It is indeed....or at start, the cravatte...the word comes from Croat.
the Croatian cavalry was among the most feared horsemen in the war. The sign they had, lacking uniforms, were a red scarf. It became the fashion to give this scarf to fellow officers serving with hem, much like we hand out berets in these days. This lated became a civilian piece of clothing developing into a ...tie.
A funny sidenote is that in Swedish, an unruly child, a troublmaker, can be called a "krabat". This is also a legacy from the unruly croatian soldiers...
Moving on!
Up until and including the 30 year war, a certain style of cavalry manouver was in practice. Partly the reason for the huge success of the swedish cavalry was the dismissal of this doctrine. What was this fancy cavaly manouver called, and how was it executed?
Give it a couple of days and someone is sure to be able to give you an answer. 
