The benefits and costs of billeting: soldiery, financial flexibility and local credit in Renaissance Spain. The case of Navarre

ABSTRACT

During the pre-industrial period, most military personnel were billeted instead of lodged in barracks. Historiography has tended to attribute this to a lack of foresight. In reality, the crown had no real interest in investing in them. Barracks could not provide the practical advantages of private households. The royal prerogative that obliged the population to billet the king’s troops was, despite its unpopularity, a very valuable resource for both the soldiers and the crown and not simply a necessary inconvenience.

KEYWORDS:

• Billeting
• civil–military relations
• credit
• early modern Spain
• Navarre

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. For an overview of pre-modern military logistics: Tallett, War and Society, 50–68.

2. Chavarría-Múgica, “The Problem of Billeting Distribution,” 250–2.

3. Despite its importance, billeting has received very irregular historiographical attention. The tendency to collect striking anecdotes has fuelled a simplistic and stereotypical view of the issue. The best studied region is Spanish Lombardy, to which have been dedicated excellent studies, generally focusing on the connections among territory, strategy and fiscality. See an overview in Buono, di Tullio, and Rizzo, “Per una storia economica e istituzionale,” 187–218. See also the bibliography quoted in Chavarría-Múgica, “The Problem of Billeting Distribution,” passim.

4. The same opinion prevailed elsewhere: Parker, The Army of Flanders, 144, and Buono, Esercito, istituzioni, territorio, 144–9.

5. Clavero, Antidora, and Fontaine, L’Économie morale.

6. Ulloa, La hacienda real de Castilla, 151.

7. Thompson, War and Government, 73–6; and Thompson, The Military Revolution, 34. The place of billeting in the ‘Military Revolution’ debate is discussed in Chavarría-Múgica, “The Problem of Billeting Distribution,” 235–40.

8. Pedro de la Puente, Los soldados en la guardia, 157–8.

9. M. Foucault, Discipline and Punish, 141–2.

10. Buono, Esercito, istituzioni, territorio.

11. Archivo Municipal de Pamplona (AMP), Guerra-Milicia nacional, leg. 176 [s.n.]: ‘Primer memorial de la ciudad en tiempo que era regidor el señor don Francés de Beaumont’, first article, reply of the viceroy Don Beltrán de la Cueva and counter-reply of the municipality.

12. For some examples of complaints for this reason, see Vázquez de Prada and Usunáriz, eds, Las cortes de Navarra, I: 40 (1529), 177 (1565), 285 (1576), 453 (1604).

13. For the destabilizing effect of the riots of Flanders’ unpaid soldiers, see Fagel, “The Origins of the Spanish Fury,” 104–5, Parker, “Mutiny and Discontent,” 38–52. Additionally, serious altercations between locals and soldiers in the lodgings served as a trigger for the ‘corpus de sangre’ that led to the outbreak of the Catalan rebellion of 1640: Elliott, The Revolt of the Catalans, 300, 347–8, 367–73, 387–417.

14. Chavarría-Múgica, “La capitulación de la cabeza del reino,” 361–85; and Chavarría-Múgica, “La convivencia de militares y civiles.”

15. Chavarría-Múgica, “Monarquía fronteriza,” 62–9.

16. Ibid., 89.

17. García-Zúñiga, “El gasto en un reino periférico,” 358–67. Complaint by the Castilian parliament (cortes), Valladolid, February, 1518: Floristán, ed., La monarquía española y el gobierno del reino de Navarra, 68–9. More about the military administration of the kingdom during the first half of the century in Escribano, El coste de la defensa.

18. Archivo General de Simancas (AGS), Estado, leg. 350, n° 78: Juan de Vega to the royal secretary Juan Vázquez de Molina (Pamplona, 28-8-1542).

19. A general view of the financial situation around 1542 in Carande, Carlos V y sus banqueros, II, 124–41, and Tracy, Emperor Charles V, Impresario of War, 181–203.

20. The bankruptcy of 1575 has received much attention from specialists. An overview in De Carlos Morales, El precio del dinero dinástico, I, 106–24.

21. Ibid., 105–7.

22. Thompson, War and Government, 73–4.

23. Ulloa, La hacienda real de Castilla, 779–80. For details on money transfers to the Low Countries, see Parker, The Army of Flanders, 145–6.

24. Thompson, War and Government, 73, 84.

25. Las cortes de Navarra, I, 177.

26. Archivo General de Navarra (AGN), Guerra, leg. 2, n° 56 to 61.

27. AGN, Guerra, leg. 2, n° 45: Vespasiano Gonzaga to the town of Cascante (Pamplona, 20-1-1572).

28. AGN, Guerra, leg. 2, n° 45: Vespasiano Gonzaga to the town of Cascante (Pamplona, 30-1-1572).

29. AGN, Guerra, leg. 2, n° 44: Vespasiano Gonzaga to the town of Miranda de Arga (Pamplona, 13-3-1572).

30. AGN, Guerra, leg. 2, n° 44: Vespasiano Gonzaga to the town of Miranda de Arga (Pamplona, 2-4-1572).

31. Ibid.

32. AGN, Guerra, leg. 2, n° 44: Vespasiano Gonzaga to the town of Miranda de Arga, (Pamplona, 21-4-1572).

33. Las cortes de Navarra, I, 256.

34. AGN, Guerra, leg. 2, n°. 46: ‘Agravios del reino sobre los bastimentos que se dan a los hombres de armas y la respuesta dada’ (Pamplona, 31–10-1572).

35. Parker, The Army of Flanders, 136–7, 139–41.

36. Thompson, War and Government, 84.

37. Parker, The Army of Flanders, 185–206, and Parker, “Mutiny and Discontent,” 38–52.

38. AGN, Guerra, leg. 2, n° 42: Vespasiano Gonzaga to the towns of Puente la Reina, Obanos and Mañeru (Pamplona, 2-9-1572); and AGN, Guerra, leg. 2, n° 43: Vespasiano Gonzaga to the town of Olite (Pamplona, 26-9-1572).

39. AGN, Guerra, leg. 2, n° 47: Vespasiano Gonzaga to the town of Monreal, and the valleys of Elorz, Bargoiti and Unciti and their respective districts (Pamplona, 3-8-1574).

40. As an example, the case of the Count of Priego’s company of cavalry can be seen, which left debts in Cascante and later in Miranda de Arga and Berbinzana, among other places, AGN, Guerra, leg. 2, n°. 48: (Valtierra, 29-3-1574), and AGN, Guerra, leg. 2, n° 49: (Pamplona, 20-4-1574).

41. AGN, Guerra, leg. 2, n° 60.

42. AGN, Guerra, leg. 2, n° 58.

43. AGN, Guerra, leg. 2, n° 61, and AGN, Guerra, leg. 2, n° 47.

44. AGN, Guerra, leg. 2, n° 59.

45. AGN, Guerra, leg. 2, n° 57. Another example was the town of Mendigorría, which claimed 3653 reales owed by different contingents staying in the town between 1568 and 1576, AGN, Guerra, leg. 2, n° 56. Some other examples could be presented, but the data is far from exhaustive.

46. Some examples: AGN, Reino, Tribunales Reales, Proceso n° 011335, n° 070469, n° 099063, n° 029094, n° 071712, n° 071711, n° 071758, n° 071740, n° 038555, n° 069063, n° 011181, n° 069064, n° 011114, n° 069166, n° 069171 and n° 069340.

47. AGS, Estado, leg. 359, n° 46: Vespasiano Gonzaga to the royal secretary Gabriel de Zayas (Pamplona, 14-7-1574).

48. AGN, Guerra, leg. 2, n° 51: Don Cristóbal de Eraso to the mayor of Olite (Pamplona, 27–11-1574).

49. Ruiz Martín, “Las finanzas españolas,” 137 and ff.

50. The Viceroy wrote to the towns of Miranda de Arga, Milagro, Villafranca, Cintruénigo and Fitero asking them to help the companies that they had to lodge for ‘being their turn’ (‘tocalles la tanda’), AGN, Guerra, leg. 2, n° 52.

51. AGN, Guerra, leg. 2, n° 52: Sancho Martínez de Leiva to the towns of Cintruénigo and Fitero (Pamplona, 29-8-1575) [underlined in the original]. In November, a similar situation arose in the town of Sangüesa and its district (cendea): AGN, Guerra, leg. 2, n° 53: Sancho Martínez de Leiva to the town of Sangüesa (Pamplona, 25–11-1575).

52. AGN, Guerra, leg. 2, n° 55: Sancho Martínez de Leiva to the town of Mendigorría (Pamplona, 10-2-1576); and AGN, Guerra, leg. 2, n° 52: Sancho Martínez de Leiva to the town of Mendigorría (Pamplona, 10-2-1576).

53. A detailed discussion on the pre-modern juridical conception of government in Garriga, “Gobierno y justicia,” 47–113.

54. AGN, Guerra, leg. 2, n° 55: Sancho Martínez de Leyva to the town of Olite: (Pamplona, 24-4-1576).

55. AGN, Guerra, leg. 2, n° 62: Sancho Martínez de Leyva to Villagómez (Pamplona, 28-4-1576).

56. AGN, Guerra, leg. 2, n° 62: Villagómez to the municipality of Olite (Olite, 1-5-1576).

57. AGN, Guerra, leg. 2, n° 62: Sancho Martínez de Leyva to Villagómez (Pamplona, 28-4-1576).

58. More on the tension between community privileges and war emergency in Chavarría-Múgica, “La capitulación de la cabeza del reino.”

59. AGN, Guerra, leg. 2, n° 62: Villagómez to the municipality of Olite (Olite, 1-5-1576).

60. The town councillors complied with the court order but specified that they did not do so of their own free will: AGN, Guerra, leg. 2, n° 62: The mayor and councillors of the municipality of Olite to Villagómez and his response (Olite, 2-5-1576).

61. AGN, Guerra, leg. 2, n° 62: Villagómez to the ‘vinculero’ of the town and the mayor, Sebastián Marzán (Olite, 2-5-1576). In total, 425 robos of wheat were removed from the vínculo, of which 382.5 robos were distributed among the troops, and the rest sold to pay Villagómez’s salary, as well as that of the clerk and the bailiff who assisted him: AGN, Guerra, leg. 2, n° 62: Villagómez to the town’s bailiff (alguacil) in order to execute his ruling (Olite, 4-5-1576).

62. AGN, Guerra, leg. 2, n° 62: Villagómez to the municipality of Olite (Olite, 5-5-1576).

63. Las cortes de Navarra, I, 285.

64. See for example: AGS, Contaduría del sueldo (2ª), leg. 69 [s.n.]: ‘Aberiguación de lo que quedaron debiendo los soldados ydos de la compañía de ynfantería trashordinaria del capitán Martín d’Esquibel.’

65. This problem became more apparent during the seventeenth century. Cf. Di Tullio, The Wealth of Communities; Colombo, Giochi di luoghi; and Domínguez Ortiz, “La ruina de la aldea castellana,” 99–128.

Additional information

Funding

This work was financed by Portuguese funds through the Foundation for Science and Technology (Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia – FCT) within the scope of the programme established in D.L. No. 57/2016 of August 29 and Law No. 57/2017 of July 19. The result of this research is part of the R&D Project of Excellence of the Government of Spain: ‘Forming the Hispanic Monarchy: Political Culture and Dynastic Practices in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries’ (HAR2016-76214P).

Notes on contributors

Fernando Chavarría-Múgica

Fernando Chavarría-Múgica is Assistant Professor of Early Modern History at the Department of History and Philosophy of the University of Alcalá, Spain. He studies early modern political and military culture, with a focus on the Spanish monarchy. He holds a PhD in History and Civilization from the European University Institute, Florence. He has been a Marie Curie Intra-European Fellow at the EHESS in Paris, EURIAS Visiting Fellow at CRASSH, University of Cambridge, and Researcher at the Portuguese Institute of International Relations (IPRI), Universidade Nova de Lisboa.