Military Organisation in the Reconquista 

Christian Spanish Armies, Armies of Al-Andalus and Orders of Battle for the better known battles, .   

Christian Spanish Armies 

Castilian at Fall of Granada 1487-92

The DBM Medieval Spanish list stops before the final war with Granada, so I wondered what the invasion army might have looked like.  

Oman (1991) in his "Art of War in the Sixteenth Century" has a bit to say on the Spanish at the start of the Italian Wars

• He mentions "earlier" (i.e. pre-Italian Wars) Spanish armies including Aragonese sword and buckler men. 
• Gonsalvo de Cordova led 600 cavalry (100 men-at-arms, 500 genitors) and 1500 foot (mostly aragonese sword-and-buckler, many crossbowmen, a few arquebusiers) into Calabria in 1495. 
• Oman says Cordova relied on his Genitors over all other troops arms until they got routed by French Gendarms and his infantry were rolled over by Swiss Pikes (in 1496)
• Which is why he reorganised the foot to include pikes. 

Mariejol (1961) in his "Spain of Ferdinand and Isabella" has a bit to say on the army as well:

• Quoting the Venetian Navagero, the war of Granada was "lovely" because firearms weren't used much and cavalry still shone.
• The light Jinetes were well suited to the skirmish warfare in the Granadine mountains (compared to the men-at-arms). 
• After the War of Granada Ferdinand formed an old guard (guardas viejas) of 2,500 (ish) horse in 25 companies of 100. Sounds a bit like Ordenance Men-at-arms to me, although only 998 were men-at-arms and 1,843 were Jinetes. 
• Prior to 1503 the Spanish foot entered battle untrained. we know this because Gonzalo de Ayora was proposing the then radical concept of training the Spanish foot in marches, evolutions, and manoeuvres as he'd seen done with the Swiss. 
• in 1496 the "lightly armed" Spanish foot were excellent for broken ground as in Granada, but were incapable of holding firm in open country (as against the Swiss pikes) 
• When the Great Captain reformed his foot, 1/2 got pikes, 1/3 were sword and buckler and the remaining 1/6 were arquebusiers. 

Then there is the Osprey book by David Nicolle called "Granada 1492" 

• A variety of European mercenaries were used including English Archers and axemen, Swiss Infantry, Burgundian gunners and artillerymen. 
• Some Granadine troops acted as temporary allies of the Spanish in the final campaigns.
• Some Guanches - natives of the Canary islands fought at the final siege
• The militias provided about 5 times as many foot soldiers as mounted; but the noble and religious contingents included about 40% more horse than foot. 
• The Royal Guard was created in 1493 - after the War in Granada. 

Michael Anastasiadis mentioned some relevant points on the DBM Discussion forum: 

• Also, you should note Cardinal Ximenes' battle of Oran (1502/3?), where
  there is a magnificent tapestry depicting the event. The arquebusiers are
  prominent to the fore, many wearing sallets and for body armour, all wear
  either a breast-plate or a studded leather jerkin. The infantry virtually
  all wear dark red boots and shades of red, pink and crimson are what
  virtually all of the infantry tunics are shown. There are also Spanish
  jinetes shown on the tapestry who wear a pale pink or peach coloured
  studded jerkin, with the typical heart-shaped shield all in white with the
  edge picked out in a bold red colour.
• I would not use any bowmen figures and you can also forget about slingers
  and unarmoured javelinmen. All infantry universally wore armour of some
  description: either a jacket made of mail, a breast-plate or studded
  leather jerkin: no unarmoured nandy-pandy boys, these guys mean business!

Gush (1975) says 

• The Brotherhood (Hermandad) was a militia from the fortified cities.  This provide the main component of the Spanish army.  It comprised foot and horse.  The foot were organised into battalions of 10 companies and 50.  The Hermandad uniform was a woollen tunic with hood and flared sleeves, in white with a red cross front and back.  Trousers/hose were red.  The Spanish favoured Sallet helmets.  In 1490 the Hermandad foot of Andalusia had 7% firearms, 33.5 % crossbowmen, 42% spearmen or pikemen, and the rest pioneers and craftsmen.
• The Provincial Militia served mainly against rebellions.  In 1577 (after our period) they were 33.5% crossbowmen and 66.5% arquebusiers.  
• In  the1490s the royals formed a Gendarmerie and Constabulary of the Ordinance.  The Constabulary were infantry in companies of 100 men.  1/3 were pikemen (imitation Swiss), 1/3 sword and buckler men, and 1/3 crossbowmen and arquebusiers.  

Armies of Al-Andalus 

Andalusian

Andalusian armies were composed of a number of elements.  The proportion of these elements changed depending on the political situation, and particular armies would concentrate on some and not others.  

Organisationally the army was composed of 5 groups (Heath, 1980):  

Jund, hereditary regulars, 

Hashid ("recruits"), volunteers recruited for a single expedition,  

Mujahids or al-Murabitun, unpaid religious volunteers, 

Murtaziqa, regular foreign mercenaries 

Muttawia, unpaid foreign irregulars 

Ethnically the army was also compose of 5 groups: 

Arabs.   Arab immigrants provided the basis of some early armies; the significant influxes were in 711, 712, and 741 (Heath, 1980).  

Slavs (Saqlabi).  European Slave troops  were employed from the reign of al-Hakam I (796-822) although only became a large professional military force in the 10th century (Kennedy, 1996).    Despite being called Slavs, most were recruited from Kingdom of Leon. 

Berbers.  Berbers mercenary/immigrants were being employed throughout the history of Al-Andalus, however, there were particular bursts of recruitment: under Abd al-Rahman II (822-852), Al-Hakam II (961-976), and the vizier Al-Mansur (976-1002) (Kennedy, 1996).  

Negroes.  Negro slaves and mercenaries were employed periodically - particularly as a counter-balance to either the Slavs or Berbers (Kennedy, 1996).  

Andalusians.  Muslims born in Al-Andalus of any extraction (native, Arab, Berber).   

Abd al-Rahman I (756-788) imported 40,000 Berber mercenaries from North Africa as a counter-foil to the Arab Jund already settled in Al-Andalus.  He also recruited a Black Guard of 2,000 men.   

Al-Hakam I (796-822) had an army of 50,000 (Heath, 1980). it consisted mainly of Berbers and Negroes, but also included a Christrian Guard known as al-Khurs ("The Mutes") of 2,000 infantry and 3,000 cavalry. 

The vizier Al-Mansur (976-1002) had a fully professional army of 60,000 (Kennedy, 1996; Heath, 1980). He particularly favored Berbers, bringing many over from North Africa.  This emphasis meant the army was predominately cavalry.  In  c. 978 Al-Mansur disbanded the existing Caliph's Slav bodyguard of 3,750 men, but Slavs continued to form a significant proportion of the army. A small Andalusian element remained although the Andalusian elite was largely demilitarised by this time (Nicolle, 1988) .   

The Caliph Muhammad II (1008-1010) was opposed by the Berber generals, and most, but not all, of the Slavs abandoned him to pursue their own political aims (Kennedy, 1996).  As a result he attempted to recruit a militia from the native Cordobans which faired badly against the Berbers.  

The Caliph Al-Qasim ibn Hammud (1018-1021, 1023) attempted to counterbalance the Berbers by recruiting a Negro bodyguard (Kennedy, 1996). 

Taifa armies were small (Kennedy, 1996).  In 1055 Seville took Algerciras with only 200 horse, and in 1069 when they took Cordoba they had an advance guard of 200 horse and a main body of 1,000. However, having called for volunteers to retake Barbastro, Al-Muqtadir of Zaragoza managed to raise an army which included 6,000 archers and 50 horsemen from Seville. Granadine garrisons may have been as low as 100 Zanata in Granada itself and 300 at Malaga.  

Al-Murabitun 

The Al-Murabit leaders were all from the Banu Turgut of the Lamtuna tribe of the Sanhaja Berbers (Kennedy, 1996).  Originally the men were from the Lamtuna tribe, these and the Guddala and Massufa (also Sanhaja) remained the mainstay of the armies throughout the period.   Other groups were assimilated including the other Sanhaja tribes (Gazzula, Lamta, Banu Warith), Masmuda tribesmen of the Atlas and Zanata of northern Morocco.   

The armies appear to be comprised of various groups (Kennedy, 1996): Al-Murabitun, Mercenaries, Slave soldiers, Andalusian Volunteers, Guards.  

Al-Murabitun.  Probabaly Berbers of the Lamtuna, Guddala and Massufa, but possibly any Sanhaja.  

Mercenaries (Hashm).  I suspect these are non-Al-Murabitun Berbers.  

Black slave soldiers (Abid).   Nicolle (1988) mentions larges numbers of black Africans and I presume these are the Abid mentioned by Kennedy (1996).  Most were recruited form Senegal, and they used bamboo spears, long leather shields, bows, and massed drums.  A slave soldier sparked the Cordoban rebellion in 1121, and many black slaves were in the army the Aragonese defeated in 1129.  

Andalusian Volunteers (Muttawia).  

Christian.  The Murabitun employed Christian mercenaries and converted prisoners (Nicolle, 1988).   

Guards.  Ibn Tashfin formed a guard of slave soldiers - 2,000 blacks, 500 uluj, and Andalusian horsemen (Kennedy, 1996; Nicolle, 1988).  Nicolle says the blacks were horsemen, but Kennedy only says the Uluj were.   Nicolle also says the uluj were non-Berber including Arabs, Turks and Europeans, but Kennedy suggest they were probably of Frankish origin.  .  

The Murabitun used camels - later armies had 30,000 available - although as time when on they relied more on cavalry (Nicolle, 1988).  

The mercenaries and slave soldiers adopted the veil in imitation of the Al-Murabitun (Kennedy, 1996).  

Most Al-Murabitun fought on foot with a front rank of long spears and javelinmen behind (Kennedy, 1996; Nicolle, 1988).  The commander of each unit carried a flag that was used to direct his men: stand when the banner is up and kneel when the banner is lowered.  Under Ibn Tashfin and subsequently Murabitun made use of war drums (Nicolle, 1988).   

From 1132 to 1144 a Catalan renegade called Reverter - the one time viscount of Barcelona - lead the elite corps of the Al-Murabitun army (Kennedy, 1996).   This may have been the Uluj mentioned as part of the guards ??.  

The Al-Murabitun armies could reach 20-30,000, but were usually smaller, for example, in 1058 Abu Bakr led a force of 400 horsemen, 800 camel men and 2,000 foot (Kennedy, 1996). The invasion force of 1086 had 12-20,000 men.  4,000 men were sent to the siege of Aledo.  Even provincial forces were up to 5,000.   In 1102 the Al-Murabitun had 17,000 horsemen in Al-Andalus: 4,000 in Seville, 1,000 in Cordoba, 1,000 in Granada, 4,000 in the Levante, and the remaining 7,000 distributed along the frontier. These figures are for horse only and it is unclear how many foot were maintained although it is worth remembering that foot considerably outnumbered horse in Al-Murabitun armies.

Although powerful in the field, the Al-Murabitun were reliant on their Andalusian allies for expertise in siege work (Kennedy, 1996). 

Almohads

Orders of Battle

Sagrajas Friday 23 Oct 1086 

Al-Murabitun and Andalusians defeat an international but predominantly Castilian army.  

Muslims 

Murabitun Camp (Yusuf ibn Tashufin, Sir ibn Abi Bakr, Dawud ibn Aisha) 

12,000 or 20,000 men including Lamtuma 

Ibn Tashufin had a Black Guard of 4,000.  

Andalusian Camp 

Sevillian Contingent (Emir al-Mutamid) 

Granadine Contingent (Emir Abd Allah)

Malagan Contingent (Emir ??)

Badajoz Contingent (Emir al-Mutawwakil) 

Christians (Alfonso VI) - 50-60,000 men 

Vanguard (Alvar Fañez) 

Aragonese Cavalry 

Main Battle (King Alfonso VI) 

including Aragonese, Italian and French

Rearguard 

Alarcos 19 July 1195 

A large army Almohades (including a small force of the Banu Merin) defeats a much smaller Leonese-Castilian force (perhaps 20-25,000).  

Almohades (Abu Yusuf ya'qub al-Mansur) 

First Line 

Right Flank: Andalusian Cavalry 

Centre: Almohade Veterans 

Left Flank:  Almohade Levies 

Second Line  

Close order Africans mostly armed with bow and javelins, although some have slings.  

Reserves (Several Thousand strong)

Infantry - presumably with long spear 

Negro Guardsmen 

Castilians (Alfonso VIII) 

Vanguard:  8,000 cavalry 

Knights of Calatrava (including Master) 

Knights of Santiago (including Master) 

Infantry: 

Rearguard: 

Las Navas de Tolosa 1212 

Christians defeat Almohades.  The Christians had 60-100,000 infantry and 10,000 cavalry, and had troops from Western Europe, Castile, Navarre, Aragon and Portugal, and Military Orders (Templars, Hospitallers, Santiago, Cavatrava).  The Almohades reportedly had 460-600,000 men, including 100-185,000 cavalry and 30,000 Negro guards.    

Almohades (Caliph Mohammed abu Abd-Allah)

Right: Mauritanian Light Cavalry 

Centre: Andalusian Heavy Cavalry 

Left: Mauritanian Light Cavalry 

Reserve:  

Infantry 

Negro Guard 

Fortified Camp (Stockade reinforced by chains) 

Christians 

Vanguard (Count Diego Lopéz of Haro) 

Left (Pere II of Aragon)

Centre (Gonzalo Nuñez de Lara) 

Infantry 

Military Orders 

Right (Sancho VII of Navarre) 

Reserve (Alfonso VIII of Castile) 

Najera (Navarette) 3 Apr 1367 

English defeat Franco-Castilians at Najera.  

Anglo-Castilians (The Black Prince, Don Pedro) 

Vanguard (John of Gaunt) 

1,200 Free Company Lances (Sir John Chandos) 

1,800 Lances 

Left Flank (Sir Thomas Percy and Olivier de Clissons) 

2,000 Lances 

Centre 

4,000 Lances (Black Prince and Don Pedro) 

Right Flank 

2,000 Lances (Captal de Buch, Arnaud-Amanieu d'Albret, Don Martin Enriquez) 

Rearguard 

3,000 Gascon and Free Company Lances (King of Mallorca, the Comte d'armagnac, Sir Hugh Calveley, Perducas d'Albret) 

Franco-Castilians (Henry de Trastamara, du Guesclin) 

Vanguard - 1,000 or 4,000 men 

(possibly 2,000) French men-at-arms (du Guesclin, Marshal d'Audrehem) 

(possibly 500)  men-at-arms of the Order of the Sash (Don Sancho and the Master of Santiago) 

(possibly 1,500) Slingers, Javelinmen, and Crossbowmen

Left Flank (Don Tello and Hospitaller Grand Prior) 

1,000 men-at-arms 

2,000 Jinetes 

Centre (Don Henry)

1,500 picked men-at-arms 

Crossbowmen (somewhere in the second line, so probably in the centre) 

Right Flank (High Chamberlain Gomez Carillo, Alfonso de Villena, Count of Denia, Master of Calatrava) 

1,000 men-at-arms 

2,000 Jinetes 

Rearguard 

5,500 Crossbowmen 

43,000 other infantry 

Franco-Castilian totals were 6,000 men-at-arms, 4,000 Jinetes, 6,000 crossbowmen and 44,000 other infantry.   The Jinetes included some Granadine horsemen (Nicolle, 1988)

Aljubarrota 14 Aug 1385 

Anglo-Portuguese defeat Franco-Castilians.  

Order of Battle 

Anglo-Portuguese (João of Portugal) 

Left: 

4-700 English (both archers and men-at-arms) 

5-6,000 infantry (including many archers) 

Protected by a barricade and stream 

Centre: 

2-3,000 men-at-arms

Protected by a ditch 

Right 

5-6,000 infantry (including many archers) 

Protected by a barricade and stream 

Franco-Castilians (Juan I of Castile)   

Vanguard (Geoffroi de Parthenay) 

1,500* French men-at-arms 

Main Body (divided into left, centre and right) 

4,500* men-at-arms 

2,000 Jinetes 

Rearguard 

10,000 infantry (archers, crossbowmen, spearmen, javelinmen) 

16 light cannon 

* 6,000 men-at-arms in total and either 800 or 1,500 French.  

Terrain 

The Anglo-Portuguese deployed amidst orchards near the abbey of Aljubarrota.  They deployed up hill from the Franco-Castilians, and had streams covering both flanks.  

Other factors

The battle was preceded by manourvering and although the Anglo-Portuguese got the better position, the Castialian nobles insisted the King attack anyway.  

Olmedo 1445 

Royalist Castilians defeat Rebel Nobility. 

Sources 

Gush, G. (1975).  Renaissance Armies 1480-1650.  Patrick Stephens. 

Heath, I.  (1980).  Armies of the Dark Ages 600-1066  (2nd ed.).  Wargames Research Group. 

Heath, I.  (1982).  Armies of the Middle Ages, volume 1.  Wargames Research Group. 

Heath, I.  (1989).  Armies of Feudal Europe 1066-1300 (2nd ed.).  Wargames Research Group. 

Nicolle, D. (1998).  The Fall of Granada 1481-1492: The twilight of Moorish Spain (Campaign Series 53). Osprey. 

Kennedy, H.  (1996).  Muslim Spain and Portugal: A political history of al-Andalus.  London: Longman. 

Oman, C. (1987).  A History of the Art of War in the Sixteenth Century.  London: Greenhill Books.  Originally published 1937.  

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