Is there any movie which shows cuirassiers of the Thirty Years' War era, fully armored? If the answer is yes, I would really like to know. Thanks in advance for any help.

Two movies come into my mind even though they are not of about the TYW itself:

- Cromwell (1970) shows a royalist charge of cuirassiers in black 3/4 armour at the Battle of Naseby

- Alatriste (2006) depicts a french cuirassier charge at a spanish tercio in the Battle of Rocroi

You can watch both scenes on youtube:

Cromwell: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pF5Okp6kD4w&am...mp;index=5

Alatriste: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=je-c81wwrpA

Helge, what battle of the ECW was that?

M.

I think it should depict the Battle of Naseby even though it had nothing in common with the historical battle.

The royalist cavalry under Rupert broke the parlamentarian cavalry on one flank while Cromwell was successfull on the other. So there was no direct melee between Rupert and Cromwell as shown in the movie. The parlamentarians won because they were able to rally their cavalry and flank the infantry.

Anyway AFAIK the royalists did not have any heavy cuirassiers at all (besides some individuals maybe). I only know of one unit completely equipped in this manner which were Hazelrigg's lobsters. And he was a MP.

I remember reading that the Earl of Essex's personal life-guard were all fully armored heavy cavalry.

The cuirassiers and other cavalry in "Alatriste" are in fact wearing the very same armours that were used in "Cromwell".

With Fire and Sword it came out in 1999 and at the time was the most expensive Polish Film ever made it's about Hussars which have Cuirassier Armour.

Hussars dd not wear "cuirassier" armour.
http://public.carnet.hr/husar/polish1.htm is rather diffrent from that worn by a cuirassier http://public.carnet.hr/husar/cuiras1.htm not to mention that the armour used by the hussars in the early 17th century relied even more on mail for protection http://public.carnet.hr/husar/hussar03.htm

The most authentic presentation of TYW cuirassier armour I saw was in a german TV production of Schiller's Wallenstein somewhere in the 80s. There is this famous scene where some of Pappenheim's cuirassier ask Wallenstein if he is in negotation with the swedes and he answers "Thus I recognize my Pappenheimers" (what has become a common german proverb).

Already as a child I was fascinated by the grim look of that black 3/4 armour.