Spanish Tercios Revealed The Fearless Infantry That Dominated Europe

Spanish Tercios Revealed The Fearless Infantry That Dominated Europe Explore the legendary spanish tercios, formidable military units of the spanish empire during the reign of the spanish habsburgs in the early modern period.r. It was the spanish who pioneered the new methods of infantry fighting. the spanish tercios became the military elite of renaissance europe. numbering 3,000 men – the equivalent of a modern brigade – the tercio was formed of 12 companies of about 250 men each, with the companies divided roughly evenly between arquebusiers and pikemen.

Spanish Tercios One Of The Greatest Infantry Forces In European History The tercios soon proved deadlier and more effective than swiss pikemen, who were until then, considered the deadliest infantry in europe. in a nutshell, tercios utilized advantages of long spears. The spanish tercios 1536–1704. gonzalo fernández de córdoba (1453–1515), a spanish veteran of the final campaigns of the reconquista, was given the title of the ‘great captain’ at the battle of atella in july 1496 by neapolitan soldiers, who saw how their king and nobles relied upon his counsel. The tercio constituted the tactical and organic unit par excellence of the armies of the hapsburg spanish monarchy. with its origins in the army of the catholic monarchs of spain after the reforms of gonzalo fernández de córdoba, the great captain, and officially organized in 1536 with the ordinance of genoa by charles v, the spanish tercios dominated the european battlefields for almost 150. A mixed infantry formation made up of about 3,000 men armed with pikes, swords and handguns, the innovative and influential tercio or 'spanish square' was the basic combat unit of the armies of spain throughout much of the 16th and 17th centuries. arguably the first permanent tactical formation seen in europe since the roman cohort, the tercio.