The Spanish Tercios 1536–1704 by Ignacio J.N. López

Author:Ignacio J.N. López
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: The Spanish Tercios 1536–1704
ISBN: 9781780968735
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Discipline

Loyalty to the king was unquestioned even during mutinies, since the monarch was not blamed for the causes that provoked them.

Mutinies were always due to arrears in the payment of wages (though unlike other nationalities in the army, the Spaniards never mutinied before a battle, so that they could never be accused of cowardice). The logistics system by which the soldiers were expected to pay for every necessity out of their wages inevitably collapsed when those wages failed to arrive for months or even years, which was often the case. When a mutiny occurred the soldiers refused to obey their officers, but followed a strict protocol. Officers and those not wishing to join the mutiny were expelled from the ranks, together with the standards – which, as a symbol of royal power, could not remain with the mutineers, or they would be dishonoured. Several representatives were then elected to form a council, given the mission of supervising the negotiations conducted between a soldier elected as spokesman – the ‘electo’ – and the superior officers. These delegates were often replaced, and on occasion, if they failed to achieve their claims, they were put to death by their comrades.

To give their demands greater weight, the mutineers would settle in a town where they tried to gather up all the money, food and goods possible. Contrary to popular belief, this looting was not always a matter of uncontrolled pillage. The council issued guidelines on the matter, which had to be approved democratically by the mutineers; paradoxically, the discipline imposed was harsher than normal, with the death sentence for those who breached it, so as to avoid reprisals once the mutiny came to an end. It must be remembered that the soldier of that period had to pay not only for his own gear, his food and that of his servants, but even for members of his family who accompanied him, so that frequently he was motivated not by his own hunger but by that of those for whom he was responsible.

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