Tercio

The Battle of Pavia (1525)

The Tercio (Also known as Tercio Español, literally "Spanish tercio", and from tercio meaning "one-third") was a Renaissance era military formation similar to and derivative of the Swiss Pike square and was a term used to describe a mixed infantry formation of about 3,000 pikemen, swordsmen and arquebusiers in a mutually supportive formation; it was also sometimes referred to by other nations as a Spanish Square after its introduction by the Spanish army,^[1] and was widely adopted across international lines and dominated formalized field warfare for several centuries.

[edit] History

The Tercio Español was a formalisation of the organization and fighting techniques that had been developed principally by Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba, during the Italian Wars^[2] (a series of conflicts from 1494 to 1559). It marked the transformation of medieval military institutions into the early modern combined-arms^[2] army with a focus on infantry. (See: Pike and Shot for an excellent description of the eventual formation.) Gonzalo Fernández, also known to historians as "The Father of Trench Warfare," developed it gradually^[2] out of the need driven by the Spanish expeditionary forces' composition when entering the fray in Italy, where he faced excellent cavalry. At first the army consisted of units of around 6000 men, which by 1534 had been reduced into the tercios of 3000 for better mobility.^[3]

[edit] Composition and characteristics

Surrender of Breda by Velázquez, shows Ambrosio Spinola, commander of the Spanish Tercios receiving the keys to the city from the defeated Dutch general in 1621.

Tercios, consisting largely of professional soldiers with superior discipline and fighting spirit, were well known on the European battlefield for their nigh-invincibility in combat during the 16th and 17th centuries. The formation was often feared by enemy troops because of the legendary determination of its soldiers in combat – its reputation was fully established at the Battle of Pavia (1525), in which the French king was captured; the prospect of being thrown into battle against the Spanish tercios was even known to lead to desertions in opposing forces. The 3000 men of a tercio were armed with an assortment of weapons to deal with any enemy they faced on the battlefield - 1500 of them were equipped with pikes, 1000 kept the ancient short sword and javelin armament, and the remaining 500 were armed with arquebuses. In battle the pikemen formed squares with the sword-and-javelin men inside, and the arquebusiers, together with field artillery, assumed positions to fire on any enemies approaching the pike square. In front of the square formations they would dig ditches or other fortifications to further disrupt a cavalry charge, against which they were essentially invulnerable. Even in battle against an opposing force of pikemen, the tercio had the upper hand in terms of ranged firepower (the arquebusiers) and the fact that a pikeman, needing both hands to wield his pike, was essentially defenseless against a swordsman. This organization served them well against both the German [[Landsknecht]] swordsmen and Swiss pikemen from which their formation was derived.^[4]

[edit] Highly Spanish

Although other major powers adopted the formation, their armies fell short of the fearsome reputation of the Spanish, who possessed a core of professional, volunteer career soldiers, which gave their officers and men an edge that was hard for other nations to match.^[5] That army was further supplemented by "an army of different nations", many of the troops being mercenaries (Landsknecht) from Germany, Italy and the Walloon territories of the Spanish Netherlands, as was a characteristic of European warfare of the 13th centuries–18th centuries before the revolutionary levies in the Napoleonic Wars along with its concurrent influences leading to a rise of Nationalism. In the 16th centuries–17th centuries however, the Spanish armies formed the core with Spanish subjects, and were consequently noted by others for their cohesiveness, superiority in discipline and overall professionalism.

[edit] Superior training

Their professionalism was displayed in the Battle of Rocroi in 1643, when the German and Walloon tercios fled from the battlefield, while the Spanish stayed on the field with their commander, absorbing four cavalry charges by the French, but never breaking the formation notwithstanding heavy bloodletting by the opposing artillery. The young Duke of Enghien, the French commander, observing the high casualties, then chivalrously offered "Honorable" surrender conditions, despite his luxury of both superior firepower from the artillery and superior mobility of the cavalry. These terms were just like those obtained by a besieged garrison letting the opponents into a fortress. Having agreed to those terms the remains of the tercios, bloodied but unbeaten, left the field with deployed flags and weapons and were able to fight another day.

Moreover, Spanish arms methods and training practices^[1] were widely adopted and practiced by the generals leading the small standing armies of the day, as well as the mercenary captains who were the hallmark of the era of warfare.^[1]

[edit] Formations

Within the tercio, ranks of pikemen arrayed themselves together into one large block (cuadro), similar to a pike square. The arquebusiers were usually split up in several mobile groups (mangas) and deployed relative to the cuadro, typically with one manga at each corner.^{[citation needed]} By virtue of this combined-arms approach, the formation simultaneously enjoyed both the rigidity of its heavy infantry, along with its inherent ability to repulse cavalry and other units along its front, and the long-range firepower of its arquebusiers—which could also be easily reorganized to the flanks, making it a near-ideal defensive and offensive formation for the technology of the era.

Groups of tercios were typically arrayed in dragon-toothed formation (staggered—the leading edge of one unit level with the trailing edge of the preceding unit; see similar hedgehog defense concept). This enabled enfilade lines of fire and somewhat defiladed the army units themselves. Odd units alternated with even units, respectively one forward and one back, providing gaps for an unwary enemy to enter and enfilade itself, where it would encounter the combined direct and raking cross fire from the three tercios' gunners.

[edit] Tercios and the Spanish Empire

Tercios were deployed all over Europe under the Habsburg Emperors, who were kings of both Spain and the Holy Roman Empire. Sometimes these later tercios did not stick to the all-volunteer model of the majority of the Spanish army - when the Habsburg king Philip II found himself in need of more troops, he raised a tercio of Catalan criminals to fight in Flanders,^[6] a trend he continued with most Catalan criminals for the rest of his reign.^[7] A large proportion of the Spanish army (which by the latter half of the 16th century was all composed of tercio units) was deployed in the Netherlands to quell the increasingly difficult rebellion against the Habsburgs, although many units of Spanish tercios became part of the problem rather than the solution. With the Spanish coffers depleted by constant warfare, unpaid tercio units often turned mutinous - in April 1574, just after winning a major victory, unpaid tercios mutinied and occupied the town of Antwerp, threatening to sack the town if their demands were not met. Bereft of troops, and thus his authority, the Spanish leaders on the scene met the tercios demands.^[8]

[edit] Outgunned and obsolete

The end of the tercio's dominance on the battlefield began with the decisive defeat of Catholic League's army under Johann Tserclaes at the first Battle of Breitenfeld in 1631 by the Swedes under Gustavus Adolphus, who organized his troops in more flexible linear formations. This had been made possible by improvements to the range and accuracy of firearms. Though tercio formations continued to be used with effect, such as at the Battle of Nördlingen (1634), the trend to the new linear formations was confirmed by increasing successes such as the French victory at Rocroi in 1643, which dealt the final blow to the tactical organization of the tercios who suffered over 14,000 casualties in dead and wounded.^[9] (Interestingly the tercios performed well at the battles of Breitenfeld and Rocroi, the negative outcomes being decided by the failures of their supporting cavalry). In the late 17th century, the Spanish army abandoned the then-obsolete tercio in favour of the more flexible system of battalions and regiments, based on the French model. This new system of fighting in linear formation, which had been promoted by the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus in the 17th century, dominated the 18th century battlefield. The linear formation relied on shock force more than any other element: soldiers would fire their muskets simultaneously, demoralizing the enemy force. The tercios had difficulty withstanding this new formation, whose thin lines sustained fewer casualties by cannon fire.

[edit] See also

• Ferrol City and Naval Station in North-western Spain
• Pike and shot

[edit] Notes and reference links

• Renaissance Armies: The Spanish (myArmoury.com article)
• Spanish web site— Honors Alonso Pita da Veiga the most heroic Spaniard at the Battle of Pavia (Italy) 1525.
• Non-Official Web site of the Modern "Spanish Marines" (in existence since 1537 few years after Battle of Pavia (Italy) 1525 and well before the Battle of Lepanto (Greece) 1571).
• Non-Official Web site of the Modern "Spanish Tercios" inheritors of those who fought in the Battle of Pavia (Italy) 1525, and the Battle of Lepanto (Greece 1571).