Every army in Europe raised hussars at some point. Only a handful of regiments left names that still mean something.
Quick answer. The most famous hussar regiments include Prussia's Totenkopf (Death's Head) Hussars, Napoleon's 2nd and 5th French Hussars, Britain's 11th (Cherrypickers), the Austrian Hungarian 9th Nadasdy, the French 7th bis of Lasalle, and the Russian Pavlograd Hussars. Each won its reputation in a specific war and left a lasting mark on cavalry tradition.
The Prussian Death's Head Hussars
Frederick the Great raised the 1st and 2nd Leib Husaren in the 1740s as black uniformed shock troopers, their mirlitons bearing a silver skull. The badge was a memento mori, not a threat: a reminder that the hussar lived close to death. The regiment fought with distinction in the Seven Years War, charged at Hohenfriedberg and Leuthen, and became the model for the Prussian cavalry tradition. The skull would reappear on later German formations, which has given the badge a complicated afterlife, but the original Prussian hussars were an elite unit of their day.
The French hussars under Napoleon
Napoleon fielded fourteen hussar regiments, each with its own facing colours and braid. Several became legendary. The 2nd Hussars (Chamborant), the 5th (Lauzun), the 7th (Bercheny) and the 9th all screened the Grande Armee from Austerlitz to Waterloo. The 7th bis was commanded for a time by Antoine Charles Louis de Lasalle, who died at Wagram at 34 after telling his men that any hussar not dead by thirty was a blackguard. Lasalle set the hussar tone: fast, reckless, elegant and lethally effective at scouting.
The French regiments gave European hussars their classic look: short braided dolman, fur edged pelisse worn off the shoulder, sabretache slung on long straps, tall shako or busby. By 1810 every army on the continent had copied the pattern in some form.
The British 11th Hussars
The 11th Light Dragoons became the 11th Hussars in 1840, under the eccentric Earl of Cardigan. He dressed them in crimson overalls, giving rise to the nickname Cherrypickers. Fourteen years later the regiment rode in the front rank of the Charge of the Light Brigade at Balaclava, losing more than half its strength in twenty minutes. The 11th survived the disaster and went on to serve in India, South Africa and both world wars. The crimson trousers never left ceremonial dress.
The Austrian Hungarian hussars
The Habsburgs kept twelve hussar regiments, most of them Hungarian in origin and distinct from their German speaking dragoons and cuirassiers. The 9th Nadasdy Hussars under Count Franz Leopold von Nadasdy fought the Prussians to a standstill at Kolin in 1757, a battle that stopped Frederick the Great's invasion of Bohemia. The 10th Honved Hussars became a national symbol during the 1848 revolution. By 1914 Austria Hungary still fielded sixteen hussar regiments in their beautiful blue and red parade uniforms, though by then the dress had little to do with the realities of modern war.
The Russian Pavlograd and Mariupol Hussars
Russia raised its first hussar regiments from Serbian and Hungarian exiles in the 1730s. By 1812 twelve regiments served, including the famous Pavlograd and Mariupol. The Pavlograd Hussars became known to generations of readers as Nikolai Rostov's regiment in Tolstoy's War and Peace. In fact they fought at Austerlitz, Friedland, Borodino and Leipzig, and later charged at Balaclava on the Russian side. The light blue dolman of the Pavlograd is one of the most recognisable uniforms of the Napoleonic era.
What they shared
Despite the national differences, the famous regiments shared four things. First, a founder with a strong personal reputation, from Nadasdy to Cardigan to Lasalle. Second, a signature uniform detail that outlasted its practical purpose: the skull, the crimson trousers, the sky blue dolman. Third, a battle that fixed the regiment in national memory. And fourth, a long institutional memory that carried the name through conversion to armoured cavalry in the 20th century. Many of them still exist today, their traditions preserved in the dress and silver of modern successor regiments.
Common questions
Which was the oldest hussar regiment?
The oldest hussar regiment in continuous existence is the French Bercheny Hussars, raised in 1720 by Count Ladislas Ignace de Bercheny, a Hungarian emigre. The regiment still exists today as the 1er Regiment de Hussards Parachutistes.
Why were the British 11th called Cherrypickers?
The nickname comes from an incident in the Peninsular War when the regiment was ambushed while picking cherries in a Spanish orchard, but it stuck mainly because of the crimson overalls introduced by Lord Cardigan in the 1840s.
Were the Prussian Death's Head Hussars connected to later SS units?
No. The skull badge was adopted by the SS and other German formations in the 20th century, but the original Prussian hussar skull was an 18th century memento mori with no connection to those later movements.
What was the Charge of the Light Brigade?
A disastrous charge during the Crimean War, on 25 October 1854 at Balaclava. Five regiments including the 11th Hussars rode a mile and a half down a valley into Russian guns on three sides. Of 670 men, nearly 300 were killed, wounded or captured.
Do famous hussar regiments still exist?
Many do, in successor form. The British Queen's Royal Hussars absorbed the 11th. The French 1er RHP descends from the Bercheny. The German Bundeswehr has no direct hussar lineage, since Prussian regiments were disbanded in 1918 or 1945, but battle honours survive in several armoured units.