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cavalier

  (kăv'ə-lîr') pronunciation
n.
  1. A gallant or chivalrous man, especially one serving as escort to a woman of high social position; a gentleman.
  2. A mounted soldier; a knight.
  3. Cavalier A supporter of Charles I of England in his struggles against Parliament. Also called Royalist.
adj.
  1. Showing arrogant or offhand disregard; dismissive: a cavalier attitude toward the suffering of others.
  2. Carefree and nonchalant; jaunty.
  3. Cavalier Of or relating to a group of 17th-century English poets associated with the court of Charles I.

[French, horseman, from Old Italian cavaliere, from Late Latin caballārius, from Latin caballus, horse.]

cavalierly cav'a·lier'ly adv.
 
 
Word Overheard: cavalier

The remarkably vituperative George Galloway, a Scottish MP accused of receiving oil in exchange for support of Saddam Hussein, lashed out during a visit to the US Senate:

"'I know that standards have slipped in Washington in recent years, but for a lawyer, you're remarkably cavalier with any idea of justice,' he told Norm Coleman, the Minnesota Republican who chairs the senate investigations committee... 'I'm here today, but last week you already found me guilty. You traduced my name around the world without ever having asked me a single question.'"

He had earlier called his accusers a "lickspittle" committee.

Link: Galloway and the mother of all invective

Posted May 19, 2005.

 
Antonyms: cavalier

adj

Definition: arrogant
Antonyms: humble, reticent, shy


 

In the English Civil Wars, the name adopted by Charles I's supporters, who contemptuously called their opponents Roundheads (a reference to the short-haired apprentices who had formed part of an anti-Cavalier mob). The term (similar to the French chevalier) originally meant a rider or cavalryman. At the Restoration, the court party preserved the name Cavalier, which survived until the rise of the term Tory. See also Cavalier poet.

For more information on Cavalier, visit Britannica.com.

 
Architecture: cavalier


1. A raised portion of a fortress for commanding adjacent defenses or for the placement of weapons.
2. A small tower on the ridge of a double-pitched roof.


 
(kăv'əlĭr') , in general, an armed horseman. In the English civil war the supporters of Charles I were called Cavaliers in contradistinction to the Roundheads, the followers of Parliament. The royalists used the designation until it was replaced by Tory.


 
Wikipedia: Cavalier
Prince Rupert, an archetypical cavalier
Enlarge
Prince Rupert, an archetypical cavalier


Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I during the English Civil War (16421651). (In response, the Royalists called the Parliamentarians Roundheads.) Typically, the term "Cavalier" referred to the high-born supporters of King Charles, who were fond of fashionable, extravagant clothing. Prince Rupert, commander of much of Charles I's cavalry, is often considered an archetypical cavalier.

Early usage

The usage of the term originates from the French word "chevalier", meaning knight, and was originally derived from "caballarius", meaning horseman in Vulgar Latin. Chevalier is the regular French word for "knight," and is chiefly used in English for a member of certain foreign military or other orders.

Cavalier in English was applied early in a contemptuous sense to an overbearing swashbuckler or swaggering gallant. In Shakespeare (2 Henry IV. v. iii. 62) Shallow says "I'll drink to Master Bardolph, and to all the cavaleros about London" (this spelling rather suggests the Spanish version of the word, "Caballero").

English civil war

Sir Anthony van Dyck ca.1638, Lord John Stuart and his brother Lord Bernard. Both died fighting for the King
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Sir Anthony van Dyck ca.1638, Lord John Stuart and his brother Lord Bernard. Both died fighting for the King

"Cavalier" is chiefly associated with the Royalist supporters of King Charles I in his struggle with Parliament in the English Civil War. Here again it first appears as a term of reproach and contempt, applied by the opponents of the king. Charles in the Answer to the Petition June 13, 1642 speaks of cavaliers as a "word by what mistake soever it seemes much in disfavour." It was soon adopted (as a title of honour) by the king's party, who in return applied Roundhead to their opponents, and at the Restoration the court party preserved the name, which survived till the rise of the term Tory.

Cavalier style of dress included long flowing hair in ringlets, a liking for elaborate embellished clothes, and plumed hats. This was in complete contrast to the "Roundhead" supporters of Parliament, with their preference for short hair and plain dress, although neither side conformed to the stereotypical images entirely. In fact the best patrons in the nobility of the archetypal recorder of the Cavalier image, Charles I's court painter Sir Anthony van Dyck, all took the Parliamentary side in the Civil War. These derogatory terms (for at the time they were so intended) also showed what the typical Parliamentarian thought of the Royalist side — capricious men who cared more for vanity than the nation at large.

The chaplain to King Charles I, Edward Simmons described a cavalier as "a Child of Honour, a Gentleman well borne and bred, that loves his king for conscience sake, of a clearer countenance, and bolder look than other men, because of a more loyal Heart.” There were many men in the Royalist armies who fit this description since most of the Royalist field officers were typically in their early thirties, married with rural estates which had to be managed. Although they did not share the same outlook on how to worship God as the English Independents of the New Model Army, God was often central to their lives. This type of Cavalier was personified by Lord Jacob Astley whose prayer at the start of the Battle of Edgehill has become famous "O Lord, Thou knowest how busy I must be this day. If I forget Thee, do not forget me". At the end of the First Civil War Astley gave his word that he would not take up arms again against Parliament and having given his word he felt duty bound to refuse to help the Royalist cause in the Second Civil War.

Cromwell's soldiers breaking into the house of a Cavalier
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Cromwell's soldiers breaking into the house of a Cavalier

However, the word was coined by the Roundheads as a pejorative propaganda image of a licentious, hard drinking and frivolous man, who rarely, if ever, thought of God. It is this image which has survived and many Royalists, for example Henry Wilmot, 1st Earl of Rochester, fitted this description to a tee. Of another cavalier, Lord Goring a general in the Royalist army, the principal advisor to Charles II, Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon, said that he "would, without hesitation, have broken any trust, or done any act of treachery to have satisfied an ordinary passion or appetite; and in truth wanted nothing but industry (for he had wit, and courage, and understanding and ambition, uncontrolled by any fear of God or man) to have been as eminent and successful in the highest attempt of wickedness as any man in the age he lived in or before. Of all his qualifications dissimulation was his masterpiece; in which he so much excelled, that men were not ordinarily ashamed, or out of countenance, with being deceived but twice by him."

Cavaliers in the arts

Charles I, King of England, from Three Angles. The famous triple portrait of Charles I by Anthony van Dyck.
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Charles I, King of England, from Three Angles. The famous triple portrait of Charles I by Anthony van Dyck.
See also 1600-1650 in fashion and Cavalier poets

An example of the Cavalier style can be seen in the painting "Charles I, King of England, from Three Angles" by Anthony van Dyck.

References

Further reading

Footnotes

  1. ^ Military science in western Europe in the sixteenth century page 45

 
Translations: Translations for: Cavalier

Dansk (Danish)
n. - ridder, rytter, kavaler, sydstatsaristokrat
adj. - flot, nonchalant, royalistisk, aristokratisk, kavaler-

Nederlands (Dutch)
hoffelijk man (cavalier), ruiter, nonchalant, hooghartig, een dame begeleiden, zich grof gedragen

Français (French)
n. - (GB, Hist) partisan de Charles I pendant la guerre civile, (Hist) homme à la cour royale qui escortait les dames de la cour, cavalier (arch), (Zool) épagneul king-charles
adj. - cavalier, désinvolte

Deutsch (German)
n. - Kavalier, Ritter, Kavallerist
adj. - sorglos, anmaßend

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - ιππότης
adj. - υπεροπτικός, ακατάδεχτος

Italiano (Italian)
cavaliere, cavalier servente, disinvolto, galante, altero

Português (Portuguese)
n. - cavaleiro (m)
adj. - jovial, cavalheiresco, soberbo

Русский (Russian)
кавалер, надменный

Español (Spanish)
n. - caballero
adj. - arrogante, desenvuelto

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - ryttare (hist.), riddare, kavaljer
adj. - kavaljers-, fri, stolt

中文(简体) (Chinese (Simplified))
骑士, 殷勤的绅士, 骑兵, 护花使者, 漫不经心的, 傲慢的, 无忧无虑的, 目空一切的

中文(繁體) (Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 騎士, 殷勤的紳士, 騎兵, 護花使者
adj. - 漫不經心的, 傲慢的, 無憂無慮的, 目空一切的

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 기사, 예의 바른 신사
adj. - 대범한, 귀족적인, 거만한

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - だて男, いんぎんな紳士, 王党員
adj. - 高慢な, なれなれしい

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) فارس, (صفه) متعجرف, مختال, غير مبال‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮פרש, אביר‬
adj. - ‮מזלזל, יהיר, אנוכי‬


 
 

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Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2007. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.  Read more
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Columbia Encyclopedia. The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition Copyright © 2003, Columbia University Press. Licensed from Columbia University Press. All rights reserved. www.cc.columbia.edu/cu/cup/  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Cavalier" Read more
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