Cavaliers were gentlemen supporters of the Royalist cause during the English Civil Wars (1642–1651)

For other meanings for see cavalier.

Their style of dress which included long hair in ringlets and a liking for elaborate embellished cloths, was in complete contrast to the Roundhead supporters of Parliament, with their preference for short hair and plain dress.

The best remembered cavaliers were men who served in the cavalry under Prince Rupert an archetypical cavalier (http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/cgi-bin/WebObjects.dll/CollectionPublisher.woa/wa/largeImage?workNumber=NG6363&collectionSection=work).

Charles I, King of England, from Three Angles. The famous triple portrait of Charles I by Anthony van Dyck.

The most famous painting of a Cavalier; other than those of King Charles himself of which the Anthony van Dyck painting, "Charles I, King of England, from Three Angles", is the best known, is of an unknown 26 year old gentleman in the painting called the Laughing Cavalier (http://gallery.euroweb.hu/art/h/hals/frans/02-1626/16nolaug.jpg) by Frans Hals in the Wallace Collection.