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Health, Sickness and Medical Services in Spain's Armed Forces c.1665–1700

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 November 2012

Christopher Storrs
Christopher Storrs
Affiliation:
Department of History, University of Dundee, Dundee DD1 4HN, UK; e-mail: [email protected]
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The early modern era saw important changes in the character of warfare in Europe, including the development of larger, permanent armies and navies. Historians have studied many key aspects of what some call the “military revolution”, whose character and timing have become a matter of debate; but some important features of these emerging military communities remain largely unexplored. One subject which has not attracted the attention it merits is that of the health of soldiers and sailors and of medical provision in the new armies and navies. The issue has not been entirely neglected, either generally, or as it relates to specific states, but focused studies are rare. This is unfortunate, not least because of the importance attached to the issue of sickness and medical provision by contemporaries, and the value of medical provision as a sort of test case by which to measure the effectiveness of medical services and hence to contribute to the “military revolution” debate. For some historians the later seventeenth and eighteenth centuries saw the first significant efforts to develop a structure of military and naval hospitals; for others, however, the extent of illness and the inadequacy of medical support services before the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic era suggests that many states failed to meet the organizational challenge posed by the growth of standing armed forces in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. What follows is an investigation of the extent and nature of illness, and the effectiveness of medical provision in the armies and navies of one major player of the period, Spain in the reign of the last Habsburg, Charles II (1665–1700).

Type
Articles
Information
Medical History , Volume 50 , Issue 3 , 01 July 2006 , pp. 325 - 350
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2006. Published by Cambridge University Press

References

1 See Geoffrey Parker, The military revolution: military innovation and the rise of the west 1500–1800, Cambridge University Press, 1988, passim.

2 See Clifford J Rogers (ed.), The military revolution debate: readings on the military transformation of early modern Europe, Boulder, CO, Westview Press, 1995.

3 See Andrew Cunningham and Ole Peter Grell, The four horsemen of the Apocalypse: religion, wars, famine and death in Reformation Europe, Cambridge University Press, 2000, pp. 92–199; Ole Peter Grell, ‘War, medicine and the military revolution’, in Peter Elmer (ed.), The healing arts: health, disease and society in Europe, 1500–1800, Manchester and Milton Keynes, Manchester University Press and the Open University, 2004, pp. 257–83; and Peter Elmer and Ole Peter Grell (eds), Health, disease and society in Europe, 1500–1800: a source book, Manchester and Milton Keynes, Manchester University Press and the Open University, 2004, pp. 256–81.

4 For France, see Colin Jones, ‘The welfare of the French foot-soldier’, History, 1980, 65: 193–213; idem, The charitable imperative: hospitals and nursing in ancien regime and revolutionary France, London, Routledge, 1989; Lawrence Brockliss and Colin Jones, The medical world of early modern France, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1997, pp. 689–700; and Guy Rowlands, The dynastic state and the army under Louis XIV: royal service and private interest, 1661–1701, Cambridge University Press, 2002, pp. 97–8. For England, see Charles G Cruickshank, Elizabeth's army, 2nd ed., Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1966, pp. 174–88; C R Butt, ‘Army medical services in 1644’, Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research (hereafter JSAHR), 1957, 35: 135; R V Steele, ‘Marlborough's campaigns’, JSAHR, 1921, 1: 126; G E Gask, ‘A contribution to the care of the sick and wounded during Marlborough's march to the Danube in 1704 and at the battle of Blenheim’, Journal of the Royal Army Medical Corps, 1922, 4: 274–88; and David Stewart, ‘Some early military hospitals’, JSAHR, 1950, 28: 174–9.

5 Some general studies of early modern warfare do discuss medical provision and the need for it, see, for example, Frank Tallett, War and society in early modern Europe, 1495–1715, London, Routledge, 1992, pp. 105–12.

6 Matthew Smith Anderson, War and society in Europe of the old regime, 1618–1789, London, Fontana, 1988, pp. 107–8. Anderson's emphasis is on eighteenth-century developments.

7 See Jürgen Luh, Ancien regime warfare and the military revolution: a study, Groningen, Instituut voor Noord- en Oost-Europese Studies/Institute for Northern and Eastern European Studies, 2000, pp. 48–63.

8 The medical history of the king himself has attracted some interest, see Ramón García Argüelles, ‘Vida y figura de Carlos II el Hechizado’, II Congreso Español de Historia de la Medicina, Salamanca, 1965, vol. 2, pp. 199–232, and C Lisón Tolosana, ‘Exorcismos en el Alcázar Real’, in idem, La España mental, vol. 1: Demonios y exorcismos en los siglos de oro, Los Berrocales del Jarama, 2 vols, Madrid, Akal, 1990, pp. 143–202.

9 Geoffrey Parker, The army of Flanders and the Spanish road, 1567–1659, Cambridge University Press, 1974, p. 167 (and passim); María José Rodríguez Salgado, Armada 1588–1988, London, Penguin Books, 1988, pp. 202–3; David Goodman, Power and penury: government, technology and science in Philip II's Spain, Cambridge University Press, 1988, pp. 238–50. For the navy, see Carla Rahn Phillips, Six galleons for the King of Spain: imperial defense in the early seventeenth century, Baltimore and London, Johns Hopkins University Press, 1986, pp. 177–80. According to W H Prescott (History of the reign of Ferdinand and Isabella, 1882, vol. 1, p. 198), the field hospitals provided by Ferdinand and Isabella during the Granada War (1482–92) were the first example of their kind, cited by A C W, ‘Medical care of soldiers’, JSAHR, 1925, 4: 219. However, rather surprisingly, this aspect of Spain's military establishment has not attracted the attention it merits. I A A Thompson, War and government in Habsburg Spain, 1560–1620, London, Athlone Press, 1976, for example, does not discuss medical services. Such neglect makes it the more difficult to compare the effectiveness of those services before and after 1660.

10 Charles V's invasion force of Provence (1536) was halved by disease and desertion: James D Tracy, Emperor Charles V, impresario of war, Cambridge University Press, 2002, p. 112.

11 John Tate Lanning, The royal protomedicato: the regulation of the medical profession in the Spanish empire, with preface by J J Te Paske (Durham, NC, Duke University Press, 1985), largely ignores Spain itself (and Europe), Spain's armed forces, and the later seventeenth century; the same is true of Michael E Burke, The Royal College of San Carlos: surgery and Spanish medical reform in the late eighteenth century, with foreword by John Tate Lanning, Durham, NC, Duke University Press, 1977.

12 See José Pardo Tomás and Alvar Martínez Vidal, ‘El Tribunal del Protomedicato y los médicos reales (1665–1724)’, Dynamis, 1996, 16: 59–90; María del Mar Rey Bueno and María Esther Alegre Pérez, ‘El real laboratorio químico (1693–1700)’, Dynamis, 1996, 16: 261–90; and Soledad Campos, ‘Las enfermerías de damas y criadas en la corte del siglo XVII’, Dynamis, 2002, 22: 59–83.

13 David Gentilcore, Healers and healing in early modern Italy, Manchester University Press, 1998, an otherwise splendid study of medicine in Spanish Naples focuses on “civil” medicine.

14 See Antonio Espino López, Catalunya durante el reinado de Carlos II: política y guerra en la frontera catalana 1679–1697, Barcelona, Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 1999, pp. 219–38; and Antonio Espino López, ‘Enfermedad y muerte en el ejército de Cataluña durante la Guerra de los Nueve Años, 1689–1697’, Dynamis, 1996, 16: 427–44.

15 The only other studies of this subject are those by Antonio Espino López, cited in note 14 above. Lorraine White, ‘The experience of Spain's early modern soldiers: combat, welfare and violence’, War in History, 2001, 9: 1–20, covers the period to 1668. In addition, Luis Antonio Ribot García, La monarquía de España y la guerra de Mesina (1674–1678), Madrid, Actas, 2002, pp. 457–60, discusses medical provision for the troops during the Messina rebellion. As the titles suggest, these otherwise excellent studies are narrower in focus—in timescale, service arm and location—than the present paper.

16 In general, see the references in Lanning, op. cit., note 11 above, and Burke, op. cit., note 11 above. Spanish demographic history has both depended upon and stimulated research into medical history; see the references in Pedro Ruiz Torres, ‘El país valenciano en el siglo XVIII: la transformación de una sociedad agraria en la época de absolutismo’, in Roberto Fernández (ed.), España en el siglo XVIII: homenaje a Pierre Vilar, Barcelona, Crítica, 1985, pp. 132–248, on pp. 155–69, 229; Guy Lemeunier, ‘El reino de Murcia en el siglo XVIII: realidad y contradicciones del crecimiento’, in ibid., pp. 289–341, on p. 298; and Eloy Fernández Clemente and Guillermo Pérez Sarrión, ‘El siglo XVIII en Aragón: una economía dependiente’, in ibid., pp. 565–629, on pp. 588–9.

17 Tallett, op. cit., note 5 above, p. 105.

18Consulta of Council of War, 7 Aug. 1676, enclosing letter from the authorities in Fuenterrabía, Archivo General de Simancas [AGS]/Guerra Antigua [GA]/[legajo] 2346.

19 José Luis Navarro Pérez, ‘Aportación económica y militar de la ciudad de Granada a las guerras del reinado de Carlos II’, Chronica Nova, 1971, 6: 9–77, pp. 73, 62. In 1695, of 855 men of the same tercio who marched to Málaga, 24 were lost in the same ways.

20 Espino López, ‘Enfermedad y muerte’, op. cit., note 14 above, pp. 438–9 (figures for the Army of Catalonia for 1689, 1692, and 1695).

21Relación de la muestra … pasado en 9 de octubre a toda la cavallería del ejército, AGS/Estado [E], leg. 3413/67; Relación de la muestra … pasado en 9 de octubre a toda la infantería del exército, AGS/E/3413/68. It also revealed that, of a total of 8,294 infantrymen, 2044 (25 per cent) were sick or wounded. On the Army of Lombardy, and its fluctuating size, see Christopher Storrs, ‘The Army of Lombardy and the resilience of Spanish power in Italy in the reign of Carlos II (1665–1700), (Part I), War in History, 1997: 4: 371–98, and (Part II), War in History, 1998, 5: 1–22.

22Relación de la muestra que se ha pasado en las plazas a toda la infantería y cavallería deste exército en diferentes días de los meses de marzo y abril 1691, AGS/E/3414/213. Unfortunately, there is no record of the incidence of illness among the cavalry.

23Relación sumaria de la muestra … passado … a toda la infantería y cavallería del exército en 9 de junio de 1691, AGS/E/3415/28. Again, nothing is said about the cavalry. In all Spain's armies, the proportion of infantry was greater than that of cavalry, although the proportion varied and that of the cavalry was generally increasing in the later seventeenth century.

24Consulta of Council of War, 27 June 1693, on Duke of Medina Sidonia to [?], 20 June 1693, AGS/GA/2913. The year 1693 was unusually bad in this respect, see Espino López, Catalunya, op. cit., note 14 above, p. 225.

25Consulta of Council of War, 12 May 1696, AGS/GA/3013.

26 Don Juan de Alva Marquéz to [?], 26 June 1696, Barcelona, AGS/GA/3013.

27Relación que han dado los tercios de españoles de la gente de sus cuerpos que es en la manera siguiente, 20 July 1697, Archivo de la Casa Ducal de Alburquerque, Cuéllar, leg. 536/4. Among the Italian, Walloon and German infantry units of the Army of Catalonia it was much worse: there were 707 sick—well over 20 per cent—of a total of 3,266 men. This relación did not include those ill in the hospital. For rates of illness (and desertion) in various units of the Army of Catalonia between 1673 and 1695, see Espino López, ‘Enfermedad y muerte’, op. cit., note 14 above, pp. 430–1.

28Consulta of Council of War, 14 Sept. 1676, on various letters from Don Antonio Martínez Valera, Governor of Cartagena, AGS/GA/2346. See also consulta of Council of War, 24 Sept. 1676, on letter from Don Pablo de Guzmán, 6 Sept. 1676, AGS/GA/3592. In 1689, 400 men levied in Galicia for the Army of Flanders fell ill and died because of the delays in organizing their transport to the Low Countries: Consulta of State, 11 Jan. 1691, on Marquis of Gastañaga to Charles II, 6 Dec. 1690, AGS/E/3884.

29Consulta of Council of War, 13 Jan. 1694, on letter from the Count of Montijo, 2 Jan. 1694, AGS/GA/2916. According to a report received only weeks later, 18 had died and 130 were sick: consulta of Council of War, 3 Mar. 1694, on letter from Montijo, 24 Jan. 1694, AGS/GA/2947.

30Consulta of council of State, 26 June 1694, and accompanying documents relating to muster at Ostend, AGS/E/3888. The men might have arrived in a worse state if the Spanish ambassador in England, the Marquis of Canales, had not arranged their transport to Flanders, see the contract he agreed with one Roland White, 27 April 1694, including details of the rations—1.5 lbs of bread or biscuit a day, 1 lb of meat, 0.5 lb of cheese, 2 pints of beer and fresh water for the men—to be enjoyed on the crossing, AGS/E/3887. For the destructive effect of a sea journey on British troops going to Spain in a later conflict, see C T Atkinson, ‘The cost of Queen Anne's war’, JSAHR, 1955, 33: 174–83, p. 180.

31 In 1693, recruits marching from Valladolid to embark at San Sebastián for Flanders faced fifteen days on the road, and those marching from Jaén (Andalucía) to Cádiz, eleven days, Presupuesto, 27 Nov. 1693, AGS/GA/2916. The march from León to Catalonia clearly involved a much longer, and more demanding, trail across Castile and Aragon.

32Consulta of Council of War, 24 May 1684, on a paper from Don Melchor Portocarrero, 18 May 1684, AGS/GA/2610. At the end of 1693, 66 recruits left Valladolid for Pamplona, leaving behind 16 others—just over 20 per cent of the total—who had fallen ill and, it was hoped, would follow once they had recovered, consulta of Council of War, 13 Jan. 1694, on letter from Count of Montijo, 2 Jan. 1694, AGS/GA/2916. In 1694, the paymaster of recent levies in the realm of León spent more than 7,000 maravedís on the treatment of the sick, and another 680 on the burial of two recruits recently arrived from neighbouring Asturias, AGS/Contaduría Mayor de Cuentas [CMC]/Tercera Época [3a]/3042/29.

33 Ribot García, op. cit., note 15 above, p. 217.

34Consultas of Junta de Armadas, 6 April and 6 May 1684, AGS/GA/3709. There were said to be more than 500 sick in the naval hospital at Cádiz in May 1684. This was certified by the veedor general of the Armada, as part of the relación de servicios of Don Juan Guerrero, protomédico of the Atlantic fleet, Madrid, 23 Sept. 1688, AGS/GA/Servicios/42.

35 See certificate of the number of deaths aboard the galleys of the Duke of Tursi's squadron since 9 June 1663, Barcelona, 27 March 1664, AGS/E/3611/113. They included 42 forzados (convicted criminals sentenced to the galleys), 35 buenas boyas (volunteers), and 27 slaves, a total of 104. In January 1675 the capitana (flagship) of the Spanish galley squadron alone had more than 130 sick, besides many convalescents, Ribot García, op. cit., note 15 above, p. 217.

36 Espino López, Catalunya, op. cit., note 14 above, p. 256.

37Consulta of Junta de Galeras, 3 April 1694, on report of Don Andrés Segarle, AGS/GA/3906. The junta consulted the commander of the galleys, who supported the request and sent a certificate from the doctor and surgeon of the galleys confirming the claim.

38Consulta of Council of War, 4 April 1696, on letters from the Marquis of Gastañaga, 9 and 11 Dec. 1695, and a letter from the veedor general of the Army of Catalonia (on recent muster of troops), 15 Dec. 1695, AGS/GA/3011.

39 In 1664, the Duke of Tursi claimed that he could not execute royal orders to detach two of his galleys to carry money to Italy because of the shortage of oarsmen, due to the many deaths aboard during their sojourn off the Spanish coast, consulta of Council of State, Madrid, 19 May 1664, AGS/E/3611/109.

40Consulta of State, 7 Nov. 1693, AGS/E/3226/13, on various documents, including the certification of the extent of illness by Doctor Jaime Sayo, médico of the Sardinian galleys, Naples, 11 August 1693. According to the Savoyard minister in Naples, many of the sick later died: Gian Battista Operti to Marquis of San Tommaso, 7 July 1693, Archivio di Stato di Torino [AST], Lettere Ministri [LM], Napoli o Due Sicilie, mazzo 5. In 1695, too, the departure of the Neapolitan galleys from Naples was delayed by the lack of men, many of whom were ill. It was feared that those galleys would not get away until end May at the earliest, after the opening of the campaign season, with important implications for Spain's ability to prevent the French seizing the initiative in the Mediterranean, Operti to San Tommaso, 25 Feb. 1695, AST/LM/Napoli, m. 6.

41 Anderson, op. cit., note 6 above, pp. 128–30.

42 Between 1673 and 1695, losses sustained by various units in the Army of Catalonia through desertion on all but one occasion (1674–75) for which we have data were greater than the losses sustained through illness, but whereas in 1695 (tercio of Don Joan Copons) the respective contributions were 74.6 per cent and 17.8 per cent, in 1694–95 (tercio of the city of Barcelona) they were 30.7 per cent and 28.2 per cent, Espino López, ‘Enfermedad y muerte’, op. cit., note 14 above, p. 431. Unfortunately, want of data for all units over long periods makes sustained and meaningful comparison between different units—and for the same unit over a long time—virtually impossible.

43 This happened in Catalonia in 1639, see Luis R Corteguera, For the common good: popular politics in Barcelona, 1580–1640, Ithaca and London, Cornell University Press, 2002, p. 151.

44 See Rowlands, op. cit., note 4 above, pp. 208–12.

45 See Vicente Pérez Moreda, Las crisis de mortalidad en la España interior siglos XVI–XIX, Madrid, Siglo XXI, 1980, pp. 107–12; and Bartolomé Yun Casalilla, ‘Del centro a la periferia: la economía Española bajo Carlos II’, Studia Historica. Historia Moderna, 1999, 20: 45–76, on pp. 51–3.

46 Don Manuel del Castillo Alvarado was said to have been wounded by a grenade at Puigcerda according to a consulta of the Council of War, 1699, AGS/GA/3908, proposing candidates for the vacant post of sargento mayor in the tercio of Don Juan Fernández de Aguirre. The same consulta informs us that Don Gregorio Calderón was wounded at the siege of Camprodon, and Don Juan Ambrosio Enríquez y Zarate at the siege of Barcelona (1697).

47Relación de los oficiales y soldados que los tercios y companias de infantería y cavallería del exto se hallan heridos en el Hospl. Genl. de Sta. Cruz de Barcelona el día 21 de jullio de 1697, Archivo de la Casa Ducal de Alburquerque, Cuéllar, leg. 536/4. The units with most wounded were the permanent (or regular ones) rather than those of the Principality of Catalonia and of Barcelona.

48 Cunningham and Grell, op. cit., note 3 above, p. 125; Grell, op. cit., note 3 above, pp. 258–60; David G Chandler, ‘Armies and navies’, in J S Bromley (ed.), The new Cambridge modern history, vol. 6: The rise of Great Britain and Russia, 1688–1715/25, Cambridge University Press, 1970, pp. 741–62, on p. 749.

49 Seventy cavalrymen were said to have died and a further 191 to have been wounded at the battle of Staffarda in 1690: consulta of State, [20 Sept.] 1690, AGS/E/3412/106 and 110. Spain's losses in the battle of Marsaglia in 1693 totalled more than 3,000: AGS/E/3656/3, 6 and 7. The heaviest losses in 1693 were sustained by the (Spanish) tercios of Lombardy, Naples and Savoy.

50 See Marquis of Leganés to Charles II, 17 Aug. 1692, AGS/E/3417, 86 giving an account of the progress of the allies and telling of 40 Spanish casualties (dead and wounded) in the siege of Embrun.

51 See Relación, printed in Colección de documentos inéditos para la historia de España, 95, Madrid, 1890, pp. 59, 72–7.

52 Espino López, Catalunya, op. cit., note 14 above, p. 137.

53 The relación de servicios of the captain, Don Juan de Torres Mantia, Madrid, 30 Jan. 1697, AGI/Panamá/181, fol. 102. The captain had received a bullet wound in the ankle.

54 Parker, op. cit. note 9 above, p. 169; Grell, op. cit., note 3 above, p. 275.

55 Tallett, op. cit., note 5 above, pp. 106, 108.

56 Ibid., p. 108.

57 Operti to San Tommaso, Naples, 13 Mar. 1693, AST/LM/Napoli, m. 5.

58Real cedula, 17 Oct. 1676, following consulta of Council of War, 2 Oct. 1676, on letter of royal officials at Cartagena, 22 Sept. 1676, AGS/GA/2360. On this plague, see Henry Kamen, ‘The decline of Castile: the last crisis’, Econ. Hist. Rev., 1964, 17: 63–76.

59 Max Emmanuel of Bavaria to Charles II of Spain, 23 Oct. 1693, Brussels, in Henri Lonchay, et al. (eds), Correspondance de la cour d'Espagne, vol. 5: Précis de la correspondance de Charles II (1665–1700), Brussels, Académie Royale de Belgique, 1935, p. 597.

60 For contemporary thinking on what soldiers could put up with, see Antonio Espino López, ‘Oficiales catalanes en el ejército de los Austrias, 1635–1700’, Cuadernos de Historia Moderna, 2000, 24: 31–53, p. 37.

61Consulta of council of State, 11 Nov. 1667, on Constable of Castile to Queen Regent, 20 Oct. 1667, AGS/E/2106.

62 In 1661, 200 men were said to have died aboard the Genoese galleys in the Spanish service following demanding voyages to Oran and elsewhere, and, given the many sick on board many more were also expected to die, Diego de Laura (secretary) to Don Luis de Oyanguren, Genoa, 20 Dec. 1661, AGS/E/3610/75. See also, Duke of Nájera to [Charles II?], Naples, 25 Feb. 1695, AGS/E/3326/17. In 1662 the Duke of Tursi claimed that he could not execute the king's order to detach two of his galleys to transport Cardinal Colonna to Spain because he had already given two galleys to carry the Count of Peñaranda, and the rest of his crews were all sick after the exertions of a fourteen-month voyage, Don Carlo Doria Carretto [Duke of Tursi] to Philip IV, Genoa, 10 Oct. 1662, AGS/E/3611/160. The Duke added that, if he were to sail, he would have to put into French ports where there was contagion, such that he feared he would then not be allowed into Spanish ports.

63Consultas of Junta de Armadas, 6 April and 6 May 1684, AGS/GA/3709.

64 Cesáreo Fernández Duro, Disquisiciones náuticas, Madrid, Imprenta de Aribau, 1877 (facs. ed., Madrid, 1996, Ministerio de Defensa, Instituto de Historia y Cultura Naval), vol. 2, pp. 134–5.

65Consulta of State, 7 May 1695, on Marquis of Sentmenat to Charles II, Lisbon, 26 April 1695, AGS/E/4041, reporting the complaint of the Portuguese Secretary of State; Count of Frigiliana to [?], 3 July 1695, enclosing report from the Portuguese envoy in Madrid, AGS/E/4041.

66Consulta of State, 5 July 1695, on report of the Marquis of Valparaíso, and certificates of doctors, Ceuta, 10 June 1695, and veedor, Ceuta, 11 June 1695, all in AGS/E/4041.

67 Ribot García, op. cit., note 15 above, p. 458.

68Consulta of Council of War, 19 Oct. 1684, AGS/GA/2609.

69 Espino López, Catalunya, op. cit., note 14 above, pp. 59–60.

70 Between 1695 and 1697, Charles II imposed a fixed levy (1 per cent of households in 1695, 0.5 per cent in 1696 and 1.25 per cent in 1697) to recruit the Army of Catalonia, Christopher Storrs, The resilience of the Spanish monarchy 1665–1700, forthcoming, Oxford, Clarendon Press, 2006, pp. 40–45.

71 Ribot García, op. cit., note 15 above, p. 463.

72 This may well explain the contrasting rates of illness between Spanish and non-Spanish units in the Army of Catalonia in the summer of 1697, as in note 27 above. Earlier, in 1662, Scots troops raised for service in the Iberian peninsula had been warned on their arrival in Portugal against excessive consumption of local wine and fruit, P H Hardacre, ‘The English contingent in Portugal, 1662–1668’, JSAHR, 1960, 38: 112–25, p. 114.

73 The Earl of Orrery, A treatise on the art of war, London, 1677, pp. 53–4, cited by J H L, ‘Medical care of soldiers’, JSAHR, 1925, 4: 58.

74Consulta of Council of War, 7 Oct. 1676, AGS/GA/2436, and consultas of Junta de Armadas, 6 April and 6 May 1684, AGS/GA/3709.

75 Duke of Nájera to [Charles II?], Naples, 25 Feb. 1695, AGS/E/3326/17.

76 In 1684, the officials of each of two new tercios raised in the kingdom of Navarra included a surgeon who enjoyed a salary of 150 reales, one of the lowest: Relazión de lo que importa un mes de sueldo sin desquento del terzio, AGS/GA/2608. According to the agreement for three Württemberg regiments to serve in Milan, concluded in 1690, the surgeon would receive 9 scudi, less than the captain, alférez, sergeant, cabo (corporal) or escrivano (clerk) and just over double what a simple soldier received: AGS/E/3416, 167.

77 Phillips, op. cit., note 9 above, p. 139.

78 The galley squadron supplied on contract by the Duke of Tursi had a hospital galley based in the Genoa arsenal, see Don Carlo Doria Carretto, Duke of Tursi, to Philip IV, Barcelona, 4 Mar. 1664, AGS/E/3611/99. The five galley squadrons were those of Spain, Naples, Sicily, Sardinia, and Tursi.

79 The Castilian Tribunal of the Protomedicato acquired wide responsibilities, including the appointment of medical personnel to the armed forces, but represented a different model to that of Aragon (which influenced the development of that of Spanish Naples), Gentilcore, op. cit., note 13 above, p. 32. There is a substantial literature on the protomedicato of the various realms of the early modern Spanish monarchy. In addition to the work of Lanning, note 11 above, see the various contributions to the monograph volume of Dynamis, 2002, 22: devoted to El tribunal del real protomedicato en la monarquía hispánica, 1593–1808.

80 AGS/E/3852/17. The protomédico examined the men bench by bench. He found the troops on board and the sailors fine, but the rowers—crucial to the ship's ability to move—for the most part either convalescent or too weak. For the protomédico of the Armada de las Indias, see Lanning, op. cit., note 11 above, p. 128. Lanning's is the best general study of the system of the protomedicato in the Spanish empire, although it largely ignores Spain itself (and Europe).

81Consulta of Council of War, 24 Feb. 1699, AGS/GA/3125. For the protomédico of the Army of Flanders, 1675, see AGS/E/2280/14.

82Consulta of State, 5 July 1695, on report of the Marquis of Valparaíso on the “epidemic” sweeping through the Portuguese troops, AGS/E/4041. See accounts of the paymaster of the garrison of Cádiz and proveedor general of Andalucía, Jan. to April 1696, AGS/CMC/3a/2982/22.

83 In 1684 the Governor of the Low Countries claimed that his troops constituted not an army but a collection of young people, old men, women and a small number of real soldiers, Marquis of Grana to Charles II, 31 May 1684, Lonchay, et al. (eds), op. cit., note 59 above, p. 449. See also Tallett, op. cit., note 5 above, p. 110, and Grell, op. cit., note 3 above, pp. 258–9.

84 Parker, op. cit., note 9 above, p. 167. In 1574 mutinous troops in Flanders had demanded a military hospital, so this may have been a response to pressure from “below”: ibid., p. 191.

85 Corteguera, op. cit., note 43 above, p. 145.

86 Espino López, Catalunya, op. cit., note 14 above, p. 432

87 Fernández Duro, op. cit., note 64 above, vol. 3, pp. 242–9.

88 Fernández Duro, op. cit., note 64 above, vol. 3, p. 250.

89 Queen Regent to Don Antonio de Benavides, Madrid, 20 Nov. 1674, AGS/Cruzada/517; Fernández Duro, op. cit., note 64 above, vol. 3, p. 251.

90 Fernández Duro, op. cit., note 64 above, vol. 3, p. 251.

91 Fernández Duro, op. cit., note 64 above, vol. 3, pp. 254–9, prints extracts from the regulations of 1633 for the running of this and other royal hospitals.

92Consulta of Junta de Apresto de Armadas, 13 (11) Feb. 1696, AGS/GA/3876.

93 In 1700 the Duke of Alburquerque requested that sick troops in the castle of Santa Catalina (Cádiz) be admitted to the naval hospital, Don Pedro Fernández de Navarrete to [?], Cádiz, 29 Mar. 1700, AGI/Panamá/166, fol. 263. It was subsequently reported that 1,243 men were assembled in Cádiz and 317 in San Lúcar, many of the former falling ill, and in the hospital of San Juan de Dios, Cádiz, doctors feared an epidemic; it was suggested that the levies should be stopped, consulta of Junta [de Guerra de Indias], 6 April 1700, and Count of la Corzana to [?], Madrid, 5 April 1700, AGI/Panamá/166, fols 318–19. Duke of Alburquerque to [?], Puerto de Santa María, 17 May 1700, AGI/Panamá/166, fols 533–36v, on march of troops from their quarters in Córdoba, Jaén, Málaga, and in Alburquerque's captaincy general, which together with five companies from Melilla (and including those sick in the hospitals of Cádiz, San Lúcar and Jerez) totalled 2,800 men.

94Consulta of Junta de Armadas, 17 Feb. 1684, AGS/GA/3709. See also note 32 above.

95 According to a contemporary account, this was staffed by an administrator, four brothers of San Juan de Dios, a doctor and two surgeons. The same document, AGS/E/3498/239, mentions an unspecified number of Capuchin nurses, besides one doctor and two surgeons.

96Madrid Gazette, sub voce Messina, 9 Feb. 1679, National Library of Scotland, Astorga Collection.

97 Ribot García, op. cit., note 15 above, pp. 461–2.

98 For the hospital of the Incurables (founded in 1519), see Gentilcore, op. cit., note 13 above, pp. 126–8. The hospital of San Giacomo was established c.1550 by a local confraternity of Spaniards, and had strong links with the (Spanish) military in the realm, although it later also took in the sick poor (civilians), ibid., p. 133.

99 Ribot García, op. cit., note 15 above, pp. 217–18.

100Consulta of Junta de Apresto de Armadas, 17 July 1693, on the veedor general of the Atlantic fleet to [?], 5 July 1693, AGS/GA/3837. The veedor wanted to appropriate a cargo of wood from France which had been diverted into Cádiz, declaring that this was the best type of wood for the beds and that supplies had been disrupted by the present war.

101Consulta of Junta de Apresto de Armadas, 13 (11) Feb. 1696, AGS/GA/3876.

102 Operti to San Tommaso, 25 Feb. 1695, AST/LM/Napoli, m. 5.

103Consulta of Council of War, 26 March 1696, and accompanying documents, above all the veedor general to Marquis of Gastañaga, 27 Feb. 1696, Barcelona, AGS/GA/3013.

104 The veedor also estimated the cost of constructing a bed capable of accommodating two men if necessary, and the appropriate bedding: Relación de las piezas de que se deve componer una cama para el ospittal Real, 27 Feb. 1696, AGS/GA/3013.

105Veedor general to Charles II, 26 June 1696, Barcelona, AGS/GA/3013.

106Certificó ya el Abad D. Gaspar Casado y Rosales, Turin, 21 Oct. 1690, AGS/E/3413/90.

107Consulta of Council of War, 13 Feb. 1696, AGS/GA/3012.

108Veedor general to Charles II, 26 June 1696, Barcelona, AGS/GA/3013, on the way the facilities in Barcelona were receiving men from the field hospital.

109 See list of Spanish ships which left Cádiz, July 1694, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, Southwell MSS 3, fol. 95.

110 This was certified by the veedor general of the Armada, as part of the relación de servicios of Don Juan Guerrero, protomédico of the Atlantic Fleet, Madrid, 23 Sept. 1688, AGS/GA/Servicios/42.

111 The earlier triumph of “privatization” is explored by Thompson, op. cit., note 9 above, pp. 256–73 (and passim).

112 Tender for contract to run the military hospital of Barcelona by Estevan Andreu of Gerona (previously the contractor for the hospital of Gerona), 8 May 1696, Barcelona, AGS/GA/3013.

113Relación de los servicios del Doctor Don Juan Joseph de Fita y Ríos, Médico de Camara de S.M. y prothomédico del Exército de Cataluna, 4 May 1698, Barcelona, AGS/GM/Servicios/41.

114Relación de servicios of Don Juan Guerrero, protomédico of the Atlantic fleet, Madrid, 23 Sept. 1688, AGS/GA/Servicios/42. The contribution to this of the vicario general of the fleet suggests that the protomédico oversaw the cures ordered by doctors and surgeons.

115Relación de los servicios del Doctor Don Juan Joseph de Fita y Ríos, médico de camara de S.M. y prothomédico del Exército de Cataluna, Barcelona, 4 May 1698, AGS/GM/Servicios/41.

116 Cristóbal Pérez de Herrera served as protomédico of the king's galleys (from 1580) before being appointed (1592) a doctor in Philip II's household: Michel Cavillac, ‘Noblesse et ambiguïtés au temps de Cervantes: le cas du docteur Cristóbal Peréz de Herrera (1556?–1620)’, Mélanges de la Casa de Velázquez, 1975, 11: 177–212.

117 Robert Bireley, The refashioning of Catholicism, 1450–1700: a reassessment of the Counter-Reformation, Basingstoke, Macmillan, 1999, p. 36.

118Consulta of Council of War, 7 Oct. 1676, on request from Procurador General, AGS/GA/2436.

119 Phillips, op. cit., note 9 above, p. 138.

120Consulta of Council of War, 6 July 1696, on petition from fray Clemente Cazón, AGS/GA/3876.

121 See certificate issued by the contador principal, or chief accountant, of the Armada del Mar Oceano on behalf of fray Clemente Cazón, AGI/Panamá/181 fol. 505; and permission of the General of the Hospital Order of San Juan de Dios for Cazón to serve with the Armada, as requested by the Count of Fernán Nuñez, Madrid, 8 Oct. 1696, AGI/Panamá/181 fol. 505.

122Consulta of Council of War, 3 Oct. 1696, on petition from Order of St John, AGS/GA/GA/3011.

123 See Phillips, op. cit., note 9 above, p. 138, for the role of the chaplain aboard the Indies fleet as both administrator in charge of the ship's medicine chest and supervisor of diets for the sick.

124Consulta of State, 15 Oct. 1691, on Count of Santesteban to [?], 20 July 1691, AGS/E/322, 94.

125Consulta of Council of War, 13 June 1676, on petition of Don Francisco Vélez, AGS/GA/2348. Similarly, in 1693 Don Diego Quixano, on the Spanish galleys, was allowed leave of absence to cure himself of the ailments from which he suffered and did subsequently return to the king's service, Relación de servicios of Don Diego Quixano, AGS/GA/3908. That same year Bernave de Corbello, a sailor on the ship Atocha, who had been captured by the French and claimed to have fallen ill while a prisoner of war, petitioned for the grant already made to other sailors and was awarded 100 reales so that he could recuperate and return to the royal service, consulta of [?], 30 Oct. 1693, AGS/GA/3837.

126 Leganés to Charles II, Milan, 4 May 1692, AGS/E/3417/78.

127 Anderson, op. cit., note 6 above, pp. 108–9.

128 For earlier periods, see Goodman, op. cit., note 9 above, pp. 248–9; Parker, op. cit., note 9 above, p. 168; and Phillips, op. cit., note 9 above, pp. 177–80.

129 See lists of medicines purchased for and consumed and distributed on the Doria galleys, certified by the barbers of the individual vessels, AGS/Galeras/17, f. fols 92–9, 673 (1670–71), and fols 499–500, 506, 529, 595 (1674–76). Since these are essentially accounts, they give only the cost of items used and no indication of the real quantity. See also the details of medicines sent to the Indies from Seville and Cádiz, between 1650 and 1700, in Lutgardo García Fuentes, El comercio español con América, 1650–1700, Seville, Diputación Provincial de Sevilla and Escuela de Estudios Hispano-Americanos de Sevilla, 1980, pp. 317–19, 547–51.

130 I ignore the resort to spiritual remedies, such as religious processions and so on, for which see L J Andrew Villalón, ‘Putting Don Carlos together again: treatment of a head injury in sixteenth-century Spain’, Sixteenth Century Journal, 1995, 26: 347–65, p. 356.

131 See contract to supply provisions for those officers and men sent to the Convento de Jesús hospital of Barcelona agreed with Estevan Andreu of Gerona, 8 May 1696, Barcelona, AGS/GA/3013; and Espino López, Catalunya, op. cit., note 14 above, p. 225n40. For an earlier period, see Phillips, op. cit., note 9 above, pp. 177–80.

132 Espino López, Catalunya, op. cit., note 14 above, p. 225; Espino López, ‘Enfermedad y muerte’, op. cit., note 14 above, pp. 436–43.

133Consulta of Council of War, 3 Oct. 1696, on petition from the Order of the Franciscans, and enclosed relación, AGS/GA/3011. The fate of the four remaining soldiers is unclear.

134 In 1664 the Duke of Tursi feared that sick troops embarked on his galleys would infect his crews, Don Carlo Doria Carretto to Don Pedro Fernández del Campo, Barcelona, 25 Mar. 1664, AGS/E/3611/123.

135 Tallett, op. cit., note 5 above, pp. 107, 124, 132–3.

136 See Instrucción que se a de observar en la formazión de las diez companias de infantes que se an de levantar por los capitanes que bienen de Flandes para reclutar los tercios de españoles que sirven en aquellos estados; and Instrucción que se ha de observar por el señor presidente de la chancillería de Valladolid en la formacion y leva de las companias que se han de levantar en la dha ciudad por los capitanes que vienen de Flandes, AGS/GA/2916.

137 For the persistence of this practice after 1700, see Henry Kamen, Felipe V: el rey que reinó dos veces, Madrid, Temas de Hoy, 2000, p. 55 (1704).

138 Manuel María de Artaza, Rey, reino y representación: la Junta General del reino de Galicia, Madrid, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas, 1998, p. 282. Although Artaza's evidence is from 1702, such opinions were expressed earlier. One former army administrator, who presumably knew what he was talking about, also believed that, because Galicia was poor, its population made good soldiers because they could survive on very little, Juan Alfonso de Lancina, Comentarios políticos, Madrid, 1689, ed. José Antonio Maravall, Madrid, 1945, p. 63.

139Consulta of Council of War, 11 Feb. 1693, AGS/E/3887. The other reasons were to avoid expense and desertion.

140Consulta of State, 25 Sept. 1692, on Leganés to Charles II, 5 Sept. 1692, AGS/E/3417/96 and Consulta of State, 30 Oct. 1692 on Leganés to Charles II, 4 and 12 Oct. 1692, AGS/E/3417/105, 106 and 109.

141Consulta of Council of Italy, 16 Nov. 1692, on Leganés to [?], 8 Aug. 1692, AGS/E/3417/175.

142Consulta of Junta of Lieutenants-General, 30 Dec. 1693, AGS/GA/2913. I have searched succeeding legajos without success to discover the outcome of this proposal; this amply demonstrates the difficulties facing the researcher seeking to use the voluminous Council of War series. The introduction and generalization throughout Europe's armies of such practical (health-preserving) measures as field tents awaits proper study.

143 Don Damián Caro to López de Zarate, 12 Aug. 1684, AGS/GA/2610, cited by Espino López, Catalunya, op. cit., note 14 above, p. 61.

144Consulta of Council of War, 6 Feb. 1696, on report from one of the royal boticarios, AGS/GA/3012. The cost of these medicines, sent from the royal botica, totalled 12,780 reales (including packaging). Their weight—500 arrobas (about 5,750kg)—however meant that it cost a further 500 reales to transport the medicines to Cartagena from Madrid.

145 Duke of Nájera to [Charles II?], Naples, 25 Feb. 1695, AGS/E, leg. 3326/17.

146Consulta of Junta de Armadas, 28 Jan. 1684, on letter from Count of Aguilar, Cartagena, 22 Jan. 1684, AGS/GA/2608.

147 According to I A A Thompson, ‘“Money, money, and yet more money!” Finance, the fiscal-state and the military revolution: Spain 1500–1650’, in Rogers (ed.), op. cit., note 2 above, pp. 273–98, on p. 287, Charles II's reign “saw the collapse of internal authority, a tax-freeze, and the retreat of Spain from hegemonic conflict. The three were closely interrelated”.

148 Juan Antonio Sánchez Belén, La política fiscal en Castilla durante el reinado de Carlos II, Madrid, Siglo XXI de España, 1996, pp. 213–56.

149 Julio D Muñoz Rodríguez, Damus ut des: los servicios de la ciudad de Murcia a la corona a finales del siglo XVII, Murcia, Real Academia Alfonso X el Sabio, 2003, pp. 129–32.

150 Spain's financial difficulties in this period are explored by Manuel Garzón Pareja, La hacienda de Carlos II, Madrid, Instituto de Estudios Fiscales, 1980, and Sánchez Belén, op. cit., note 148 above.

151Consulta of Council of War, 12 Jan. 1676, AGS/GA/2353.

152 Between 1634 and 1641 the military hospital of the Army of Flanders, with its 330 beds, represented 1 per cent of the expenditure of the Army of Flanders, Parker, op. cit. note 9 above, p. 167n3.

153Consulta of State, 21 Oct. 1696 on Leganés's report of costs, AGS/E/3423/163, 164. The largest sums were for the bread supply (180,000 escudos) and the Artillery Train (100,000 escudos).

154 Report of Alessandro and Estevan Doria, and attached certificate, [1691], AGS/Comisaria de Cruzada/365.

155Consulta of Junta of Lieutenants-General, 15 Nov. 1693, on Count of Palma to [?], Coruña, 31 Oct. 1693 and enclosed Gastos de una leva de mil hombres para Flandes, AGS/GA/2916. The real was equivalent to 34 maravedís, and the escudo to 340 maravedís. Thus, one escudo was worth 10 reales. Carlos Alvarez Nogal, El crédito de la monarquía hispánica en el reinado de Felipe IV, Valladolid, Junta de Castilla y León, 1997, p. 10.

156Relación de los presidios de España y Africa, considered by Junta de las disposiciones generales, 18 Nov. 1677, AGS/E/1947/212, 213.

157 Cf. Consulta of Council of War, 19 Oct. 1684, on Duke of [Canizano ?] to [?], 2 Oct. 1684, AGS/GA/2609.

158Consulta of Junta de Apresto de Armadas, 16 (14) April 1696, on letter from the veedor general of the Armada (with a receipt from the mayordomo of the hospital), AGS/GA/3876.

159 Charles II to Marquis of Zerralvo, 1 July 1676, ordering payment of whatever was owed to Don Juan de Gasión, and prompt payment of his salary in the future, AGS/GA/2360.

160Consulta of Council of War, 7 Oct. 1676, on representation of the procurador general, AGS/GA/2346.

161Consulta of [?], 22 Aug. 1693, on report from administrator of the hospital, AGS/GA/3013.

162Veedor general to Charles II, Barcelona, 26 June 1696, AGS/GA/3013.

163Consulta of Council of War, 12 May 1696, AGS/GA/3013.

164 Leganés to Charles II, Milan, 11 June 1691, AGS/E/3415/17.

165 Leganés to Charles II, Milan, 11 April 1692, AGS/E/3416/147. Subsequently, Leganés declared that, just two months into the campaign, he must do without the artillery train, hospitals and so on unless urgently helped, Leganés to Charles II, Milan, 17 May 1692, and Noticia de los medios que se han tenido este año y la forma en que se han distribuido, AGS/E/3417/23, 24.

166Consulta of State, 12 Nov. 1695, on Leganés to Charles II, Milan, 20 Oct. 1695, AGS/E/3422/122, 123.

167Consulta of Junta de Armadas, 1 Feb. 1685, AGS/GA/3709.

168Consulta of Council of War, 3 Oct. 1696, on petition from the Order of San Juan, AGS/GA/GA/3011.

169 Dean and chapter of Lugo cathedral to Charles II, 27 May 1691, AGS/E/4171.

170Consulta of Council of War, 27 June 1696, AGS/GA/3013.

171 [?] to Marquis of Villanueva, 31 March 1693, and [?] to same, 21 April 1693, AGS/GA/2946.

172Consultas of Junta de Apresto de Armadas, 5 March and 16 April 1696, AGS/GA/3876. See Antonio Domínguez Ortiz, La sociedad española en el siglo XVII, II: El estamento eclesiástico, Madrid, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas, 1970, p. 209.

173 Parker, op. cit., note 9 above, p. 132.

174 John A Lynn, Giant of the grand siècle: the French army, 1610–1715, Cambridge University Press, 1997, pp. 420–6, the most recent survey of the French army in the seventeenth century provides an excellent account of the development of medical services within that force but gives no figures regarding the extent of the problem or rates of cure.

175Consulta of Council of War, 18 Nov. 1693, AGS/GA/2916.

176 F Dávila Orejón Gastón, Política y mecánica militar para sargento mayor de tercio, Madrid, 1669, p. 195, urged the victorious commander to ensure the despatch to hospitals of his wounded after any battle.

177 See Henry Kamen, Spain in the later seventeenth century 1665–1700, Harlow, Longman, 1980, pp. 322–4.

178 Goodman, op. cit., note 9 above, p. 250.

179 See the English and Dutch medical provision for their forces in Flanders in the Nine Years War as outlined by John Childs, The British army of William III 1689–1702, Manchester University Press, 1987, pp. 157–9; and hospital services in the contemporary English navy, as surveyed in John Ehrman, The navy in the war of William III, 1689–1697, Cambridge University Press, 1953, pp. 126–7, 441–5. For English provision in the War of the Spanish Succession, see Steele, and Gask, both op. cit., note 4 above. Unfortunately, E Gruber von Arni, Hospital care and the British standing army, 1660–1714, Aldershot, Ashgate, 2006, appeared too late for consultation.

180 However, we should not ignore the defects of French army medical services in this period, see Rowlands, op. cit., note 4 above, pp. 97–8, 227.

181 Henry Kamen, The war of succession in Spain 1700–1715, London, Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 1969, pp. 42–56; and Concepción de Castro, A la sombra de Felipe V: José de Grimaldo, ministro responsable (1703–1726), Madrid, Marcial Pons, 2004, passim.

182 AGS/Secretaría de Guerra/Suplemento/269 (Hospitales, 1713–70).

183 When Tortona (north Italy) surrendered to the forces of the King of Sardinia in 1746, during the War of the Austrian Succession, the Spanish troops in the garrison there totalled 3,384. Of these, 303 were already in hospital and another 17 required hospitalization, a total of nearly 10 per cent, see table in AST/Materie Militari/Imprese Militari, m. 6/9.

184 In 1721 the Marquis of Tolosa, Secretary of State for War, the Navy and the Indies, was arrested for his links with the company that had the contract to provision the Spanish army in north Africa, and which had supplied food of such poor quality that on returning to Spain the sick soldiers had filled the hospitals of Andalucía: Santos Madrazo, Estado débil y ladrones poderosos en la España del siglo XVIII: historia de un peculado en el reinado de Felipe V, Madrid, Catarata, 2000, p. 69.