Hans Suess von Kulmbach - armored knights, horses, early hussar and stradiots lancers

 Salvete Omnes,

a little canter to early XVI century Polish ream where Northern Renaissance art life flourished in the old capital, in and around the royal court of Sigimund I Jagiellon. 

Apart from Michal Lancz there was another early painter in Polish Kingdom who also painted early hussars, stradiots and Rac, and knights and saints.

Northern Renaissance painter Hans Suess von Kulmbach was a prolific painter and draughtsman. 

In the old Limbach's church, nowadays a Lutheran Church, there is a surviving altar with his painting showing four military saints in period plate and chain armor-  

During the period of 1509-15 he was active in Krakow (Cracow), but returned to Nuremberg, where he died in 1522AD. He painted figures that resemble Rac or stradiots of the period. 

and the Adoration of Magi, in full glory at the top of this post,  is a mine to be explored

period bridle and curb-bit a a detail of the saddle's pommel

straditot and Rac lancers, ahorse with a curb bit

rowel spurs, langes messer and a stradiot attire

rowel spurs 

There is a painting at the old town of Sandomierz - Diocesan Museum. Probably painted in master Hans Suess' workshop in Krakow. But it closely follows the original master Hans' work.  Again, Rac lancers, stradiots and perhaps even Tatars (in those felt or sheep-skin  conical hats) . My thanks to Radoslaw Sikora for allowing me to use his photo of the said painting.

a sabre 

Polish bridle?  a curb-bit and double reins

lancers, their hussar lances with lively pennons 

more lancers and horsemen, including one Tatar handling the camel, a and 2 Tatars with arrow quiver? 

enjoy

Valete

Michal Lancz aka Lantz from Kitzingen & Krakow 'Rac' Hussars

 Salvete,

 

the story of the early hussars is closely intertwined with the stradioti aka stradiots.
Costume, weapons - lance, shield, and a sword - and agile horses.
In our  Polish Crown realms the  name 'stradioti' was not adopted nor used in general, but instead the Polish kings and noble masters of those horsemen-for-hire used names like the 'Rac'[1] when hiring a horseman who was armed with a lance and the so called Balkan shield (rectangular shield with the upper left right er elongated upwards. He was to have an agile horse, a curved sword and perhaps a horseman's axe.  In sum, a rather light cavalry type of a horseman.

In the surviving Polish archives (thanks to the Germans who were busy torching them in 1939-45) there are some references to the early 'Rac' hussars prior to the 1500Ad, but the written evidence keeps on growing after 1500AD and proves that Rac hussars or horsemen armed and fighting in the 'Rac' manner were popular type of cavalry in the Crown army and private armies too, however the growth is rather weakly reflected in the period iconography.

 

One of those rare iconographic sources could have been a small painting by Michal (Michael) Lancz vel Lantz(1470-1523Ad) painted circa 1522AD from Krakow.  It was titled Conversion of Saint Paul (see this wiki article) and was the central part of a small altar retabulum located at the Saint Mary's Basilica in Krakow (Cracow). The painting was looted  by the Germans in 1940AD. Since 1940AD the painting has been missing and is listed as a part of the Polish artworks taken by the Nazi Germany etc during the World War II.
Thanks to the photographs by Ignacy Krieger (taken in the last quarter of the XIX century) and by Stanislaw Kolowca in 1940, and Adolf Guzik also in 1940 we know how the painting looked and was placed in the retabulum and the chapel. Based on these photos the painting was reconstructed by Zofia Kaszowska from the Fine Art Academy in Krakow in 2003AD.

Here is more of the painting details - 

a typical Rac hussar wearing a soft kaftan, curved sword and tall hat. Horse with a typical horse tack.

a Rac hussar with a featherless tall felt hat and lance, another lance armed hussar behind him

early Rac hussars with lances and shields, tall hats with feathers

early Rac hussars in soft kaftans and tall hat

Valete 

ps
[1]

Rac comes from from the Old Polish name for Serbians in general or from the name for the town of Ras, in Serbia, whose citizen were called Rascines already in the XII century AD,  while in Hungary the Serbian lands were called Racorszag, the land of Racs in the 1400s. See Grabarczyk .

Sigismundus Augustus, rex Poloniae and his horse armor

Sigismundus' horse armor of Nuremberg make circa 1560[1]

Salve,
new month and let us start with something very metalic - the XVI century suite of armor - for the horse and rider.
the armor used to belong to His Royal Majesty Sigismundus Augustus (Sigismund August) - the Jagiellonian king known in Polish as Zygmunt II August - and his sumptuous armor .
In few words he was the least warrior-like from the Polish XVI  century rulers, but his armor suits were most likely the most elaborate and absolutely the most beautiful.
But he was also blessed with a number of very good field commanders, including the famous starost of Bar Bernard Pretficz, who used to raid the Ottoman and Tatar possessions on the northern shores of the Black See. Perhaps one day I will write and illustrate a post or two on Pretwicz ( written -  Bernard Pretficz, Bernard Pretwic, Bernardus Pretwitz, Prethwicz, lub Prettwicz), who was a Silesian gentry of the Wczele coat of arms.

Sigismund's reign saw the growth of the lancer cavalry aka winged hussars within the Polish and Lithuanian horse banners, and these armored lancers played the most vital role in many wars and battles of our good king's rule. We have some muster rolls from the period where horses are lsited by their type - lancer, parade or bowman - and their color.
The military history of this period is least known outside Poland, Russia, Belarus, Lithanian, Latvia and Ukrain, Hungary and Romania...

 enjoy
[1] Zdzislaw Zygulski jr., Bron w dawnej Polskce, fig. 71.

Valete!

ps
last night I started watching the move 'The Dig' about the discovery of the famous British Sutton Hoo kurgans and their Anglo-Saxon deposits - nice film, commendable  on the drama part. Imediately I started to think what if the Chinese made a feature film about the First Emperor Tomb, or Russians about the the Pazyryk kurgans, or Polish filmmakers about the Biskupin discovery. So many good stories out there.

Birth of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth AD 1569

Salvete omnes,
on this summer day of AD 1569 the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was born.

Jagiellonian monarch Sigismund Augustus, the King of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duke of the Grand Duchy of Lithuanian, and his subjects - representatives of the Crown of Kingdom of Poland and of Duchy of Lithuania - came to sign the real union between two states during the Sejm Walny (three-tiered - king, senators and representatives -  parliament) gathered in Lublin. His Royal Majesty ratified the union on July 4 [sic!] Ad 1569.

 The childless king ruled over a realm that had been already in personal union under himself and prior elected rulers of the Jagiellonian Dynasty since AD 1385. The act changed the two-state uneasy personal union into one-state union, preserving some not too small differences. In 1791 the Parliament abolished the Union retaining a single state.

The document was singed in the royal city of Lublin, now in eastern Republic of Poland, back then it was the center of the vast state.
 
... perhaps for the first time the name 'Rzeczpospolita Obojga Narodow' (Commonwealth or Republic of Two Nations)) was used in an official document where it is inserted in there under  the promise of using their lances to defend the more violent needs of this new Republic.

Modern Republic of Poland still officially calls herself Rzeczpospolita (with Polska or Polish added) in all official and unofficial documents,  448 years after this christening.

The coat of arms of the new union was eventually a white (silver) eagle (White Eagle) and a white (silver) charging knight on a white horse ( known as Pogon/Pahonia) in a escutcheon parted quarterly, the color of the shield was gules or red.  

enjoy
ps
images are from the Statuta y Przywileie Koronne published in 1570, from Marcin Bielski Kronika circa 1594, and also Wikimedia Commons.

500 Years of the Battle of Orsza AD 1514 - a woodcut from Bielski's Chronicle of Poland

Salve,
Marcin Bielski, Prawdzic coat of arms (1405-1575) who was a Polish nobleman, soldier and prolific XVI century author in Jagellonian Poland (union of Crown of Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania under a king from the Jagiellonian Dynasty),  wrote and then published the first history of Poland entirely in Polish language, titled ''Kronika Polska Marcina Bielskiego'' (Marcin Bielski's Chronicle of Poland) (part of the 'Kronika Świata' - Chronicle of the Universe).
 The book was published with some woodcuts within the text. Joachim Bielski, son of Marcin, continued his father's work and published updated version in 1597 - eg a digital version from the Jagiellonian University library.

One woodcut illustration shows the battle of Orsza(Orsha), a pitched battle fought between the forces of Jagiellonian Poland and Grand Duchy of Muscovy,  And today, Septemeber 8 2014,  is the 500 years anniversary of that famous battle, however the official media in the Republic of Poland (Rzeczypospolita) are quite silent on the subject - how sad ! Perhaps there is more in the Lithuanian, Ukrainian or Belorussian media?
We all share a common history with one another, albeit the Lithuanian government, member and signatory of EU treaties on minorities etc) has been discriminating against the Polish minority in Lithuania in breach of international law, EU laws and agreements with the Republic of Poland. 

 Ruthenian prince and hetman Konstanty Ostrogski, Ostrogski coat of arms, was the victor of this engagement, worth noting that the  was one of the most important and successful Jagiellonian Poland commanders.
..

 ..

 ..

Polish National Museum holds a famous painting showing the very battle.
This Northern Renaissance painting is a veritable mine of information on the early XVI century Polish and presumably Grand Duchy  of Lithuania military - including the early winged hussars who played not a small role in this decisive engagement on the Dnieper River (interestingly there were all together 3 battles fought in the Orsza vicinity and all victories of Polish-Lithuanian forces.

Enjoy
ps
Orsza battle AD 1514 has not been a subject of many works of art in the past, for some reason the battle was forgotten, and it was not a subject of literary works of fiction, sadly and generally speaking our Polish Jagiellonian XVI century, the great Golden Age in Poland's history, has not been subject of novels nor films (but for a handful of TV films on the famous international figures like Mikołaj (Nicolas) Kopernik and queen Bona Sforza).
Portal Kresy.plkresy.pl has an article on the painting by Józef Męcina-Krzesz, painted circa 1884, on the subject of Orsza battle. The original painting can be found in Równe in Wolyń (Volhynia), today's Ukraine.  The painting was published in a form of woodcut in old Polish art magazine Kłosy in 1885. A detail  of the woodcut here.

ps'
Gaited Horses in Fiore's Manuals - very interesting take on the fighting manual's various illustrations showing mounted combat and use of gaited horses in Medieval combat - very worth your while.
And an intro to ambling horse in history - here . By the way I really love riding amblers/pacers like Paso Finos or various American breeds.