Which cavalry units are the most famous in history?
In our ranking the Mongol horse archers of the thirteenth century are the most famous cavalry in history, one point ahead of the Polish winged hussars. The Cossacks, the Mamluks and Alexander the Great's Companion cavalry complete the top five, and the US 7th Cavalry, the Light Brigade and the Royal Scots Greys are among the fifteen.
Some horsemen are remembered as a type, others as one regiment with a name, a uniform and a battle honor. This list mixes both on purpose: warrior systems such as the Mongols and the Mamluks stand beside single regiments such as the Scots Greys and the 7th Cavalry, from Alexander's Companions to the Australian Light Horse of World War I. Every entry is a formation that served for years; single charges have their own guide to the greatest cavalry charges. The fifteen units are ranked by score for recognition, battle record, influence, living tradition and certainty, not by date; see how we chose them.
1 Mongol horse archers, 1200s to 1300s
- Origin
- The steppe peoples of Mongolia, organized in units of 10, 100, 1,000 and the tumen of 10,000 nominal
- Served
- 1200s to 1300s; the unified empire split into four khanates in 1260
- Arms
- Composite bow, two or three bows and about 60 arrows per rider, strings of spare horses
- Famous actions
- Kalka, 1223; Legnica and Mohi, April 1241
- Legacy
- Built the largest contiguous land empire up to that time
The Mongol army was a mounted people organized in tens. Units of 1,000, the minghan, were split into hundreds and tens, and even the largest campaigns, such as the invasion of Europe, probably had only three Mongol tumens of 10,000 men, the rest of the army being allies. Most riders were light horse archers with a powerful composite bow; a typical man carried two or three bows and about 60 arrows, and herds of spare horses let an army cover huge distances fast. Their trademark was the feigned flight, followed by an encirclement the enemy did not expect.1
In 1223 they crushed a Rus army on the Kalka. In April 1241 two Mongol forces struck Central Europe within days of each other: at Legnica on 9 April they destroyed the army of Henry the Pious, duke of Silesia, who was killed, and at Mohi on 10 and 11 April they routed King Béla IV of Hungary. Their empire became the largest contiguous land empire yet seen, stretching across a fifth of the globe.2
The picture of endless hordes is mostly myth. Cartwright notes that the Mongols were usually outnumbered in field battles and won by speed and tactics, even mounting felt dummies on spare horses to look stronger. The chronicler Jan Długosz has them far outnumbering the Poles at Legnica, but the Museum of Polish History calls that an exaggeration; the friar C. de Bridia speaks of a single tumen, about 10,000 warriors, striking Poland.3
Why it ranks here: No. 1 because it is the only unit on the list with top marks for recognition, battle record, influence and living tradition, 48 points in all. Only certainty, 3 of 5, holds it back: Mongol army sizes rest on chronicles written decades later.
Read our guide to horse archers, from the steppe to the Mongols ›
2 Polish winged hussars, 1500s to 1700s
- Origin
- Light horsemen from Serbia; the first four taken onto Polish pay in 1500
- Served
- 1500 to the late 18th century, by then a parade force
- Arms
- Kopia lance 4 to 6 m long; feathered wings optional
- Famous actions
- Kircholm, 1605; Klushino, 1610; Vienna, 1683
- Legacy
- The emblem of Polish cavalry, famous far beyond Poland
The hussars began as light horsemen from Serbia; the first four were taken onto Polish pay in 1500. In time they became the armored shock cavalry of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, charging with the kopia, a lance 4 to 6 meters long.4
Their most famous victories came against far larger armies. At Kircholm on 27 September 1605 Jan Karol Chodkiewicz had about 3,600 men against 11,000 Swedes by the Museum of Polish History's count (Magnus Olofsson counts 8,358 foot and 2,500 horse); after about three hours, by the Museum of Polish History's account, the Swedish army was smashed, with 8,000 to 9,000 dead against 100 to 200 on the Polish-Lithuanian side. At Klushino on 4 July 1610 Stanisław Żółkiewski, with 5,556 hussars and a small force of Cossack and Lithuanian horse and infantry by J. Rickard's figures (some historians put his whole army at only 2,700 to 4,000, the Wilanów Palace Museum notes), routed a Russian army of 30,000 by his own report to the king, which modern estimates put lower, and 5,000 to 7,000 foreign mercenaries; the victory opened the road to Moscow. On 12 September 1683 the hussars led the charge of about 20,000 horsemen that broke the Ottoman siege of Vienna; it lasted half an hour.5
The wings were optional kit, and the story that they whistled or roared in the charge to scare enemy horses has little behind it: Zdzisław Żygulski of the National Museum in Kraków argued that the rustle of even a thousand wings would be lost in the din of battle.6
Why it ranks here: Kircholm, Klushino and Vienna give the hussars the strongest battle record of any heavy cavalry, and they score top marks for recognition and living tradition too. They finish one point behind the Mongols, 47 to 48, because their influence on cavalry outside the Commonwealth was small (influence 4) and some of their numbers are still argued over (certainty 4).
3 Cossacks, 1400s to 1920
- Origin
- Free frontier communities on the Don and the Dnieper, from the 15th century
- Served
- 15th century to the Russian Civil War
- Arms
- Light cavalry for scouting, raiding and pursuit
- Famous actions
- 1812: 16,000 to 20,000 Don Cossacks harried Napoleon's army
- Legacy
- About half of the tsars' cavalry in the 1860s and 1870s; Cossack identity revived in Russia and Ukraine
The Cossacks grew out of fugitives and frontiersmen who settled the borderland between Slavic farms and the remnants of the Golden Horde, on the Don and the Dnieper, from the 15th century. They were communities, not one regiment: on the Dnieper the Zaporozhian Host, whose revolt under Bohdan Khmelnytsky created the Cossack Hetmanate, and on the Don the Don Host. Allied to Moscow, they fielded light cavalry and led Russia's advance into the steppe, the Caucasus and Siberia.7
Their best-known campaign was 1812. The Don raised 22 new regiments and, according to the historian Leighton James, Cossack strength with the army reached 16,000 to 20,000 by mid-October; these bands fell on stragglers, supply columns and foragers, making every search for food dangerous for the Grande Armée. In the reform era of the 1860s and 1870s a Cossack population of about 2.5 million met roughly half of Russia's cavalry needs, by Bruce Menning's account, and by 1914 the Cossacks numbered some 4.5 million people, from the Don to the Ussuri.8
The end was brutal. In 1919 revolutionary tribunals executed more than 10,000 Don Cossack men, women and children, and collectivization in the 1930s finished the old hosts. The Cossack groups that reappeared after 1991 claim the name, but the historian Bruce Menning notes they have little in common with the Cossacks of old.9
Why it ranks here: Known far beyond military history and still part of Russian and Ukrainian identity, the Cossacks score top marks for recognition and living tradition, and they spearheaded Russia's expansion. They raided and pursued more than they won set-piece battles, so battle record 3, which leaves them on 43 points, four behind the hussars.
4 Mamluks, 1250 to 1811
- Origin
- Boys bought as slaves from Central Asia and the Caucasus, trained in Egypt, then freed
- Served
- Rulers of Egypt 1250 to 1517; a cavalry elite until 1811
- Arms
- Horse archery and the lance; armored as heavily as Frankish knights
- Famous actions
- Ain Jalut, 1260; Acre, 1291
- Legacy
- Ended Mongol expansion in the Middle East and the crusader states
Mamluk means someone owned. Egypt's rulers bought boys, mostly Turks from Central Asia but also from the Caucasus and eastern Europe, converted them to Islam and drilled them for years in riding, archery and tactics; at the end of their training they were freed in a ceremony and joined a military elite. They fought both as mounted archers and as heavy shock cavalry. In 1250 they deposed the last Ayyubid sultan and took Egypt for themselves.10
On 3 September 1260 at Ain Jalut in Palestine they met the Mongol army Hulagu had left in Syria under Kitbuqa, put at 10,000 to 20,000; the Mamluks outnumbered it, kept part of their army hidden in the hills and closed around the Mongols, and Kitbuqa was captured and executed. The battle ended Mongol expansion in the Middle East, and the Mamluks went on to hold Syria against five more large Ilkhanid offensives until peace in 1323. Baybars, who led the vanguard at Ain Jalut, took crusader stronghold after stronghold, and his successors finished the job: Acre, the last, fell in 1291.11
Slaves who ruled an empire sounds like a paradox, but by the time they served the Mamluks were free men. Their sultanate fell to the Ottomans in 1517 and Napoleon beat them again in 1798, yet they survived as a cavalry caste until 1 March 1811, when Muhammad Ali had their leaders killed in an ambush at the Cairo Citadel.12
Why it ranks here: Beating the Mongols and driving the crusaders from the Levant earns top marks for battle record and influence. They are less widely known than the steppe peoples and have no living successor, so recognition 4 and living tradition 3, for 42 points, one behind the Cossacks.
5 Companion cavalry, 359 to 323 BC
- Origin
- Macedon's royal horse; 1,800 crossed to Asia with Alexander, says Diodorus
- Served
- Reigns of Philip II (from 359 BC) and Alexander, to 323 BC
- Arms
- Cornel-wood lance; attacked in a wedge
- Famous actions
- Granicus, 334 BC; Issus, 333 BC; Gaugamela, 331 BC
- Legacy
- Alexander's striking arm in the fall of the Persian Empire
The Companions, hetairoi in Greek, were the heavy horse of the Macedonian kings and the striking arm of Alexander the Great. Diodorus counts 1,800 Macedonian horsemen under Philotas when Alexander crossed into Asia, and at Gaugamela Arrian lists eight squadrons with the royal squadron at their head. They fought with cornel-wood lances; at the Granicus, Arrian says, this gave them the edge over Persian riders throwing javelins, in a cavalry fight that looked more like an infantry battle.13
Alexander led them in person. At the Granicus in 334 BC he rode at the Persian commanders himself; about 25 Companions fell in the first clash, and he had Lysippus make bronze statues of them. At Gaugamela in 331 BC he formed the Companions into a wedge, drove into a gap in the Persian line and charged straight at Darius III, who, in Arrian's words, was the first to turn and flee. Victories at the Granicus, at Issus in 333 BC and at Gaugamela broke the Persian Empire.14
All of this comes from writers who lived centuries later: Arrian, born in AD 86, worked from the lost histories of Ptolemy and Aristobulus. Even Darius's flight is in doubt: a Babylonian astronomical diary says instead that his troops abandoned him.15
Why it ranks here: Alexander's striking arm decided three battles and the fall of Persia, so top marks for battle record and influence, but no unit carries its name today and the accounts were written centuries later, so living tradition 3 and certainty 3. It ties the Parthian horse archers on 41 points and on recognition, and goes ahead on the next tie-break, influence, where it scores 5 to their 4.
6 Parthian horse archers, 247 BC to AD 224
- Origin
- The cavalry armies of the Parthian Empire
- Served
- 247 BC to AD 224
- Arms
- Bow from the saddle; about 10,000 horse archers and 1,000 cataphracts at Carrhae
- Famous actions
- Carrhae, 53 BC: 20,000 Romans killed and 10,000 captured in the campaign, by Plutarch's count
- Legacy
- The phrase “Parthian shot”
The Parthians ruled from 247 BC to AD 224, and their wars were fought above all by horsemen and archers. Most riders were lightly armored archers; a smaller body of cataphracts, heavy lancers in armor, gave them a fist. Their signature was to shoot while riding away: in Plutarch's words, the Parthians shot as they fled, and only the Scythians did it better.16
In 53 BC Marcus Licinius Crassus invaded with about 28,000 infantry, 4,000 light troops and 4,000 cavalry. Near Carrhae the Parthian general Surena met him with around 10,000 horse archers and about 1,000 cataphracts. The Romans hoped the archers would run out of arrows, but camels loaded with fresh supplies stood close by. Crassus's son Publius was lured away and his detachment destroyed, Crassus himself was killed during the retreat, and Plutarch reckons that 20,000 Romans died and 10,000 were taken prisoner in the campaign. Rome did not get its lost standards back until Augustus made the Parthians return the spoils and standards of three Roman armies.17
The “Parthian shot” lives on in English, and it is often said to be the source of “parting shot”; word historians find no proof of that link, and the earliest “parting shot” they have found is the older of the two.18
Why it ranks here: Carrhae earns top marks for battle record, and the phrase keeps their memory alive (living tradition 4), but Carrhae rests mainly on Plutarch, so certainty 3. Level with the Companion cavalry on 41 points and on recognition, they fall behind on the next tie-break because their influence (4) was smaller.
7 US 7th Cavalry, 1866 to today
- Origin
- US Army regiment constituted on 28 July 1866, after the Civil War
- Served
- 1866 to today
- Arms
- In 1868: Spencer seven-shot carbine, Colt or Remington revolver, light cavalry saber
- Famous actions
- Little Bighorn, 25 and 26 June 1876; Wounded Knee, 29 December 1890
- Legacy
- Still serves under its march and nickname, “Garryowen”
The 7th Cavalry was constituted on 28 July 1866, one of the regiments raised after the Civil War, and took the Irish drinking song “Garryowen” as its march and its nickname. At the Washita in 1868 its troopers carried a seven-shot Spencer carbine, a Colt or Remington revolver and a light cavalry saber.19
Its fame comes from a defeat. On 25 June 1876 George Armstrong Custer split the regiment into four parts, 210 men in his own five companies, 140 with Reno, 125 with Benteen and 125 with the pack train, and attacked a Lakota and Cheyenne village of about 8,000 people with 1,500 to 1,800 warriors. Custer's battalion was wiped out while Reno and Benteen held out under siege into the next day; in all 268 soldiers, civilians and scouts died, against an estimated 60 to 100 Lakota and Cheyenne. The “last stand” of the paintings was the end of about 40 men cornered on the hill where the monument now stands; the companies with Reno and Benteen survived. On 29 December 1890 the same regiment killed more than 153 Lakota men, women and children at Wounded Knee.20
The name lives on in today's army: in 2020 its 1st Squadron and 2nd Battalion served at Fort Hood, Texas, and its 5th Squadron at Fort Stewart, Georgia.21
Why it ranks here: Recognition, living tradition and certainty all score top marks, but the regiment is remembered for Custer's defeat at Little Bighorn and the massacre at Wounded Knee, not for victories, so battle record 2. It ties the Australian Light Horse on 40 points and stays ahead on recognition, the first tie-break.
8 Australian Light Horse, 1914 to 1919
- Origin
- Australian volunteers of the AIF, regiments formed from August 1914
- Served
- 1914 to 1919
- Arms
- Rifle and bayonet as mounted infantry; swords issued only in August 1918
- Famous actions
- Beersheba, 31 October 1917: about 800 riders, over 700 prisoners
- Legacy
- A pillar of the Anzac legend
The light horse were mounted infantry: they rode to battle and usually fought on foot with rifle and bayonet. Regiments formed from August 1914 were sent to Gallipoli in 1915 without their horses to fight as infantry. Back in the saddle, they helped defeat the Ottoman advance at Romani in August 1916 and then advanced across Sinai into Palestine.22
Their defining day was 31 October 1917. After riding through the desert all night, with the vital wells of Beersheba still in Ottoman hands late in the afternoon, Brigadier General William Grant sent the 4th and 12th Light Horse Regiments, about 800 men, at the town's trenches at the gallop, bayonets in hand because they had no swords. They took Beersheba and over 700 prisoners for 31 killed and 36 wounded. In August 1918 the regiments were finally issued swords and trained as cavalry, and on 1 October a patrol of the 4th Light Horse was among the first Allied troops into Damascus.23
Beersheba is often called the last great cavalry charge, even by the Australian War Memorial, but it was neither a cavalry charge in the strict sense, since the riders were mounted infantry with bayonets, nor the last: about 600 Italian cavalrymen charged Soviet infantry on the Don in August 1942.24
Why it ranks here: Top marks for living tradition and certainty, and a battle record few mounted units of World War I can match, but outside Australia the light horse is little known, so recognition 3. It ties the US 7th Cavalry on 40 points and falls behind it on recognition, the first tie-break.
9 Polish uhlans, 1700s to 1939
- Origin
- Lancer regiments of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
- Served
- 1700s to 1939
- Arms
- Lance with pennon, saber
- Famous actions
- Komarów, 1920; Krojanty, 1939
- Legacy
- Lancer regiments and the chapka cap copied across Europe
Uhlans were Polish light horsemen who kept the lance when most western armies had dropped it. Napoleon made them famous: impressed by a Polish guard of honor, he raised a Polish cavalry regiment in his Imperial Guard in 1807 and gave it lances with red-over-white pennons in 1809. Other armies copied them. Britain converted its first light dragoons to lancers in 1816 to match the charging power of Napoleon's lancers, and modeled the British lance cap on the Polish chapka.25
The uhlans' greatest day came in the war with Soviet Russia. On 31 August 1920 at Komarów, near Zamość, Colonel Juliusz Rómmel's 1st Cavalry Division, about 1,500 men by one count, met Budyonny's First Cavalry Army, more than 6,000 strong, in charge after countercharge, and the Red cavalry was broken and driven back. Historians call it the last great cavalry battle. On 1 September 1939, the first day of the next war, the 18th Pomeranian Uhlans charged an unprepared German infantry battalion near Krojanty and scattered it, until hidden armored cars opened fire with heavy machine guns; their colonel, Kazimierz Mastalerz, was killed. The charge slowed the German advance and let other Polish units pull back.26
Myth vs fact: the uhlans did not charge German tanks. There were none at Krojanty; the story grew when German and Italian war correspondents saw the field after tanks had arrived, and Nazi propaganda spread it.27
Why it ranks here: Komarów and the lance revival give the uhlans 4 for battle record and 4 for influence, and Polish memory keeps them fully alive. Recognition, at 3, is what holds them down: abroad they are known mostly through the false story of charging tanks.
10 The Light Brigade, 1854 to 1856
- Origin
- Five British light cavalry regiments brigaded for the Crimean War
- Served
- 1854 to 1856
- Arms
- Sabers; lances in the 17th Lancers
- Famous actions
- Balaclava, 25 October 1854
- Legacy
- Tennyson's “The Charge of the Light Brigade”
The Light Brigade was the light half of the British cavalry division sent to the Crimea in 1854. It had five regiments: the 4th and 13th Light Dragoons, the 8th and 11th Hussars and the 17th Lancers. Its commander, the Earl of Cardigan, was widely disliked, and he feuded with his superior, the division commander Lord Lucan, who was also his brother-in-law. While his men camped, Cardigan lived aboard his own yacht, the Dryad, in Balaclava harbor, with leave to sleep there as an invalid, and became known as “the noble yachtsman.”28
The brigade's one great action came on 25 October 1854, when a misunderstood order sent it down a valley lined with Russian guns. By the National Army Museum's count 673 men rode. They reached the battery at the far end but could not hold it; around 260 were killed, wounded or captured and 475 horses were lost in some twenty minutes. Cardigan rode back unhurt, and in January 1855 he landed at Folkestone to a hero's welcome. The charge itself is ranked in our guide to the greatest cavalry charges; as a unit, the brigade fought nothing else that is remembered.29
Myth vs fact: Tennyson's “Rode the six hundred” rounded the number down, and his “Some one had blunder'd” gave no names; the museum's count is 673 riders.30
Why it ranks here: Recognition, living tradition and certainty all score the maximum: few cavalry units are better known in English. But the brigade fought little else of note and its one famous charge changed nothing, so battle record and influence score only 2, and that keeps it at 10.
11 Napoleon's cuirassiers, 1803 to 1815
- Origin
- A decree of 24 September 1803 armored the first 12 French cavalry regiments
- Served
- 1803 to 1815
- Arms
- Wrought-iron cuirass 2 to 3 mm thick, helmet, sword
- Famous actions
- Eylau, 1807; Borodino, 1812; Waterloo, 1815
- Legacy
- Shock cavalry of the Grande Armée; a quiet tradition today
Napoleon wanted horsemen who could break a line. Under a decree of 24 September 1803 the first twelve regiments of French cavalry were to wear the cuirass, a breastplate and backplate of wrought iron 2 to 3 mm thick, and became cuirassiers. Massed in divisions with their helmets and long swords, they were the army's shock troops, sent in at the crisis of a battle.31
At Eylau on 8 February 1807 they rode in Murat's charge of about 11,000 horsemen, 1,900 of them cuirassiers by one count, which broke through the Russian center and bought Napoleon time to re-form his lines, at a cost of about 1,500 men. At Borodino in 1812 cuirassiers stormed the Great Redoubt through its rear, and General Auguste de Caulaincourt was killed leading the charge; one account credits Saxon and Polish cuirassiers with getting in first. Waterloo showed both their strength and their limits. Early in the afternoon cuirassiers and lancers cut up the British heavy cavalry that had ridden too far; from about 4 p.m. Marshal Ney sent some 9,000 horsemen in wave after wave against Wellington's infantry squares, without infantry support, and the charges failed.32
Why it ranks here: Eylau and Borodino give them a strong battle record and the sources are excellent, but they changed no doctrine and their tradition today is quiet, so influence and living tradition score 3. They tie the Royal Scots Greys on points and on recognition and rank ahead on influence.
12 Royal Scots Greys, 1678 to 1971
- Origin
- Three companies of Scots dragoons raised in 1678; a regiment from 1681
- Served
- 1678 to 1971
- Arms
- Dragoons on gray horses
- Famous actions
- Blenheim, 1704; Waterloo, 1815; Balaclava, 1854
- Legacy
- The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards; the eagle of the French 45th
The Greys began as three companies of dragoons raised in Scotland in 1678 to put down the Covenanters; three more followed in 1681 to form a regiment. By the 1690s the troopers rode gray horses, and the nickname stuck long before it became the official title in 1877. They fought at Blenheim in 1704 and through the wars of the next century.33
Their famous day was Waterloo. With the Union Brigade they charged d'Erlon's attacking corps, and Sergeant Charles Ewart captured the eagle of the French 45th Line. Instead of returning to their lines the Greys rode on into the French guns and were cut up by French lancers and cuirassiers. Of the 391 men who rode, 105 were killed or died of wounds by the regiment's count; another tally gives 102 killed and 97 wounded. At Balaclava in 1854 they charged uphill with the Heavy Brigade against 3,000 Russian horsemen and won two Victoria Crosses. In 1941 they became the last British cavalry regiment to give up horses, and in 1971 they merged into the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards.34
Myth vs fact: Lady Butler's 1881 painting Scotland Forever! shows the charge as a triumph, but the charge that broke d'Erlon's attack went on too far and wrecked the regiment.35
Why it ranks here: Recognition and living tradition are high, but the Waterloo charge ran on too far and was cut up, so battle record scores 3 and influence 2. They tie Napoleon's cuirassiers on points and on recognition and lose the tie on influence.
13 Knights Templar, 1119 to 1312
- Origin
- Military order founded in Jerusalem about 1119 by Hugh of Payns
- Served
- 1119 to 1312
- Arms
- Armored knights with lance, backed by sergeants
- Famous actions
- Montgisard, 1177; Hattin, 1187; Arsuf, 1191
- Legacy
- Legends of treasure and of Friday the 13th
The Templars began about 1119, when Hugh of Payns and a few fellow knights swore to defend Christian pilgrims in the Holy Land; the pope recognized the order in 1129. They were monks who fought as heavy cavalry. There were perhaps only a few hundred brother knights at any one time, sometimes up to 500, backed by many more sergeants, and were known for tight, disciplined charges under harsh rules of obedience.36
At Montgisard in 1177, the historian Steve Tibble writes, they picked out Saladin's standards, lowered their lances and charged. At Hattin ten years later they held the rearguard, the post of greatest danger; the army was destroyed, and Saladin had 230 captured Templar brothers beheaded. Their Master, Gerard de Ridefort, was spared for ransom. At Arsuf in 1191 Richard the Lionheart gave the Templars and Hospitallers the van and rear of his marching column, and Saladin's army was driven from the field. On Friday 13 October 1307 Philip IV of France had every Templar in France arrested; the pope declared the order ended on 3 April 1312, and the last Grand Master, James of Molay, was burned in 1314.37
Myth vs fact: the bad luck of Friday the 13th is only said, in some legends, to come from those arrests, and the order was probably never as rich as its fabled treasure suggests.38
Why it ranks here: Their fame is huge, but it comes more from their fall and the legends than from service as cavalry, so recognition is scored 4 here; a record that ends in disaster at Hattin gives 3 for battle record and 3 for influence, which holds them at 13.
14 Cataphracts, 200s BC to 1100s
- Origin
- Armored horsemen of Iranian armies, used by the Parthians from the 2nd century BC
- Served
- 200s BC to 1100s
- Arms
- Horse and rider in scale or mail; long lance
- Famous actions
- Carrhae, 53 BC; beaten at Tigranocerta, 69 BC
- Legacy
- Roman and Byzantine armored cavalry; no living tradition
A cataphract was armored from head to foot, and so was his horse, in scale or mail; the rider charged with a long lance and fought on with a long sword. The Parthians used such horsemen to defeat the Seleucids in the 2nd century BC. They were never one unit but a type, copied from army to army for more than a thousand years.39
Their record is mixed. At Carrhae in 53 BC the Parthian general Surena, with an estimated 1,000 cataphracts and 9,000 to 10,000 horse archers, destroyed the army of Crassus, who was captured and killed. Sixteen years earlier, at Tigranocerta, Lucullus had beaten the Armenian king Tigranes, whose 55,000 cavalry included 17,000 mail-clad horsemen by Lucullus's own report. He sent his cavalry at their flanks and told his infantry to strike at the legs and thighs, the only parts left bare; the armored horse fled into its own infantry. Byzantium revived the type. A tenth-century manual, the Military Precepts, drew up a broad-nosed wedge of just over 500 horsemen, two-thirds of them armored, according to one modern account.40
Why it ranks here: Their influence on armored cavalry from Parthia to Byzantium is large and the type is widely known, but defeats such as Tigranocerta mix the record, no tradition survives and the ancient numbers are uncertain, so living tradition scores 2 and certainty 3. They tie the Household Cavalry on points and on recognition and rank ahead on influence.
15 Household Cavalry, 1660 to today
- Origin
- Charles II's mounted bodyguard, recognized as the Life Guards in 1660
- Served
- 1660 to today
- Arms
- Armored reconnaissance vehicles; horses for ceremonial duty
- Famous actions
- Waterloo, 1815; Falklands, 1982
- Legacy
- The King's Life Guard at Horse Guards
The Household Cavalry grew out of the mounted bodyguard of Charles II, recognized as The Life Guards when the monarchy was restored in 1660. Two more regiments joined it: the Royal Horse Guards, the Blues, descended from a regiment of horse raised by Oliver Cromwell, and the Royal Dragoons, raised in 1661 to garrison Tangier. The Blues and the Royals merged in 1969, and the Life Guards and the Blues and Royals are now the British Army's two most senior regiments.41
Their great day as battle cavalry was Waterloo, where the Life Guards, the Blues and the Royal Dragoons all fought with distinction; the Royals, then in the Union Brigade, captured the eagle of the French 105th. In the Crimea the Royals rode with the Heavy Brigade. In 1982 two troops of the Blues and Royals went to the Falklands in Scimitar and Scorpion armored vehicles, and the operational Household Cavalry Regiment has since served in Iraq and Afghanistan.42
Its fame today, though, is largely ceremonial. The Household Cavalry Mounted Regiment, one of the best-known sights in London, still mounts the King's Life Guard at Horse Guards Parade, a daily change of guard that keeps much the same form it had centuries ago.43
Why it ranks here: Recognition and living tradition are high, but its fame today is largely ceremonial and it is known for few victories of its own, so battle record and influence score 2; that is what holds it at 15. It ties Budyonny's First Cavalry Army on points and takes the last place on recognition.
How we chose and ranked these cavalry units
We counted a cavalry unit as a formation that served for years: a regiment, a corps, an army's mounted arm or a type of horsemen such as the cataphracts. Single charges, such as the Light Brigade's ride at Balaclava, are ranked in our guide to the greatest cavalry charges, and whole battles fought between masses of horsemen in the largest cavalry battles in history.
We considered 25 candidates and scored each one from 1 to 5 on five criteria. Recognition counts three times, because this page answers the question of which cavalry units are the most famous; battle record, influence and living tradition count twice, and certainty once:
- Recognition (×3). 5 if the unit is known far beyond military history and appears on most published lists of its kind, 1 if only specialists know it.
- Battle record (×2). 5 if the unit itself fought several decisive actions on horseback, 1 if it is known for no victory of its own.
- Influence (×2). 5 if it changed how cavalry fought or changed the course of history, 1 if it left no mark on either.
- Living tradition (×2). 5 if successor units, symbols or culture keep it alive today, 1 if it is forgotten.
- Certainty (×1). 5 if its numbers and actions are confirmed by independent sources, 1 if they rest on one source or are disputed.
The list is ranked by total score, not by date. Ties go to the better-known unit, then to the one with the greater influence, then to the older one. The scores are our editorial judgment, made on the evidence in the sources below, and the table shows every one of them. It explains, for example, why the US 7th Cavalry, perhaps the best-known cavalry regiment in the English-speaking world, is only seventh: it is remembered for Custer's defeat at Little Bighorn, not for victories it won on horseback.
| Rank | Name | Recognition ×3 | Battle record ×2 | Influence ×2 | Living tradition ×2 | Certainty ×1 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mongol horse archers | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 48 |
| 2 | Polish winged hussars | 5 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 47 |
| 3 | Cossacks | 5 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 43 |
| 4 | Mamluks | 4 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 42 |
| 5 | Companion cavalry | 4 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 41 |
| 6 | Parthian horse archers | 4 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 41 |
| 7 | US 7th Cavalry | 5 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 5 | 40 |
| 8 | Australian Light Horse | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 40 |
| 9 | Polish uhlans | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 39 |
| 10 | The Light Brigade | 5 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 38 |
| 11 | Napoleon's cuirassiers | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 5 | 37 |
| 12 | Royal Scots Greys | 4 | 3 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 37 |
| 13 | Knights Templar | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 36 |
| 14 | Cataphracts | 4 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 35 |
| 15 | Household Cavalry | 4 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 35 |
Close calls
Five units came close and did not make the fifteen:
Budyonny's First Cavalry Army, 1919 to 1923. The mounted fist of the Red Army in the Russian Civil War. In June 1920, about 30,000 strong by one count, it broke the Polish front at Samhorodok, but on 31 August it was beaten by Polish uhlans at Komarów. It ties the Household Cavalry on points but is less known abroad, mostly through Isaac Babel, its war correspondent.44
Numidian cavalry, 200s BC. North African light horsemen who fought by drawing the enemy off and attacking from all sides. At Cannae they kept the Roman allied cavalry out of the fight, then pursued and cut most of it down; at Zama, under King Masinissa, they fought for Scipio and helped fall on Hannibal's rear. Few outside specialists know them, and no tradition survives.45
Ottoman sipahis, 1300s to 1831. Feudal horsemen who held fiefs (timars) from the sultan in return for service; according to the Columbia Encyclopedia they made up the bulk of the Ottoman army until the mid-1500s. At Mohács in 1526 a practiced withdrawal by the sipahis was taken by the Hungarian commanders for victory. The empire's fame rests on the Janissaries and its guns, so they sit below the fifteen.46
Stuart's cavalry corps, 1861 to 1865. Jeb Stuart's Confederate horsemen became famous in June 1862, when they rode right around McClellan's Union army, and fought the largest cavalry battle of the war at Brandy Station in 1863. But the corps did more scouting and raiding than fighting, and its best-known moment is an absence: away on a raid, Stuart could not give Lee intelligence before Gettysburg.47
Seydlitz's Prussian cavalry, 1756 to 1763. Under Friedrich Wilhelm von Seydlitz, Frederick the Great's horsemen shattered the allied cavalry at Rossbach in 1757 and rode down unshaken Russian infantry at Zorndorf in 1758. They set the standard for European cavalry of their age, but outside Germany they are known mainly to specialists.48
