Redundant but fashionable. Hussars in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth during the Polish-Saxon union

Abstract

In the XVIII century in many European countries light cavalry troops modelled upon the Hungarian hussars began being formed. Similarities included not only the specific uniforms, but also most of all the weaponry and combat usage. Without defence weaponry and equipped with rifles, pairs of pistols and sabres, they performed exploratory tasks along with actions of diversion and menacing the enemy troops. During battles participated in by the main military forces, they covered the flanks and constituted reserve troops, usually engaged into combat in critical situations or during pursuits. In the wars at the end of the XVII century and in the first half of the XVIII the hussar squadrons and companies appeared in the Austrian, French, Russian, Swedish, Danish, Dutch, Spanish and some of the German states’ armies. As for the latter, the earliest hussar troops were formed in Bavaria, in 1688; however, the hussars gained the greatest significance in the Prussian army, becoming the only light cavalry formation in the time of the Silesian wars1. They never became a part of the Saxon and the Commonwealth armies, although it was the Kingdom of Poland that was the first state, at the turn of the XV and XVI centuries, to begin implementing the Hungarian and Serbian models in creating infantry and cavalry troops. However, in Poland in the second half of the XVI this type of cavalry transformed into heavy – armoured troops named “husaria”2. It may be speculated that this similarity of names of two such different types of cavalry was the reason why the state armies of the Commonwealth did not adopt it when in Europe it came into fashion to form cavalry troops following the Hungarian or Serbian hussar models. However, it does not seem very likely, and the reason for the lack of interest in forming hussar troops in the Polish and Lithuanian armies was the fact that they already had good light cavalry troops, namely the units modelled upon Tatar and Moldovan troops. Armed with 2.4 – 3 m long lances, light firearms and sabres, occasionally with archaic bows, without