[Lafayette C Curtis]

Did they go on doing that (i.e. turning the pikemen into mounted infantry) into the 16th century or later? If not, I'm afraid the Scots would be outside the scope of the discussion I intended to make--since if we pull things back that far then we'd always be able to argue about men-at-arms who dismounted and used their lances as pikes, and so on...

[Daniel Staberg]

Gentlemen,
I've just uncovered the first solid evidence of pike armed dragoons in Swedish service! In the autumn of 1622 Jacob De la Gardie's cuirassier company was reformed as a company of dragoons with 80 musketeers and 54 pikemen.
However the units service as dragoons may have been shortlived, when I'm next able to trace the company (in 1624-1625) it is listed among the infantry as De la Gardie's company of Drabants (bodyguards). It is possible while the unit was lsited with the infantry it still moved aroudn on horseback. In 1631 Gustavus own company of Drabants&Lifeguards escorted the King on horseback when a spy viewed the army as it marched over the bridge at Wittenberg.

[Gordon Frye]

Thanks Daniel! That's great. You're right, it's the first solid evidence I've ever seen of pike-armed Dragoons.

Excellent research, my friend!

Cheers!

Gordon

[Gordon Frye]

[Daniel Staberg]

Gordon,

Of course I forgot to provide the proper backgroudn information, I'll blame it on the excitement of the discovery ;-)

Jacob De la Gardie held the rank of "Feldherr" in 1622. Usally the Kings of Sweden did not command in person in the period. Instead they would appoint a supreme commander, "the Feldherr", who held operational and tactical command of the armed forces. Gustav Adolf did command in person and thus carried out the duties fo the Feldherr but rather than demoting De la Gardie ( who the King held in high regard) he allowed him to retain the rank for life due to his great services to the Crown.

The cuirassier company in question was De la Gardies Life Company durign the 1621-1622 campaign and was commanded in the field by Rittmeister Klas Wachtmeister. Wachmeister reappears in 1624, now in command of De la Gardie's new company of Cuirassiers.

While some loss of status probably was involved I'm not sure how large it was. Both the dragoons and the later infantry company acted as De la Gardie's lifeguards. Indeed the full title of the infantry company was "The Feldherr's company of Drabants" which meant that De la Gardie was the only person outside the Royal family allowed to mantain a corps of Drabant bodyguards. So the unit went from being a high status cavalry outfit, to high status dragoons and then to high status infantry. Still it was an odd choice to convert the original cuirassier unit into dragoons and then raise a new company of cuirassier with the the same commander slightly more than a year later.

[Gordon Frye]

Thanks Daniel. Interesting I must say, especially that De la Gardie's cuirassier troop was not only reduced to Dragoons, but replaced with a new Cuirassier troop so soon. But as you say, they're still the elite, so not much of a down-grade after all.

Cheers!

Gordon

[Lafayette C Curtis]

Very interesting. Do we have any idea if the Feldherr de la Gardie's Drabants were in combat during the 1622-1625(?) period when they had these pike-armed Dragoons, I wonder?

Oddly enough, I also recently found this quote in an excerpt from Velimir Vuksic's Cavalry: The History of a Fighting Elite 650BC-AD1914: