Tadeusz Grabarczyk - Po racku, po husarsku z przyprawa tatarska...

Salve,
I forgot to add this link some time ago and I would like to correct my negligence today -
namely, profesor Tadeusz Grabarczyk was kind enough to 'publish' on his academia. edu page one of his  late medieval military history articles  titled ''Po racku, po husarsku, z przyprawą tatarską - początki przemian wojskowości polskiej u schyłku XV wieku'' or ''In the 'Serbian' manner, in the hussar one, with the Tatar equipment - the beginning of changes in Polish military at the end of XV century.''

Set during the  reign of our two Jagiellon  brothers - Jan I Olbracht and Aleksander I Jagiellon, the period saw the dawn of new era in the Polish military,  including the emergence of the winged hussar horseman in the Kingdom of Poland in the late XV century.
Setting the 'Serbian' horsemen aside, sorry, let me move to the hussar question. So, our author quotes a roll document from AD 1498 which is a description of a cavalryman armed and present for the roll ' in hussar manner' - ''item Kalbel podnym kon plesnywy zryza nanym panczer hunskop pekelhaub plechowicze trcze drzewcze po hussarsku.'' (a horseman named Kalbel, [mounted on] a roan horse, armour, mail coif, pekilhube helmet, maile[?] gaunlets/mittens, shield, light lance [serving] in hussar manner) This is probably one of the earliest instances of a hussar warrior and his equipment serving for the Polish king that is surviving in our Polish sources.

Also, the author points that in the late XV and early XVI centuries in Polish and Hungarian Kingdoms there was a clear distinction between the 'Serbian' horsemen - armed with shield and lance, and horsemen armed in hussar manner - with armour, lance and shield.

The Tatar armament/equipment aspect of this article has to do with the mercenary service of some Tatar horsemen who served as mounted archers within some of  the 'lances' of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania companies. Interestingly in the surviving sources quoted by the author the Tatar-equipped horsemen rode geldings, a trait characteristic of the Turco-Tatar peoples of the Eurasian steppe and their preference for the geldings in warfare.
 

enjoy