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The Polish hussars (/ h ə ˈ z ɑːr s /; Polish: husaria), [a] alternatively known as the winged hussars, were a heavy cavalry formation active in Poland and in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1503 to 1702. Their epithet is derived from large rear wings, which were intended to demoralize the enemy during a charge.
Polish Winged Hussar, painting by Aleksander Orłowski. Initially the first units of Polish Hussars in the Kingdom of Poland were formed around 1500. [22] The Polish heavy hussars of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth were far more manoeuvrable than the heavily armoured lancers previously employed.
[12] [13] [15] National units included the Winged hussars and lighter Polish pancerni and Lithuanian petyhorcy with some light cavalry units, with infantry being the distant second in reputation; whereas the foreign units centered around infantry and artillery formations, with dragoons gaining prominence from the 1620s, and reiter cavalry soon ...
The forces were also joined by several mercenary regiments of Zaporozhian Cossacks hired by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. [34] Louis XIV of France declined to help his Habsburg rival, having just annexed Alsace. [30] An alliance between Sobieski and Emperor Leopold I resulted in the addition of the Polish hussars to the existing allied ...
However, the Polish-Lithuanian forces were well-rested, and their cavalry consisted mostly of superbly trained Winged Hussars, or heavy cavalry armed with lances. [ citation needed ] In contrast, the Swedish cavalry were less-well trained, armed with pistols and carbines , on poorer horses and tired after a long night's march of over 10 km in ...
Polish Winged Hussar, ... the hussars were well-trained and well-equipped. Until the 18th century they were considered the elite of the Polish national armed forces.
He left at night so that Voluyev would not notice his absence. The combined Russian and Swedish armies were defeated on 4 July 1610 at the battle of Klushino (Kłuszyn), where 7,000 Polish elite cavalry, the winged hussars, led by the hetman himself, defeated the numerically superior Russian army of about 35,000–40,000 soldiers.
The winged hussars developed in the second half of the 16th century and were inspired by very similar Hungarian armoured hussars, a lance-wielding and armoured offshoot of the more typical, unarmoured, light cavalry hussars (which originated in Serbia and Hungary and eventually appeared in Poland as well by the early 16th century).