The only problem is that there was no lumbering "2000 man", "50 rank deep"
Tercio used by Catholic Leauge, Empire or Spanish in the 17th Centiry, nor
in 16th Century for that matter.
It's a myth created by a combination of factors. Mostly the fact that too
many historians even today don't bother with looking at the primary sources
but rather prefer to take the short cut offered by re-using the content of
older works. The problem is that the older works were poorly researched,
many authors would study negravings and paintings as if they were 100%
accurate photographs and then use the written sources which fit the images.
Anything not fitting this view would be disregarded. Spanish sources were
not studied in any depth while German sources were used but not very well as
their content did not fit the preconcived notions. In a leauge of their own
were authors like Guthrie who partly made up things up based on their own
private notions of how 17th century tactics worked.
The Spanish infantry fought in a "Squadron" (Escaudron") not in a "Tercio"
and the squadron could be formed up several diffrent ways with varying
depth as there was no fixed depth. Rather the number of ranks and the shape
of
the formation was adapted to the tactical situation. By the start of the TYW
in 1618
the Spanish had long since adopted 10 rank deep formations just like the
Dutch.
http://www.geocities.com/ao1617/TactiqueUk.html
At Fleurus 1622 the Spanish formed 5200 foot into 4 squadrons, i.e 1300 men
each if they were all of equal strenght. A smaller unit than the 1700 man
brigades used by Gustav Adolf at Breitenfeld.
http://www.geocities.com/aow1617/fleurusuk.html
Add to this that the Spanish frequently used smaller detachments of both
shot and pike to fullfill missions on the battlefield. At Mook the Spanish
used two detachments (Mangas) of 300 shot each supported by a detchment of
100 pikemen in their second assault on the Dutch trench. Hardly a an example
of the vastefull use of manpower.
Dr. Pierre Picouet's website at
http://www.geocities.com/ao1617/TercioUK.html is required reading about the
Spanish army of the 16th&17th Centuries
The use of 10 rank formation spread rapidly through Europe regardless of the
religon, the Catholic French & Lorrainers were 10 deep at Julich, the only
ones using a deeper formation were the Swiss
http://s277.photobucket.com/albums/kk50 ... 1610_4.jpg
The Germans were_not_using the Spanish system unless part of the Spanish
army. Rather they started out with a massive, 30 ranks deep, regimental
square.
http://s277.photobucket.com/albums/kk50 ... 1600_4.jpg
Hower in during the first decade of the 17th century both Protestant &
Cathlic military writers such as Count Johann von Nassau-Siegen and Georg
Basta recongnised the inefficency of the German formation and introduced a
set of reforms to change and improve it. It is an intersting fact that both
men chose the same solution, dividing the regiment into 3 1000.man
battalions. Count Johann chose to make his battalions 10 ranks deep while
Basta made his 12 ranks deep.
Count Johann:
http://s277.photobucket.com/albums/kk50 ... 1600_3.jpg
Basta:
http://s277.photobucket.com/albums/kk50 ... ild005.jpg
Count Johann's work influenced the Protestant armies of Northern Europe
including the Germans, Danes and Swedes while Basta influence both Johann
Tserclaes Tilly and Albrecht von Wallenstein both whom had served with Basta
in the "Hungarian War" (aka Long Turkish war) 1593-1606. Indeed it was in
that war that Tilly rose from regimental commander to the rank of general
and was Basta's 2nd in command. As German regiments were almost always
understrenght once a campaign was underway it became common to form a
regiment into one rather than three battalions or to combine two weak
regiments into a single battalion. Such battalions are seen in both Merian
engravings of Tilly's army (at Werben & Breitenfeld) which were based on the
plans drawn by Gustav Adolf's chief engineer Olof Hansson. Given that
Hansson was present at both Werben and Breitenfeld he drew what he saw,
which was large battalions, not "Tercios".
http://s277.photobucket.com/albums/kk50 ... en1631.gif
http://s277.photobucket.com/albums/kk50 ... enfeld.gif
Catholic armies were fighting in multiple lines long before Breitenfeld. The
Spanish used 3 lines a Nieuport 1600, the imperial army at White Mountain
was likewise in 3 lines while the Catholic Leauge foguth in 4 lines. Tilly
used multiple lines at Lutter as well. The single line deployment used at
Breitenfeld was caused by the need to match the unusaly wide front of the
combined Swedish-Saxon army. Outnumberd by 30% Tilly had no choice but to
forgo the use of multiple lines.
There were at least 3 European alternatives to the Spanish and Swedish
schools. There was the Dutch school, the Protestant German school and the
Catholic German school.
)
