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SPECIAL FEATURES of POLISH CAVALRY in the FALL of 16Th - at the HALF of 17Th CENT

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SPECIAL FEATURES of POLISH CAVALRY in the FALL of 16Th - at the HALF of 17Th CENT 54 УДК 94/99 Pryshchepa Ya.O. SPECIAL FEATURES OF POLISH CAVALRY IN THE FALL OF 16th - AT THE HALF OF 17th CENT. The main difference between Polish cavalry and the traditional European cavalry of current period lays in preserving its predomination role in Polish military art because of the early transformation of knight caal- ry into more effective in 16th-17th centuries Hussar units, however supported in combat by the light caalry units, or Cossacks. Out of the tactical peculiarities of their types of weapon and defense armour, Hussars 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 infantry 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 military history 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 Russia the cultural and historical ties between other words, conscientious research of current Ukraine and other countries of Eastern Europe 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 Poland" (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 firearms 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 heavy cavalry and its amount in the the defense of wagon trains and as the cover- troops during the European wars 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 lance- 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 Tatars 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 light cavalry 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 Hungarian cavalry 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.
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