I'm interested in arms and armor of the Spanish armies of the 16th century, as well as information on tactics, military organization, ranks etc.

If possible I'm trying to find photos of weapons and armor from this period, re-enactors with fairly realistic kit and / or antiques.

It's very hard to find authentic stuff on the web and I couldn't even find a good wikipedia article to use as a starting point. Any help would be appreciated.

J

As far as tactics and organization are concerned the best starting point in english is Dr. Pierre PICOUET's excellent website http://www.geocities.com/ao1617/Index.html which has the best description of spanish tactics available in English. For a study of the spanish troops fighting in the Netherlands you'll want to pick up Geoffrey Parker's The Army of flanders and the Spanish Road 1567-1609 which though outdated in some parts still is recomended reading on the subject. Ian Heath's Armies of the 16th Century contains a chapter on the Army of Flanders in the 1567-1600 period complete with b/w drawings of spansih soldiers, however the authors anglo-centric approach and lack of Spanish sources reduces the value of the written parts of the chapter. (Just as an example the few Brittish troops in spanish service get as much space as the Italians, Burgundians, Albanians and Walloons do together) But the drawigns are high quality and numerous.

There are many worse places to start in than myArmoury's own Features article ( http://www.myArmoury.com/feature_armies_spanish.html ); if you're looking for more, I'd recommend this site on the Spanish tercios: http://www.geocities.com/ao1617/TercioUK.html

(EDIT: Yeesh. As usual, Daniel got there first....)

Oops, no, spanish I am afraid.

In our household languages are simply no issue so I tend not to be consious of that all the time. Same thing I did not realise that AlaTriste might be still just a spanish thing and only now realise that Vigo Mortensen speaks fluent spanish and that the film is in spanish :surprised: Not that he speaks all that much in the film ;)
Both the film and he are a few dimensions better than the silly 'Oceans of Fire' thing that goofed so badly on the endurance theme.

peter