Identifying the Origins of Organized Mutiny in Early Modern Spanish Armies

This article examines the origins of organized mutiny in early modern Spanish armies. Rather than treating Spanish military mutinies as a natural by-product of professionalization, it argues that their distinctive forms of organization were shaped by contact with German and Swiss mercenaries during the Italian Wars. Focusing on a mutiny in Gonzalo Fernández de Córdoba's army in Naples in 1504, described in the Crónica manuscrita and corroborated by archival and narrative evidence, the article suggests that Spanish soldiers adopted practices of collective leadership, negotiation, and self-discipline from a broader German mercenary culture influenced by Swiss military models.