Founded in 1509 as a tercio, it is one of the world's oldest still operational units.

Today it is garrisoned on the Canary Islands and has fought in Afghanistan.

From the late 1950s to the 1990s it was part of the "Guzman el Bueno" Division, successively the 21st and then the 2nd.

[1] Source:[2] Source:[2] The regiment was formed in Naples as a tercio in 1509, and fought as such under different names in the Italian Wars and the Eighty Years' War.

Reorganized as a linear regiment in 1705 it fought in the War of the Spanish Succession, against the Peruvian insurgents, and against Revolutionary France.