Croats (military unit)

Croats
Active	17th century
Country	Habsburg monarchy
Allegiance	Catholic League
Branch	light cavalry
Type	auxiliary[1]
Role	off-battlefield
Equipment	Carbine and pistols
Engagements	Thirty Years' War Stadtlohn[2] Magdeburg Breitenfeld[3] Lützen[4] Nördlingen[5]
Commanders
Initial structures	Count of Tilly
First regular regiments	Albrecht von Wallenstein

The Croats, also known as Cravats or Crabats,^[6] were 17th-century light cavalry forces in Central Europe, comparable to the hussars.^[7] The Croats were initially irregular units loosely organized in bands. The first regular Croat regiment was established in 1625.

The most notable engagement of the Croats was their participation on the side of the Catholic League in the Thirty Years' War. At the height of the Thirty Years' War, as many as 20,000 Croatian cavalry were in the service of the Imperial Army, including the majority of Wallenstein's harquebusiers.

The name came to be used as a generic term for light cavalry from the area of the Habsburg Military Frontier rather than an ethnic designation, and included ethnic Croats, Hungarians, Wallachians, Poles, Cossacks, Albanians and Tatars.^[7][8]