cavalier

English horseman

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cavalier, (from Late Latin caballarius, “horseman”), originally a rider or cavalryman; the term had the same derivation as the French chevalier. In English the word knight was at first generally used to imply the qualities of chivalry associated with the chevalier in French and with the kindred cavaliere in Italian and caballero in Spanish. “Cavalier” in English, however, had the pejorative sense of “swashbuckling” or “overbearing.”

(Read Sir Walter Scott’s 1824 Britannica essay on chivalry.)

In the English Civil Wars (1642–51), the name was adopted by Charles I’s supporters, who contemptuously called their opponents Roundheads; at the Restoration, the court party preserved the name Cavalier, which survived until the rise of the term Tory.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica This article was most recently revised and updated by Meg Matthias.