Monday 20 January 2014

help needed on some issues relating to 1670s French cavalry

I was hoping you might be able to shed some light on a couple of bugbear issues I've encountered with the regular French cavalry during the 1670s. Any insight would be appreciated.

  Had an email looking for help - can you shed any light on the subject


1. Regular cavalry & carbines.


Rene Chartrand's 'Army of Louis XIV' seems to give the impression that all regular cavalry were armed with standard carbines, and that immediately following the Dutch Wars 2 men from each company were equipped as sharpshooters/carabiniers with rifled carbines. John Lynn, however, speaking more broadly of the century 1610-1715 in 'Giant of the Grand Siecle' states that carbines and other shouldered firearms were not used by all cavalry, but rather limited to specialists. He also mentions the 2 carabiniers with rifled carbines per company from 1679. Contemporary art, such as by Meulen, shows many French regular cavalry without carbines, but sometimes with. And Gaya's '1678 Traite des Armes' shows regular cavalry with carbine. I am left wondering whether to equip all cavalry rank & file with carbines, or just a fraction, eg 1/3. 
 
2. French cavalry bridles - noseband or no noseband?
I have seen contemporary art of bridles with and without nosebands on French horses for this period, sometimes both styles in the same painting. Later artists also show both. The bridle without noseband seems the more common.  Is the truth that both were used equally? Or something else?
I have other queries, but these 2 are the ones that bug me the most
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6 comments:

  1. Steve-the-Wargamer21 January 2014 at 04:24

    Interesting question... well for me #1 more than #2... I've always assumed French cavalry were carbine armed, mostly I suspect because their British counterparts were.... I look forward to more informed views than mine though......

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  2. Steve-the-Wargamer21 January 2014 at 04:35

    Ah - this one piqued my interest....

    See....

    http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/1774/cavalieri.jpg

    ..."an engraving from a 1678 French military manual representing the equipment of cavalry; the inscription says "armement d'un caualie françois" which in modern French would be "armement d'un cavalier français"."

    From:

    http://www.twcenter.net/forums/showthread.php?281421-French-Musketeers-What-are-they/page2

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  3. Steve-the-Wargamer21 January 2014 at 04:39

    ...and source for that picture is online and free (got to love the internet)...

    https://archive.org/details/gayastraitdesa00gaya

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  4. snowcat21 January 2014 at 05:11

    Thanks for your thoughts. Yes, that is the illustration from Gaya that was mentioned. Yet period art, eg by Meulen, only show some regular cavalry carrying carbines. The majority do not. This may be artistic laziness or licence. But as also mentioned, Frank Lynn does not believe all regular cavalry carried carbines or other shouldered firearms - the French being more interested in hard charging than skirmishing.

    Cheers

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  5. Steve-the-Wargamer21 January 2014 at 08:43

    Entirely possible of course that they were equipped with them but didn't always carry them - which meets both sources....?? :o)

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  6. snowcat21 January 2014 at 15:03

    Indeed. :)

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