_Cavalry._--During the early years of the reign of James I. the cavalryman had his name altered from lancer or demi-lancer to cavalier, probably owing to Spanish intercourse. The general tendency to discard armour as being cumbrous and ineffective led to many noblemen and officers of regiments contenting themselves with a cuirass worn over a buff coat, and subsequently, in Charles I.’s reign, whole regiments were thus accoutred, and received the name of cuirassiers in consequence. The dragoons also, who were introduced into the army during the latter years of the preceding century, only wore as a defence a buff coat made long and full and a burgonet. Apart from these, however, we find that the regiments using the lance were equipped with a close helmet, gorget, back- and breast-plate, pauldrons, vambraces, gauntlets, tassets, and garde-de-rein, while a good buff coat with long skirts was worn beneath the armour. The weapons comprised a sword which was stiff, cutting, and sharp-pointed; a lance of the usual pattern or pike-shaped, 18 feet long and provided with a leather thong to fasten round the right arm, and one or two pistols, with the necessary flask, cartouch box, and appurtenances. The cuirassier was armed with two pistols carried at the saddle, and a sword similar to the lancers. The arquebusier wore a good buff coat, a back- and breast-plate, and armour generally resembling the lancer; he carried an arquebus 30 inches in length, two pistols, and the usual necessaries. [Illustration: FIG. 426.--Casquetel (British Museum.)] The carbineer had similar defences, but carried a carbine or petronel (Plate XLI.*, p. 368), instead of the arquebus, and a sword in place of the pistols. The dragoons carried a pike and also a musket. In 1645 the arquebusiers wore triple-barred helmets, cuirasses with garde-de-rein, pauldrons, and vambraces; at the same time the dragoons changed their muskets for the shorter piece termed the dragon, and four years afterwards again changed it for the caliver. The triple-barred helmet of the arquebusiers and dragoons is shown in Plate XXVI., from Edinburgh Castle, and Plate XXV., from the same source, illustrates a three-quarter suit of an officer of arquebusiers or lancers of the time of Charles I. A second suit, No. 32, is furnished with palettes over the goussets and an open-faced helmet called a casquetel (Plate XXV.). [Illustration: PLATE XXV Three-quarter Suits, _temp._ Charles I. (Edinburgh Castle)]