Warriors: Cortés

I caught a rebroadcast of Warriors: Cortés on the Military Channel a few days ago. It seems to be a retitling of the 2007 BBC series entitled "Heroes and Villains" and one the episodes is of Hernan Cortes conqueror of Mexico. It's been posted on You Tube.

1/6 http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=_YzZaLPxsig
2/6 http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=opqP8o_ uGR0
3/6 http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=5ghWuFdgkHI
4/6 http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=cQpWUnVCv18
5/6 http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=2r1RbCS5jpg
6/6 http://www.youtube. com/watch? v=DhGRS4oWoWw

I've got my quibbles with some of the details, but the armor, weapons
and costuming are far above average. For example, although some of the
foot soldiers wear combed morions; for a change - none of the principles
are so equipped. This is the best example of Conquistadors vs. Indios
combat that I've seen, with pretty good CGI to fill out numbers in long
shots.

Video quality on You Tube isn't the best, but with real actors, its far better that past examples that use head nodding reenactors while the serious 'voice' narrates the action. heaven knows, I've been a part of a number of those productions, and probably will be again.

Debunking Donald Sheppard

Donald Sheppard's Where Conquistadors went in North America Is the most extensive De Soto site on the web, with its many pages, and mirror site servers (at least 4 that I’ve detected), which tend to fill search engines crowding out other sites. Also, while it does give an excellent account of the four year-four thousand mile journey of the expedition its route re-construction is not at all accepted by most scholars and seems to have established itself in the explorer's Wikipedia entry as well. Charles Hudson’s route is controversial enough, this site ignores Hudson’s and compares itself to Swanton's 1939 reconstruction. Though I am quite skeptical about Shepard's conclusions, I've also been content to let the academics argue this one out. However I have noticed an unfortunate number of grade school sites using this site almost exclusively, and tending to mimic its claims.


Probably because of this quote 'One internet link site proprietor sarcastically classified the Sheppard pages as "Alternate History", but at this point we move into the realm of outright fantasy.' ; the first site I found debunking Sheppard's theories was William Saunders'

WEIRD HISTORY: THE HERNANDO DE SOTO EXPEDITION OF 1539-43
AND THE EXTREMELY STRANGE THEORIES OF DONALD E. SHEPPARD

Another, more recent site along the same lines, but not quite as humorous is here.


Debunking Donald Sheppard's Hernando de Soto Trail Hypothesis: FloridaHistory.com Errors Revealed

Ranks and Organization

I was recently queried about ranks in conquistador armies. From reading the chronicles of various expeditions, in particular those of the Hernando de Soto expedition
one gets the impression that the was the Adelantado or Governor general, the Camp Master, a few royal officials, and a bunch of 'Captains'. In Europe the Spanish Tercio system had been well developed by the mid-sixteenth century. Many of the conquistadors were veterans of the Italian campaigns and its probably safe to assume that at least some of this organization and ranks carried over into the New World.

The best overview that I've come across is here:

Organisation of the Spanish army

As even the largest conquistador expeditions were tiny compared to armies in Europe the Company breakdown is probably closest to what might expect here in La Florida.

"All the companies have the same staff: 1 captain and his page,
1 alférez (lieutenant),
1 sergeant,
1 abanderado (ensign),
3 musicians,
1 clerk,
1 chaplain and 1 barber, in total 11 officers


Each Spanish company was divided in "escuadra " or group of a maximum of 25 men commanded by a "cabo". A 250 men company had 10 cabos and a 300 men company had 12 cabos. The Spanish had also an unofficial structure of half dozen of men called las camaradas, it was not a combat structure but a group of men from the same company sharing the food, the bed, the training, the friend ship. The camaradas were important to maintain the moral and the famous esprit de corps of the Spanish soldiers."

I have one small quibble the size of the camarada seems large compared to that which of come across. Hernando de Soto was a member of a three person group and the gentleman of Elvas states "...a mess of every three or four built a small house in which they were lodged."

Entrada Reboot

After a long hiatus I've decided to restart my Entrada blog, though back then I called it an electronic newsletter.


http://web.archive.org/web/20020227070531/members.home.net/conquistador1539/index.html#top

a more recent version, yet years old, Google cached here:
http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:mgYTLCXPWKEJ:home.comcast.net/~calderon/entrada.html+calderons+company+entrada&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us