To distinguish themselves from other soldiers, they wore a red sash around their waists or over their shoulders and a oak twig in their helmets or hats.

As the turn of the century, imitating their Dutch counterparts, the imperial cuirassiers abandoned the heavy lance and began to use a pair of pistols. More reliable and lighter firearms were one factor which would shape their future strategy; another was the formation of infantry units several thousand men strong, half armed with muskets and arquebuses, the rest protecting them from heavy cavalry attacks with six-metre pikes.

In the early seventeenth century, the imperial works began producing armour which discarded all superfluous parts but strengthened the back and breastplates and headgear. Because of the materials used, cavalry armour became heavier and more massive. Their surface is unornamented, and their form not as refined as in previous phases: protection of the wearer against the improved firearms was paramount.

Cuirassiers played a prominent role in the Thirty Years War, commanded by Field Marshal Gottfried Pappenheim (1594-1632) and Albrecht Wallenstein (1583-1634). Pappenheim formed up hid cuirassiers regiments, about 1000 men strong, in ten files of 100 men, stressing depth and narrowing the front. Wallenstein, on the other hand, disposed his units, of about the same strength, in six ranks emphasizing the initial strike over a wide front; his method was more successful.

The figure wear his three-quarter armour consists of a breast and backplate, a small gorget, pauldrons and vambraces on the arms, articulated tassets with knee-pieces. His helmet is of the zischagge or sishak type derived from an Ottoman style, which has cheek-guards, a sliding nasal bar, and a rear neck-guard or ‘lobster-tail’ of small articulated lames. With the improvement of firearms by the beginning of the 17th century the priority was protection over appearance, so armour was becoming plainer but thicker; some suits now weighed as much as 42kg/92lb. he is armed with a pair of almost straight wheellock pistols about 77cm/30in long. The pistol accessories –spanner, bullet bag and powder flask- hang from the holster, which has a fold-down top.

After the 1620s this ‘epee wallone’ was the heavy cavalry sword par excellence across Europe; it is characterized by a thick knucklebow extending from the quillon, with two latticed or pierced side guards.