The word cavalry comes from the french word 'cheval', which means horse. Cavalry are an ancient part of an army. The main body of an army is the infantry (foot soldiers). The first horses used in battle pulled chariots (as in Egyptian and Roman times) and later came the cavalry, with each soldier mounted on a horse.

Cavalry were fast and horses could trample infantry down, so they were often sent into battle as a surprise attack to break up ranks of foot soldiers. William the Conqueror used his cavalry this way in the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

Soldiers on horseback became a major part of all armies up to the First World War, where they became easy targets for machine guns.

Cavalrymen have a variety of special names, such as trooper. Many regiments that no longer use horses and still called cavalry regiments.

There were two kinds of horses used by the cavalry. One kind was called the Light Brigade, where the horses were small, light and had little armour. They were used for fast attacks. The other kind were called the Heavy Brigade, which used powerful horses and body armour, but which, as a result, were slow and heavy and could get bogged down. The French lost the Battle of Agincourt because their heavy horses got stuck in marshes and they were killed by the English archers.

Perhaps the most famous use of the cavalry was the spectacularly unsuccessful Charge of the Light Brigade in 1854 during the Crimean War. They were mown down by cannon, marking thebeginning of the end of the cavalry as a fighting unit.