Timoléon de Sercourt d’Esclainvilliers inherited his father's company of Light Horse in 1635, when he was three years old.

From 1809 on the regiment served in the battles of Eckmühl, Essling, Wagram, Ostrowono, Smolensk, Borodino, Dresden, Liebertwolkwitz, Leipzig, Champaubert, Fère-Champenoise.

During the First Restoration (1814), the regiment was given the designation of the Régiment de Cuirassiers du Dauphin.

At this early stage in the war it was still a horse-mounted formation wearing the plumed helmets and cuirasses of the Napoleonic period, with the colorful uniforms of peacetime.

Except for these brief intervals, the 3rd retained its historic role as mounted heavy cavalry for most of the war, remaining in reserve behind the lines.

The 3rd was dissolved in 1919 in the aftermath of the war, as part of a general reorganisation of the French heavy cavalry which saw the number of cuirassier regiments reduced from twelve to six.

The regiment was reformed on 16 May 1940 as an armored unit in the region of Fontevraud-Saumur, as a part of the general mobilization for the war with Germany.

The regiment moved to Abbeville on 27 May, where it resisted the German advance, before being forced to retreat to Beauvais.

Hostilities were suspended on 25 June and cease-fire orders were given to all units; the regiment was dissolved on 31 July 1940.

The 3rd Cuirassiers was reformed in 1952, and on 23 March 1956 the regiment disembarked in Oran, French Algeria, first moving to Tlemcen then Sebdou.

It would be reorganized several times during the war and in October 1962 it was attached to the 43rd Brigade, based at Mers El Kébir.

A squadron was sent to the former Yugoslavia in 1994 as a part of the United Nations Protection Force; serving in Croatia for its four months deployment.

The regiment was disbanded in 1998 as part of a general reorganisation of the French Army following the end of conscription.