page_title: Polish hussars
section_title: Armour and weaponry
hierarchical_section_title: Polish hussars / Armour and weaponry
context_page_description: The Polish hussars, or Winged hussars, were one of the main types of Polish cavalry in Poland and in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth between the 16th and 18th centuries.
  Modelled on the Hungarian hussars, the early hussars were light cavalry of exiled Balkan warriors who were sent to Poland as mercenaries. Following the military reforms of king Stephen Báthory in the second half of the 16th century, the hussar unit was adopted by the Polish military and transformed into a heavily armoured shock cavalry. The husaria banners and units participated in the largest cavalry charge in history at the Battle of Vienna in 1683 and were the elite of Polish cavalry until their disbandment in the 1770s.
context_section_description: 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 proporzec pennon was attached to the lance below the point. Another type of lance, known as the demi-lance or kopijka, and was 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 koncerz estoc (up to 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) in length) and, often, a palasz (a type of broadsword) under his right thigh. The szabla sabre 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 wheellock arquebus 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 szyszak Oriental Turkic-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 karwasz vambrace, 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.
  Karacena Sarmatian 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 t
caption: Grand Standard Bearer of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland (Chorąży Wielki Koronny) on the Stockholm Roll (c. 1605)
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