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4.1 Recruitment

Soldiers were recruited mainly in the kingdom of Castilla. The kingdom of Castilla corresponded to the actual regions of  Asturias, Cantabria, Castilla y Léon, Extramadura, Castilla la Mancha and Andalucia. In the XVI - XVII century, historians have estimated that around 4 - 5,5 millions people were living in this territory.

When the king of Spain decided to raise a Tercio, he had to choose a Maestro de Campo and a variable number of captains.The captain would receive a patent, from the king, to raise a company in an identified region or city. The captain began to choose an alférez, a sergeant and a flag for his company. This flag would have in the center or in the corner a red cross of Burgundy. Afterwards the captain would pay men to begin to recruit the 240 soldiers.

The money for the recruits was given to the captain who redistributed it to the new soldiers (the bisoño). Some captains would abuse of the system to have more money. Very quickly the new companies were sent to a harbour to be sent to Italy or the Flanders. In general the recruits would go to garrison in Italy and learn the use of the war. Afterwards they would be sent to the Army of Flanders, using the Spanish road, or to another army. From 1580 to 1620, 58 400 bisoños (1460 men/year) had been sent to the Flanders to maintain 7400 active men in the 4 Tercios.

 

Alférez from a Tercio of the beginning of the XVII century. Normaly this Officer was in the middle of the Squadron to guard the company's flag, in this case the main falg of the Tercio de los Morados Viejos.

During the XVI century the recruits were more or less volunteers, the need for troops was only between 1 000 and 2 000 men per year. After 1635 the need for troops was very important, and the Spanish monarchy was obliged to recruit men by force and to created new tercios ( see chapter 2).

To compensate the losses, the method was to disband the new companies or the weakest companies. In 1586 the army of Flanders had 4305 men in 72 companies (3 Tercio). In 1588, when the Invencible Armada was leaving Spain, the Army of Flanders had 8720 men in 82 companies (4 Tercio). 6562 men had arrived to reinforce the Army of Flanders, and at least 30 new companies have been disbanded.

Leave the Army: A common soldier could leave the army if he received a licence from the king to do so, to the contrary he had to stay. Also the king could decide to disband a tercio at the end of a war and send all the soldiers back home.

Note: Normaly when a company was disbanded the captain and the alférez of this comany where called "soldados reformados". In a company the reformado acted as normal soldier but they had some advantages in money and duties.

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4.2 Day to day life

As we said before, the Tercios were an elite force and they regularly moved from one point to another, even the garrison in Italy. Barracks did not exist at that time. In peace time, soldiers were renting houses within  the civil population. They would pay civilians for their lodging and food. In campaign, the life was more rudimentary but the army would normally provide the food.

The Spanish army of Flanders had a very good logistic in comparison with others armies and armies commander like the Duke of Alba and the Duke of Parma organised an army staff to provide food and materials. Also they organised the first military hospital, in Europe, in the city of Malines in the Flemish Brabant.

In the Tercio there were all kind of people, from one side you would have the soldiers and from the other all kind of civilians (in equal numbers sometimes). These civilians were mainly women, soldier's wives and prostitute, and children or teenagers (the mozos).
In 1602 the Tercio of Juan Bravo had 922 men and 47 women and in 1594, 26 Spanish companies had 3131 men and 403 non military personal. In combat the civilians where with the baggage at the rear.

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4.3 Discipline

Soldiers from the Tercio had the reputation to be disciplined (in combat). This discipline would come from a hard training and a complete obedience to the orders. A new recruit would lose his freedom and had to promise to serve the King and his officers. This obedience had a limit, outside the Tercio, the soldier would become a normal man.
Following, Don Sancho de Londoño ("Discurso sobre la forma de reduzir la disciplina militar a meior y antiguo estado" Bruselas 1596) we can resume the disciple in comabt by 3 laws: :

know how to obey
not to disestablish the squadron
never leave your post

The undisciplines were judged by a military court which could use a variety of very hard punishments such as decapitation for disobedience. In a foreign country, the soldier was judged by this military tribunal and not the tribunal of the country. When they had to apply the punishment, the Officer had to respect the honour (La Honra) of the convict.

An important point to maintain the discipline was the religion. The Spanish soldiers were fervent Catholics, and the chaplains could control the pulse of the men. At last soldiers had to be faithful: faithful to God, to the Pope (head of the Catholic Religion) and to the King of Spain.

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4.4 Desertion and Mutiny

4.4.1 Losses and Desertion

Losses were high in the Tercio, in his book Parker gives an average monthly losses of 1.5% of the total (around 110 men/month), in the Tercios from the Army of Flanders. The table gives the monthly losses of the Tercio in the Army of Flanders between 1570 and 1586.

A quick calculation gives a monthly losses of 1.6% (120 men/month) for the Tercio of the same army between 1586 and 1620. In foreign armies the monthly losses would vary from 2% to 7%.

Generally in a well trained unit 50% of the losses were due to desertions and the rest from illness and combat. In a  undisciplined unit more than 75% of the losses were due to desertion.

Next figure shows the evolution of the losses of the Tercio of Napoli from 1571 to 1574. In December 1570 the Tercio had 2720 men, four years later he had only 1428 men. The period 1570 - 1572 was a peace time, the Tercio had lost 300 men. After may 1572 the war started again in the Flanders and the Tercio would lose 990 men during the next 2 year, of which 396 men were dead (40%).  In four years the Tercio had lost around 1290 men: 38% died and 62% disapears (the strong majority were deserteers).

Cumulative losses of the Tercio of Napoli from December 1570 to May 1574

At that time, soldier life was hard with the strict discipline, the misery of the war, the delay in the payment, the horrific combats, the abuse of officers, the hunger  and so on..... .for all these reasons some soldiers would like to go back home. The Spanish military code was harsh on deserter, normally it was a death sentence. Also, the poor angry farmer, who suffer from war, was very happy to had his revenge stealing and killing the deserters. Desertion could have also an another goal, for some Spaniards it was best to fight in another catholic army, in France, Germany or Italy, than to stay in the Flanders.

At last during the second half of the XVII century, the desertion rate in the provincial Tercios was hight from 30 - 40 %. In 1694 the Army of Catalonia was losing, per month an average 3.1% of this infantry by desertion.

4.4.2 Mutiny

The mutiny was another way to manifest the unhappiness of the soldiers. In his book Parker described well the different mutinies in the Army of Flanders. The next Table gives an idea of the main mutiny of the Spanish infantry in the Flanders. The longest mutiny (710 days) in the Flanders was due to a group of infantrymen and cavalrymen from Walloony, Italy and Germany.

Mutinies had a high cost in money and in military effectiveness. The mutineers from a garrison could give the fortress to the enemy also mutineers could alliterate a campaign: After the victory of Mook in 1574, the Spaniards refused to pursuit the campaign.

It is important to notice that the mutiny and desertion was commom in all the armies and by comparison the Tercio were less affected by desertion than others.

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4.5 The Cost for a Tercio

In a certain way, soldiers of the Tercio were mercenaries with a profound patriotism, today we will call them professional troops. But this wonderful troops had a cost, not only the salaries for the men but also the equipment. I have made a small calculation, using salary of the period 1572 - 1575 for a 12 companies Tercio of  2 500 men with the officers and the 29 staff-members from the Tercio.

* note: the maestre de campo is the captain of the first company and the Mayor Sergeant of the second.
** note: Company staff was: 1 ensign, 3 musicians, 1 clerk, 1 chaplain, 1 barber and a valet for the captain

In total we have around 10 500 escudo per month for the salaries and if we include the other costs such as equipment, artillery, hospital, food in campaign etc.... we arrive in 1575 with a total cost of around 17 000 escudo per month for a Tercio of 2530 men.

The reality: In 1601 the 6 000 Spanish troops of the Army of Flanders (27% of the infantry) had a cost of 46 000 escudo wich correspond to 34% of the total cost for the infantry.
To finance the war in Flanders the Spanish monarchy spent around 22 millions escudo from 1567 to 1577, 186 000 escudo/month. With this money the Spanish had to maintain a fleet, fortresses and maintain an 65 000 men strong army.

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