Cuirassier
Cuirassiers were mounted cavalry soldiers equipped with armour and firearms, first appearing in late 15th-century Europe. They were the successors of the medieval armoured knights. This French term means "the one with a cuirass" (cuirasse), the breastplate armour which they wore.[1]
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The 16th and 17th century cuirassier
The first cuirassiers did not appear very different from the fully armoured Late Medieval man-at-arms. They wore three-quarters armour that covered the entire upper body as well as the front half of the legs down to the knee. The head was protected by a close helm, burgonet or lobster tail pot helmet, usually worn with a gorget for the neck. The torso was protected by a breast and back plate, sometimes reinforced by a 'placate'. The arms and shoulders were fully armoured with pauldrons, rerebraces, elbow couters and vambraces. Armoured gauntlets were often abandoned, particularly for the right hand, as they interfered with the loading of pistols. Long tassets, instead of a combination of short tassets with cuisses, protected the front of the thighs and knees, Riding boots were substituted for lower leg armour (greaves and sabatons).[2] Weapons included a pair of pistols in saddle holsters, these were the primary weapons instead of a lance, a 'horseman's pick' (a type of war hammer) was sometimes employed and a sword. Horse armour was not used.
The armour of a cuirassier was very expensive; in England, in 1629, a cuirassier's equipment cost four pounds and 10 shillings, whilst a harquebusier's (a lighter type of cavalry) was a mere one pound and six shillings.[3]
During the latter half of the 16th century the heavy "knightly" lance gradually fell out of use, perhaps because of the widespread adoption of the infantry pike. The lancer or demi-lancer, when he had abandoned his lance, became the pistol-armed cuirassier or reiter. The adoption of the pistol as the primary weapon led to the development of the stately caracole tactic where cuirassiers fired their pistols at the enemy, then retired to reload whilst their comrades advanced in turn to maintain the firing.
The first recorded cuirassiers were formed as 100-strong regiments of Austrian kyrissers recruited from Croatia in 1484 to serve the future Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian. They fought the Swedes and their allies in 1632 in Lützen and killed the Swedish king Gustavus Adolphus. Only two cuirassier regiments were raised during the English Civil War, the Lifeguard of the Earl of Essex and the 'London lobsters,' though individuals within other regiments did serve in full armour. With the refinement of infantry firearms, especially the introduction of the powerful musket, the usefulness of the protection afforded by full armour became greatly lessened. By the mid 17th century the fully armoured cuirassier was becoming increasingly anachronistic. The cuirassier lost his limb armour and entered the 18th century with just the breast and backplate.
Cuirassier Harness Evolution
The development of firearms, which reduced the efficiency of expensive heavy armour, led to a considerable reduction of the size and complexity of the latter. This form of protection was gradually reduced to the breastplate and sometimes the helmet, both of which become largely decorative.
 Heavy Cuirassier Harness (late 16c/early 17c) |
 Cuirassier (16c) |
 Demi-armure, half-armour |
 Cuirass with a bridle arm gauntlet (late 17c/early 18c), in melee the right hand was protected by a sword's hilt, the bridle arm was more vulnerable, the long gauntlet could be used as a shield. The cuirass could be reinforced by separate bullet-proof placarte and additional protection against cutting weapons was provided by a buffcoat . |
 Current cuirass of the Spanish Escuadrón de Escolta Real |
Later cuirassiers
Body armour, restricted to a breast and backplate, fell in and out of use during the 18th century; for example British cavalry entered the War of the Spanish Succession without body armour though they readopted it during the conflict. Cuirassiers played a prominent role in the armies of Austria, and of Frederick the Great of Prussia. However, by the time of the French Revolutionary War few heavy cavalry regiments, excepting those of Austria, wore the cuirass on campaign. Most heavy cavalry of this time wore the bicorne or cocked hat rather than a helmet. A resurgence of armoured cavalry took place in France under the rule of Napoleon Bonaparte who increased the number of armoured regiments fom one to, ultimately, sixteen (fourteen cuirassier regiments plus two carabinier regiments). During the first few decades of the nineteenth century most of the states of Europe, excepting Austria which had retained its armoured cavalry, readopted the cuirass for at least some of their heavy cavalry in emulation of the French. Helmets, often of hardened leather with brass reinforcement (though the French used iron-skulled helmets for their cuirassiers), replaced the bicorne hat. There was debate over the value of this armour since a breastplate does not provide significant protection against flintlock musket fire. It would, however, have had some psychological effect (effectively making the cuirassier more willing to plunge into the thick of fighting) and would have added weight to a charge, especially in cavalry versus cavalry actions. In addition, while they were not entirely bullet-proof, the breastplates usually did provide protection against the swords and lances of opposing cavalry.
The utility of this armour continued to be a matter of dispute. Prussian cuirassiers had abandoned the armoured cuirass before the Napoleonic Wars, but were reissued with it in 1814. During this period British cavalry wore cuirasses only during the Netherlands campaign of 1794, using breastplates taken from store[4]. The Austrian cuirassiers attempted to trade protection for mobility by wearing only the half-cuirass (without back plate) and helmet[5]. Napoleon, however, thought it sufficiently useful that he had cuirassier-style armour issued to his two carabinier regiments as well, after the Battle of Wagram. It was perhaps mainly the psychological effect of the armoured cavalry on the battlefield that enabled the cuirassier to survive as an effective component of several armies into the nineteenth century.
Cuirassiers were generally the senior branch of the mounted arm of an army, retaining their status as heavy cavalry—"big men on big horses". While their value as a heavy striking force in Napoleon's campaigns ensured the continued use of a number of cuirassier regiments in the French and Prussian armies during the nineteenth century, the expense and inflexibility of this arm limited their existence in other countries to Guard units.
In 1914 there were still cuirassiers in the German army (ten regiments including the Gardes du Corps and the Garde-Kürassiers); the French (twelve regiments) and the Russian (four regiments, all of the Imperial Guard). The German and Russian cuirassiers had, by the end of the nineteenth century, come to retain their breastplates only as part of their peacetime parade dress, but the French regiments wore the cuirass (with a cloth cover) and plumed helmet on active service during the first weeks of World War I. The three Household Cavalry regiments of the British Army (1st and 2nd Life Guards and Royal Horse Guards) had adopted cuirasses after the Napoleonic Wars as part of their full dress uniforms, but never had occasion to wear this armour in battle.
The retention of this magnificent-looking but obsolete armour for active service by the French Army in 1914 reflected the historic prestige of this branch of the cavalry, dating back through the Franco-Prussian War to the campaigns of Napoleon. Attempts were made prior to the outbreak of war to have the cuirass restricted to parade dress, but upon mobilisation in 1914, the only concession made was to wear a cover of brown or blue cloth over the shining steel and brass of the cuirass itself, to make the wearer less visible. The cuirass ceased to be worn by most French regiments within a few weeks of the outbreak of war, though it was not formally withdrawn until October 1915.[7]
The Russian and German cuirassiers ceased to exist with the overthrow of the Imperial regimes in both countries (February 1917 and November 1918, respectively). The French cuirassiers continued in existence after World War I but with their numbers reduced to the six regiments which had been most decorated during the war. Ironically five of these had achieved their distinctions serving as "cuirassiers à pied" or dismounted cavalry in the trenches. The surviving cuirassier regiments were amongst the first mounted cavalry in the French Army to be mechanised during the 1930s. Two cuirassier regiments still form part of the French Army - the 1er-11e Régiment de Cuirassiers based at Carpiagne and the 6e-12e Régiment de Cuirassiers based at Olivet.
A few present-day mounted cavalry units continue to use cuirasses as part of their parade equipment on formal occasions. Most have not retained the actual title of "cuirassiers", if indeed they bore it in the first place. These are the Life Guards and Blues and Royals of the British Household Cavalry; the Coraceros de la Guardia Real of the Spanish Royal Guard (created in 1875); and the Italian Corazzieri, the honour guard of the President of the Italian Republic.
References
- ↑ Angus Konstam, William Younghusband (1996). Russian Army of the Seven Years War. Osprey Publishing. ISBN 185532587X.
- ↑ Tincey, J. (McBride, A. - illustrator) (1990) Soldiers of the English Civil War (2) Cavalry, Osprey Publishing, ISBN 0850459400. pp. 31 and 45.
- ↑ Haythornthwaite, P. (1983) The English Civil War, An Illustrated History Blandford Press. ISBN 1-85409-323-1. pp. 45 and 49.
- ↑ W.Y. Carman "A Dictionary of Military Uniform", ISBN 0-684-15130-8
- ↑ Philip Haythornthwaite "Austrian Army of the Napoleonic Wars - Cavalry", ISBN 0-85045-726-2
- ↑ Louis Delperier, pages 60-67 "Les Cuirassiers 1845-1918", 1981.
- ↑ Les Cuirassiers 1845-1918, Louis Delperier, Argout-Editions Paris 1981