Wars of Louis Quatorze

Wednesday, 7 January 2026

Haselrig's Lobsters podcast

Mark Turnbull author

#OTD 1661, Sir Arthur Haselrig died. Listen to CavalierCast #Podcast for more about Arthur and his armoured 'lobsters' - Myke Cole discusses.

Julian Humphrys talks about the battlefields of Lansdowne and Roundway as they are today.

https://buzzsprout.com/1194917

Tuesday, 6 January 2026

Cavalry on the march Marcellus Laroon the younger

Marcellus Laroon the Younger - Wikipedia

Croats in the 30 Years War

When I had a Habsburg TYW army these were difficult figures to source.

Wars of Louis Quatorze: Carlo Fantom - a famous Croat in the English Civil War

Art from Lützen 1632: Climax of the Thirty Years War, illustrated by Graham Turner

The Croats, also known as Cravats or Crabats, were 17th-century light cavalry forces in Central Europe, comparable to the hussars. They were initially irregular units loosely organized in bands and the first regular Croat regiment was established in 1625. The most notable engagement of the Croats was their participation on the Habsburg side in the Thirty Years' War, serving in the Imperial Army or within the troops of the Catholic League. At the height of the Thirty Years' War, as many as 20,000 Croatian cavalry were in the service of the Imperial Army, including the majority of Wallenstein's harquebusiers. The name "Croats" became a generic term for light cavalry from the Habsburg Military Frontier rather than an ethnic designation, and included ethnic Croats, Hungarians, Serbs, Wallachians, Poles, Cossacks, Albanians, and Tatars. The Croats were initially recruited by generals of the Habsburg monarchy, and soldiers who joined Croats signed contracts which expired after the military campaign would be over, most often for any booty and sometimes for a fee.

Wikipedia

Der Pappenheimer (German, early 17th Century) - Fife & Drum

JGBaroque says

A lot of listeners have been wishing for more marches of German origin. I have searched for interesting tunes to arrange, and was a bit dumbfounded when I realized I had looked past one of the most well-known ones - "Der Pappenheimer (Marsch)", the "March of the Count of Pappenheim", referring to Gottfried Heinrich zu Pappenheim, a feared Cavalry Commander in the Thirty Years War who served under Johann Tserclaes von Tilly in the army of the Holy Roman Empire, but who fell in the Battle of Lützen. The structure and tempo of the march reveals it as a typical Cuirassier March for trumpets and kettledrums, but I decided to make an arrangement for fifes & drums, as there are fewer of those. The image shows the Battle of the White Mountain in 1620, where Pappenheim served in the Imperial army that defeated the Protestant Bohemian forces of Christian I of Anhalt. The painting was made in 1630 by the Flemish artist Pieter Snayers.