''Jinete'' () is Spanish for " horseman", especially in the context of

light cavalry Light cavalry comprised lightly armed and body armor, armored cavalry troops mounted on fast horses, as opposed to heavy cavalry, where the mounted riders (and sometimes the warhorses) were heavily armored. The purpose of light cavalry was p ...

Etymology

The word ''jinete'' (of Berber '' zenata'') designates, in Castilian and the

Provençal dialect Provençal (, , , ; or ) is a variety of Occitan, spoken by people in Provence and parts of Drôme and Gard. The term Provençal used to refer to the entire Occitan language, but more recently it has referred only to the variety of Occitan ...

Occitan language Occitan (; ), also known by its native speakers as (; ), sometimes also referred to as Provençal, is a Romance language spoken in Southern France, Monaco, Italy's Occitan Valleys, as well as Spain's Val d'Aran in Catalonia; collectively, ...

, those who show great skill and riding especially if this relates to their work. In Portuguese, it is spelled ''ginete''. The term '' jennet'' for a small Spanish horse has the same source.

Medieval Hispanic light cavalry

As a military term, ''jinete'' (also spelled ''ginete'' or ''genitour'') means a Spanish light horseman that wore leather armor and was armed with

javelin A javelin is a light spear designed primarily to be thrown, historically as a ranged weapon. Today, the javelin is predominantly used for sporting purposes such as the javelin throw. The javelin is nearly always thrown by hand, unlike the sling ...

s, a

spear A spear is a polearm consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with Fire hardening, fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable materia ...

, a

sword A sword is an edged and bladed weapons, edged, bladed weapon intended for manual cutting or thrusting. Its blade, longer than a knife or dagger, is attached to a hilt and can be straight or curved. A thrusting sword tends to have a straighter ...

, and a

shield A shield is a piece of personal armour held in the hand, which may or may not be strapped to the wrist or forearm. Shields are used to intercept specific attacks, whether from close-ranged weaponry like spears or long ranged projectiles suc ...

. They were a type of mounted troop developed in the early

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

in response to the massed light cavalry of the

Moors The term Moor is an Endonym and exonym, exonym used in European languages to designate the Muslims, Muslim populations of North Africa (the Maghreb) and the Iberian Peninsula (particularly al-Andalus) during the Middle Ages. Moors are not a s ...

. Often fielded in significant numbers by the Spanish, and at times the most numerous of the Spanish mounted troops, they played an important role in Spanish mounted warfare throughout the ''

Reconquista The ''Reconquista'' (Spanish language, Spanish and Portuguese language, Portuguese for ) or the fall of al-Andalus was a series of military and cultural campaigns that European Christian Reconquista#Northern Christian realms, kingdoms waged ag ...

'' until the sixteenth century. They were to serve successfully in the

Italian Wars The Italian Wars were a series of conflicts fought between 1494 and 1559, mostly in the Italian Peninsula, but later expanding into Flanders, the Rhineland and Mediterranean Sea. The primary belligerents were the House of Valois, Valois kings o ...

under Gonzalo de Córdoba and Ramón de Cardona. Sir Charles Oman describes their tactics thus: In addition,

Philippe Contamine Philippe Contamine (7 May 1932 – 26 January 2022) was a French historian of the Middle Ages who specialised in military history and the history of the nobility. Life Contamine was a president of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettr ...

records they used the tactic of feigned flight (''tourna-fuye''). Jinetes existed in considerable numbers. During the period 1485–9, Castilian armies mustered between 11,000 and 13,000 jinetes. Some of these were provided by the Military Orders. The Master of Santiago provided 300, while the Master of Calatrava was responsible for a further 450. In May 1493, a number of standing companies were established in Castile called the ''guardas viejas'' (veteran guard). These included five captaincies of 100 jinetes. In 1496, the ''guardas reales'' (royal guard) of Castile included 130 jinetes. Out of 600 cavalry in the Spanish expeditionary force to Italy in 1495, 500 were jinetes.Oman (1987), p. 52

Contemporary usage

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

, ''jinete'' can mean " rodeo rider", hence "cowboy". In Castilian, it is used adjectivally of a rider who knows how to ride a horse, especially those who are fluent or champions at equestrian practices, such as the

gaucho A gaucho () or gaúcho () is a skilled horseman, reputed to be brave and unruly. The figure of the gaucho is a folk symbol of Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Rio Grande do Sul in Brazil, the southern part of Bolivia, and the south of Chilean Patago ...

, the huaso of the plains, the

cowboy A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America, traditionally on horseback, and often performs a multitude of other ranch-related tasks. The historic American cowboy of the late 19th century arose from the ''vaquero'' ...

Vaquero The ''vaquero'' (; , ) is a horse-mounted livestock herder of a tradition that has its roots in the Iberian Peninsula and extensively developed in what what is today Mexico (then New Spain) and Spanish Florida from a method brought to the Americ ...

, or

charro ''Charro'', in Mexico, is historically the horseman from the countryside, the Ranchero, who lived and worked in the haciendas and performed all his tasks on horseback, working mainly as vaqueros and caporales, among other jobs. He was ren ...

among others. It is also used in the Spanish Army to designate personnel belonging to the cavalry arm. In its original Spanish title '' The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse'' by Vicente Blasco Ibáñez is ''Los Cuatro Jinetes del Apocalipsis''. ''Canción de jinete'' is a poem by

Federico García Lorca Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca (5 June 1898 – 19 August 1936) was a Spanish poet, playwright, and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27, a g ...

.César García Alvarez (1977)
Canción de jinete
(in Spanish). '' Revista Chilena de Literatura'' (9/10 ): 171–178. The novel ''El jinete polaco'' by Antonio Muñoz Molina was published in 1991.Elizabeth Amann (Autumn 1998)
Genres in Dialogue: Antonio Muñoz Molina's El jinete polaco
(in Spanish). ''Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispánicos'' 23 (1): 1–21.

References

External links

{{Authority control Equestrianism Military units and formations of the Italian Wars Military units and formations of the Middle Ages Military units and formations of Spain