Husaria

   the pride of Poland and Lithuania, Belarus, the Ukraine.. the Winged Hussars - lancers of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

As one good French gentleman and officer monsieur  Filippe Dupont  remarked in his memoirs, published in 1885 almost 150 years after his death,  - 'hussars ride the most beautiful horses you can ever see, well built men who wear very adorned cuirass and cover themselves with leopard skins, fine helmet, carry two swords (one underneath left thigh), and a very long lance that is painted and gilded with a pennon 9 feet long of dyed silk attached to it, with two pistols at the pommel - the most beautiful and fearsome sight indeed.'

My friend, young Polish historian Radek Sikora, just published his new research on the web - 'Na skrzydlach husarii' aka "On the Hussars Wings" - in short a fabulous work of prime rate scholarship. Available at his website http://www.husaria.info.tm/
and here one of the best pages on husaria - with many images of armour, battle fields, present Kresy - Polish-Lithuanian borderlands etc http://www.hussar.com.pl/

and here something of my own creation - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Husarz_lubiesz_2.1color.jpg