No Elizabethan Courtier, He

The “courtier” in his red coat and white cloak is undoubtedly a French officer belonging to a regiment of lancers. His strange hat is a czapka with a mortarboard top tufted with an aigrette. It was worn by lancers as late as World War I (the Prussian uhlans). British lancers were wearing czapkas at the Battle of Balaclava.