Cuirassier

Cuirassiers were mounted soldiers with firearms in the 16th-century Europe. In hindsight, they were transitional form between medieval armored knights and latter-day cavalry. The name comes from cuirass, breastplate armor they used.

First cuirassiers did not appear very different from the medieval knights; they wore full-body armor and the only things that separated them from the knight were riding boots and use of wheel-lock pistols, in addition to lances and swords.

Cuirassiers wore armor long after it had become superfluous in the face of common use of firearms. However, the size of the armor gradually decreased so that, by the end of the 17th century, it contained only breastplate (the cuirass), backplate, and helmet.

First known cuirassiers were 100-man strong regiment of Austrian kyrissers that was formed in 1484 to serve emperor Maximilian. French introduced their own cuirassiers in 1666. By 1705, Austrians had twenty cuirassier regiments. Russians former their cuirassiers in 1732 and they took part in the war against Turkey in 1736.

Cuirassiers were prominent in the armies of the Frederick the Great and Napoleon. The latter increased the amount of cuirassier regiments to 14 by the end of his reign. Eventually most cuirassier regiments were turned into other forms of cavalry like dragoons or hussars.

In modern times, some cavalry regiments use cuirasses as part of their parade paraphernalia and in other formal functions. The term cuirassiers has become mainly honorific tern retained from the regiment's past, if it is retained at all.