A unique and attractive watercolour broadside depiction of the military and maritime armed forces of Spain in full pomp and splendor, representing the sweeping changes introduced under the wise leadership of Charles III of Spain, a reforming ruler, produce of the Spanish Enlightment, and partially due to the defeat in Havana in 1762.
The broadside lists each of the regiments of the Spanish army, both infantry and cavalry, and includes illustrations for each of their respective uniforms. A smaller section, framed on both sides by an illustration of a ship of the line, lists the ships of the line, packet boats, frigates, gunboats, galleases, bomb ketches and xebecs in Charles III’s navy as well as provides a summary of Charles’ military forces. The regiments represented by 64 figures of infantrymen and 26 mounted cavalrymen in full attire, their coats, breeches, etc., appropriately coloured, in each case recording the name of the regiment and the number of battalions and of men, the navy represented by two men of war in full sail, a table at the foot recording the navy divided into 'navios', 'paquebotes', 'fragatas', 'bombardas', 'galeotas', 'brulotes' and 'xavecques', framing a 'resumen general' of the armed forces, in a border of lances, spears, canon, mortars, shot, etc. By 1768, as shown here, any damage wrought by Spain's participation in the Seven Years' War had been repaired; the present manuscript schema represents a well-ordered army and navy.
As part of Charles’ reformist military zeal, the Royal College of Artillery was founded in Segovia in 1764 and, in 1768, the Royal Ordinances for the Regime, Discipline, Subordination, and Service in His Armies (in effect until 1978) were published introducing substantial innovations in the army and making it into a more effective force. It is possible that this ornate broadside was produced to commemorate the introduction of these important reforms as well as to highlight the military and naval rearmament which Charles had ordered following the Seven Years’ War and in the lead up to the American War of Independence (1775–83), which Spain entered in 1779 making a significant contribution to the success of the American side.
During the Seven Years’ War (1756–63), ‘the defeat of Havana in 1762 led Charles to elevate military imperatives to the top of his reformist agenda for America … It was a time of sweeping imperial innovations, which persisted even after Spain’s triumph in the War of the American Revolution, as Charles’s military ambitions grew. This reformist momentum would survive his death and continue under Charles IV (1788–1808). In possession of a well-armed, highly productive empire and the second largest navy in the world, Spain appeared a power of the first order as it entered the 1790s’ (A. J. Kuethe and K. J. Andrien, The Spanish Atlantic World in the Eighteenth Century: War and the Bourbon Reforms, 1713–1796, Cambridge: University Press, 2014, p. 6).
Provenance: Christie´s, London, sold at auction.