A tercio, Spanish for "[a] third") was a military unit of the Spanish Army during the reign of the Catholic Monarchs of Spain and Habsburg Spain in the early modern period. They were the elite military units of the Spanish monarchy and the essential pieces of the powerful land forces of the Spanish Empire, sometimes also fighting with the navy.
Surrender of Breda, by Velázquez, shows Ambrosio Spinola (at right), commander of a Spanish tercio, receiving the keys to the city from a defeated Dutch general in 1625.
Tercios disembarking, 1583
Schematic depiction of the pikemen's combat drill.
An arquebus is a form of long gun that appeared in Europe and the Ottoman Empire during the 15th century. An infantryman armed with an arquebus is called an arquebusier.
17th-century arquebus at the Château de Foix museum, France
A "double arquebus", 15th century
A serpentine matchlock mechanism
Placing the weapon on its rest