A tercio (, Spanish for '[a] third') was a military administrative unit of the Spanish Army during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain and Habsburg Spain in the early modern period. They were the elite military units of the Spanish monarchy and essential pieces of the powerful land forces of the Spanish Empire, sometimes also fighting along with the navy. These forces were among the most dominant in the European battlefields for more than a century and a half.
The Spanish tercios were some of the finest and most influential professional infantry forces in the world due to the effectiveness of their battlefield formations, and were the crucial step in the formation of modern European armies, made up of professional volunteers, instead of levies raised for a campaign or hired mercenaries typically used by other European countries of the time. The internal administrative organization of the tercios and their battlefield formations and tactics grew out of the innovations of Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba during the conquest of Granada and the Italian Wars in the 1490s and 1500s, being among the first to effectively mix pikes and firearms (arquebuses).
The tercios marked a rebirth of the use of infantry forces comparable to the Macedonian phalanxes and the Roman legions. Such formations distinguished themselves in famous battles such as the Battle of Bicocca (1522) and the Battle of Pavia (1525). Following their formal establishment in 1534, the reputation of the tercio was built upon their effective training and high proportion of "old soldiers" (veteranos), in conjunction with the particular elan imparted by the lower nobility who commanded them. The tercios were finally replaced by regiments in the early eighteenth century. From 1920, the name of tercio was given to the formations of the newly-created Spanish Legion, professional units then created to fight colonial wars in North Africa, similar to the French Foreign Legion. These formations were actually regiments bearing the name of tercio as an honorary title.
History
During the Granada War (1482–1491), the soldiers of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain were divided into three classes: pikemen (modelled after the Swiss), swordsmen with shields, and crossbowmen supplemented with an early firearm, the arquebus. As shields disappeared and firearms replaced crossbows, Spain won victory after victory in Italy against powerful French armies, starting under the leadership of Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba (1453–1515), nicknamed El Gran Capitán (The Great Captain). The military organizational and tactical changes made by Córdoba to the armies of Spanish monarchs are seen as the precursors of the tercios and their methods of warfare. The combat effectiveness of the Spanish pike and shot armies pioneered by Córdoba was based on an armament system that effectively united the pike with the compact firepower of the arquebus. An advantage of the Spanish pike and shot formation over its inspiration, the Swiss compact frame, was its ability to divide into mobile units and even individual melee units without the loss of cohesion.
Initially, the term tercio denoted not a combat unit, but an administrative unit under a general staff, commanding garrisons throughout Italy for battles on various distant fronts. This peculiar character was maintained when it mobilized to fight the Protestant rebels in Flanders. Command of a tercio and its companies of soldiers was granted directly by the king, and companies could easily be added or removed and moved between tercios. By the middle of the 17th century, the tercios began to be raised by nobles at their own expense, patrons who appointed the captains and were effective owners of the units, as in other contemporaneous European armies.
From the conquest of Granada in 1492 to the campaigns of El Gran Capitán in the kingdom of Naples in 1495, three ordinances laid the foundations of Spanish military administration. In 1503, the Great Ordinance reflected the adoption of the long pike and the distribution of infantry in specialized companies. In 1534, the first official tercio was created, that of Lombardy, and a year later it helped in the conquest of the Duchy of Milan. The tercios of Naples and Sicily were created in 1536, thanks to the Genoa ordinance of Charles V.
At the Battle of Mühlberg in 1547, the imperial troops of Charles V defeated a league of Protestant princes in Germany, thanks mainly to the action of the Spanish tercios. In 1557, the Spanish army completely defeated the French at the Battle of San Quentin, and again in 1558 at Gravelines, which led to a peace greatly favoring Spain. In all these battles, the effectiveness of the tercio units stood out.
The origin of the term tercio is doubtful. Some historians believe the name was inspired by the tercía, a Roman Legion of Hispania. Some think that it designated the threefold division of the Spanish forces in Italy. Others trace it to the three types of combatants (pikemen, harquebusiers, musketeers). According to an ordinance for "people of war" of 1497, where the formation of the infantry is changed into three parts. The pawns [the infantry] were divided into three parts. The one tercio with spears, as the Germans brought them, which they called pikes; and the other had the name of shields [people of swords]; and the other, of crossbowmen and spit bearers. [later replaced by arquebusiers].
Yet others derive the name from the three thousand men mustered in the first units. This last explanation is supported by the field master Sancho de Londoño in a report to the Duke of Alba in the 16th century: The tercios, although they were instituted in imitation of the [Roman] legions, in few things can be compared to them, that the number is half, and although formerly there were three thousand soldiers, for which they were called tercios and not legions, already it is said like this even if they do not have more than a thousand men.Londoño, Sancho de: Discurso sobre la forma de reducir la disciplina militar a mejor y antiguo estado, p. 14.
Composition and characteristics
Although other powers adopted the battle formations and tactics perfected by the tercios, their armies fell short of the fearsome reputation of the Spanish army, which possessed a core of experienced professional soldiers.Lynch, John (1992). The Hispanic World in Crisis and Change, 1578–1700. Cambridge: Blackwell, p. 117. This army was further supplemented by "an army of different nations", a reference to the varied origins of the troops from the German and Italian states, the Spanish Netherlands, and smaller units from other countries such as Ireland. In 1621, for example, of the 47 military units of the Spanish army, counting together the larger Spanish, Spanish Netherlands, and Italian tercios, and the much smaller German, Burgundian, and Irish regiments, only seven were manned by troops of Spanish origin. Such international musters were characteristic of European warfare before the levies of the Napoleonic Wars. However, the core Spanish troops were Spanish subjects, admired for their cohesiveness, superior discipline, and overall professionalism.
Organization Initially, each tercio that served in Italy and the Spanish Netherlands was organized into:
10 companies of 300 soldiers each led by captains, in which 8 were pikemen's companies 2 were of arquebusier companies
The companies were later reduced to 250 men and the ratio of arquebusiers (later musketmen) to pikemen steadily increased.
During the early actions in the Netherlands, the tercios were reorganized into three coronelias ("colonelcies"), led by coronels ("colonels") each composed of a headquarters unit and four companies each (the predecessor of today's battalions), but as a whole continued to be subdivided into the same 10 companies of 250 personnel each: two of arquebusiers and 8 of pikemen. Colonels were also of royal appointment.
Staff
Maestre de Campo – colonel Coronel – colonel/lieutenant colonel Sargento mayor – Sergeant major Furriel mayor – quartermaster Capellán mayor – Chaplain Major Pifano mayor – Fife major Tambor mayor – Drum major
Company 1 Capitán – captain 1 Alférez – lieutenant Abanderado – standard-bearer Sargento – sergeant Capellán – chaplain Furriel – quartermaster Tambor – drummer Pifano – fifer Barbero – barber surgeon Cabos de escuadra – corporals 150 piqueros – pikemen 100 arcabuceros – arquebusiers (later musketeers) 40 coseletes – sword-and-buckler men
Leadership of the tercio
Similar to military organization today, a tercio was led by a maestre de campo (commanding officer) appointed by the king, with a guard of eight halberdiers. Assisting the maestre was the sergeant major and a furir major in charge of logistics and armaments. Companies were led by a captain (also royally appointed), with an ensign in charge of the company color.
The company non-commissioned officers were sergeants, furrieles (furirs) and corporals. A sergeant served as second-in-command of a company and transmitted the captain's orders; furrieles provided weapons and munitions, as well as additional manpower; corporals led groups of 25 (similar to today's platoons), watching for disorder in the unit.
Each company had corps of drums made up of drummers and fifers, sounding duty calls in battle, with the drum major and fife major being provided by the tercio headquarters.
The tercio staff included a medical component (made up of a professional medic, a barber, and surgeons), chaplains and preachers, and a judicial unit, plus military constables enforcing order. They all reported directly to the maestre de campo.
Battle formations
Within a tercio's squares, ranks of pikemen assembled into a hollow pike square (cuadro) containing swordsmen – typically with short sword, buckler, and javelins. As firearms rose in prominence, the swordsmen were phased out. The arquebusiers (later, musketeers) were usually split up in several mobile groups called "sleeves" (mangas), typically deployed with one manga at each corner of the cuadro. By virtue of this combined-arms approach, the formation simultaneously enjoyed the staying power of its pike-armed infantry, the ranged firepower of its arquebusiers, and the striking power of its sword-and-buckler men. However, as the formation matured in practice, the number of swordsmen was reduced, then eliminated and the ratio of gunmen to pikemen increased over time. In addition to its defensive ability to repulse cavalry and other forces along its front, the long-range fire of its arquebusiers could be easily shifted to the flanks, making it versatile in both attack and defense.
Groups of squares were typically arrayed in dragon-toothed formation, staggered, with the leading edge of one unit level with the trailing edge of the preceding, similar to hedgehog defence. This enabled enfilade lines of fire and somewhat defiladed the army units themselves. Odd units stood forward, alternating with even units stepped back, providing gaps for an unwary enemy to enter and expose its flanks to raking crossfire from the guns of three separate squares. Tercio companies also conducted some operations independently of the main formations.
Tercios and the Spanish Empire