Military Flags 1506-1700 (Spain)

Last modified: 2008-12-26 by eugene ipavec
Keywords: military |
Links: FOTW homepage | search | disclaimer and copyright | write us | mirrors

• Cardinal Cisneros flag during the conquest of Oran 1509
• Flag of the Spanish troops in the Battle of Pavia 1525
• Flags of the Spanish Infantry in the Conquest of Tunis 1535
• Unidentified Regimental Colour of Infantry ca.1600
• Regimental Colour of the Tercio Ambrosio de Spinola 1621
• "Capitana" flag of "Tercio" Company of Infantry, Battle of Rocroi, 1643
• Regimental Colour of Infantry 1680 (Bandera Capitana de Infantería)
• Madrid Coal Merchants Militia Company, 1683 (Compañía de la Milicia de Carboneros de Madrid)
• Regimental Colours of the Spanish Infantry or Tercios 1693, possibly belonging to Swiss Units

See also:

• Historical Flags 1506-1700 (Spain)
• Spain

Other sites:

• Banderas Militares (Military Flags, Spanish text only) by Sergio Camero:
  • Período anterior a los Austrias (Before the Hapsburgs i.e. until 1516)
  • Período de los Austrias (During the Hapsburgs i.e. 1516-1701)
• Banderas y Estandartes (Flags and Standards, Spanish text only) with military flags of the 16th and 17th centuries at the Tercios Españoles website

"Capitana" flag of "Tercio" Company of Infantry, Battle of Rocroi, 1643

This "capitana" flag belonged to a Company of Infantry of a "Tercio", during the Battle of Rocroi (Ardennes, France), on 19 May 1643.

Sergio Camero, 14 Sep 2006

Rocroi (also written Rocroy) is located today close to the border with Belgium, on the foot of the Ardennes massif. The battle of Rocroi was a significant event of the Thirty Years' War; it opposed on 19 May 1643 the French Royal army commanded by Louis de Bourbon, Duke of Enghien (then only aged 22 and later known as "le Grand Condé") and the (Spanish) Flanders army commanded by Francisco de Melo, a Portuguese diplomat serving the King of Spain. The Flanders army was defeated and its best Italian and Walloon regiments were slaughtered. Rocroi was the end of the Spanish supremacy on battlefields, even if the war still lasted until the Treaty of the Pyrénées, signed in 1659. However, the victory of Rocroi is considered today not as decisive as Mazarin and Condé's propaganda trumpeted it, since most of the Spanish effort of the war was dedicated to the reconquest of Catalonia.

For those interested in strategy, a detailed account of the battle can be read here. The six Spanish "tercios" are listed there as: Castelvi, Carciez (two battalions), Alburquerque, Villalba and Veladia.

The source website has a chapter dedicated to the flags of the "tercios."

Ivan Sache, 16 Sep 2006

Madrid Coal Merchants Militia Company, 1683

Compañía de la Milicia de Carboneros de Madrid