Polish Hussars

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Commonwealth Hussar, wings visible. Painting by Aleksander Orłowski.

The Polish Hussars were a main part of the Polish Army (and later, the Polish-Lithuanian Army) between the 16th and 18th centuries. The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth had adopted the hussars from Hungary. When the unit type was first adopted, it was a light cavalry formation, and later it transformed into heavy cavalry. Until the 18th century it was the most famous elite unit of the Commonwealth.

1 History
2 Tactic
3 Gallery
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History

Initially the first hussar units in the Kingdom of Poland were formed by the Sejm (Polish parliament) in 1503, which hired three banners of Hungarian mercenaries. Quickly recruitment also began among Polish and Lithuanian citizens (Lithuania being increasingly tied to Poland through the Polish-Lithuanian union). Being far more maneuvrable than the heavily armoured lancers previously employed, the hussars proved vital to the Polish-Lithuanian victories at Orsza (1514) and Obertyn (1531). By the reign of King Stefan Batory the hussars had replaced medieval-style lancers in the Polish-Lithuanian army, and they now formed the bulk of the Polish cavalry.

Over the course of the 1500s hussars in Hungary had become heavier in character: they had abandoned wooden shields and adopted plate metal body armour. When Stefan Batory, a Transylvanian-Hungarian prince, became king of Poland in 1576 he reorganized the Polish-Lithuanian hussars of his Royal Guard along Hungarian lines, making them a heavy formation, equipped with a long lance as their main weapon. By the 1590s most Polish-Lithuanian hussar units had been reformed along the same 'heavy' Hungarian model. These Polish 'heavy' hussars were known in their homeland as husaria.

With the Battle of Lubieszów in 1577 the 'Golden Age' of the husaria began. Until the Battle of Vienna in 1683, the Polish hussars fought countless actions against a variety of enemies, and rarely lost a battle. In the battles of Battle of Lubieszów in 1577, Byczyna (1588), Kokenhusen (1601), Kircholm (1605), Kłuszyn (1610), Trzciana (1629), Chocim (1673) and Lwów (1675), the Polish-Lithuanian hussars proved to be the decisive factor often against overwhelming odds.

In all of these battles, they were victorious despite the fact that the hussars often had fewer men than their opponents. In the Battle of Kłuszyn, the Russians had 35,000 troops, Poland only 6,800. However Poland-Lithuania came out of the battle as the victor.

The hussars have also suffered occasional defeats, particularly during the Chmielnicki Uprising (Battle of Żółte Wody, 1648).

In the 17th century, firearms improved and melee cavalry became unable to break infantry formations. By the 18th century, hussars were obsolete units, good for military parades but not for combat.

[edit] Tactic

The Polish-Lithuanian hussars primary battle tactic was the charge. They carried the charge to, and through the enemy. This was a key to their victories. They also tended to repeat the charge several times until the enemy formation broke (they had supply wagons with spare lances). Both things — the charging attack, and heavy weight guaranteed victory for nearly two centuries. The hussars fought with a long lance, a szabla (a type of a sabre) and later, 2 guns. A signature part of the Polish Hussars' uniforms was that they had two wings on their backs.