) and the Tercio de Levante (Cartagena). These three tercios, together with the Groupings of the Canaries and Madrid, form the Protection Forces. The flags and insignia of the Spanish tercios continue to bear the old Burgundian or Saint Andrew's cross that the Tercios of Emperor Charles carried.

Anecdotes of the tercios

Miracle of Empel

El milagro de Empel, by Augusto Ferrer-Dalmau (2015).

At present, the patroness of the Spanish Infantry is the Immaculate Conception. This patronage has its origin in the so-called Miracle of Empel during the wars in Flanders.

On 7 December 1585, the Tercio of Maestre de Campo Francisco de Bobadilla was fighting on the Island of Bommel, located between the Meuse and Waal rivers, completely blockaded by the squadron of Admiral Hollock. The blockade tightened every day and food and dry clothing ran out.

The enemy commander then proposed an honorable surrender, but the Spanish response was clear: «Spanish infantrymen prefer death to dishonor. We will talk about capitulation after we are dead». Faced with such a response, Hollock resorted to a method frequently used in that conflict: opening the river dikes to flood the enemy camp. Soon the only dry land left was the small hill of Empel, where the soldiers of the Tercio took refuge.

At that critical moment, a soldier of the tercio who was digging a trench stumbled upon a wooden object buried there. It was a Flemish panel with the image of the Immaculate Conception. When the discovery was announced, they placed the image on an improvised altar and Maestre Bobadilla, considering the event a sign of divine protection, urged his soldiers to fight, commending themselves to the Immaculate Virgin:

«This treasure, so rich, that they discovered beneath the earth was a divine herald of good, which through the intercession of the Virgin Mary they awaited on her blessed day».

A completely unusual and intensely cold wind broke out that night, freezing the waters of the Meuse River. The Spaniards, marching over the ice, made a surprise attack on the enemy squadron at dawn on 8 December and obtained such a complete victory that Admiral Hollock went so far as to say: «It seems that God is Spanish, to work, for me, so great a miracle».

That same day, amid cheers and acclamations, the Immaculate Conception was proclaimed patroness of the Tercios of Flanders and Italy, the cream of the Spanish army.

However, this patronage would be consolidated three hundred years later, after the bull Ineffabilis Deus of 8 December 1854 proclaimed as a dogma of the Catholic faith the Immaculate Conception of the Most Holy Virgin; on 12 November 1892, at the request of the Inspector of the Infantry Arm of the Spanish Army, by royal order of the Queen Regent doña María Cristina de Habsburgo, it was:

«Declared Patroness of the Infantry Arm, Our Lady the Most Pure and Immaculate Conception».

Irse a la porra

The sargento mayor of each Tercio directed the pace of his men by moving a large cudgel, a kind of forerunner of the orchestra conductor's baton, which received the explicit name of porra. When a column on the march made a prolonged halt, the sargento mayor drove the lower end of his distinctive porra into the ground to symbolize the stop. The guard was quickly established near it, in charge of guarding the most precious symbols of the Tercio: the flag and the cart in which the funds were carried (when there were any). Also placed under its watch were the arrested soldiers, who during that rest had to remain seated around the porra that the sergeant had planted at the beginning. This was therefore equivalent to «enviar a alguien a la porra» ("sending someone to the porra") as a synonym for arresting him. This ironic but curious phrase was quite successful, so it came to enrich the lexicon of Spanish, giving rise to the present-day and dismissive «¡vete a la porra!» ("go to the porra!").

Me importa un pito

The fife player or "pito" was the boy who played that instrument in the army. His pay was very low. Therefore, when we use the expression "me importa un pito" ("I care a pito about it") we imply that we give the matter very little value.

Expressions from Flanders

Other expressions directly related to the wars of Flanders and the Tercios have left a deep mark on the Spanish language. For example, in the case of phrases as commonly used by Spanish speakers as «Se armó (o se armará) la de San Quintín» ("the San Quintín broke out (or will break out)") (which alludes to the battle that took place on Saint Lawrence's Day—10 August—1557, won by the Spanish arms of Philip II against the French, and in which the Tercios were led by Emmanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy) or «pasar por los bancos de Flandes» ("to pass through the banks of Flanders") (which would mean overcoming a difficulty, which would come from its similarity to a dangerous area in the Sea of Flanders, the Flemish banking houses and the furniture made with Flanders pine).

Let us also recall the one that says «poner una pica en Flandes» ("to place a pike in Flanders") (as a synonym for something extremely difficult or costly, referring to the expenses and efforts that sending the Tercios entailed). Cervantes used (and perhaps definitively bequeathed to Spanish) several similar expressions in Don Quixote: the expression used by the character Sancho Panza when he says «pues si yo veo otro diablo y oigo otro cuerno como el pasado, así esperaré yo aquí como en Flandes» ("for if I see another devil and hear another horn like the last one, I will wait here as much as in Flanders"), which is equivalent to saying «anywhere».

Finally, the expression «en Flandes se ha puesto el sol» ("the sun has set in Flanders") comes from the title of a play by Eduardo Marquina (1879–1946), and comes to symbolize the decline of Hispanic power in the Low Countries after the economic and social crisis unleashed by the military and religious conflicts for more than two centuries.

See also

• Military organization of the Viceroyalty of the Río de la Plata

Books on the Tercios

• Los tercios, René Quatrefages, 1983, ISBN 84-500-8427-X
• La revolución militar moderna: el crisol español, René Quatrefages, 1996, ISBN 84-7823-473-X
• El ejército de Flandes y el camino español, 1567–1659, Geoffrey Parker, Alianza (Madrid, 2003).
• De Pavía a Rocroi. Los Tercios de infantería española en los siglos XVI y XVII, Julio Albi de la Cuesta, 1999, ISBN 84-930790-0-6
• Tercios de Flandes, Juan Giménez Martín, 1999, ISBN 84-930446-0-1
• Los Tercios en las Campañas del Mediterráneo, s. XVI (Italia), Eduardo de Mesa, Almena (Guerreros y Batallas, no. 4), 2001.
• El mundo hispánico, Elliot, J.H., Crítica (Barcelona, 1995).
• Los Tercios en las campañas del Mediterráneo, s. XVI (Norte de África), Eduardo de Mesa, Almena (Guerreros y Batallas, no. 6), 2002.
• Nördlingen 1634. Victoria decisiva de los Tercios, Eduardo de Mesa, Almena (Guerreros y Batallas, no. 9), 2003.
• La batalla de San Quintín, 1557, Eduardo de Mesa, Almena (Guerreros y Batallas, no. 15), 2004.
• San Quintín, Juan Carlos Losada, Aguilar (Madrid, 2005).
• Flandes y la monarquía hispánica, 1500–1713, Miguel Ángel Echevarría, Sílex (Madrid, 2000).
• Guerra y Sociedad en la Monarquía Hispánica. Política, estrategia y cultura en la Europa Moderna (1500–1700), Enrique García Hernán–Davide Maffi, editors. Laberinto, Madrid, 2006. 2 vols.
• De Mesa Gallego, Eduardo (2009). La pacificación de Flandes : Spínola y las campañas de Frisia (1604-1609) (in español). Ministerio de Defensa. ISBN 9788497814928.
• Tercios de España. La infantería legendaria, Fernando Martínez Laínez and José María de Toca, EDAF, 2006. ISBN 84-414-1847-0
• Discurso sobre la forma de reducir la disciplina militar a mejor y antiguo estado, Sancho de Londoño
• Pisando Fuerte, Fernando Martínez Láinez. EDAF, 2012.
• Tercios. Historia Ilustrada de la legendaria Infantería Española, José Javier Esparza Torres, La Esfera de los Libros, 2017. ISBN 84-9164-731-7

Literature

• Diálogos de la vida del soldado, Diego Núñez de Alba (1552).
• El Sitio de Breda, Pedro Calderón de la Barca.
• El Saqueo de Amberes, attributed to Pedro Calderón de la Barca.
• En Flandes se ha puesto el sol, Eduardo Marquina, 1910.
• El sol de Breda, Arturo Pérez-Reverte, Alfaguara (Madrid, 2002).
• El cautivo, Jesús Sánchez Adalid, Ediciones B (Barcelona, 2004).
• Jaque a la reina, José Calvo Poyato, Grijalbo (Barcelona, 2003).
• Tercios de Flandes, Juan F. Giménez Martín, Falcata Ibérica (Madrid, 1999, 2001, 2004).
• Corsarios de Levante, Arturo Pérez-Reverte, Alfaguara (Madrid, 2006).
• El castellano de Flandes, Enrique Martínez Ruiz, Martínez Roca (2007).
• Hoy no se pondrá el sol, Rafael Rico Cabeza, Akrón (2009).

Film

• La kermesse heroica by Jacques Feyder, 1935.
• Cyrano de Bergerac by Michael Gordon, 1950. At the siege of Arras the Spaniards are seen attacking with their flag bearing the cross of Saint Andrew.
• La otra vida del capitán Contreras by Rafael Gil, 1955. A Spanish Captain remains in a state of hibernation from 1650 until the mid-20th century.
• The Last Valley by James Clavell, 1970. A film about the Thirty Years' War starring German mercenaries in which, during the final battle, a square of pikemen can be seen.
• La leyenda del Alcalde de Zalamea, directed by Mario Camus, shows the action of the tercios in the town of Zalamea when they were on their way to the conquest of Portugal.
• Cyrano de Bergerac by Jean Paul Reppeneau, 1990. As in the previous one, the siege of Arras is shown briefly.
• Alatriste by Agustín Díaz Yanes, 2006.
• 1612 by Vladimir Khotinenko, 2007. One of the protagonists is a Spanish mercenary named Álvaro de Borja, a veteran of Flanders played by Ramón Langa.

External links

• Memoria de los Tercios (website temporarily deactivated)
• Tercios de Flandes
• Los Tercios, podcast by Memorias de un tambor, 19 December 2017.
• Los Tercios españoles y la Batalla de Pavía
• Tercio de Montañeses o Cántabros de la Amistad. Spanish military unit raised during the English invasions in Buenos Aires.
• Tercios de Flandes. Histocast 20, military history podcast.