As a military term, "jinete" (also spelled "ginete" or "genitour") means a Spanish light horseman that wore leather armor and were armed with javelins, a spear, a sword, and a shield. They were a type of mounted troop developed in the early Middle Ages in response to the massed light cavalry of the Moors. 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" until the sixteenth century. They were to serve successfully in the Italian Wars under Gonzalo de Córdoba and Ramón de Cardona.