As regards subordinates, or, as we should now say, non-commissioned officers, there was a _File-Master_ (_Rottmeister_) at the head of each file, for the Troop or Company was drawn up in very deep formation. This specially selected soldier was called _Capo di Squadra_ (_Head of the Squad_) in Italian, a reminiscence of the early formation of the smallest fighting body (our _Squad_) in a square (_Squadra_). From _Capo di Squadra_ came the French _Caporal_ (which we have rendered _Corporal_, by false derivation from _corporalis_, _corpus_, _body_), who is still the Squad leader. The fact that they originally stood in the ranks at the head of the files accounts for the inclusion of Corporals, but not Sergeants, in the expression _Rank and File_, for the Sergeants were out of the ranks, superintending the men, as they are to-day. The organization of a Regiment of Reiters or of Landsknechts, as described above, became by the end of the sixteenth century general in all armies, and has, in essentials, survived in modern Regimental organization. The Regiment bore the name of the man who raised it or succeeded to its command, down into the nineteenth century, although _Numbers_ began to replace personal _Names_ as titles of Regiments, during the eighteenth. The Regiment, whether of Cavalry or Infantry, was rather the administrative than the tactical unit on the battlefield, and formed, as to-day, the permanent organization through which the men received their pay, clothing, and subsistence. Hence arose the strong and lasting regimental traditions and esprit-de-corps, which survive in the older armies to-day. The first country to possess a formidable Standing Army was Spain, in the sixteenth century, and her example was soon followed by France, the Empire, and the Netherlands, and in the next century by Sweden, England, and Prussia. The most important developments in war organization were due to great military reformers, whose armies became the model of their day to all other countries. These were Maurice of Nassau, who led the Dutch in their terrible struggle with Spain towards the close of the sixteenth century, and Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, who a few years later formed the famous army which carried all before it during the Thirty Years’ War. The improvements introduced by these great soldiers will be described in the following chapters, which deal with the evolution of the organization of each Arm separately. CHAPTER XVI THE EVOLUTION OF INFANTRY