Both the Blue and Royals trace their origins back to the restoration of King Charles II in 1660. Needing to build a new army, the King appointed a royalist officer to command an existing regiment of heavy cavalry known as 'The Royal Regiment of Horse'. In 1661 the regiment was reformed under the command of the Earl of Oxford, and they wore distinctive blue uniforms, both in deference to their new commander and in line with the original dress in Cromwell's New Model Army. And then in 1687 the regiment became the Royal Horse Guards, the nickname 'Blues' still stuck. Charles formed another regiment on 21 October 1661 as a troop of horse to be sent to Tangier. On their return the 'Royal Dragoons' - later known as the Royals.

In the wars on the 18th century the Blues won battle honours at Dettingen, at Warburg, where in 1760 the regiment's colonel, the marquis of Granby, led a famous charge against the French - Beaumont and Willems in Holland. And 1812 , the Blues formed the 'Household Brigade' with the First and Second Life Guards to fight in the Peninsular War under Wellington, and later at Waterloo.

Meanwhile the original Tangier Horse became the Royal Dragoon Regiment of Dragoons in 1690 and the 1st(Royal Dragoons) in 1751. The Royals also won battle honours at Dettingen, Warburg, Beaumont, Willems, in the Peninsula, at Waterloo and in the Crimea and the Boer War. And the Blues won more honours at Tel-el-Kebir, in Egypt in 1882 and in South Africa.

In the early stages of World War I both cavalry regiments fought in the opening manoeuvre phase, but the subsequent years brought frustration, either in the trenches or waiting for the breakthrough which never came.

Nevertheless, both regiments still went to war on horseback in 1939, and fought their first campaign in the Middle East and North Africa as cavalry. The Blues transferred to armoured cars in February 1942 and the Royals switched later the same year.

As the Second Household Cavalry Regiment, the Blues fought in North West Europe in 1944-45 with their armoured cars consistently in the van guard of the Allied advance. After World War 2 the Blues and Life Guards kept their armoured cars, but normally one regiment was on ceremonial duties while the other was abroad in Germany or Cyprus. The combined regiment of Blues and Royals converted to Chieftain tanks on formation in 1969, switching to the Scorpion in 1974.

Two 14 man Troops went to the Falklands with four Scorpion and four Scimitar light tanks plus a Samson armoured recovery vehicle manned by Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers personnel. The vehicles covered an averege 350 miles and performed well despite the soft ground. One Scimitar needed a gearbox change and a Scorpion lost a track to a mine. The Blues and Royals suffered no casualties in the Falklands campaign and brought back 2 Argentine Panhard armoured cars as trophies.