In this chapter, the composition of the main military units of the  XVI - XVII century will be given. At that time the main enemies of the Spanish monarchy were the French, the Dutch and in general the protestant states and the Ottoman Empire in the XVI century.

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7.1 The Imperial Forces

7.1.1 The German infantry

The Holy Roman Empire had no standing army. Instead, it was divided in 10 war zones or circles, which were supposed to provide troops for the Emperor. Much of these troops were German mercenaries (the landsknechts during the first half of the XVI century) paid by the semi-independent princes of the empire or by the Imperial Diet (sort of parliament). Under Charles I of Spain (the Emperor Charles V), a regiment of  landsknechts 10 companies of 400 men was subdivided in 40 sections of 6 to 10 men. The regiment had normaly 4 000 men of which 10 to 12 % were harquebusiers.

From the second half of the XVI century to the begining of the XVII century, the German infantry was organised in regiments of 10 companies of 300 men. The staff company had, 1 captain and his servant, 1 lieutenant and his servant, 1 standard bearer, 3 sergeant, 1 captain of arms, 3 caporals, 3 "landpassen", 1 standard-bearer caporal, 1 chaplain and 1 furier. Each regiment had 3 000 men with a staff regiment of  40 men.

Organisation of a German infantry company by 1600. The officers used to be armed with pike. By the beginning of the thirty years war the number of musketeers was increase to 160 (53%).

The situation started to change after the humiliation of the battle of Breitenfeld (1631). The Imperialist commander Wallenstein reorganised the German infantry, deploying them in battalion size units of around 900 - 1000 men each. At the battle of Lützen, in 1632, the imperialist infantry was organised in 7 brigades or battalions of 1 000 men, 1 regiment of 500 men in reserve and detachments of musketeers numbering in total 900 men. The 8400 infantrymen were divided in 88 companies and 10 regiments.

Also from 1640, the company composition was modified with a staff company of 13 men (1 captain and his servant, 1 lieutenant and his servant, 1 standard bearer, 2 sergeants, 1 captain of arms, 3 caporals, 1 standard - bearer caporal, 1 clerck) and 144 privates (48 pikemen and 96 musketeers). In his memories Montecucoli gives a regiment of 10 companies with a composition of 1 captain, 1 lieutenant, 1 ensign, 1 sergeant, 1 chief caporal and 1 clerck, 6 caporals and 138 privates (1/3 pikemen and 2/3 musketeers).
Later in the century most of the German states regiments could field 2 or 3 battalions of 600 - 700 men. In 1700 the 9 old regiments of the Bavarian electorate were organised in 15 companies of 140 men and each regiment could fielded 3 battalions.

7.1.2 The Imperialist Cavalry

The German cavalry was mainly divided in two classes of troops:
- the cuirassier, armed at first with a lance and after with a sword and pistols. He was totally covered with an armour almost bullet - proof.
 - the harquebusier, armed with a harquebus or carbine and a sword. The rest of the equipment was at best a pair of pistols, a back and breastplate and an open faced helmet.

The reiter was simply a cuirassier without heavy armour. By 1630, many reiters  abandoned their armour for a more comfortable buffcoats. Most of the light cavalry was drawn up from Hungarian, Croatian or Albanese troops. They were armed with carbine, oriental sword and pistols.

German cavalry was organised in companies of 99 troopers with a company staff of 12 men. Regiments of 4 to 16 companies were raised. Tactically a cavalry squadron would have 200 to 300 men.
In reality cavalry companies had most of the time only 40 - 50 men. It is interesting to know that at the battle of Lützen in 1632, the imperialist cavalry was organised in 5 regiments of cuirassier (1350 horses in 32 companies), 8 regiments of harquebusiers (2 450 horses in 52 companies), 1 regiment of 100 men of Dragoons and 5 regiments of Croatian (900 horses in 25 companies).

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7.2 The Dutch forces

7.2.1 1590-1648

The organisation of the Dutch army or United Province army was modified by Maurice of Nassau at the end of the XVI century. Before that date they used to be organised like the German infantry. Dutch army was organised in a standing army with regiments of infantry and cavalry and companies from the burgher militia or Waardgelders.

In 1595 a Dutch regiment used to have from 10 to 20 companies. Each company had  a company's staff off 13 men (1 captain, 1 lieutnant, 1 ensign, 2 sergents, 3 caporals, a barber, a chaplain and a clerck) and 136 privates (50 pikemen and 86 musketeers). After 1601, the field company had only 100 privates (30 pikemen and 70 musketeers). In reality, in a regiment the colonel company had normaly 200 men and the others companies had only 70 to 100 men in total.

In 1600, Maurice of Nassau collected an strong army with 13 000 infantry men divided in 128 companies and 2800 cavalrymen in 25 companies. We have an average of 101 men per company in the infantry and 112 horses by company in the cavalry.

In 1610, for the expedition to Julich (actual Germany), the Dutch army numbered 12 550 foots subdivided in 136 companies (11 regiments). So we have an average of 92 men per company and 12.4 companies per regiment. The 760 strong Frisian regiment had the colonel company with 200 men and 7 companies with 80 men. By contrast the French regiment of Béthune had a colonel company of 200 men, a captain company of 100 men and 17 companies of 80 men, in total 1660 men. This regiment could field 2 provisional regiments.
In combat the companies were organised in "hopen" using the same weapons, the pike or the musket. Several hopens used to form a provisional regiment of 800 - 1000 men.

The Dutch cavalry was organised in regiment of 3 - 6 companies of 12 officers (1 captain, 1 lieutnant, 1 cornette, 1 Quatermaster, 2 buglers, 1 clerck and 1 furier) and 80 - 100 horsemen. Tactically the Dutch used  small squadron of 70 - 80 horsemen, deployed alongside one by one by groups of three or four.
Also in 1610, the Cavalry numbered 2855 horsemen subdivided in 36 cornets or compagnies (11 regiments), so we have 79 men per company and 3.3 companies per regiment. For this campaign, the cavalry was organised in 10 squadrons of 285 men.

note: for the expedition of Julich, the Dutch artillery train had  15 guns, 560 men and 490 horses.

7.2.2 1648 - 1700

From 1648 to 1672, the Dutch army was in decay due to the peace with Spain and the naval Anglo-Dutch wars. In 1672 the French king Louis XIV decided to invade the United-Province, and conquer a large portion of the Dutch land, invasion was saved by a naval victory against the English and the inundation of the country. William of Orange took the power and reorganised the army.

The infantry was organised in 2 guards regiment of 26 companies (Foot Guards of Orange later called Garde te voet van zijne Majesteit also called the blue guard) and 24 companies (Frisians Guard regiment) of 100 men, a variable numbers (from 40 to 53) of line regiments of 12 companies of 71 men and 7 Swiss regiments of 8 companies of 200 men. Normally the 2 guards regiments could field 6 battalions, the line regiments 1 battalion and the Swiss 2 battalions. Grenadiers were taken from the line companies to form ad hoc detachments.

Excepted for the horse guard’s cavalry companies and the Guard Horse regiment, the line cavalry (some 22 to 27 regiments) was organised in regiments of 2 squadrons of 3 companies of 78 men. The Dutch had also 2 later 4 (in 1688) dragoons regiments of 8 companies (10 for the guard regiment) of 80 dragoons.
The Dutch  also took under paid mercenary regiments (of 1 or 3 battalions) from a numbers of north europe states (Dannemark, Swede, Prusse, Lunebourg Hanover, Saxe Gotha , Hesse Cassel, Palatinat Neubourg, Anpach, Mecklenbourg or Holstein Gottorp .......). In 1688, just before the Augsburg league war (1688 - 1697), the Dutch army numbered 84 650 men of wich 55 642 were Dutch, in 1695 we have an army of 100 800 men with some 51 000 dutch.

In reality in most of the line infantry companies were only 40 - 50 strong and a battalion would numbered 500 to 600 men, it is the same for the line cavalry with half strength companies of horses.

The artillery was made of 3 companies ofn 90 men in 1674 and  8 companies of 260 men in the 1690 decades.

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7.3 The Swedish army

At the beginning of the XVII century the Swedish king Gustavo Adolphus modified the organisation of the armed forces in his country creating a formidable army.
In the infantry the basic unit was the regiment of normally  8 companies (some mercenary regiments  had 12 or 16 companies). Each company had a staff of 16 men and 126 privates (54 pikemen and 72 musketeers). Including the regiment staff, the native regiment was 1160 strong.
In campaign the companies were organised in ½ regiments or squadron of 600 men (theoretically of 4 companies). After the death of Gustavo - Adolphus, the tendency was to reduce the number of pikemen and increase the number of musketeers in the ½ regiments to arrive to a ratio of 1/3 pikemen and 2/3 musketeers.
During the battle of Lutzen in 1632 the swedish regiment of Västergotland had  96 officers,  447 musketeers and 0 pikemen in 8 companies (68 men per company), on the other side the famous Yellow regiment had 192 officers, 610 musketeers and 324 pikemen in 16 companies (70 men per company).

The Swedish cavalry was organised in regiments of  8 companies, even if some regiments of 4 or 12 companies were also raised. Each company numbered 13* officers and 102 cavalrymen (125 “horses”). In campaign the regiments were organised in squadron of 200 to 400 men strength. At the battle of Lutzen in 1632, the Smäland regiment had 400 horses in 8 companies, the Östgöta regiment had only 100 horses in 4 companies. At last the Duke Bernard Weimar regiment had 500 horses in 12 companies and fielded 2 squadrons.

Like many others armies, the main Swedish campaign army of Gustavo Adolphus was made up of mostly Germans protestant mercenaries, only 25% of these men were native troops. At the Battle of Breitenfiels in 1631, only 28% of Gustavo's troops were Swedish or Finnish and the percentage was down to 10-15 % later. In 1632 of the 142 000 protestant troops in Germany only 7.5 % were Swedish or Finnish.

*notes: officers were required to provide a number of spare horses (normaly 10 horses)

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7.4 The French Army

The French monarchy was the main enemy of the Spanish kings during the first part of the XVI century (1500 - 1557) and from 1635 to 1700.

7.4.1 The XVI century

During most of the XVI century the French army had a good cavalry and a good artillery but a poor infantry, especially the native one. Most of the best "French" infantry was composed from Swiss (6 000 to 16 000 men) and German mercenaries (5 000 to 10 000 landsknechts). The rest was composed by French mercenary companies or local militias drawn up for the campaign. It seems that a French company used to have at that time 400 men (10 officers, 240 pikemen and 150 harquebusiers).

The offensive forces of the French army were the cavalry. The cavalry was organised into Lances, each comprising one gendarme (heavy cavalryman), two mounted archers (a lighter version of the gendarmes), one coustillier (a light horseman) and two non-combatants. The lances were organised in company of ordinance of 100 lances ==> 400 horsemen.

In 1523, the French king Francois I invaded Italy with  1350 French lances (17 companies), 480 Italian lances, and  27 000 infantrymen, around 34 000 men in total.

The religion wars from 1560 and 1598 would destroy the military power of France even if one of the warlord the duke of Guise created the first 3 permanents regiment (Picardie, Piémont, and Champagne).

7.4.2 from 1598 to 1660

With the end of the religion wars, the new French king Henri IV began to reorganise his estate and the military forces of the kingdom. His reform would follow the path of the Dutch system imported in France by French Huguenot who fought with Maurice of Nassau. The reorganisation of the French army would continue with the cardinal Richelieu and the King Louis XIII.

In 1602 the French infantry was organised in permanent regiments (the old regiments and the small old
regiments) and provisional regiments raised for a campaign. Regiments were organised in 20 companies of 120 men with 40% of pikemen and 60% of harquebusiers/musketeers.

In 1635, cardinal Richelieu reorganised the army with 19 permanent regiments of 30 companies and more than 114 regiments of 12 - 20 companies. Each companies had  some 53 men (1 captain, 1 lieutenant, 1 ensign, 2 sergeants, 1-2 drummers, 3 caporals and 44 privates).  Some regiment like the "Gardes Françaises" regiment had more than 20 companies, 30 companies of 300 men (in theory) in this case.

In the following tables we show the evolution of the french company without the high officers (captain, lieutnant and ensign) from 1635 to 1659.
 

Date	1635-1637	1638-1639	1640-1644	1645-1654	1655-1659
Theoreticaly	50 men	75 men	62 men	40 men	30 men
Real	38 men	50 men	25 men	19 men	19 men
Ratio Th./Real	75%	66 %	40 %	47 %	63 %

As we can see in the table, French regiments of 20 companies, used to have an average of 760 men in 1635 - 1637, 1 000  men for the period 1638 - 1639 , 500 men for the period 1640 - 1644 and 380 men for the period 1645 - 1659, aal the numbers are taken excluding high officers.

In 1641, a review of 7 infantry regiments of  the Army of Chatillon shows that the average number was around 500 men  and  20 companies per  regiment, the strongest had 960 men in 26 companies and the lowest had 133 men in 20 companies. The average company was 24 men strong.

On the battlefield the French infantry was deployed in 500 to 900 men strong battalion on 6 to 8 rows. Most of the old regiments would form a single battalion when the new ones had to be joined to form the battalion. In 1639, during the siege of Salses the regiment of Picardie formed a battalion of 35 high officers and 800 men.

Cavalry was also reorganised by Richelieu in regiments. Each cavalry regiment consisted of 2 squadrons of 2 companies. A cavalry company would have between 100 and 37 men from 1635 to 1659. Cavalry was organised in:
          - heavy regiments armed with swords and pistols and protected by an armor (back and breastplate)
          - light regiments armed with swords and pistols and with little protection
          - dragoon regiments armed with swords and light muskets or carabines and with no protection

Review returns for the period 1635-1643 show that companies had an actual strength of about 40 to 50 troopers. In the battlefield the cavalry was organised in squadrons of 120 - 150 men strength deployed on 3 rows.

 

7.4.3 the army of Louis XIV 1660 - 1715

The young French king Louis XIV, with the help of competent advisers (le Telliers, Turenne, Vauban,
Colbert etc..), organised a powerful French army. The army was divided in :
- The Maison Militaire du Roi (Louis XIV’s household troops) it was composed of the Gardes du Corps (4 companies of 400 horses), Chevaux-Légers (1 company of 200 horses), Gendarme (1 companie of 200 horses), the Mousquetaires de la Garde (2 companies of 250 horses), the Grenadiers à Cheval de la Maison du Roi (1 company of 250 horses), added in 1671 and the two foot regiment: Gardes Françaises regiment (30 companies of 200 men in 1671) and the gardes suisses regiment (12 to 16 companies of 200 men).
- The gendarmerie of France was the elite of the french cavalry, but was not technically part of the king’s household (16 companies of 80 to 200 horses)
- Line Infantry, Line Cavalry  and dragoons
- fortress battalions and guns and the Militia.

In the line infantry, the main unit was the regiment but it was sub-divided in permanent battalions. By 1670, each battalion had 14 companies of infantrymen and 1 company of grenadiers. With the increase of firepower, the french battalion was reduced in 1695 to 12 company of infantrymen and 1 company of grenadier.
Theoretically, in 1670,  a company staff had 10 officers/NCO (1 captain, 1 lieutenant, and 1 sub-lieutenant, 2 sergeant, 3 caporals and 2 drummers) and 60 men, by 1690, the company was reduced to 40 men. Normally a regiment had 2 battalions of 900 men in 1670 and 650 men  in 1695. The Swiss regiments had 4 to 8 companies of 200 men.

In reality the company was 25 - 40 men strength and the battalion 350 - 700 men strength. In campaign the infantry was normally organised in brigades of  2 to 6 battalions. At the battle of the river Ter in 1694, 30 infantry battalions were grouped in 5 brigades.

Infantrymen were first armed with musket and pike, but by 1680 the French Army introduced the flint musket or fusil and the bayonet. The pike disappeared completely in 1700.

The organisation of the line cavalry was changed in 1672, to regiment of 4 to 6 companies strong. Each company would have 54 horsemen with the 3 officers which made a regiment 340 men strong (with the regiment staff). Cavalrymen had little protection (maybe a buffcoat for some officers)and their main weapon was a sword (89.3 cm long) a pair of flintlock pistols and a carabine. Light cavalry was from east Europe, even if the first native Hussar Regiment (Hussard-Royaux) was created in 1690. Dragoon regiment were organised somewhat like a line-cavalry regiment, and had the same equipment except a long flintlock musket instead of the carabine.

the artillery was organised in 1666 in 6 guns companies which became the  regiment of Fusillier du Roi in 1671, later changed to regiment Royal de l'Artillery in 1693. In 1684 the french created also the regiment Royal-Bombardier with the mortars and siege guns companies and the engineers companies.

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7.5 The Ottoman Army

The Ottoman Empire fought principally:
 - in the East of Europe,  against  Christian States such as Hungarian the Holy Empire and Poland.
 - in the Mediterranean, against Italian States and Spain
 - in middle East, against the Persian regime.

From the second half of the XV century to the end of the XVI century, the Ottoman's could organise and mobilise around 300 000 men of which 25 000 were professional. The Ottoman army was organised in three corps:
- The Navy corps with the Navy, Navy troops or Levent and specialists.
- The provincial militia or Eyâlet Askerleri which form the bulk of the Ottoman army.
- The Sultan's army or Kapikulu Askerli with the Janissaries for the infantry and the Saphis for the cavalry.

A field army, under Sultan command, could numbered 70 000 men (35 000 regular militians, 8 000 Saphis, 7 000 janissaries, 4 000 specialist troops and 16 000 irregulars) like in 1525 - 1526 for the Danube Campaign.