FASCICULI ARCHAEOLOGIAE HISTORICAE, Fase. XI, PL ISSN 0860-0007 MATEUSZ GOLIŃSKI PEASANTS' ARMS AND ARMOUR IN THE LIGHT OF THE SILE SI ANS' MILITARY DUTIES IN THE 15TH-16TH CENTURIES A military breakthrough observed from the se- historiography. It is only certain that the tenant pe- cond part of the 14th century onwards which manife- asantry of a village having the "German law" were sted itself, among other things, in the appearance on to pay a levy in the form of corn - two bushels per the battlefield of serried ranks of infantry troops ope- fief - pro custodia terrae. The bishopric profited ned up new possibilities of strengthening rulers' milita- handsomely from this (2600 bushels a year)2. Me- ry potentials. The assumption that the potential did not anwhile the oldest inspection register of the above- consist of mounted knights exclusively made them mentioned properties, known from the copy found employ enlisted soldiers as well as "revive" a long- in the book Muster Register des Bischtvmbs Bre- forgotten, early medieval idea of common defence thro- slaw of 15933, remains practically unused. The re- ugh full-scale mobilization including land owners and gister was completed in the year 1503. Its contents, users, as well as the owners of city plots. The concep- including the types of arms and armour mentioned, tion of exploiting the military potential of the peasant suggest even that it was based on a slightly older masses, who constituted the majority of contemporary model, most probably dating from the second part of society, was, of course, only sporadically put into prac- the 15th century. A source coming from the district tice. The very idea, however, recurred over and over of Cheb may be its geographically closest analogue. again and was finally seriously considered when the This register, however, dates back to the year 1395 crisis of traditional mobilization solutions became more (the next one, which survived in fragments, to the and more acute. In Silesia the problem arose probably year 1500)4. Thus the possibility that the direct mo- in connection with the Hussite menace. An example del of the solutions employed in the Silesian southern was set by the enemy "plebeian" Taborite army itself. borderlands was the military organization of one of Besides, it was well known that the only means of ba- the nearer territories of Bohemia and Moravia can- lancing the Czechs' constant advantage over Silesian not be excluded. We are not in a position here to forces was to arouse the resistance of all the Catholic analyse all the aspects (i.e. the settlement-related, people. The conception was discussed by the Silesian demographic and economic ones) connected with regional council in Grodkow. The resolution of 18th the origin and contents of this unique, in Silesia, so- November 1421 provided, among other things, that the urce. For us the most important thing is that, besides dukes, lands and towns would mobilize all their forces some knightly and village administrative duties, the and resist the heretics' attacks. This general statement register specifies the services which were to be pro- was followed by some more precise instructions. Eve- vided by the village communes, listed according to ry ten gebawer were to take a wagon equipped with arms and food for three months, as well as a chain (for tying a wagon laager) and "sapper" tools. Every sol- 2 W. Schulte, Quellen zur Geschichte der Besitzver- dier was to bear his best arms, that is spisse, armbro- hältnisse des Bistums Breslau, Breslau 1907, p. 209; idem, Die ste vnd suste (?) so er beste mag1. As we know, no Landesverteidigung des Neisser Fürstentums, „Zeitschrift des full-scale mobilization was held and the Hussite pro- Vereins für Geschichte Schlesiens", Bd. 45 (1911), pp. 284, blem was successfully solved in quite a different way. 285. 3 A handwritten copy of 9th August 1889 by Alfons The very idea, however, was never abandoned. Heyer is used in the article. The State Archive in Wroclaw, Re- The peasants of the lands of Nysa and Otmuchów, cords of the City of Wroclaw, B 20, pp. 11-28. The book was belonging to the bishopric of Wroclaw, were burdened familiar to W. Schulte, who, however, did not use the source. with military duties in unknown circumstances at one 4 K. S i e g 1, Das Musterungsbuch der Egerländer time. The problem remains an absolute mystery for Bauernschaft vom Jahre 1395, "Unser Egerland", 22 (1918), pp. In, 1 In, 23n, 29n, 39n, 44n. The quotation after: R. N o v ý, Střibrské vojenství v době předhusitské, "Historie a vojenství", 1 Geschichtsquellen der Hussitenkriege, hrsg. v. C. G r ü n- R. 1963, p. 413, reference 5; ibidem, Městské knihy v Čechách h a g e n, Scriptores Rerum Silesiacarum, Bd. 6, Breslau 1871, No. a na Moravě 1310 a 1526, Prague 1963, the archive book regi- 17, p. 11. ster in Cheb. http://rcin.org.pl MATEUSZ GOLIŃSKI the administrative order of the bishopric duchy (see obligation may be estimated at about 13 wagons and Tables 1 a-c)3. The register contains names of all the 146 foot soldiers. The number of "inhabitants" and villages of particular districts. It is not clear whether the number of armed men that were to be provided the number of their "inhabitants" (Einwohner) men- by a village were directly related, but their mutual re- tioned in the document refers only to the owners of lationship cannot be clearly defined at the moment as kmethon holdings or includes the cottagers as well the way in which military duty was allocated to parti- (the numbers are large enough to suggest that the list cular villages was highly inconsistent (cf.: Table 2). comprises all kinds of farms). Information about the The arithmetical average in the three quarters is 4,29 number of wagons and armed men that were to be "inhabitants" per one armed man. Thus in the villages provided by a village can also be found in the register. of the three quarters listed there were about 626 ar- All the warriors were foot soldiers (Fueßknechte) med men and in the whole land over 2.000 soldiers. and were divided into three groups, depending on the The authors of the system discussed here did arms they bore: warriors in armour with a pike (im not only want the villages to provide a given number Harnisch mit Spiessen), bow-men with arbalests (mit of armed men. Particular villages, or more often gro- Armbrosten) and shielded warriors armed with shields ups of villages composed of up to 5 settlements, were (Schyldt /Paweze).The so-called free yeomen to secure whole sub-units (parties) equipped with their (Freye) were not burdened with such village duties. own wagon. The sub-units were organized according According to relevant literature, they were rather to a common organizational pattern: one shielded- 6 connected with knightly duties . Thus the reasons for warrior, 3-6 bow-men and the same number of sol- which they were listed in the document remain uncle- diers bearing pikes - "pike-men" (the name is, of co- ar (in some cases they seem to have been included urse, anachronistic, it is, however, used here because on the basis of commune taxes they paid). The Nysa it precisely renders the tasks of this part of the infan- Lower Quarter, where no "free" yeomen were listed, try)7. A situation where the shielded warrior was ac- has the biggest average number of village inhabitants, companied by an odd number of soldiers was usually which might suggest that they were here "concealed" advantageous for the crossbow-men, because an ad- among the "inhabitants". ditional archer was needed in this configuration. The The Nysa-Otmuchow properties, which were composition most frequently mentioned in the source the subject of the inspection, constituted one military (8 times) was a arty of seven (1+3+3) or ten (1+5+4) organism divided into four quarters. Each of the di- men. Groups of nine (1+4+4) soldiers were also fre- strict-area comprised two such quarters. The border quent (6 times). On the basis of this data it may be between the upper and the lower quarters was the assumed that an arrangement where a shielded war- Nysa Kłodzka River (see map). On the map the abo- rior was preceded by three or four pike-men and fol- ve-mentioned villages form a compact complex 35 lowed by three to five crossbow-men was conside- km square. The distance between particular settle- red the best solution. Sub-units smaller than those ments and the towns of Nysa and Otmuchów was described here were sporadic and their composition not longer than 16 km. Only in some cases the villa- may have been enriched by armed men who did not ges were situated 20-25 km away from the cities. All have their own wagon and could not form an inde- the distances could be covered in a day. Therefore pendent unit. If a village (or group of villages) provi- the real time-span of mobilization depended mainly ded 14-15 warriors (there were three such cases), on the system of communication and spreading the they could be divided into two parties and each of news, as well as the very readiness of the peasantry them had its own shielded warrior. This, however, for combat. The distance from the troop concentra- happened only once. It seems that training an additio- tion sites seemed to be of secondary importance in nal man to bear a shield proved to be too complica- this respect.