Originally Posted by [b
Quote[/b] ]The French monarchy was the main enemy of the Spanish kings during the first part of the XVI century (1500 - 1557) and from 1635 to 1700.
During most of the XVI century the French army had a good cavalry and a good artillery but a poor infantry, especially the native one. Most of the best French infantry was composed from Swiss (6 000 to 16 000 men) and German mercenaries (5 000 to 10 000 landsknechts). The rest was composed by French mercenary companies or local militias drawn up for the campaign. It seems that a French company used to have at that time 400 men (10 officers, 240 pikemen and 150 harquebusiers).
The offensive forces of the French army were the cavalry. The cavalry was organised into Lances, each comprising one gendarme (heavy cavalryman), two mounted archers (a lighter version of the gendarmes), one coustillier (a light horseman) and two non-combatants. The lances were organised in company of ordinance of 100 lances ==> 400 horsemen.
In 1523, the French king Francois I invaded Italy with 1350 French lances (17 companies), 480 Italian lances, and 27 000 infantrymen, around 34 000 men in total.
The religion wars from 1560 and 1598 would destroy the military power of France even if one of the warlord the duke of Guise created the first 3 permanents regiment (Picardie, Piémont, and Champagne).
7.4.2 from 1598 to 1660
With the end of the religion wars, the new French king Henri IV began to reorganise his estate and the military forces of the kingdom. His reform would follow the path of the Dutch system imported in France by French Huguenot who fought with Maurice of Nassau. The reorganisation of the French army would continue with the cardinal Richelieu and the King Louis XIII.
In 1602 the French infantry was organised in permanent regiments (the old regiments and the small old
regiments) and provisional regiments raised for a campaign. Regiments were organised in 20 companies of 120 men with 40% of pikemen and 60% of harquebusiers/musketeers.
In 1635, cardinal Richelieu reorganised the army with 19 permanent regiments of 30 companies and more than 114 regiments of 12 - 20 companies. Each companies had some 53 men (1 captain, 1 lieutenant, 1 ensign, 2 sergeants, 1-2 drummers, 3 caporals and 44 privates). Some regiment like the Gardes Françaises regiment had more than 20 companies, 30 companies of 300 men (in theory) in this case.
In the following tables we show the evolution of the french company without the high officers (captain, lieutnant and ensign) from 1635 to 1659.
Cavalry was also reorganised by Richelieu in regiments. Each cavalry regiment consisted of 2 squadrons of 2 companies. A cavalry company would have between 100 and 37 men from 1635 to 1659. Cavalry was organised in:
- heavy regiments armed with swords and pistols and protected by an armor (back and breastplate)
- light regiments armed with swords and pistols and with little protection
- dragoon regiments armed with swords and light muskets or carabines and with no protection
Review returns for the period 1635-1643 show that companies had an actual strength of about 40 to 50 troopers. In the battlefield the cavalry was organised in squadrons of 120 - 150 men strength deployed on 3 rows.
