Merry Christmas on Christmas Eve

 Salvete Omnes,

so it is Christmas Eve (Wigilia in Polish, La Nochebuena in Spanish) - 

a page from Breviary of Salisbury

..

Merry Christmas to you and your loved ones, dear fellow net travelers. 

.

I would like to point your attention to the much damaged frescoes by one maestro  Jenez (Johannes) Aquila - XIV century painter in the Arpad Kingdom of Hungary. 

The Holy Trinity and Saint Stephen church in Velemer, Hungary, has some surviving frescoes showing, presumably, the Magi approaching and adoring the Baby Jesus. 

.

.

.all images are from Wiki Commons

.

[Polish] Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia - wesolosci i humoru, pieknej a smacznej kolacji Wigilijnej

..

Feliz Navidad...

..

May your horse, dogs and other domestic animals stay healthy and safe.

Again, Merry Christmas - may peace prevail everywhere and the current wars cease immediately.  

Valete

Emperor Ferdinand III in portrait paintings

 Salvete Omnes,

 

wearing a very splendid riding coat known as a cassock/casaque

January 2023 almost over - so I am winding up this month with a collection of portraits showing Ferdinand III who was the Holy Roman Emperor, King of Hungary and King of Bohemia (Bohemia included  most of the duchies of Silesia, with the Piast dynasts slowly dying out during this reign ) .

Ferdinand III (1608-1657) was an able military commander during the XXX years war, especially famous for the battle of Nordlingen, won together with his cousin cardinal-infante Ferdinand of Austria over the protestant armies.

during his life Ferdinand III  was subject of a number of portraits, and some of them show him in great armor, on horseback and in this other realm national costume - Kingdom of Hungary attire.

by all appearances this warhorse might be a Spanish one

King of Bohemia and Hungary

great Hungarian attire - including a delia riding coat

Nota bene emperor Ferdinand was married first to Maria Anna of Austria, his cousin.

and his second wife was Eleonora Gonzaga princess of Mantua etc - their 2nd daughter was a Queen of Poland etc.

and an allegorical  print from his reign 

valete

Hungarian horsemen circa AD1639 Johannes Ledentu continued

Salvete Omnes,
continuing from the last post : Hungarian horsemen circa AD1639 by Johannes Ledentu











and master Johanes included some shepherds with their flocks

valete!

Hungarian horsemen circa AD1639 Johannes Ledentu

Salvete Omnes,
The Austrian National Library ( Österreichische Nationalbibliothek ) holds a number of drawings, in two bound volumes, by Johannes Ledentu (here a little biography of this master cartographer, considered a Hungarian and Croatian one at the same time) showing various fortresses, strongholds and castles of the Royal Hungary (part of the Kingdom of Hungary held by the Hamburgs), more precisely the Hungarian-Slavonian borderlands of AD 1639.
I first saw these amazingly detailed drawings via facebook and then finally in a large and very enjoyable size on the very Austrian Library website.

I corralled some of the horsemen from the drawings,I am especially interested in the marching army, including various carriage (Hungarian kosc included ) and wagons
 
  see the spare horses and lancers marching
 
and trumpeters for the lancer banner
 
 the circular array of horse banners and infantry



The drawings show great deal of the lance-welding Hungarian horsemen aka Hungarian hussars.




hunters with falcons
 
finally a grim reality of the time - capital punishment - by impalement

more in the next post
Valete!

ps
 some of the strongholds are subject to articles available on line - eg this one on the Sadtwar castle,[Hungarian language], or castle Mareck (Marchegg)

Mohacs AD 1526 anniversary and some books from Hungary

Salve,
I decided to do a separate entry on this subejct, as I did one entyr already earlier today.

Namely, on this summer day of August 29, but in AD 1526, the most dangerously  outnumbered army of the Jagiellon Kingdom of Hungary and Bohemia under the young king Lajos II , Pal Tomori and George Zápolya, who was a Piast after his mother,  resolutely and bravely faced the invading, huge and highly spirited, army of the Ottoman Turks under the famous emperor Suleyman. I am not going to give you a link to the Wikipedia page of this engagement, as it is not adequate and full of .. well, anyway.
It started well for the defenders, progressed quite adequately and had to end badly when the Hungarian final charge failed to rout  Suleyman's personal guard - in order to kill him or cause the emperor to flee the battle- and  eventually the Ottoman numerical superiority simply overwhelmed the tired defenders.
So it ended in one massive tragedy with their young king and commanding generals killed, and it was the beginning of calamities that befell the Hungarian realm, and the proud and long existing state soon was to be partitioned and pillaged for more than a century to come.
The victorious Ottmans rejoyced - it was their day of glory -
Audaces Fortuna iuvat.

There is a monument to this battle in Hungary - I hope to visit it next year.

Hungarian military history researcher János B. Szabó has provided us with access to some of his articles on the battle and the Hungarian army of the era, including one on the early hussars.
There is a completely free book available on line - by a historian Geza Perjes - titled  ''The Fall of The Medieval Kingdom of Hungary: Mohacs 1526 - Buda 1541,'' that brings the story of this epic struggle to us in quite exhaustive detail.

The American Plains Indians had this saying - Today is a good day to day - and for all these heroes of the battle that 29th of August 1526 was such a day - so Pacem Aeternam, warriors!

In conjunction with this anniversary I would like to show off a little - I finally received three books on the Hungarian military by Győző Somogyi, artist and historian.
These books are 30cm/15 inches tall by 21cm/8inczes wide soft cover publications, more albums of reconstructed figures of leaders, warriors, soldiers, equipment and even fortresses of the Kingdom of Hungary during the period of 1458 through 1690s.
I strongly encourage all of you who  are interested and enjoy our East-Central European history to get these  albums, preferably from Hungary as the price is right :)  - my thanks Krisztina for bringing them to me.
I photographed the front and back cover, along with one of the maps. The translations are adequate, in most part, while the images are just simply a feast to one's eyes. 

enjoy