Total War Winged Hussars

The first Hussars are thought to have been Serbian nobles seeking refuge in Hungary. The tradition of hit and run tactics of the Hussars found a fertile home in Hungary where they became influenced by the Magyars and the Uyghur Turks. Apr 15, 2013  Empire: Total War; discuss about POLISH WINGED HUSSARS; If this is your first visit, be sure to check out the FAQ by clicking the link above. You may have to register before you can post: click the register link above to proceed. To start viewing messages, select the forum that you want to visit from the selection below.

1. Medieval 2 Total War Winged Hussars Mod

The Battle of Vienna (German: Schlacht am Kahlen Berge or Kahlenberg (Battle of the Bald Mountains); Polish: bitwa pod Wiedniem or odsiecz wiedeńska (The Relief of Vienna); Modern Turkish: İkinci Viyana Kuşatması, Ottoman Turkish: Beç Ḳalʿası Muḥāṣarası) took place at Kahlenberg Mountain near Vienna on 12 September 1683^[1] after the imperial city had been besieged by the Ottoman Empire for two months. The battle was fought by the Habsburg Monarchy, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Holy Roman Empire, under the command of King John III Sobieski against the Ottomans and their vassal and tributary states. The battle marked the first time the Commonwealth and the Holy Roman Empire had cooperated militarily against the Ottomans, and it is often seen as a turning point in history, after which 'the Ottoman Turks ceased to be a menace to the Christian world'.^[20] In the ensuing war that lasted until 1699, the Ottomans lost almost all of Hungary to the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I.^[20]

The battle was won by the combined forces of the Holy Roman Empire and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the latter represented only by the forces of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland (the march of the Lithuanian army was delayed, and they reached Vienna after it had been relieved).^[21] The Viennese garrison was led by Ernst Rüdiger Graf von Starhemberg, an Austrian subject of Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I. The overall command was held by the senior leader, the King of Poland, John III Sobieski, who led the relief forces.

The opposing military forces were those of the Ottoman Empire and Ottoman fiefdoms, commanded by Grand VizierMerzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha. The Ottoman army numbered approximately 90,000^[9] to 300,000^{[14][15][16][17][better source needed]} men (according to documents on the order of battle found in Kara Mustafa's tent, initial strength at the start of the campaign was 170,000 men^[13]). They began the siege on 14 July 1683. Ottoman forces consisted, among other units, of 60 ortas of Janissaries (12,000 men paper-strength) with an observation army of some 70,000^[22] men watching the countryside. The decisive battle took place on 12 September, after the arrival of the united relief army.

Historians suggest the battle marked the turning point in the Ottoman–Habsburg wars, a 300-year struggle between the Holy Roman and Ottoman Empires. During the 16 years following the battle, the Austrian Habsburgs gradually recovered and dominated southern Hungary and Transylvania, which had been largely cleared of Ottoman forces. The battle is noted for including the largest known cavalry charge in history.

• 7Cultural legacy

Prelude[edit]

Capturing the city of Vienna had long been a strategic aspiration of the Ottoman Empire, because of its interlocking control over Danubian (Black Sea to Western Europe) southern Europe and the overland (Eastern Mediterranean to Germany) trade routes. During the years preceding this second siege (the first was the 1529 Siege of Vienna) under the auspices of grand viziers from the influential Köprülü family, the Ottoman Empire undertook extensive logistical preparations, including the repair and establishment of roads and bridges leading into the Holy Roman Empire and its logistical centers, as well as the forwarding of ammunition, cannon, and other resources from all over the Empire to these centers and into the Balkans. Since 1679 the plague had been raging in Vienna.^[23]

On the political front, the Ottoman Empire had been providing military assistance to the Hungarians and non-Catholic minorities in Habsburg-occupied portions of Hungary. There, in the years preceding the siege, widespread unrest had grown into open rebellion against Leopold I's pursuit of Counter-Reformation principles and his desire to crush Protestantism. In 1681 Protestants and other anti-Habsburg Kuruc forces, led by Imre Thököly, were reinforced with a significant force from the Ottomans,^[18]:657 who recognized Thököly as King of 'Upper Hungary' (the eastern part of today's Slovakia and parts of northeastern Hungary, which he had earlier taken by force from the Habsburgs). This support included explicitly promising the 'Kingdom of Vienna' to the Hungarians if it fell into Ottoman hands. Yet before the siege, a state of peace had existed for 20 years between the Holy Roman Empire and the Ottoman Empire as a result of the Peace of Vasvár.

In 1681 and 1682 clashes between the forces of Imre Thököly and the Holy Roman Empire (the border of which was then northern Hungary) intensified, and the incursions of Habsburg forces into central Hungary provided the crucial argument of Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa Pasha in convincing Sultan Mehmet IV and his Divan to allow the movement of the Ottoman army. Mehmet IV authorized Mustafa Pasha to operate as far as Győr (then known as Yanıkkale, and in German as Raab) and Komárom (in TurkishKomaron, Komorn in German) Castles, both in northwestern Hungary, and to besiege them. The Ottoman army was mobilized on 21 January 1682 and war was declared on 6 August 1682.

The logistics of the time meant it would have been risky or impossible to launch an invasion in August or September 1682, since a three-month campaign would have taken the Ottomans to Vienna just as winter set in. But the 15-month gap between mobilization and the launch of a full-scale invasion provided ample time for Vienna to prepare its defense and for Leopold to assemble troops from the Holy Roman Empire and form an alliance with Poland, Venice and Pope Innocent XI. This undoubtedly contributed to the failure of the Ottoman campaign. The decisive alliance of the Holy Roman Empire with Poland was concluded in the 1683 Treaty of Warsaw, by which Leopold promised to support Sobieski if the Ottomans attacked Kraków, and in return the Polish army would come to the relief of Vienna if it were attacked.^{[18]:656, 659}

On 31 March 1683, another declaration—sent by Grand Vizier Merzifonlu Kara Mustafa Pasha on behalf of Mehmet IV—arrived at the Imperial Court in Vienna. The next day the forward march of Ottoman army elements began from Edirne in Rumelia. Ottoman troops reached Belgrade by early May. They were joined by a Transylvanian army under Prince Mihaly Apafi and a Hungarian force under Imre Thököly; they laid siege to Győr and the remaining army of 150,000 moved toward the city of Vienna.^[18]:660 About 40,000 Crimean Tatar troops arrived 40 kilometres (25 mi) east of Vienna on 7 July,^[18]:660 twice as many as the Imperial troops in the area. Emperor Leopold fled Vienna for Passau with his court and 60,000 Viennese, while Charles V, Duke of Lorraine, withdrew his force of 20,000 towards Linz.^[18]:660 The main Ottoman army arrived at Vienna on 14 July; the city's only defense force was now that of Count Ernst Rüdiger von Starhemberg's 15,000 men.^[18]:660

The King of Poland, John III Sobieski, prepared a relief expedition to Vienna during the summer of 1683, so honoring his obligations to the treaty (he left his own nation virtually undefended when departing from Kraków on 15 August). He covered this with a stern warning to Imre Thököly, the leader of Upper Hungary, whom he threatened with destruction if he tried to take advantage of the situation—which Thököly in fact attempted. Jan Kazimierz Sapieha the Younger delayed the march of the Lithuanian army, devastating the Hungarian Highlands (now Slovakia) instead, and arrived in Vienna only after it had been relieved.^[21]

Immediately tensions rose between Poland and the various German states—mainly Austria—over the relief of the city. Payment of troops' wages and supplies while marching was predominant among these. Sobieski insisted that he should not have to pay for his march to Vienna, since it was by his efforts that the city had been saved; nor could the Viennese neglect the other German troops who had marched. The Habsburg leadership hurriedly found as much money as possible to pay for these and arranged deals with the Polish, to limit their costs.^[24]

Events during the siege[edit]

The main Ottoman army finally laid siege to Vienna on 14 July. On the same day, Kara Mustafa sent the traditional demand for surrender to the city.^[25]Ernst Rüdiger Graf von Starhemberg, leader of the remaining 15,000 troops and 8,700 volunteers with 370 cannons, refused to capitulate. Only days before, he had received news of the mass slaughter at Perchtoldsdorf,^[26] a town south of Vienna, where the citizens had handed over the keys of the city after having been given a similar choice, but were killed anyway. Siege operations started on 17 July.^[18]:660

The Viennese had demolished many of the houses around the city walls and cleared the debris, leaving an empty plain that would expose the Ottomans to defensive fire if they tried to rush into the city.^[18]:660 Kara Mustafa Pasha tried to solve that problem by ordering his forces to dig long lines of trenches directly toward the city, to help protect them from the defenders as they advanced.

The Ottomans had 130 field guns and 19 medium-caliber cannon, insufficient in the face of the defenders' 370.^[9]Mining tunnels were dug under the massive city walls, which would then be filled with sufficient quantities of black powder to blow up the walls.^[18]:660 According to Andrew Wheatcroft, the outer palisade was around 150 years old and mostly rotten, so the defenders set to work knocking very large tree trunks into the ground to surround the walls. This seriously disrupted the Ottoman plan, adding almost another three weeks to the time it would take to get past the old palisade.^[27] This, combined with the delay in advancing their army after declaring war, eventually allowed a relief force to arrive in September.^[18]:660 Historians have speculated that Kara Mustafa wanted to take the city intact with its riches and declined an all-out attack, not wishing to initiate the plundering that would accompany an assault and was viewed as the right of conquering soldiers.^[28]

The Ottoman siege cut virtually every means of food supply into Vienna.^[29] Fatigue became so common that von Starhemberg ordered any soldier found asleep on watch to be shot. Increasingly desperate, the forces holding Vienna were on their last legs when, in August, Imperial forces under Charles V, Duke of Lorraine, defeated Thököly at Bisamberg, 5 km (3.1 mi) northwest of Vienna.

On 6 September the Poles under Sobieski crossed the Danube 30 km (19 mi) northwest of Vienna at Tulln, to unite with imperial troops and the additional forces from Saxony, Bavaria, Baden, Franconia and Swabia. The forces were also joined by several regiments of Zaporozhian Cossacks from Polish controlled Ukraine.^[30]Louis XIV of France declined to help his Habsburg rival, having just annexed Alsace.

An alliance between Sobieski and Emperor Leopold I resulted in the addition of the Polish hussars to the existing allied army. The leadership of the forces of European allies was entrusted to the Polish king, who had under his command 70,000–80,000 soldiers facing an Ottoman army of 150,000.^[18]:661 Sobieski's courage and remarkable aptitude for command was already known in Europe.

During early September, c. 5,000 experienced Ottoman sappers had repeatedly blown up large portions of the walls between the Burg bastion, the Löbel bastion and the Burg ravelin, creating gaps of about 12m in width. The Viennese tried to counter this by digging their own tunnels to intercept the placing of large amounts of gunpowder in subterranean caverns. The Ottomans finally managed to occupy the Burg ravelin and the low wall in that area on 8 September. Anticipating a breach in the city walls, the remaining Viennese prepared to fight in the inner city.

Staging the battle[edit]

The relief army had to act quickly to save the city and prevent another long siege. Despite the multinational composition of the army and the short space of only six days, an effective leadership structure was established, centered on the King of Poland and his heavy cavalry (Polish Hussars). The Holy League settled the issues of payment by using all available funds from the government, loans from several wealthy bankers and noblemen and large sums of money from the Pope.^[24] Also, the Habsburgs and Poles agreed that the Polish government would pay for its own troops while still in Poland, but that the Emperor would pay them once they crossed into imperial territory. However, the Emperor had to recognize Sobieski’s claim to first rights of plunder of the enemy camp in the event of a victory.^[24]

Kara Mustafa Pasha was less effective at ensuring the motivation and loyalty of his forces, and in preparing for the expected relief-army attack. He had entrusted defense of the rear to the Khan of Crimea and his cavalry force, which numbered between 30,000–40,000. There is doubt as to how much the Tatars participated in the final battle before Vienna. Their Khan refused to attack the relief force as it crossed the Danube on pontoon bridges and also refused to attack them as they emerged from the Wienerwald. The Ottomans also could not rely on their Wallachian and Moldavian allies. George Ducas, Prince of Moldavia, was captured, while Șerban Cantacuzino's forces joined the retreat after Sobieski's cavalry charge.

The confederated troops signaled their arrival on the Kahlenberg above Vienna with bonfires. The forces in the city of Vienna responded by sending a Polish-Ukrainian former Zaporozhian Cossack and trader who was fluent in Turkish, by the name of Jerzy Franciszek Kulczycki, in a successful spy mission to penetrate the Turkish forces and notify the relief troops of when the joint attack was to be made. Before the battle a Mass was celebrated, said by Marco d'Aviano, the religious adviser of Emperor Leopold I.

Battle[edit]

The battle started before all units were fully deployed. At 4:00 am on 12 September 1683, the Ottomans attacked, seeking to interfere with the deployment of Holy League troops.^[18]:661 The Germans were the first to strike back. Charles of Lorraine moved forward with the imperial army on the left and other imperial forces in the center and, after heavy fighting and multiple Ottoman counterattacks, took several key positions, specifically the fortified villages of Nussdorf and Heiligenstadt. By noon the imperial army had already severely mauled the Ottomans and come close to a breakthrough.^[31] Though shattered, the Ottoman army did not crumble at that moment.^[32]

Mustafa Pasha launched his counterattacks with most of his force, but held back some of the elite Janissary and Sipahi units for a simultaneous assault on the city. The Ottoman commanders had intended to take Vienna before Sobieski arrived, but time ran out. Their sappers had prepared a large, final detonation under the Löbelbastei^[33] to breach the walls. In total, ten mines were set to explode, but they were located by the defenders and disarmed.

In the early afternoon a great battle started on the other side of the battlefield as the Polish infantry advanced on the Ottoman right flank. Instead of concentrating on the battle with the relief army, the Ottomans continued their efforts to force their way into the city. That meant the Poles could make good progress, and by 4:00 pm they had taken the village of Gersthof, which would serve as a base for their massive cavalry charge.^[11] The Ottomans were in a desperate position, between Polish and Imperial forces. Charles of Lorraine and John III Sobieski both decided, on their own, to continue the offensive and finish off the enemy.^[32]

The imperial forces resumed the offensive on the left front at 3:30 pm. At first they encountered fierce resistance and were stopped. This did not last long, however, and by 5:00 pm they had made further gains and taken the villages of Unterdöbling and Oberdöbling. They were now very close to the central Ottoman position (the 'Türkenschanze').^[32] As they were preparing to storm it, they could see the Polish cavalry in action.

It is recorded that the Polish cavalry slowly emerged from the forest to the cheers of the onlooking infantry, which had been anticipating their arrival. At 4:00 pm the hussars first entered into action, battering the Ottoman lines and approaching the Türkenschanze, which was now threatened from three sides (the Poles from the west, the Saxons and the Bavarians from the northwest and the Austrians from the north). At that point the Ottoman vizier decided to leave this position and retreat to his headquarters in the main camp further south. However, by then many Ottomans were already leaving the battlefield.^[11]

The allies were now ready for the last blow. At around 6:00 pm the Polish king ordered the cavalry attack in four groups, three Polish and one from the Holy Roman Empire—18,000 horsemen charged down the hills, the largest cavalry charge in history.^[34][35] Sobieski led the charge^[18]:661 at the head of 3,000 Polish heavy lancers, the famed 'Winged Hussars'. The Muslim Lipka Tatars who fought on the Polish side wore a sprig of straw in their helmets to distinguish them from the Tatars fighting on the Ottoman side.^[36] The charge easily broke the lines of the Ottomans, who were exhausted and demoralized and soon started to flee the battlefield. The cavalry headed straight for the Ottoman camps and Kara Mustafa's headquarters, while the remaining Viennese garrison sallied out of its defenses to join in the assault.^[18]:661

The Ottoman troops were tired and dispirited following the failure of the attempt at sapping, the assault on the city and the advance of the Holy League infantry on the Türkenschanze.^[18]:661 The cavalry charge was the final deadly blow. Less than three hours after the cavalry attack, the Christian forces had won the battle and saved Vienna. The first Christian officer who entered Vienna was Margrave Ludwig of Baden, at the head of his dragoons.^[11] Afterwards Sobieski paraphrased Julius Caesar's famous quotation (Veni, vidi, vici) by saying 'Veni, vidi, Deus vicit'—'I came, I saw, God conquered'.^[18]:661

Aftermath[edit]

Contemporary Ottoman historian Silahdar Findiklili Mehmed Agha (1658–1723) described the battle as an enormous defeat and failure for the Ottoman Empire, the most disastrous since the foundation of Ottoman statehood in 1299.^[37] The Ottomans lost at least 20,000 men during the siege,^{[citation needed]} while their losses during the battle with Sobieski's forces amounted to around 15,000 dead (according to Podhorodecki)^[19] or 8,000–15,000 dead and 5,000 captured (according to Tucker).^[18]:661 Casualties of the allied relief force under Sobieski's command were much smaller, amounting to approximately 3,500 dead and wounded, including 1,300 Poles.^[19] Tucker's estimate is slightly higher: 4,500.^[18]:661 The Viennese garrison and the civilian populace lost, due to all causes, about half of their initial number during the siege.^[9]

The Holy League troops and the Viennese took a large amount of loot from the Ottoman army, which Sobieski vividly described in a letter to his wife a few days after the battle:

Ours are treasures unheard of . . . tents, sheep, cattle and no small number of camels . . . it is victory as nobody ever knew before, the enemy now completely ruined, everything lost for them. They must run for their sheer lives . . . General Starhemberg hugged and kissed me and called me his saviour.^[38]

Starhemberg immediately ordered the repair of Vienna's severely damaged fortifications to guard against a possible Ottoman counterstrike. However, this proved unnecessary.

Soon the Ottomans disposed of their defeated commander. On 25 December 1683 Kara Mustafa Pasha was executed in Belgrade in the approved manner—by strangulation with a silk rope pulled by several men on each end—by order of the commander of the Janissaries.

Despite the victory of the Christian allies, there was still tension among the various commanders and their armies. For example, Sobieski demanded that Polish troops be allowed to have first choice of the spoils of the Ottoman camp. German and Austrian troops were left with smaller portions of the loot.^[39] Also, the Protestant Saxons, who had arrived to relieve the city, were apparently subjected to verbal abuse by the Catholic populace of the Viennese countryside. The Saxons left the battle immediately, without partaking in the sharing of spoils, and refused to continue pursuit.^[39]

Sobieski went on to liberate Grau and northwestern Hungary after the Battle of Parkany, but dysentery halted his pursuit of the Ottomans.^[18]:662 Charles V took Belgrade and most of Serbia in 1686 and established Habsburg control over southern Hungary and most of Transylvania in 1687.^{[18]:663–64}

The Ottoman defeat at Vienna sparked great celebrations in Safavid Iran; the report was apparently brought in such a spectacular way, that then incumbent King (Shah) Suleiman I (r. 1666–1694) considered a march to Baghdad, which had been lost in 1639 to the Ottomans by virtue of the Treaty of Zuhab.^[40] Ultimately, the Safavids did not conduct a new campaign, for concerned state officials (notably the dominant eunuch faction within the royal court) were aware of the decline in Safavid military strength, and thus did not consider it prudent.^[40] The eunuchs, according to Professor Rudi Matthee 'were not against the idea of having the Ottomans suffer some humiliation, but they did not want their power destroyed for fear that this would remove a buffer against Christian Europe'.^[40]

Significance[edit]

The victory at Vienna set the stage for the reconquest of Hungary and (temporarily) some of the Balkan lands in the following years by Louis of Baden, Maximilian Emmanuel of Bavaria and Prince Eugene of Savoy. The Ottomans fought on for another 16 years, losing control of Hungary and Transylvania in the process before finally desisting. The Holy Roman Empire signed the Treaty of Karlowitz with the Ottoman Empire in 1699. The battle marked the historic end of the expansion of the Ottoman Empire into Europe.

The actions of Louis XIV of France furthered French–German enmity; in the following month, the War of the Reunions broke out in the western part of the weakened Holy Roman Empire.

Cultural legacy[edit]

Astronomical legacy[edit]

After the battle of Vienna the newly identified constellationScutum (Latin for shield) was originally named Scutum Sobiescianum by the astronomer Johannes Hevelius, in honour of King John III Sobieski.^[41] While there are some stars named after non-astronomers, this is the only constellation that was originally named after a real non-astronomer who was still alive when the constellation was named, and the name of which is still in use (three other constellations, satisfying the same requirements, never gained enough popularity to last).

Religious significance[edit]

Because Sobieski had entrusted his kingdom to the protection of the Blessed Virgin (Our Lady of Częstochowa) before the battle, Pope Innocent XI commemorated his victory by extending the feast of the Holy Name of Mary, which until then had been celebrated solely in Spain and the Kingdom of Naples, to the entire Church; it used to be celebrated on the Sunday within the Octave of the Nativity of Mary (between 7 and 15 September) and was, when Pope Pius X intended to make room for the celebration of the actual Sundays, transferred to 12 September, the day of the victory.

The Pope also upgraded the papal coat of arms by adding the Polish crowned White Eagle. After victory in the Battle of Vienna, the Polish king was also granted by the Pope the title of 'Defender of the Faith' ('Defensor Fidei').^[42] In honor of Sobieski, the Austrians erected a church atop the Kahlenberg hill north of Vienna.

Medieval 2 Total War Winged Hussars Mod

Musical legacy[edit]

Austrian composer Johann Joseph Fux memorialized the battle in his Partita Turcaria, which bore the subtitle, 'Musical portrait of the siege of Vienna by the Turks in 1683'.^[43]

It is said that the victors found in the Ottomans' abandoned luggage the tárogató, a double-reed woodwind instrument that was to become the Hungarian national symbol for freedom after Francis II Rákóczi's defeat against the Habsburgs in 1711.^[44]

The battle, specifically the cavalry charge, is the subject of the song 'Winged Hussars' by the Swedish metal band Sabaton, as part of the album The Last Stand.

The battle is the subject of the song 'Fire on the Mountain (1683)' by the band Twilight Of The Gods in their first album 'Fire on the Mountain'.

Culinary legends[edit]

Several culinary legends are related to the Battle of Vienna.

One legend is that the croissant was invented in Vienna, either in 1683 or during the earlier siege in 1529, to celebrate the defeat of the Ottoman attack on the city, with the shape referring to the crescents on the Ottoman flags. This version of the origin of the croissant is supported by the fact that croissants in France are a variant of Viennoiserie, and by the French popular belief that Vienna-born Marie Antoinette introduced the pastry to France in 1770.

Dragon ball super rar gratis. Another legend from Vienna has the first bagel as being a gift to King John III Sobieski to commemorate the King's victory over the Ottomans. It was fashioned in the form of a stirrup to commemorate the victorious charge by the Polish cavalry. The veracity of this legend is uncertain, as there is a reference in 1610 to a bread with a similar-sounding name, which may or may not have been the bagel.

There is an often recited story that, after the battle, the residents of Vienna discovered many bags of coffee in the abandoned Ottoman encampment. The story goes on that, using this captured stock, Franciszek Jerzy Kulczycki opened the first coffeehouse in Vienna and one of his ideas was to serve coffee with milk, a practice that was unknown in the Islamic world.^[45][46] However, this story was first mentioned in 1783; the first coffeehouse in Vienna had been established by the Armenian Johannes Theodat in 1685.^[47]

Historical appropriation[edit]

In far-right circles, the Battle of Vienna is often celebrated and seen as a clash of civilizations between a Christian West and the Muslim world. NorwegianterroristAnders Behring Breivik (2011 Norway attacks perpetrator) mentioned the Battle of Vienna in his 1,158-page manifesto 2083: A European Declaration of Independence stating 'the Battle of Vienna in 1683 should be celebrated as the Independence Day for all Western Europeans as it was the beginning of the end for the second Islamic wave of jihadis' and the title of his manifesto was specifically chosen to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the battle. The blogger Fjordman has a blog called Gates of Vienna named after the event. Generation Identity, a white nationalist group part of the larger Identitarian movement in Europe, held a rally to commemorate the Battle of Vienna. Brenton Harrison Tarrant the Australia-born terrorist who killed 51 people and injured 50 more during the Christchurch mosque shootings at Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre in Christchurch, New Zealand specifically referenced the Battle of Vienna in his manifesto The Great Replacement (named after a French far-right theory of the same name by writer Renaud Camus) and the battle was inscribed onto one of his weapons.

Some of the historical facts that are not mentioned in these extreme narratives, are that Sobieski's most trusted soldiers were his Sunni Muslim Lipka Tatars, and that they had been a vital part of the Polish-Lithuanian Army since the end of the 14th century. At one point in the battle, Sobieski was cut off from his soldiers and in danger of being slain. He was saved by the Sunni Muslim Tatar lieutenant Samuel Murza Krzeczowski, in the Battle of Parkany. In his diary to his wife, Sobieski wrote: 'Our Tatars are entertaining themselves with falcons they have brought with them; they are guarding the prisoners, and are proving to be loyal and trustworthy.'^[48]

The global historian of ideas Dag Herbjørnsrud concludes: 'So the Battle of Vienna wasn’t a war between the cross and the crescent. It was not a clash of civilisations, a mighty Christian victory over Islam. Rather, Sunni Muslim Tatars were vital in helping the Catholic Polish king on the one side – just as Lutheran Hungarians were allied with the Sunni Muslim Sultan on the other. The year 1683, in the end, was just another year of battles over power and influence between the great states of Europe. Loyalties crossed all borders of faith and ethnicity. Sobieski and his allies never ‘saved Europe’, nor Christianity, despite the claims of plaques, textbooks, and encyclopaedias. Rather, the ruler of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was Europe’s foremost saviour of Muslim life and culture in northern Europe. The Battle of Vienna was a multicultural drama; an example of the complex and paradoxical twists of European history. There never has been such a thing as ‘the united Christian armies of Europe’.'^[48]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abcFinkel, Caroline (13 February 2006). Osman's Dream: The Story of the Ottoman Empire, 1300–1923. Basic Books. pp. 286–87. ISBN978-0-465-02396-7.
2. ^'Sarajevo / Bistrik – samostan sv. Ante', Sarajevo / Bistrik – samostan sv. Ante (in Croatian), retrieved 1 April 2015
3. ^A. Popovic (2007). 'Sarajevo'. In C. Edmund Bosworth (ed.). Historic Cities of the Islamic World. Leiden: Koninklijke Brill. pp. 164–171. ISBN9004153888.
4. ^ ^abcPodhorodecki, Leszek (2001), Wiedeń 1683, Bellona, p. 83
5. ^Podhorodecki, Leszek (2001), Wiedeń 1683, Bellona, p. 106
6. ^Podhorodecki, Leszek (2001), Wiedeń 1683, Bellona, p. 105
7. ^Podhorodecki, Leszek (2001), Wiedeń 1683, Bellona, pp. 83, 106
8. ^Tucker, Spencer (2010). Battles That Changed History: An Encyclopedia of World Conflict. ABC-CLIO. p. 215. ISBN9781598844290.
9. ^ ^abcdefgBruce Alan Masters, Gábor Ágoston: Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire, Infobase Publishing, 2009, ISBN1438110251, 584.
10. ^ ^abAustria's Wars of Emergence, Michael Hochedlinger
11. ^ ^abcdThe Enemy at the Gate, Andrew Wheatcroft. 2008.
12. ^Forst de Battaglia, Otto (1982), Jan Sobieski, Mit Habsburg gegen die Türken, Styria Vlg. Graz, p. 215 of 1983 Polish translated edition
13. ^ ^abWimmer, Jan (1983), Wiedeń 1683, MON, p. 306
14. ^ ^abHarbottle, Thomas (1905), Dictionary of Battles, E.P. Sutton & Co, p. 262
15. ^ ^abClare, Israel (1876), The Centennial Universal History: A Clear and Concise History of All Nations, with a Full History of the United States to the Close of the First 100 Years of Our National Independence., J. C. McCurdy & Co., p. 252
16. ^ ^abDrane, Augusta (1858), The Knights of st. John: with The battle of Lepanto and Siege of Vienna., Burns and Lambert, p. 136
17. ^ ^abAmerican Architect and Building News. 29.767 (1890): 145. Print.
18. ^ ^{abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvw}Tucker, S.C., 2010, A Global Chronology of Conflict, Vol. Two, Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, LLC, ISBN9781851096671
19. ^ ^abcPodhorodecki, Leszek (2001), Wiedeń 1683, Bellona, pp. 140–41
20. ^ ^abLeitsch, Walter (July 1983). '1683: The Siege of Vienna'. History Today. 33 (7). Retrieved 19 December 2014. The defeat of the Ottoman Army outside the gates of Vienna 300 years ago is usually regarded as the beginning of the decline of the Ottoman Empire. But Walter Leitsch asks whether it was such a turning point in the history of Europe? .. However, it marks a turning point: not only was further Ottoman advance on Christian territories stopped, but in the following war that lasted up to 1698 almost all of Hungary was reconquered by the army of Emperor Leopold I. From 1683 the Ottoman Turks ceased to be a menace to the Christian world. .. The battle of Vienna was a turning point in one further respect: the success was due to the co-operation between the troops of the Emperor, some Imperial princes and the Poles. .. However the co-operation between the two non-maritime neighbours of the Ottoman Empire in Europe, the Emperor and Poland, was something new. .. Walter Leitsch is Professor of East European History and Director of the Institute of East and Southeast European Research at the University of Vienna.
21. ^ ^abDavies, Norman (1982), God's Playground, a History of Poland: The Origins to 1795, Columbia University Press, p. 487
22. ^Bruce, George (1981). Harbottle's Dictionary of Battles. Van Nostrand Reinhold.
23. ^Nähere Untersuchung der Pestansteckung, p. 42, Pascal Joseph von Ferro, Joseph Edler von Kurzbek, royal publisher, Vienna 1787.
24. ^ ^abcStoye, John. The Siege of Vienna: The Last Great Trial between Cross & Crescent. 2011
25. ^The original document was destroyed during World War II. For the German translation, see here [1]Archived 29 May 2008 at the Wayback Machine
26. ^Palmer, Alan, The Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire, p.12, Published by Barnes & Noble Publishing, 1992. ISBN1-56619-847-X
27. ^Melvyn Bragg, Andrew Wheatcroft, Dr. Claire Norton and Jeremy Black (historian) (14 May 2009). 'The Siege of Vienna'. In Our Time. 17:30 minutes in. BBC Radio 4.
28. ^Bates, Brandon J. (2003). 'The Beginning of the End: The Failure of the Siege of Vienna of 1683'(PDF). Brigham Young University. Archived from the original(PDF) on 22 August 2006. Retrieved 28 August 2006.
29. ^Ripperton, Lisa. 'The Siege of Vienna'. The Baldwin Project. Retrieved 28 August 2006.
30. ^'HOW KULCHITSKY, A UKRAINIAN, SAVED VIENNA FROM DESTRUCTION IN 1683'. Svoboda. Retrieved October 6, 1933.Check date values in: accessdate= (help)
31. ^Wheatcroft, Andrew (2008). The Enemy at the Gate, Preface p. xix, p. 1.
32. ^ ^abcidem
33. ^'Duell im Dunkeln' (in German). 2DF. 6 November 2005. Archived from the original on 29 September 2007. Retrieved 28 August 2006.
34. ^A'Barrow, Stephen R (2016). Death of a Nation: A New History of Germany. Book Guild Publishing. p. 73. ISBN9781910508817.
35. ^Overy, Richard (2014). A History of War in 100 Battles. Oxford University Press. p. 58. ISBN9780199390717.
36. ^'The Battle of Vienna was not a fight between cross and crescent – Dag Herbjørnsrud Aeon Essays'. Aeon. Retrieved 20 June 2019.
37. ^Abrahamowicz, Zygmunt (1973), Kara mustafa pod Wiedniem. Źródła muzułmańskie do dziejów wyprawy wiedeńskiej (Kara Mustafa at Vienna. Muslim primary sources to history of the Vienna campaign), Wydawnictwo Literackie, p. 164
38. ^'Letter from King Sobieski to his Wife'. Letters from King Sobieski to his wife. University of Gdansk, Department of Cultural Studies, Faculty of Philology. Retrieved 4 August 2011.
39. ^ ^abStoye, John (2011) [2007]. The Siege of Vienna: The Last Great Trial between Cross & Crescent. Pegasus Books. p. 175.
40. ^ ^abcMatthee, Rudi (2006). 'IRAQ iv. RELATIONS IN THE SAFAVID PERIOD'. Encyclopaedia Iranica (Vol. XIII, Fasc. 5 and Vol. XIII, Fasc. 6). pp. 556–560, 561.
41. ^Grzechnik, Slawek K. 'Hussaria – Polish Winged Cavalry'. Archived from the original on 15 June 2006. Retrieved 28 August 2006.
42. ^'Chcą nam odebrać Victorię wiedeńską?'. pch24.pl. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
43. ^'ATMA Classique'. ATMA Classique.
44. ^'Taragot, tarogato, 11thMUSE.com'. www.11thmuse.com. Archived from the original on 24 May 2008. Retrieved 22 June 2016.
45. ^Pendergrast, Mark. Uncommon Grounds, p.10. Basic Books, 2000. ISBN0-465-05467-6
46. ^Millar, Simon. Vienna 1683, p. 93. Osprey Publishing, 2008. ISBN1-84603-231-8.
47. ^Karl Teply, Die Einführung des Kaffees in Wien. Verein für Geschichte der Stadt Wien, vol. 6 (Vienna 1980), p. 104.
48. ^ ^ab'The Battle of Vienna was not a fight between cross and crescent – Dag Herbjørnsrud Aeon Essays'. Aeon. Retrieved 20 June 2019.

Notes[edit]

1. ^Viennese garrison: 15,000 soldiers^[8] + 8,700 volunteers,^[9] 370 cannons; Relief force: 50,000–60,000 Germans,^[10] 15,000–20,000 Poles^[10][11]
2. ^The lowest estimate is 90,000,^[9] while according to older estimates even up to 300,000^{[14][15][16][17]}

Further reading[edit]

• Stéphane Gaber, Et Charles V arrêta la marche des Turcs, Presses universitaires de Nancy, 1986, ISBN2-86480-227-9.
• Bruce, George (1981). Harbottle's Dictionary of Battles. Van Nostrand Reinhold.
• Cezary Harasimowicz Victoria Warsaw 2007, novel ISBN978-83-925589-0-3
• James Michener Poland, A Novel, see Chapter V From the South
• Alan Palmer, The Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire, Published by Barnes & Noble Publishing, 1992. ISBN1-56619-847-X.

External links[edit]

• Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Army in the 17th century from kismeta.com
• The Battle of Vienna at the Wilanów Museum Palace
• ‹See Tfd›(in German)German TV: Türken vor Wien
• ‹See Tfd›(in German)Arte TV: Türken vor Wien
• Winged Hussars, Radoslaw Sikora, Bartosz Musialowicz, BUM Magazine, 2016.
• 'The Real Battle of Vienna', by Dag Herbjørnsrud, Aeon, July 24, 2018.

The Polish Hussars (/həˈzɑːr/, /həˈsɑːr/, or /hʊˈzɑːr/; Polish: Husaria[xuˈsarja]), or Winged Hussars, were one of the main types of the cavalry in Poland and in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth between the 16th and 18th centuries. Modeled on the Hungarian Hussars, the early hussars were light cavalry of exiled Serbian warriors; by the second half of the 16th century and after king Stephen Báthory's reforms, hussars transformed into a heavily armored shock cavalry. Until the reforms of the 1770s, the husaria banners were considered the elite of the Polish cavalry.

History[edit]

Hussars originated in mercenary units of exiled Serbian warriors.^[1] Serbian lancers, also called Racowie, were used to counter Ottoman sipahi and deli cavalry.^[2] The oldest mention of hussars in Polish documents date to 1500, although they were probably in service earlier.^[3] In the 15th century, light hussars based on those of Hungarian King Mathias Corvinus were adopted by some European armies to provide light, expendable cavalry units. The Polish Hussars were originally based on the Hungarian Hussars.^[4] The development of light cavalry in the Polish army in the 16th century was partly modeled after the Serbian light cavalry that appeared in Corvinus' army.^[5]

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. Soon, recruitment also began among Polish citizens. Being far more expendable than the heavily armoured lancers of the Renaissance, the Serbian-Hungarian hussars played a fairly minor role in the Polish Crown victories during the early 16th century, exemplified by the victories at Orsza (1514) and Obertyn (1531). During the so-called 'transition period' of the mid-16th-century, heavy hussars largely replaced armoured lancers riding armoured horses, in the Polish Obrona Potoczna cavalry forces serving on the southern frontier.

The true 'winged hussar' arrived with the reforms of the King of Poland and Grand Duke of LithuaniaStephen Bathory in the 1570s and was later led by the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania John III Sobieski. The hussars were the leading, or even elite, branch of cavalry in the Polish army from the 1570s until 1776, when their duties and traditions were passed on to the Uhlans by a parliamentary decree. Most hussars were recruited from the wealthier Polish nobility (szlachta). Each hussar towarzysz ('comrade') raised his own poczet or lance/retinue. Several retinues were combined to form a hussar banner or company (chorągiew husarska).

Over the course of the 16th century, hussars in Hungary became heavier in character: they abandoned wooden shields and adopted metal-plated body armour. When Bathory was elected King of Poland and later accepted as a Grand Duke of Lithuania in 1576, he reorganized the hussars of his Royal Guard into a heavy formation equipped with a long lance as their main weapon. By the reign of Bathory (1576–1586), the hussars had replaced medieval-style lancers in the Polish Crown army, and they now formed the bulk of the Polish cavalry. By the 1590s, most Polish hussar units had been reformed along the same 'heavy' model. These heavy hussars were known in Poland as Husaria.

With the Battle of Lubiszew in 1577, the 'Golden Age' of the Husaria began. Between then and the Battle of Vienna in 1683, the Hussars fought many battles against various enemies, most of which they won. In the battles of Lubiszew in 1577, Byczyna (1588), Kokenhausen (1601), Kircholm (1605), Kłuszyn (1610), Chocim (1621), Martynów (1624), Trzciana (1629), Ochmatów (1644), Beresteczko (1651), Połonka (1660), Cudnów (1660), Chocim (1673), Lwów (1675), Vienna (1683), and Párkány (1683), they proved to be the decisive factor against often overwhelming odds. For instance, in the Battle of Kluszyn during the Polish–Muscovite War, the Russians outnumbered the Commonwealth army 5 to 1, yet were heavily defeated.

The role of the Hussar evolved into a reconnaissance and advanced scout capacity. Their uniforms became more elaborate as their armour and heavy weapons were abandoned. In the 18th century, as infantry firearms became more effective, heavy cavalry, with its tactics of charging into and breaking infantry units, became increasingly obsolete and hussars transformed from an elite fighting unit to a parade one.

Instead of ostrich feathers, the husaria men wore wooden arcs attached to their armour at the back and raising over their heads. These arcs, together with bristling feathers sticking out of them, were dyed in various colours in imitation of laurel branches or palm leaves, and were a strangely beautiful sight to behold .. – Jędrzej Kitowicz (1728–1804).^[6][7]

The Hussars were famous for their huge 'wings', a wooden frame carrying eagle, ostrich, swan or goose feathers. In the 16th century, characteristic painted wings or winged claws began to appear on cavalry shields. The most common theory is that the hussars wore the wings because they made a loud, clattering noise which made it seem like the cavalry was much larger than in reality and frightened the enemy's horses. Other possibilities included the wings being made to defend the backs of the men against swords and lassos, or that they were worn to make their own horses deaf to the wooden noise-makers used by the Ottoman and the Crimean Tatars.^{[citation needed]}.

Tactics[edit]

The hussars represented the heavy cavalry of the Commonwealth. The Towarzysz husarski (Companion) commanded his own poczet (kopia) consisting of two to five similarly armed retainers and other servants (czeladnicy) who tended to his horses, food, supplies, repairs and fodder and often participated in battle. His 'lance' was part of a larger unit known as a banner (chorągiew). Each banner had from 30 to over 60 kopia. The commander, per his contractual obligation, was called 'rotmistrz', while the de facto commander was often the porucznik (lieutenant). There was also one chorąży (ensign) who carried the banner's flag ('znak' or 'chorągiew') and could command the banner when the porucznik was unable to. Each banner had one rotmistrz kopia that was larger than its other lances; this included trumpeters, and musicians (kettle drummers, more trumpeters etc.). There were other towarzysze with duties (keeping order, helping with manoeuvres) within the banner during battle, but their functions are rather poorly understood.

The Polish hussars' primary battle tactic was the charge. They charged at and through the enemy. The charge started at a slow pace and in a relatively loose formation. The formation gradually gathered pace and closed ranks while approaching the enemy, and reached its highest pace and closest formation immediately before engagement. They tended to repeat the charge several times until the enemy formation broke (they had supply wagons with spare lances). The tactic of a charge by heavily armoured hussars and horses was usually decisive for nearly two centuries. The hussars fought with a long lance, a koncerz (stabbing sword), a szabla (sabre), set of two to six pistols, often a carbine or arquebus (known in Polish as a bandolet) and sometimes a warhammer or light axe. The lighter, Ottoman-style saddle allowed for more armour to be used by both the horses and the warriors. Moreover, the horses were bred to run very fast with a heavy load and to recover quickly. These were hybrids of old, Polish equine lineage and eastern horses, usually from Tatar tribes. As a result, a horse could walk hundreds of kilometres loaded with over 100 kilograms (warrior plus armour and weaponry) and instantly charge. Also, hussar horses were very quick and maneuverable. This made hussars able to fight with any cavalry or infantry force from western heavy cuirassiers to quick Tatars. There was a death penalty for selling a husaria horse (sometimes the horses were referred to as 'tarpan') to someone outside of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.^[8]

Armour and weaponry[edit]

• Hussar half-armour from the mid-17th century, National Museum in Kraków.

• Hussar armour, dating to the first half of the 17th century, Polish Army Museum in Warsaw.

• Scale armour of King John III Sobieski.

• Polish hussar sabre (Polish 'szabla')

The hussars' towarzysz were required to provide the arms and armour for themselves and their retainers, except for the lance which was provided by the King. Each lance's horses also came at each towarzysz husarski's expense. During their heyday, 1574–1705, winged hussars carried the following arms and armour:

The 'kopia' lance was the main offensive weapon of the hussar. The lances were based on the Balkan and, finally, Hungarian lances, but Polish lances could have been longer and, like their predecessors from the Balkans and Western Europe, they were hollowed, with two halves glued together and painted, and were often richly gilded. They were commonly made from fir-wood, with the lance point being made from forged steel. They had a gałka, a large wooden ball which served as the handle guard. The hussar's lances usually ranged from 4.5 to 6.2 metres (15 to 20 ft) in length and were provided by the King or the banner's owner, not by the regular soldiers. A large 'silk'/taffeta proporzecpennon was attached to the lance below the point. Another type of lance, known as the demi-lance or kopijka, was used and could have been 3 to 3.6 metres (9.8 to 11.8 ft) long and was used against the Tatars and Turks in late-17th-century wars.

The Towarzysz husarski carried underneath his left thigh an Eastern-derived koncerzestoc (up to 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) in length) and, often, a palasz (a type of broadsword) under his right thigh. The szablasabre was carried on the left side, and several types of sabres were known to winged hussars, including the famous szabla husarska.

Winged hussars sometimes carried additional weapons, such as 'nadziak' type of war hammers and battleaxes. Towarzysz husarski carried one or two wheellock (later flintlock) pistols in the saddle holsters, while retainers also might have carried a pistol or light wheellockarquebus or carbine; from the 1680s a carbine for retainers was mandatory.

Individual hussar towarzysz may possibly have carried a Tatar or Turkish reflex bow with arrows in a quiver, especially after the mid-17th century, when many 'pancerny' companions became hussars, and some sources of the late 17th century note the existence of bows amongst the hussar companions. During the first half of the 18th century, while in non-military attire, the hussars' companion carried a bow in a bow case to denote his military status. Yet bows in bow cases were carried by all cavalry officers of the National Army until the reforms of the 1770s, including Uhlan units in the Saxon service.

At the height of their prowess, from 1576 to 1653, hussar armour consisted of a Polish variant of the szyszakOrientalTurkic-originated helmet with a hemispherical skull, comb-like, Western morion 'cheekpieces' with a heart-shaped cut in the middle, neck-guard of several plates secured by sliding rivets, and adjustable nasal terminating in a leaf-shaped visor. Szyszak and kettle hat helmets for the lower rank (retainers) were often blackened as was their armour. A cuirass (breast plate), back plate, gorget, shoulder guards and of the Great Steppe, Western vambraces with iron glove and later, during the 1630s, the Persian-originated karwaszvambrace, for forearm protection. Towarzysz also could wear tasset hip, cuisse thigh and poleyn knee protection, underneath a thigh-length coat of mail or specially padded coat with mail sleeves. Retainers usually wore less expensive and older armour, often painted black, and, after the 1670s, might have no cuirass, according to some sources.

KaracenaSarmatian armour (of iron scales riveted to a leather support) might have consisted of a scale helmet, cuirass, gorget, leg and shoulder protection and became popular during the reign of King John Sobieski, but perhaps due to costs and weight, remained popular mostly with the winged hussar commanding officers.

Their armour was light, usually around 15 kilograms (33 lb), allowing them to be relatively quick and for their horses to gallop at full speed for long periods. Albeit from the 1670s onwards, chain-mail was used when fighting the Tatars in the southern part of the republic.Towarzysz usually wore a leopard (sometimes tiger,^{[citation needed]}jaguar^{[citation needed]} or lion) pelt over his left shoulder, or as often depicted in the surviving Podhorce Castle paintings, he had the exotic pelt underneath his saddle or wrapped around his hips. Wolf, brown bear and lynx pelts were reserved for leaders and veterans (starszyzna).

Legacy[edit]

The Polish hussars are depicted on the commemorative 200 złotych gold coin. The badge of the Polish Army's 1st Armoured Division is inspired by the armour of the Winged Hussars.

Swedish power metal band Sabaton wrote a song in honor of the Polish Hussars entitled 'Winged Hussars' about the role of the Hussars in the Battle of Vienna in 1683, included in their 2016 album The Last Stand.^[9]

In the 2004 film Collateral, Vincent remarks that the only group missing during a clash with organized crime and law enforcement at a nightclub was the Polish cavalry.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

1. ^Cathal J. Nolan (2006). The Age of Wars of Religion, 1000-1650: An Encyclopedia of Global Warfare and Civilization. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 428. ISBN978-0-313-33733-8.
2. ^Warfare in Eastern Europe, 1500-1800. BRILL. 6 January 2012. pp. 7–. ISBN978-90-04-22198-7.
3. ^Brzezinski 1987, p. 14.
4. ^Nolan 2006, p. 428.
5. ^Nicolle & Sarnecki 2012, p. 19.
6. ^Anna Wasilkowska, Husaria the winged Horsemen, Interpress, Warszawa 1998, ISBN8322326823, p.7-6.
7. ^Jędrzej Kitowicz, Opis obyczajów i dziejów za panowania Augusta III, Bolesław M. Wolff, Petersburg i Mohylew, 1855.
8. ^[1]
9. ^'Winged hussars - Lyrics Sabaton – Official website and headquarters'. Sabaton – Official website and headquarters. Retrieved 2017-10-29.

Bibliography[edit]

• Zbigniew Bocheński - Ze studiów nad polską zbroją husarską. [w:] 'Rozprawy i sprawozdania Muzeum Narodowego w Krakowie' t. VI (1960).
• Brzezinski, Richard (1987). Polish Armies 1569-1696. Osprey Publishing. pp. 14–. ISBN978-0-85045-736-0.
• Richard Brzezinski, Velimir Vuksic: Polish winged hussar, 1500-1775. Oxford: Osprey, 2005. ISBN1-84176-650-X.
• Jan S. Bystroń - Dzieje obyczajów w dawnej Polsce, Warszawa 1932.
• Jerzy Cichowski, Andrzej Szulczyński: Husaria. Warszawa: Wydaw. Ministerstwa Obrony Narodowej, 1981. ISBN83-11-06568-3.
• Piotr Drożdż - Orsza 1518., seria: 'Historyczne bitwy', Bellona, Warszawa 2000.
• Galeria „Broń i barwa w Polsce”. Przewodnik, Muzeum Narodowe w Krakowie, Kraków 2004.
• Bronisław Gembarzewski: Husarze: ubiór, oporządzenie i uzbrojenie : 1500-1775. Warszawa: Wydawnictwo Arkadia, 1999. ISBN83-88055-01-1.
• Krystyna Kaczmarek, Remigiusz Kaczmarek, Romuald Kaczmarek, Jan Sobieski jako żołnierz i wódz we współczesnej mu grafice, cz. 2, 'Wychowanie Techniczne w Szkole (z Plastyką)', 2005, nr 2, s. 39-42
• Romuald Kaczmarek, Jan Sobieski jako żołnierz i wódz we współczesnej mu grafice, cz. 1, 'Wychowanie Techniczne w Szkole (z Plastyką)', 2005, nr 1, s. 26-29
• Włodzimierz Kwaśniewicz: Leksykon broni białej i miotającej. Warszawa: Bellona, 2003. ISBN83-11-09617-1.
• Mirosław Nagielski: Relacje wojenne z pierwszych lat walk polsko-kozackich powstania Bohdana Chmielnickiego okresu 'Ogniem i mieczem' (1648–1651). Warszawa: 'Viking', 1999. ISBN83-912638-0-0.
• Jan Chryzostom Pasek: Pamiętniki. Warszawa: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1987. ISBN83-06-01577-0.
• Leszek Podhorodecki - Chocim 1621., seria: 'Historyczne bitwy', MON, 1988.
• Zuzanna Sawicka: Koń w życiu szlachty w XVI-XVIII w. Toruń: Wydaw. A. Marszałek, 2002. ISBN83-7174-839-6.
• Radosław Sikora - Fenomen husarii, Toruń: Duet, 2003, ISBN83-918712-8-2.
• Radosław Sikora - Kłuszyn 1610. Wyd. I. Warszawa: ERICA, 2010, s. 160. ISBN978-83-62329-05-2.
• Radosław Sikora - Lubieszów 17 IV 1577, Zabrze: Wydawnictwo Inforteditions, 2005, ISBN83-89943-05-0.
• Radosław Sikora - Z Dziejów husarii, Warszawa: ERICA, 2010, ISBN/EAN: 978-83-62329-04-5.
• Radoslaw Sikora, Bartosz Musialowicz - Winged Hussars, BUM Magazine, October 2016.
• Janusz Sikorski (red) - Zarys dziejów wojskowości polskiej do roku 1864, t.1
• Jerzy Teodorczyk - Bitwa pod Gniewem 22.IX – 29.IX. 1626, pierwsza porażka husarii. [w:] 'Studia i materiały do Historii Wojskowości', t. XII, Warszawa 1966.
• Robert Szcześniak - Kłuszyn 1610., seria: 'Historyczne bitwy'. Bellona, Warszawa 2008. (wyd. II)
• Henryk Wisner - Kircholm 1605., seria: 'Historyczne bitwy', MON, Warszawa 1987. (wyd. I)
• Zdzisław Żygulski (junior): Broń w dawnej Polsce na tle uzbrojenia Europy i Bliskiego Wschodu. Warszawa: PWN, 1982. ISBN83-01-02515-8.
• Zdzisław Żygulski (junior): Broń wodzów i żołnierzy. Kraków: Kluszczyński, 1998.
• Zdzisław Żygulski (junior): Husaria polska. Warszawa: 'Pagina', 2000. OCLC830218879.

External links[edit]

• Reenactment a Polish reenactment information site
• Polish Hussar Replica vs Antique Understand difference in Polish hussar Replica & Antique.
• Husaria.us a Los Angeles-based Polish Hussar reenactment group and reference library
• [2] The first Los Angeles based website for this portrayal
• About hussar's armour (Polish)