CHAP. IX.] USE OF FIREARMS BY CAVALRY. 



237 



The Germans were the first to use the deep formation 

 in their cavalry, and it was copied from them by the 

 French under Francis I. In the time of the Emperor 

 Charles V. the German cavalry, armed with pistols, were 

 ranged fifteen and sixteen ranks in depth, the French 

 at the same time using the old formation in single rank, 

 as in the days of knighthood. They, however, after- 

 wards adopted the same formation. 



According to La Noue, Charles V. was the first to 

 form cavalry into squadrons, a custom that was soon 

 adopted all over Europe, and has been in use ever since. 

 The Emperor Napoleon III. in his work on artillery says 

 that the Germans formed their squadrons in deep masses 

 before the time of Charles V., and that he simply 

 regulated a formation already in use. 



Although Francis I. had increased the depth of the 

 squadrons, the new formation was soon abandoned, and 

 the French gendarmerie fought in single line, until 

 about 1557-1558, when they were completely defeated 

 by the heavy bodies of Spanish lancers at the battles of 

 St. Quentin and Gravelines. At the battle of Dreux in 

 1562, the squadrons of Reitres overthrew the gendar- 

 merie, and at this epoch the latter were obliged to 

 renounce the single rank formation, which was a most 

 unsatisfactory change to the French noblemen, who all 

 wished to fight in the front rank. 



Before the use of squadrons, the gendarmes as well 

 as the light horse were ranged not in one single line, but 

 in lines one behind the other, at intervals of about forty 

 paces.' This was not a bad formation, as it enabled 

 fresh lines or reserves to be continually coming into 

 action. The light horse assumed the deep formation 

 long before the heavy men-at-arms. 



Under Henry II. of France cavalry were formed in 

 heavy squadrons of four hundred men each, formed upon 

 ten ranks in depth and forty in front.^ They were soon 

 reduced to 200, still retaining the same depth. After 

 wards under Henry IV. the depth was reduced to six 



' Daniel, i. 232. ^ Bardin, 2155. 



