I • 



244 



A IllSTOUY OF CAVALRY. 



IP* 

 ■ ii'i 



:tS 







[period III. 



them in the French army, and the old name was soon 

 forgotten. 



Another body of cavalry were the Arquebusiers-a- 

 CHEVAL, a national force of French cavalry, who, armed 

 with the arquebus, served as skirmishing or light troop.s 

 to cover the flanks and aid the heavy cavalry, who were 

 armed with lances. They served with the carabins and 

 the dragoons, and differed from them mainly from the 

 fiict that the carabins were foreigners, and the dragoons 

 simply mounted infantry.' 



Carabins were instituted first in France under Henry 

 II. They were composed mainly of Gascons, Basques, 

 and Spaniards, and used a short arquebus-il-rouet, a 

 pistol, and probably a sword.'' They were the substitutes 

 for the Argoulets and Stradiots, and formed a lifflit 

 cavalry for the army. They were first formed in regi- 

 ments in the reign of Louis XIII. 



Dragoons also came mto use about this period. 

 According to P^re Daniel, the creation of this arm is 

 due to Marshal de Brissac, who is said to have first used 

 them in Piedmont.^ Duparcq, however, gives the credit 

 of the introduction of this arm to Pierie Strozzi, who in 

 1543, that is to say seven years before the wars which 

 De Brissac carried on in Piedmont, placed 500 arquebusiers 

 on horseback, in order to save them from fatigue, with 

 the idea of their fighting on foot in case of need.* 



Charles the Bold, however, had already conceived the 

 idea, for he exercised his archers to dismount, and fasten 

 their horses together, and to march quickly in order, 

 preceded by pikemen, who, placing their pikes before 

 them, knelt down and enabled the archers to shoot over 

 their heads. When the arrows had thrown the enemy 

 into disorder, the pikemen were instructed to charge 

 upon them.' 



The habit of taking infantry up en croupe was well 

 known long before this period, and constantly employed 

 in most countries. And, as already mentioned, Alexander 

 the Great had invented dragoons, or at least employed 



^ Daniel, ii. 334. 



» Bardin. 340. 

 * Duparcq, ii. 72 



^ Duparcq, ii. 72. 

 Ibid. 36. 



