2023-09-01 08:14:04
Not everything in the Spanish Tercios was the dance of steel and the long hours on guard waiting for a siege. Along with them traveled another shadow contingent, the one dedicated to the quartermaster, who has rarely been recognized. From spenders –responsible for widening roads, building bridges…– to grooms, cart drivers or street vendors. And that, not to mention the prostitutes, one of the pillars on which the march of the soldiers towards the campaign was raised. “It was a true walking city that also needed a logistics system that would allow it to move and survive,” the historian explains to ABC. Juan Victor Carboneraspresident of ’31 de Enero Tercios’ and ‘Albaladejo Siglo de Oro’.
The expert responds today to ABC as a member of ‘Albaladejo Siglo de Oro’. Logical, since the next September 8, 9 and 10 This association will take over this La Mancha municipality with its pikes and arquebuses with a huge number of activities and a historical recreation that has already become a classic in Ciudad Real. “In addition to the battles and representations related to the military world, this year we will give life to other characters such as blacksmiths, surgeons, camp-sellers…”, he says. Because, as he confirms to us, each and every one of these jobs was decisive for the machinery of the armies of the Hispanic Monarchy to function perfectly.
dozens of activities
It is the third year that the Tercios will take this municipality and, as it already happened in 2022, they will do so loaded with surprises. Because, like those first soldiers who settled in Italy, they are already veterans in bringing back to life the Roman legions of the Hispanic Monarchy. “We are convinced: ‘Albaladejo Siglo de Oro’ has become a reference in the world of recreation and is marked in red on the calendar of all participants,” explains Carboneras. The data supports them. If they started with fifty reenactors, this time they expect an influx of two hundred; many of them, arrived from all parts of Spain.
To celebrate it, the organizers have devised an extensive list of activities that, they hope, will delight young and old. Examples are plenty. «We will recreate the confrontation that sometimes took place with the civilian population when a company of the Tercios arrived in the towns to recruit men. It used to happen due to previous negative experiences, ”reveals Carboneras. They will also recreate a peasant wedding of the 16th century, which, according to the president, were very different from the current ones. “We will combine all this with a battle, events linked to the world of the peasantry -the arrival of the grape harvesters, for example- and life in a military camp”, he says.
In turn, they will also have a theater company that will represent hors d’oeuvres by the great writers of the 16th century in a place prepared for the occasion. «The association ‘Albaladejo Siglo de Oro’ is also dedicated to the recovery of the heritage of the municipality. This year we have set up a town corral as a comedy corral. We have done it at the cost of a lot of work, and we are very proud to be able to inaugurate it”, says Carboneras. They also do not forget a period winery that was rehabilitated for the previous edition and that will host several wine tastings. The same as a forge in which they will show “how iron and wrought iron was worked in 1575”, the time they recreate.
However, the secrets and surprises that lie ahead are many. «The town will be taken over by players of cards, tabas and dice; braggart soldiers –very typical at the time–; water carriers; laundresses; notaries –whose letters will be issued ‘officially’ throughout the day–… In short, a whole arsenal of characters that accompanied the Spanish Tercios”, adds Carboneras. Of course, they will also have the collaboration of an essential element: the neighbors. «From the first moment they felt sympathy for the event, but every year it gets bigger. Growth has boosted their collaboration”, completes the historian.
The link between all these activities will be a historic congress to be held at the Santiago Apostle Church on September 8. «We have brought together the best modernists who have dealt with aspects of Albaladejo, the countryside of Montiel and Castilla. We will have a round table in which we will stick to the most military sphere of the Tercios, but also with conferences that will deal with justice in these units, the destinies of the soldiers…”, he completes. Because, after all, recreation and dissemination go hand in hand.
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Prostitutes, blacksmiths, pages…
Who were the other heroes that accompanied the Spanish Tercios? Among the most prominent were the chaplains. “They were closely linked to each company. Its fundamental function was spiritual assistance, but also officiating different sacraments such as the Eucharist”, explains Carboneras. Relationships like those of Sancho de Londono They specify that they played a fundamental role in the moments before the battle, since they harangued the troops to fight for God and for Santiago. “They supported the fighter to reach salvation despite the fact that he killed other human beings. They convinced them that they were doing it for a just war and because God commanded it, ”explains the expert.
Everything connected with salvation; His objective was that “the soldier’s stay in purgatory would be as short as possible” and that “they could go up to the kingdom of heaven as soon as possible, the better.” Finally, the chaplains were also in charge of carrying out wills. «In this sense there was a series of corruptions. Sometimes they took advantage to keep what the soldiers had. Although it is true that this behavior was highly persecuted, “says Carboneras.
The spiritual assistance had to be completed with a physical one. And here came the barbers, surgeons and doctors. «They mainly accompanied the Armies of Flanders. The companies settled in Spain or recently recruited did not need them because they fed on those that were in the towns through which they passed, “explains the expert. There were peninsular physicians famous for their treatises on cutting and incising. Thanks to them, and to the primary care that was provided on the battlefields, medicine advanced by leaps and bounds. «When a soldier was wounded in combat, the first person who attended to him was his partner. Then they went to the barber –in charge of making simple sutures– and, when things got complicated, to the surgeons and doctors”, he completes.
In the Spanish Tercios there was no shortage of prostitutes, who accompanied the armies to prevent violations and excesses from taking place. «The nobles were taught to control their baser instincts, but the third estate was not. That’s why they were keys. They, in turn, saw in the military a focus to obtain money quickly and easily”, reveals the Spanish historian. Londoño himself revealed that, for every hundred combatants, there used to be half a dozen whores.
As for the quartermaster, there was no lack of blacksmiths -responsible for the repair of weapons- and the guys. The latter were young men who, since they could not seat soldiers, worked in exchange for a salary for great officers. “They were the only ones who could pay for their services,” explains Carboneras. His duties included helping in the kitchen, cleaning… «Now, from the reports we have, we know that there were very young soldiers. Children of 13, 14 or 15 years old who sat in their places like a dry pike. Sometimes as a corruption on the part of their parents: they targeted them and collected their money, “completes the expert.
reach the villages
Among the different activities that will be recreated in Albaladejo, a classic recruit from the 16th century will stand out. This began with the captain arriving at the municipalities with his trusted officers, waving the flag and trying to get the young men of the place, always voluntarily, to join the Tercio. Before, he had received an ‘instruction’ in which he was assigned a district. As the historian Antonio Rodríguez Hernández explains in his essays on the subject, “Castilla was overloaded with recruitment” in principle. The data supports you. In the 17th century, for example, a company was raised in this region for every 20,000 residents, while in the Crown of Aragon, every 40,000. Although that does not imply that in the rest of the territories there was no call to arms.
The captains sang the benefits of military life and attracted new recruits with ‘relief’, an amount of money that was equivalent to several soldiers and allowed them to face the unforeseen expenses of the trip and the expenses of their new equipment. “When no more volunteers appeared in that place, the captain, his subordinates and the enlisted men marched to another, and so on, until the necessary number of recruits was reached, at which time the recruitment was considered complete,” explains the historian. Magdalena de Pazzis Pi Corrales in ‘Tercios del mar’. In principle, this whole process should not last more than twenty days so as not to overload the expenses of the towns, since it was normal for the neighbors to house the inexperienced soldiers.
The usual thing, says Carboneras, was for the people to receive the soldiers without much rejection. However, there were also some specific abuses by the officers that disturbed the situation. From too long lodgings, to the obligation to deliver food to them. “Sometimes the population resisted. There are reports in which it is clear that an attempt was made to bribe the captains so that they would pass by”, adds the historian. Although he also insists that the Hispanic Monarchy fought frontally, and with all the means at its disposal, the corruption of some officials. In general, or so he emphasizes, the process “was well received by the villas”; the same as the combatants, who arrived among towns “like Albaladejo, who nurtured the Spanish Tercios with heroes.”
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