We march for plunder! Croat Cavalry in the Thirty Years War

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Lock up your chattels – the Croats are coming!

Surely the most colourful troops that fought during the Thirty Years War were the Imperial Croat cavalry. On the battlefield they were perhaps no match for heavier horse in a straight fight, but in scouting, plundering, and the general ‘beating up of quarters’ there were none better.  They had a fearsome reputation for plundering and were feared by the civilian population on both sides.  The Croats became the ‘bogey men’ of which parents warned their children, and contemporary pamphleteers horrified their readers

I have been looking forward to collecting and painting the Croats since I started this period. They are something quite exotic compared to the more regular pistol armed horsemen of Central and Northern Europe.

This unit is mostly made up of the Wargames Foundry figures.  They carry a banner of a shape peculiar to the Croats, made by Flags of War.

More background and pictures on my blog here:  http://theviaregia.blogspot.com/2019/06/we-march-for-plunder.html

[Anonymous]

Great looking unit!  Isn’t the cravat named after them or something?

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Thanks, Robert!

Yes.  I did meant to mention that in my blog but it slipped my mind.  The Croat cavalry apparently had a fancy way of tying a neckerchief around their neck.  Towards the end of the Thirty Years War the Croat cavalry found their way in to service with the French.  The French fashionistas were very taken by this fancy neck wear, copied it, and named it after the Croats – becoming “cravat” in French.

Odd then that, hundreds of years later, I should be forced to wear a tie, evolved from the cravat, every day to school so that I looked smart!  It perhaps would have been more bearable if I had realised then that I was doing this in honour of a group of terrifying marauders from the Balkans! 😉

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