Military Wiki
Anthonis van Dyck 058

Prince Rupert, an archetypical Cavalier

Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a supporter of King Charles I and his son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration (1642 – c. 1679). Cavaliers were also known as Royalists. Prince Rupert, commander of much of Charles I's cavalry, is often considered an archetypical Cavalier.[1] Their clothes were leather knee high boots, tunics and hats complete with plumes.

Early usage[]

Cavalier derives from the same Latin root as the French word chevalier (as well as the Spanish word caballero), the Vulgar Latin word caballarius, meaning “horseman”. Shakespeare used the word cavaleros to describe an overbearing swashbuckler or swaggering gallant in Henry IV, Part 2, in which Shallow says "I'll drink to Master Bardolph, and to all the cavaleros about London."[2]

Burton, William Shakespeare- The Wounded Cavalier

The Wounded Cavalier by William Shakespeare Burton

English Civil War[]

Sir-Anthony-van-Dyck-Lord-John-Stuart-and-His-Brother-Lord-Bernard-Stuart

Sir Anthony van Dyck ca.1638, Lord John Stuart and his brother Lord Bernard. Both died fighting for the King.

"Cavalier" is chiefly associated with the Royalist supporters of King Charles I in his struggle with Parliament in the English Civil War. It first appears as a term of reproach and contempt, applied to the followers of King Charles I in June 1642:

1642 (June 10) Propositions of Parlt. in Clarendon v. (1702) I. 504 Several sorts of malignant Men, who were about the King; some whereof, under the name of Cavaliers, without having respect to the Laws of the Land, or any fear either of God or Man, were ready to commit all manner of Outrage and Violence. 1642 Petition Lords & Com. 17 June in Rushw. Coll. III. (1721) I. 631 That your Majesty..would please to dismiss your extraordinary Guards, and the Cavaliers and others of that Quality, who seem to have little Interest or Affection to the publick Good, their Language and Behaviour speaking nothing but Division and War.

—Oxford English Dictionary "Cavalier"[2]

Charles, in the Answer to the Petition June 13, 1642 speaks of Cavaliers as a "word by what mistake soever it seemes much in disfavour".[3] It was soon reappropriated (as a title of honour) by the king's party, who in return applied Roundhead to their opponents, and at the Restoration the court party preserved the name, which survived till the rise of the term Tory.[3]

Cavalier was not understood at the time as primarily a term describing a style of dress, but a whole political and social attitude. However, in modern times the word has become more particularly associated with the court fashions of the period, which included long flowing hair in ringlets, brightly coloured with elaborate trimmings and lace collars and cuffs, and plumed hats.[4] This contrasted with the dress of at least the most extreme Roundhead supporters of Parliament, with their preference for shorter hair and plainer dress, although neither side conformed to the stereotypical images entirely. Most Parliamentarian generals wore their hair at much the same length as their Royalist counterparts, though Cromwell was something of an exception. In fact the best patrons in the nobility of the archetypal recorder of the Cavalier image, Charles I's court painter Sir Anthony van Dyck, all took the Parliamentary side in the Civil War. Probably the most famous image identified as of a "cavalier", Frans Hals' Laughing Cavalier, in fact shows a gentleman from the strongly Calvinist Dutch town of Haarlem, and is dated 1624. These derogatory terms (for at the time they were so intended) also showed what the typical Parliamentarian thought of the Royalist side – capricious men who cared more for vanity than the nation at large.

King Charles I and his adherents

Engraving depicting Charles I and his adherents

The chaplain to King Charles I, Edward Simmons described a Cavalier as "a Child of Honour, a Gentleman well borne and bred, that loves his king for conscience sake, of a clearer countenance, and bolder look than other men, because of a more loyal Heart."[5] There were many men in the Royalist armies who fit this description since most of the Royalist field officers were typically in their early thirties, married with rural estates which had to be managed. Although they did not share the same outlook on how to worship God as the English Independents of the New Model Army, God was often central to their lives. This type of Cavalier was personified by Lord Jacob Astley whose prayer at the start of the Battle of Edgehill has become famous "O Lord, Thou knowest how busy I must be this day. If I forget Thee, do not forget me."[6] At the end of the First Civil War Astley gave his word that he would not take up arms again against Parliament and having given his word he felt duty bound to refuse to help the Royalist cause in the Second Civil War.

The Cavalier

Cromwell's soldiers breaking into the house of a Cavalier—drawing by J. Williamson for the book More Pictures of British History by E.L.Hoskyn, London, 1914

However, the word was coined by the Roundheads as a pejorative propaganda image of a licentious, hard drinking and frivolous man, who rarely, if ever, thought of God. It is this image which has survived and many Royalists, for example Henry Wilmot, 1st Earl of Rochester, fitted this description to a tee.[7] Of another Cavalier, Lord Goring a general in the Royalist army,[8] the principal advisor to Charles II, Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, said that he "would, without hesitation, have broken any trust, or done any act of treachery to have satisfied an ordinary passion or appetite; and in truth wanted nothing but industry (for he had wit, and courage, and understanding and ambition, uncontrolled by any fear of God or man) to have been as eminent and successful in the highest attempt of wickedness as any man in the age he lived in or before. Of all his qualifications dissimulation was his masterpiece; in which he so much excelled, that men were not ordinarily ashamed, or out of countenance, with being deceived

Cavaliers in the arts[]

Charlesx3

"Charles I, King of England, from Three Angles", the triple portrait of Charles I by Anthony van Dyck

An example of the Cavalier style can be seen in the painting "Charles I, King of England, from Three Angles" by Anthony van Dyck.

Notes[]

  1. Manganiello, p. 476
  2. 2.0 2.1 OED. "Cavalier"
  3. 3.0 3.1 Encyclopaedia Britannica Eleventh Edition Article: CAVALIER
  4. OED "Cavalier", Meaning 4. attrib., First quotation "1666 EVELYN Dairy 13 Sept., The Queene was now in her cavalier riding habite, hat and feather, and horseman's coate."
  5. Carlton p. 52
  6. Hume p. 216 See footnote r. cites Warwick 229.
  7. Barratt, 177
  8. Memegalos, inside front cover

References[]

Millais Royalist

John Everett Millais, The Proscribed Royalist, 1651 (1853)

  • Barratt, John. Cavalier Generals: King Charles I and His Commanders in the English Civil War, 1642-46, Pen & Sword Military, 2005
  • Carlton, Charles. Going to the Wars: The Experience of the British Civil Wars, 1638–1651, Routledge, 1994 ISBN 0-415-10391-6.
  • Hume David. The History of England from the Invasion of Julius Caesar to the Revolution 1688 (Volume V).T. Cadell, 1841
  • Manganiello Stephen C. The Concise Encyclopedia of the Revolutions and Wars of England, Scotland, and Ireland, 1639–1660, Scarecrow Press, 2004, ISBN 0-8108-5100-8
  • Memegalos, Florene S. George Goring (1608–1657): Caroline Courtier and Royalist General, Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2007 ISBN 0-7546-5299-8
  • Oxford English Dictionary Second Edition 1989 (OED).
  • Worden, Blair (2009). The English Civil Wars 1640–1660. London: Penguin Books. ISBN 0-14-100694-3. 
Attribution
  • Wikisource-logo This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. "[[Wikisource:1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Cavalier|]]" Encyclopædia Britannica 5 Cambridge University Press 

Further reading[]

All or a portion of this article consists of text from Wikipedia, and is therefore Creative Commons Licensed under GFDL.
The original article can be found at Cavalier and the edit history here.