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Home , Heavy cavalry, Hussar, Light cavalry, Polish cavalry

54

УДК 94/99

Pryshchepa Ya.O.

SPECIAL FEATURES OF POLISH IN THE FALL OF 16th - AT THE HALF OF 17th CENT.

The main difference between and the traditional European cavalry of current period lays in preserving its predomination role in Polish military art because of the early transformation of caal- ry into more effective in 16th-17th centuries units, however supported in combat by the light caalry units, or . Out of the tactical peculiarities of their types of weapon and defense , used to play the role of the main striking force in Polish Commonwealth's soldierhood, and the Cossack units had an auxiliary functions. The main special feature of Polish cavalry and the Polish military art in the fall of 16th - at the half of 17th centuries may be represented as making supplement between the heavy and the light types of cavalry by simultaneous or alternate using of shooting-iron and cold steel weapon in the mount- ed attacks. In comparison with common European military tradition, where the main role in battles though played spearmen and later musketeer units, the Polish cavalry, due to its obvious tactical advan- tages, must have been one of the most fighting efficient troops in European region.

The subject of Polish and of monwealth's military system. The second rea- the general military history are rather new son, is that Polish cavalry, as the main attack problems for Ukrainian history science. Under force in Polish troops, was the main tactical the century-old ideological stress of Russian enemy of Cossack rebels during the famous empire Ukrainian historians did not have the Ukrainian rebellions in the fall of 16th and all possibilities to broaden their outlook in some the 17th centuries. So, it is obvious, that fields of history which could have been found achieving an objective point of view on the dangerous for Russian universally recognized combat values of Ukrainian Cossacks may be model of history. As a rule, on the background allowable only in consequence of unprejudiced of the acceptation of the Ukrainian lands into comparison of them with an enemy soldiers. In the cultural and historical ties between other words, conscientious research of current Ukraine and other countries of topic makes deeper our knowledge about our region had a strong tendency to be ignored in own history and those proceedings which historical researches. This situation caused the caused some epoch-marking results in our existence of the "white stains" phenomenon in national past. the history science of our country. Of course, the requirements of current arti- In order to present the urgency of chosen cle does not allow us to enlighten the chosen topic, I should like to stress that problem of problem completely. Our aim is to analyze the Polish cavalry of 16th-17th centuries is ex- background of Polish cavalry, understand its tremely connected with Ukrainian military role in the military system of Polish Common- history of the mentioned historical period. wealth, define its special features, and show the There are two main reasons, which may prove tactical application in combat. The main base this statement. First of all, we must confess for this article are the corpus "The history of that Ukrainian military art at that time devel- soldiership in " (published in Russian) [1] oped in strong connection with Polish military and the works of the famous Polish military his- tradition, and, so, it is impossible to have torian Konstantine Gurski [2], where can find a actual suggestions about Cossack troops with- great amount of useful archive documents. out understanding of their role in Polish Com- Although there are no special researches in

Pryshchepa Ya.O. 55

Ukrainian historiography, which are directly The significance of cavalry and infantry in dedicated to the problem of the peculiarities of Polish soldiership can be revealed on the Polish cavalry, still some helpful information examples of correlation between these two were found in the works of Ukrainian historians combat arms in the next Polish campaigns: I.Krypyakevych, I.Sveshnikov, V.Serhiychuk, near Orsha there was 16.000 of cavalry (both I.Storozhenko, et alias [3]. heavy and light) and only 4.000 of infantry; The 16th century in European military art near Obertin were 4.529 of cavalry and 1.500 was the distinct boundary line between the Mid- of infantry [5]. Though we must mentioned dle Ages period and the New Ages. It was that there were two exceptions from the com- marked by the process of total crisis of the ap- mon statistics when the number of infantry plication of heavy knight cavalry on the battle- during campaign exceeded over the number of field and raising of the role of hired infantry. cavalry. I mean the Hotin campaign of 1621 The main cause for these changes was the wide- and the Smolensk campaign of 1633-34. These spread of and gradual improvements exceptions can be explained by the peculiari- of its combat capability. So, there was no more ties of both campaigns which demands con- sense of using heavy knight armour. Besides ducting of siege and fortification works, but, that, the obsolete system of mobilization and in general, the main character of the all Pol- forming of the knight troops, based on the prin- ish campaigns in the reviewed period was aspi- ciple of feudal obligation, in the 16th century ration for solving the battle fate only by the was completely eliminated. That is why, the tac- cavalry units. Infantry tended to be used for tical role of and its amount in the the defense of wagon trains and as the cover- troops during the European of that time ing force in the back of the battle arrays. were noticeably reduced as well as its tactical Besides the strong knight traditions in the type had been principally changed from - mentality of Polish elite, the supremacy of cav- knight cavalry to mounted gunners. alry in its tactical role was also conditioned by However, not in all the European regions the mobile character of the hostile Tatar troops. this tendency proceeded in the same way. Like In fact, the effective offense against them could every western influence, this fashion in mili- have been fulfilled only by the cavalry, which tary art gained some peculiarities by spreading was able to have equal mobility, and exceeded into the east of Europe. The special features of the by the striking force and gun power. Polish cavalry of 16th-17th centuries allow to The permanent conflicts with Tatar troops, emphasize the distinction of Polish Common- which became more urgent during the 15th and wealth's soldiership. According to the convic- 16th centuries thereby the formation of tion of the most of Polish historians who inves- Crimean Khanat and the Polish expansion over tigated this problem [4], Polish cavalry had Ukrainian lands, allowed Polish military art to never lost its leading position in Polish soldier- obtain a great experience in dealing with Tatar ship because of the early transformation of cavalry. From the half of 16th century we can knight cavalry into heavy Hussar units. In trace the development of Polish military doc- order to support their attack by the guns and trine, based on the principle of domination of bows, the process of joining the subunits of cavalry and its division into heavy and light to Hussar formations took place. cavalry units for the purpose of combination In fact, infantry had never played appreciable and mutual support of both kinds of cold steel role in Polish soldiership until the half of 17th arms and shooting-iron weapons [6]. This is the century. It was the consequence of Polish mili- main define feature of Polish military art of tary traditions and the peculiarities of Polish 16th and 17th centuries. infantry, which traditionally gravitated towards using of gunner weapon instead of cold Besides the high-priority role of the cavalry steel weapon for distant fighting, and so in the in Polish Commonwealth's military art, I should term of mentioned historical time such kind of like to emphasize on the tactical peculiarities of infantry was an excellent target for hostile cav- heavy and light types of Polish cavalry, more alry and pikeners. known as Hussar and Cossack units. 56 МАҐІСТЕРІУМ. Випуск сьомий. ІСТОРИЧНІ СТУДІЇ

The history of Hussar units in Polish nature of Polish troops and so the quantity was troops begins from the early 16th century and frequently stipulated by the personal financial actually connected with obvious Hungarian opportunities of "comrades". Analyzing the influence. In that time Polish registry docu- available information about the correlation of ments contains a lot of information about the both types of fighters, we can draw the signifi- hired units which carried cant number of 3-5 "rankers" to 1 "comrade". military service in Polish troops. In compari- For instance, according to registers, the Hussar son with traditional polish knight cavalry of unit of Potocki in 1550 had 28 "comrades" and that time, the Hungarian Hussars despite of 106 "retinue comrades"; unit of Zebrzhidowski being the heavy type of cavalry too, though in 1589 had 40 "comrades" and 187 "retinue had more simplified armour [7]. That is why, comrades" [9]. During the 17th century in Polish they were more useful for the combat with soldiership took place the tendency for reducing Tatars because the last ones did not have the the number of "rankers" to 3 fighters. So, the heavy cavalry at all and effectively used their "artikul" of Polish hetman Stanisław Konecpol- advantage of high mobility. Duing the 16th ski in 1643 prohibited to hire more than three century Polish elite cavalry completely turned "rankers" in one "retinue" [10]. That is why, the into Hungarian Hussar type, which was the total number of fighters in Hussar unit during beginning of famous Polish Hussar tradition 17th century, as a rule, counted 100-120 riders. in Polish military history of Modern Age. Instead of division on two subordination According to first known description of Pol- type, the Hussar units preserved their general ish Hussars (Starovolski Eques Polonus. 1628.) elite status. Being the main striking force in [8], their armour consisted of the next com- Polish troops, Hussars, as a rule, had never pounds: simplified iron (the type of been used in mounting patrol for the tactical chain mail), the helmet of the famous Polish reconnaissance and for the defense of wagon type known as "shishak", iron oversleeves, and camp. These duties were in a competence of sometimes the characteristic two large feather light cavalry. wings on the back. The basic weapon of Polish Hussar was the large (near 3,5 meters) spear, As we had already mentioned, light cavalry the supplementary weapons were curved , in Polish soldiership was assigned for auxiliary so-called "Polish and Hungarian type", large role. It was conditioned by typical foreign origin well-known as "koncerzh", and one or two of these fighters and also by the peculiarity of pistols. The last two kinds of weapon used to be their weapon. Actually, Polish nobles used to fixed to the , instead of sabre, regard that only military service in Hussar which was always worn near the left side of units was worthy of their high-born origin, that body. Although not all the Hussars had the is why service in light cavalry was reserved equal military status. The question at issue is mainly for local Ukrainian nobles and for tem- that Hussars units (in Polish military terminol- porary hired Tatar and Voloh cavalry units. I ogy "horugva") had the traditional medieval must admit that there are no single term in Pol- principle of completing, based on the vassal sub- ish military history for the meaning of light ordination. The manpower of "horugva" was cavalry. For example, Tatar and Voloh units had formed by two categories of fighters, known as the term "Tatar and Voloh horugvy"; units "tovaryshi" ("comrades") and "sherengovi" or which formed from the ethnic Ukrainian lands "pochtovi tovaryshi" ("rankers" or "retinue tended to be called "kozacki horugvy" or "pan- comrades"). "Comrades" executed the role of cyrni horugvy" from the half of 17th centu- junior officers: they personally hired "retinue ry [11]. The first references about "kozacki comrades" and led that organization item, which horugvy" we found in the middle of 16th centu- formed the one row in the battle-array of ry. The principle of their forming was the same "horugva". as in Hussar units, namely, there were also It is hard to define the constant quantity of some "comrades" who had hired "rankers" [12] "comrades" and "retinue comrades" in Polish but these "comrades" were mostly local nobles Hussar units. Obviously, it depended on hired from the western Ukrainian lands: Galychina, 57

Volyn', Podillia [13]. The origin of Cossack cav- attack and so he had to return behind the bat- alry in Polish troops can be clearly traced from tle-arrays for reloading it or to develop attack the typical for Polish soldiership medieval with a short spear. The auxiliary character of mounted archers, which also carried the same Cossack light cavalry was caused by that tacti- auxiliary role for the knight units. The term cal peculiarity. In other word, this type of cav- "Cossack" came from Turkic languages where it alry could have been used effectively only was indicated in common meaning the type of against enemy units who did not have large lightly armoured rider. Ukrainian historian spears, for example, against mounted or un- Yavornycki, for example, presents the notifica- mounted shooters. As the sources say: "Hussar tions of the 15th century about the Tatar Cos- spear must be 8,5 cubits long (near 3,91 me- sacks from Bilgorod, Perekop and Azov [14]. tres)... It is good against German spearmen, Very similar was also the weapon of Tatar cav- Hungarian Hussar, Turkish spearmen... Rogaty- alry and the Cossack units of Polish troops. For na is good against German reytars, unmounted example, as sources say, Tatars did not use any Cossacks, mounted Tatars because of its light armour, their weapon consisted of bow, curve weight... It must be 5 cubits long (near sabre, dagger, and sometimes the short 2,3 metres)." [18] spear [15]. The same information about Cossack At the same time, the co-operation between units we can find in the documents of the end Hussar and Cossack units in combat consider- of the 16th century: "They (Cossacks) are ably increased the total striking force of their armoured very lightly, almost like Tatars. Their attacks and it was the defining character of Pol- are very mobile and able for the small ish cavalry tactics. From the 16th century we clashes. Their saddle are good for simple turn- have the references about the arrangement of ing in all the sides and shooting from the bow. Polish battle-arrays [19]. Out of this informa- In combat they usually use a bow, hitting the tion we can indicate the typical place for Hussar enemy riders by the clouds of arrows. They also units in the middle part of battle-array, and the use of the eastern types and the short common place for Cossacks was on the flanks, spears" [16]. behind or between Hussars' units. The Polish In general, according to available material, cavalry tactics meant the consecutive alterna- it is rather hard to define the typical variant of tion of Cossack and Hussar attacks, based on the light armoured Cossack rider in Polish troops. possibility to rescue one's failed attack or to Some sources of the 17th century describe them develop its success [20]. Besides that, using of in lighted chain armour with typical "misiurka" shooting-iron weapon was able to disorganise helmet and with "one large and two short shoot- the enemy battle-arrays and so to simplify the ing-iron weapons" in spite of bows [17]. Obvi- attack of Hussars. The classical example of such ously, we must admit that there were no single co-operation and consecutive alternation of Hus- established standards for the light cavalry and sar and Cossack units was the battle near they were modified with a time and development Klushino in 1610 where Polish cavalry had of shooting-iron weapon. In my view, from all made 10 continuous attacks against Russian the existing descriptions we should select two positions and finally gained the victory. the most typical examples of light cavalry From the beginning of 17th century the sig- weapon - the short spear (in Polish military ter- nificance of using the Cossack units in Polish minology "rogatyna") and short cavalry types of troops had being constantly increased. For guns. There are no contradiction between using instance, in the first Smolensk campaign of both of these weapons at the same time. 1609-1611 took part 1.900 Hussars and only "Rogatyna" had to be short (near 2 metres) be- 600 mounted Cossacks [21]; during the second cause of necessity to be hold vertically by the Smolensk campaign of 1633-1634 there were cord behind the rider's back in order to free his 1.540 Hussars and already 2.550 mounted Cos- right hand for making a shot. At the same time, sacks; and near Berestechko in 1651 against the we must remember that because of the peculiar- troops of Bohdan Khmelnicki fought 2.346 Hus- ity of ignite mechanism it was impossible for sars and 11.161 mounted Cossacks. Such kind of mounted shooter to reload the gun during the changes in correlation between these two types 58 МАҐІСТЕРІУМ. Випуск сьомий. ІСТОРИЧНІ СТУДІЇ of Polish cavalry could be explained by total were the main striking force in Polish troops. increase of the role of shooting-iron weapon in All the kinds of light cavalry units, which, as combat. Besides that, obviously, using a greater a rule, had non-polish origin, played an auxil- number of mounted shooters should have been iary role; done the possibility to provide the Hussars • an effective co-operation between the attacks no less effectively. heavy and the light types of cavalry was an essential part of Polish cavalry tactics. The cen- Summarising of all the cited material about tral idea of this co-operation was to make sup- Polish cavalry of the fall of 16th - the first half plement to each other by the simultaneous or of 17th centuries, we came to the next - alternate using of shooting-iron and cold steel ments: weapon in the mounted attacks. • special features of Polish cavalry in given historical period consisted in preserving of its Out of current statements we can formulate general predomination role in Polish troops as the next conclusion: the historical period from distinct from the western tendency of raising the fall of 16th till the middle of 17th century the infantry role in military art; was the time of the enhancement of the Polish • Polish cavalry mostly preserved its elite cavalry and its adjustment to the new terms of gathering and the special principle of forming waging the in Early Modern Ages. The spe- the units, based on the division on "comrades" cial features of Polish soldiership in given peri- and "rankers"; od allow to confirm that, due to peculiarities of • there were two main types of mounted Polish cavalry and its tactical role, the Polish units in Polish cavalry. The Hussar units be- troops must have been one of the most fighting longed to the type of heavy cavalry, which efficient troops in Eastern Europe region.

1. История воєнного дела в Польше. - Варшава, 11. Свєшніков І. Битва під Берестечком. - Львів, 1970. 1993. - С.77. 2. Gyrski K. Historia piechoty polskiej. - Kraków, 12. Там само. 1893; Gyrski K. Historia jazdy polskiej. - Kraków, 1895. 13. Gyrski K. Historia jazdy polskiej. - Kraków, 3. Історія українського війська. - Київ, 1994. - 1895. - S. 324-327. Том. 1; Свєшніков І. Битва під Берестечком. - Львів, 14. Яворницький Д. Історія запорозьких козаків. - 1993; Сергійчук В. Армія Богдана Хмельницького. - Київ, 1990. - T. 2. - C. 7-8. Київ, 1996; Стороженко І. Богдан Хмельницький і 15. Історія українського війська. - Київ, 1994. - воєнне мистецтво у Визвольній війні українського народу Т.1.-С. 219; Т.1. - С. 192-193. середини XVII століття. - Дніпропетровськ, 1996. 16. Сергійчук В. Армія Богдана Хмельницького. - 4. Gyrski K. Historia jazdy polskiej. - Kraków, 1895; Київ, 1996. - С. 181-182. Ис- Gyrski K. Historia piechoty polskiej. - Kraków, 1893; 17. Gyrski K. Historia jazdy polskiej. - Kraków, тория воєнного дела в Польше. - Варшава, 1970. 1895. - S. 67-69. 5. Gyrski K. Historia piechoty polskiej. - Kraków, 18. Сергійчук В. Армія Богдана Хмельницького. - 1893. - S. 27. Київ, 1996. - C. 66. 6. Gyrski K. Historia piechoty polskiej. - Kraków, 19. Gyrski K. Historia jazdy polskiej. - Kraków, 1893. - S. 7-8. 1895. - S.37-40; S. 79-80. 7. Gyrski K. Historia jazdy polskiej. - Kraków, 1895. - 20. История воєнного дела в Польше. - Варшава, S. 15. 1970. - С. 38-40. 8. Ibid. - S. 63-67. 21. Gyrski K. Historia jazdy polskiej. - Kraków, 9. Ibid. - S. 25-34. 1895'. - S. 73-74. 10. Ibid. - S. 72. 59

Прищепа Я.О.

ОСОБЛИВОСТІ ПОЛЬСЬКОЇ КІННОТИ КІНЦЯ XVI - ПЕРШОЇ ПОЛОВИНИ XVII СТ.

На відміну від поширеної тогочасної європейської військової практики, характерною особливістю польської кавалерії означеного періоду було збереження її панівного значення у військовій справі. Це по- яснюється досить ранньою трансформацією важкої рицарської кінноти у більш ефективну для військових реалій XVI-XVII століть гусарську кінноту, ефективність застосування якої, однак, до- датково підвищувалася долученням підрозділів легкої (козацької) кінноти. Виходячи з особливостей їхнього озброєння та захисного обладунку, гусари відігравали у війську Речі Посполитої роль головної ударної сили, в той час як всім видам легкої кінноти відводилася виразно допоміжна роль. До визна- чальних рис польської кавалерії кінця XVI - першої половини XVII століть можна віднести також возведену в ранг військової теорії практику забезпечення тактичної взаємодії між важкою і легкою кіннотою, покликану максимально підвищити ефективність використання тактико-технічних мож- ливостей кожної з них. Вона була одним з найефективніших ударних типів військ у Європі.