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 .