"Spanish dress / equipment" Topic

Am looking to build a 16thC Spanish army but am finding it hard to pin down the changes in clothing. I am looking at the beautiful TAG Spanish figures – at what point did that style of dress phase out for the classic 'morion' helmet look? Was it a gradual change or fairly rapid. Was it linked to the formation of the Tercios or a slower evolution? There does not seem much in the way of English language resources for this so if anyone could give me a general idea and a pointer to reference works I would be grateful.

TIA

I was just reading that the morion had been in use for most of the 16thC so probably pre-dated the development of the Tercio, no?

I recommend Ian Heath Armies of the 16th Century, 2 volumes. You may have to hunt for a copy:

link

Which part of the 16th century are you building your Spanish for?
I am using TAG for the early part, first couple of decades, and Gamezone Miniatures for the second half of the century. Redoubt do a style of dress that could be considered transitional from the early period to the later period.

Dress appears to have changed quite rapidly during the period, (when considering change in earlier periods) and at times it appears to be unrealistically rapid. But given how much clothing styles have changed in western culture in the last 50 years, I'm not so sure it is unusual.

Also, it was a period of massive social and economic change, so two or three different, distinct, styles during the century are possibly not to be unexpected.

Not absolutely sure. Was thinking that if I go for Pavia or before to use TAG. If for the other end of the century then was thinking of using the Warlord 'Wars of Religion' pikes and Arquebusier as they look fairly lovely but would then have to make a decision on muskets. As I am a wargamer I am of course also toying with the idea of doing them both……..

Just trying to get an idea of what Spanish dress would be like mid century, say at Ceresole or Muhlburg, as I am very much in the dark.

Am not even sure that the earlier century TAG dress would still be in Spanish fashion at Pavia as most of the prints that my admittedly fairly cursory searching has found seems to feature Landsknechts and their interesting trousers.

Any guidance, even rough rule of thumb would be appreciated.

Druzhina will probably jump in with some of his splendid collections of contemporary depictions – which is the way to go.

That said The Tapestry for the invasion of Tunis by Charles shows pretty good details for ~1535. The differences between Landsknechts and Spaniards are imho pretty well shown. Under Charles, especially before the formation of the Tercios, it seems that the battlefield role of the Spanish infantry was often concentrated on light formations and arquebus fire, while the core with the pikes was often formed by Landsknechts (rg. Cerignola, La Motta, Bicocca, Pavia).

As for miniatures, the "wars of religion" line of WG is pretty decent for the Spanish in the middle to late century, especially the old Arsenal core (pikes and arquebus). Many conquistador lines do offer nice addendums. TAG is good for the early era, while the 30-50 era is without a line of its own – you can use some of the TAG Valois and Tudor line here.
I always thought that the "golden age" of the Spanish military power, from the formation of the Spanish Tercios to the around 1600, is surprisingly bad covered in miniature.

I agree with Puster the invasion of Tunis Tapestry in Vienna has some fascinating depictions of the Spanish in the 1530s, there is suprisingly little indication of what they looked like in the 1520s.

If it helps I have collected an Spanish army for the late 1490s early 1500s shown here: link

and have started a small force for the 1540s-1550s shown here: link

As you can see everything changes pretty quickly!

The Conquest of Tunis series is a remarkable piece of work, the tapestries are good but the original water colour "Cartoons" by Jan Cornelisz Vermeyen which the weavers used to create the tapestries are simply outstanding.

10 of the "Cartoons" survive today and are kept in art museum in Wien. When I saw them a couple of years ago I was simply stunned, they are enourmous in size, roughly 4-5 meters high and 8-9 meters long_each_. This size allowed Vermeyen to depict the common soldiers not only in large numbers but also with an incredible level of detail.

This arquebusier for example is basicly life size

And Vermeyen chose to depict all of the troops present in the Tunis army. You can find not only Spanish and Landsknecht veterans of the Italian wars but also Jinetes, Stradiots, Lancers, Italians and Spanish recruits. You also get glimpses of Charles V's guard units. And then there are the sailors, camp followers and of course the local population and the enemy.

Vermeyen took part in the actual campaign and made drawings of the people and events he saw. And he chose to depict people on the cartoons in the clothing they wore in 1535 rather than painting them in the fashion of the 1540's when the tapestries were made. (There are some exceptions to this but mostly related to men of high rank.)

Some of my western Europe sites are suffering from the recent change by photobucket to restrict images to a 1024 pixels maximum on free accounts. (A fix is in progress)
Spanish Conquest of Oran, Algeria, 1509, by Juan de Borgoņa, 1514
Renaissance Warfare by George Gush, Parts 14 & 15: Spanish
The Attack on La Goleta from the 1744 copies of the 'Conquest of Tunis' Tapestries

Druzhina
Spanish Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

Thanks for all the input, very useful and interesting. It seems that to do it properly would need to field (at least) 3 different Spanish armies for one century – which is not going to happen. If I every do need mid century Spanish it seems they will be earlier Spanish wearing the equivalent of flared trousers as they will be so unfashionable or ahead of trend fashionistas because their clothing will be setting the trends that others will follow.

Please tell us which era you chose. Suggestion of minis may then be easier.

The combed morion, what some call "Spanish morion", the classical helmet anybody shows (erroneously!!!) on the heads of the Conquistadors, did not appear in Europe before the 1560īs and itīs origin is, or so it seems, Italian. I think that even it would be very out of date in battles as San Quintin o Gravelines (1557-1558). At least in the Escorial frescos painted some years after the battles, there is not a single representation of a morion.
It is difficult to know exactly the look of the Spanish troops in a battle like Pavia but the Foundry-Copplestone and TAG ranges contains many examples that can be used for this period. I know well the subject because I researched the documentation that both brands used to sculp the figures.