1. General considerations
While the early modern infantry developed as a weapon against late-medievalknight contingents, the cavalry stood in the latter’s tradition. As a weapon type of the land combat forces it gave force to the (Clausewitzian) “principle of movement” of the army campaigns, by carrying out its marches and combats on horseback (Horse) (Ital. cavallo, hence cavalleria; Ger. first "Haufen zu…