A tercio was a Spanish infantry unit and formation consisting of up to 3,000 troops, divided into between ten and twelve companies of pikemen, swordsmen, and arquebusiers/musketeers. The tercios were known for pioneering the pike square, which delivered them several victories during the Italian Wars. The formation was used by the Habsburg domains of Spain and the Holy Roman Empire, and they dominated European battlefields in the sixteenth century and the first half of the seventeenth century. The defeat at the 1643 Battle of Rocroi led to the decline of the tercio as infantrymen came to depend more on firearms than melee weapons.
The poor performance of tercios in their native countries, such as Spaniards in Spain, Italians in Italy, and Walloons in Flanders, led to the Spanish authorities rotating Spanish and German troops to Italy and Flanders, Italian and German troops to Flanders, and Italian and Walloon troops to Spain; this decreased the risk of desertion and ensured that soldiers would fight harder once on foreign soil. Spanish soldiers were said to have desired deployment to Italy due to its wine and women, as well as the promise of easy loot. In the prestigious Army of Flanders, the majority of soldiers were always non-Spanish. The tercio system also segregated the nationalities of the Spanish Empire, with Spanish maestres de campo only commanding Spanish units and Walloons only commanding Walloon units. Even among tercios of the same nationality, Roman or Milanese soldiers could not command or serve in a Neapolitan tercio, and Scots could not command an English or Irish tercio. These ethnically diverse tercios were accompanied by German and Italian mercenary cuirassiers into battle.
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