CARACCIOLO (AKA COLONNA) TERCIO/REGIMIENTO
The unit which, during the War
of the Spanish Succession, appears in the sources as (Napolitean) Tercio Fra’ Tommaso Caracciolo, or the Colonna Tercio and later as the Tomaso
Carcciolo Regiment, was commanded
from 1702 to 1707 by Fra’ (Frey) Tommaso
Caracciolo, belonged to the Italian component of the Spanish Monarchy’s
army in Lombardy. Its history clearly predates the outbreak of the War of the
Spanish Succession and can be traced, albeit with some documentary gaps and
problems of nomenclature, back to at least 1679. The reconstruction of its genealogy requires particular
caution because several units connected with members of the Caracciolo family
existed simultaneously within the Spanish military establishment during the
late seventeenth century.
In particular, this military
Lombard unit (but Napolian origin) must not be confused either with the Caracciolo Tercio raised or recorded at
Naples in 1688 under Giuseppe Caracciolo, or with the later Tercio of Ciarletta Caracciolo della Torella,
which was transferred from Naples to Lombardy in 1701 which are two different
Tercio’s with almost the same names. It was therefore not a “Spanish regiment”
in an ethnic sense, although it served the Spanish Crown.
Its origins appear to have
been connected with southern Italy and probably with the Neapolitan
aristocratic military establishment.
Its prolonged service in
Lombardy may, however, have gradually altered the composition of its rank and
file.
Over time, recruits from the
Duchy of Milan or other northern Italian territories may have been added to men
originating in Naples or southern Italy.
ORIGINS OF THE (TOMASO)
CARACCIOLO TERCIO
The earliest precise reference
so far identified for the regiment is the unit classified in modern databases
as an Italian Tercio in Spanish service.
During the 1680s and 1690s it appears within the Army of Lombardy under the
designation Fra’ Tomaso Caracciolo
Tercio. This makes it possible to identify 1679 as the earliest documented date for the existence of the unit,
or at least for its incorporation into the military establishment of Spanish
Lombardy. The name “Caracciolo” strongly suggests that its original proprietor,
colonel, or maestro de campo belonged to the great Neapolitan Caracciolo
family. What is clear, however, is that by the 1680s the unit was not an
improvised wartime formation. It had become one of the established Italian
tercios forming part of the permanent military structure of the Duchy of Milan.
The regiment/tercio was of southern Italian, and most probably
Neapolitan, origin, but it was employed on a long-term basis in northern
Italy under the authority of the Governor and military command of the Duchy of
Milan. This practice was entirely normal within the composite monarchy of
Spain. Naples, Milan, Sicily, Sardinia, and the other Italian territories of
the Spanish Crown supplied troops that could be transferred from one theatre to
another according to strategic requirements. In this case, this Lombard
connection was particularly long-lasting. The unit remained associated with
Lombardy for at least the final two decades of the seventeenth century and
throughout the opening phase of the War of the Spanish Succession.
By 1687, the Caracciolo Tercio was commanded by Marco Antonio Colonna. The unit was
then quite substantial. In March 1687 the records indicate:
15
companies,
approximately 174 officers, NCOs,
specialists, and cadre,
and 875 soldiers.
Later in the same year, in
September, the unit is recorded with:
12
companies,
approximately 144 cadre,
and 864 soldiers.
These figures indicate a
theoretical establishment exceeding one thousand men.
In 1688, Marco Antonio Colonna continued to command the Caracciolo
Tercio within the Army of Lombardy. Hence the confusion or changing name
Caracciolo/Colonna.
By 1690, the regiment still appears as:
Tercio Caracciolo – Commanded by Marco Antonio Colonna – 15 companies –
Lombardy.
The recorded strength was
approximately:
169
cadre and officers,
plus 874 soldiers,
for a total strength of
slightly more than one thousand men.
The fact that the unit
continued formally to bear the name “Caracciolo” while being commanded by Marco
Antonio Colonna illustrates the fluidity of late-seventeenth-century Spanish
regimental nomenclature, creating quite a problems now to correctly identify it.
It is nevertheless highly probable that this long association with Marco
Antonio Colonna eventually produced the new designation Colonna, under which the unit appears at the beginning of the
eighteenth century.
A documented change of command
occurred in 1691.
The
succession appears as:
Marco Antonio Colonna → Antonio di Francia.
In that year the regiment is
recorded at Alessandria, with five companies and approximately:
15
cadre,
plus 360 soldiers.
This apparently dramatic
reduction should not necessarily be interpreted as a collapse of the regiment.
Early modern military returns
frequently recorded only those companies present at a particular fortress,
camp, or muster.
It is therefore entirely
possible that other companies were detached elsewhere.
Antonio di Francia would
remain associated with the unit for approximately a decade.
In 1692, the regiment, still formally called Caracciolo, was commanded by Antonio di Francia and is recorded
with 16 companies.
Its strength appears to have
ranged between approximately 750 and 800 men.
The surviving figures include:
February 1692:
55 + 725 men
June 1692:
55 + 695 men
In 1693, the establishment fluctuated between approximately 11 and 16 companies, with one
surviving return indicating around 455
men.
In 1694, the unit once again appears at considerably greater
strength.
Recorded returns include:
March 1694:
14 companies – approximately 51 + 752
men
October 1694:
16 companies – approximately 58 + 790
men
In 1695, Antonio di Francia remained in command.
The unit expanded from 16 to 19 companies, and the March
return suggests a total strength of approximately 964 men.
In 1696, the regiment is recorded with first 19 and later approximately 15
companies.
It was associated with Novara, and one available strength
return gives approximately 639 men.
In 1697, the Caracciolo Tercio was still serving in Lombardy, with
approximately 13–15 companies,
and Antonio di Francia remained its commanding officer.
This continuity is highly
significant. It demonstrates that the later Colonna Regiment was not a newly
raised formation of the War of the Spanish Succession. By 1701 it had already
accumulated at least two decades of continuous service within the military
establishment of Spanish Lombardy.
As said this Tercio must be
not confused with another regiment recorded as:
Tercio Caracciolo whose commander
was Giuseppe Caracciolo – Naples. This unit appears in Naples
during the years 1688–1696 and seems to have been reformed or dissolved by 1697
so before the starting of the War of
Spanish Succession (and in fact it is not recorded) .
By 1700, the formation appears explicitly as: Tercio Colonna.
This marks the consolidation
of the new regimental name. The designation Colonna was almost certainly linked to the earlier long command of
Marco Antonio Colonna. It is possible that the name had already been used
informally within the army before it became standardised in official or
semi-official lists.
The most coherent sequence is
therefore:
1679 – Tercio Caracciolo
1687–1691 – commanded by Marco Antonio Colonna
1691–1702 – commanded by Antonio di Francia
1700–1701 – Tercio Colonna
1702
– Fra’ Tommaso Caracciolo assumes command and the tercio changes its name
1704
– The Tercio becomes Fra Tomaso Caracciolo Regimiento.
In 1701, with the beginning of major operations in northern Italy
during the War of the Spanish Succession, the Colonna Tercio was one of the
Italian formations serving in the Bourbon Army of Lombardy in support of Philip
V.
The regimental lists for 1701
distinguish clearly between several Italian tercios:
Tercio Colonna/Tommaso Caracciolo – Antonio di Francia – Lombardy
Tercio Bonesana – Francesco, Count of Bonesana – Lombardy
Tercio Caracciolo – Ciarletta Caracciolo della Torella – Naples to
Lombardy, 24 May 1701
This
distinction is decisive.
It confirms
that the Colonna/Tommaso Caracciolo
Tercio and the Caracciolo della
Torella Tercio were separate formations.
In 1702, the command of the Colonna Tercio passed from Antonio di Francia to Tommaso Caracciolo,
with a definitive change of name.
From this point onward the
formation may correctly be described as:
the Fra’ Tommaso Caracciolo Tercio.
Tommaso Caracciolo therefore
inherited an established and veteran unit that had already served in Lombardy
for decades and had become widely known under the name Colonna.
MILITAR OPERATIONS
The year 1702 was marked by
major operations around Brescello,
one of the most strategically important fortresses on the middle course of the
River Po. An entry dated 8 May 1702 concerns orders connected
with an attack on the fortress, while later journals and operational documents
describe troop movements, deployments, and engagements around Brescello during
the summer. In the cartographic material associated with the Bourbon deployment
around Brescello, one formation positioned under the command grouping of Torralba bears a difficult inscription
which has previously been read approximately as:
“3.º di Fra/Frey Tomaso Caraffa (sic)
The reading “Caraffa” at the
beginning created to me difficulties,
because it does not correspond to any particular regiment/tercio in Spanish
service in Italy during WSS
A more coherent interpretation
is that the inscription may refer to the Tercio of Frey (or Fra) Tommaso Caracciolo, namely the former Colonna Tercio, whose transfer to
Tommaso Caracciolo’s command is independently documented in 1702.
Among the Spanis units
relevant to the reconstruction to the Siege of Brescello are:
Tercio Fra Tommaso Caracciolo (aka Colonna)
Tercio Conde de Bonesana
Tercio Caracciolo (aka Ciarletta Caracciolo della Torella)
together with French regiments
serving in the Bourbon army.
A major organisational change
occurred in 1704.
Under the reforms introduced
during the reign of Philip V, the traditional Spanish and Italian tercio system was progressively
replaced by the French-style regimental
system.
FINAL PERIOD
For 1705 and 1706, no sufficiently precise
operational source has yet been identified that would allow the Tommaso
Caracciolo Regimiento to be assigned to a specific battle, fortress, or
detachment without reservation. Nevertheless, the regiment appears to have
remained within the Bourbon military establishment of northern Italy, since
Tommaso Caracciolo continued to command the formation until its reform in 1707.
The year 1706 was a turning point for all Bourbon units serving in Lombardy as
the Allied victory at Turin on 7
September 1706 triggered the progressive collapse of Franco-Spanish
control over much of northern Italy.
The last secure reference so
far identified is dated 1707
when the source records that this unit was reformed (“reforma”) in that year; in
early-eighteenth-century Spanish military terminology, reforma generally indicated that the formation was dissolved,
reduced, or incorporated into another unit as part of a broader military
reorganisation. The year 1707 can
therefore be regarded as the end of the Tommaso Caracciolo Regiment as an
independent formation.
Its documented military
existence thus spans approximately twenty-eight years: 1679–1707.
COMMANDERS
Unidentified
Caracciolo founder or early commander – c. 1679
Marco Antonio Colonna – documented at least 1687–1691
Antonio di Francia – 1691–1702
Fra’ Tommaso Caracciolo – 1702–1707
NAMES
OF THE UNIT
Caracciolo Tercio 1679 – 1687
Colonna Tercio 1687 – 1702
Fra Tommaso Caracciolo 1702 - 1707
UNIFORM
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| Spain 1702. Tercio (Rgt.) Fra Tommaso Carcciolo (aka Colonna) |
The reconstruction of its uniform just apparently seems to be difficult.
A significant methodological starting point is that the military establishment of the Kingdom of Naples appears to have been comparatively slow in adopting the full Bourbon standardisation associated with the reforms of Philip V and for sure in the year 1702 no change in uniforms for was adopted. In fact during the first years of the new reign, the Italian formations of the Kingdom of Naples retained older uniforms (as well as the Spanish) , proprietary liveries, or colours associated with their colonels.
The strong attachment to earlier military traditions was, in itself, a first obstacle to any rapid change in clothing and uniform. Moreover, these were regiments raised by aristocratic families on behalf of the Crown, in which considerations of family prestige often prevailed, whether the proprietor was a Caracciolo or a Colonna.
Indeed, this regiment, like almost all the other Italian formations of this kind, did not survive beyond 1707. This may be seen as a sign of a certain disengagement on the part of the Crown itself from units whose organisation still retained an almost feudal character.
While troops raised in Lombardy certainly wore white uniforms, those recruited in the Kingdom of Naples were much more strongly influenced by the tastes, traditions, and dynastic identity of the aristocratic families that had raised them. In this case, both the Caracciolo and the Colonna families were primarily associated with red, with yellow as a secondary colour. This combination therefore provides a plausible basis for the reconstruction of the regiment’s uniform.
A further point of comparison is provided by the later Colonna Regiment of the Papal Army, raised in 1708, which also wore yellow facings. Although this later example cannot be regarded as direct proof for the uniform of the earlier regiment, it does provide useful supporting evidence for the association of the Colonna name with a red-and-yellow colour scheme.
red coat;
yellow facings or cuffs;
yellow breeches;
red stockings;
black tricorne;
red cockade;
yellow-metal or gold-coloured buttons and lace.
COLOURS
For the historians, the most important conclusion is that pre-1704 “sencillas” were not yet standardized regimental flags, but rather a family of secondary tercio or company colours that shared certain broad conventions without obeying a rigid universal pattern. Their common traits were the frequent presence of the Cross of Burgundy, the use of bold and contrasting colours, and a marked tendency toward geometric compartmentation, especially in the later seventeenth century. Their differences lay in the exact arrangement of the field, the border, the colours, and the extent to which individual devotional, aristocratic, or proprietary features were introduced.
This is especially important when considering the Italian regiments of the Spanish Monarchy, and above all those connected with the Kingdom of Naples. Here the documentary record is often thinner, and surviving plates are rare. Nevertheless, the institutional structure was the same: these units belonged to the broader Spanish military world and therefore almost certainly participated in the same vexillological culture. It is thus reasonable to infer that, before 1704, Neapolitan tercios also used a main flag plus secondary company flags, and that these secondary colours could combine the Cross of Burgundy with designs influenced by the taste, heraldic language, and prestige of their proprietors or captains. This last point is partly an inference, but it is strongly consistent with the known social and military framework of aristocratic regimental ownership in the period.
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Caracciolo Tercio - Company flag 1680
Copyright Michele L. SAVASTA FIORE |
For regiments raised or controlled by great aristocratic families — such as Caracciolo or Colonna — this has direct consequences for reconstruction. Before 1704, one should not expect a rigidly standardized white Bourbon-style flag. Instead, one should imagine a secondary flag tradition still rooted in the tercio world, in which the Cross of Burgundy remained the common military sign, while the surrounding field could be adapted to local or proprietary colour schemes. That is precisely why a reconstruction in strong family-associated colours, such as red and yellow/gold, remains historically plausible for a Neapolitan aristocratic unit, provided it is presented as a reasoned reconstruction rather than as a fully documented surviving design.
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Fray Tomaso Caracciolo Tercio 1702
Copyright Michele L. SAVASTA FIORE |
The last (here above) flag represents the evolution that took place between the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries — and therefore the form likely in use during the siege of Brescello in 1702 — when the company flag was divided into radiating segments, in accordance with a fashion of the period. This design developed from the earlier model, which was still strongly influenced by Habsburg-period patterns dating back to the Thirty Years’ War.
The blue frame recalls the coat of arms of the Caracciolo Family.
Fray Tomaso Caracciolo Tercio 1702 - Grenadier
Copyright Michele L. SAVASTA FIORE |
