Maurice de Saxe - about horses for winged hussar-like lancer

Salvete Omnes,

today again we will continue with the Marice de Saxe's ideas for cavalry, this time horses, horse tack and making horse ready for war [the English translation from 1758]

training and conditioning of horses

horse size for the lancer cavalry

saddle and its parts [1st mention]

saddle described

saddle sheepskin and stirrups

more exercises for horses

teaching horses to stand fire

 to be continued...

Enjoy

Maurice de Saxe - winged hussar-like lancer continued

Salvete Omnes,
I am going to continue from the last post, hence below pleas find ( in French for now and the English translation omits the heavy horse charge underlined in read) more of the Maurycy Saski (Maurice de Saxe) winged hussar-like lancers from his work Reveries or Memories Concerning the Art of War.
This time about charging the enemy:
how to carry out a successful knee-to-knee charge
the role of a cavalry banners in keeping the espirit de squadron
the importance of training as a squadron and as a regiment

lancer at ready

[French]

 continued here

 and the last remark

lancer charging

to be continued
ps
note the lancer's lance penon a la Polonoise 
enjoy

Maurice de Saxe - ideas of winged hussar-like cavalryman

Salvete omnes,
some time ago I read Maurice de Saxe 'Reveries or Memories Concerning the Art of War'  and actually posted his ideas about the mechanical hackamore as ideal for cavalryman.
Presently, I finished looking over, not closely studying, but skimming, of the new Osprey book titled The Cavalry Lance (2017) - the book, well, this work should have been titled The British Cavalry Lance.. But I shall do a more detailed review once I will have read the entire book with some notes and commentaries, so my opinion will be augmented with page citation etc. But in short I am puzzled and disappointed by this book, to say at least.

The authors did not mention de Saxe so in order to lay some groundwork for my review.
Hence here I feel I have to return to the subject  of de Saxe cavalry, especially since he had advocated and actually used lance-armed cavalry during his years as a commanding general in the French service. Curiously, in other Osprey titles other authors did mention de Saxe and his cavalry, including his lancers.

Presently, I will share with you de Saxe ideas for a lancer cavalryman, in armor and with a Polish winged hussar lance/kopia husarska.

He calls them Horse and imagined that 40 squadrons were sufficient for an army of 40-50,000 men.

  some of the de Saxe notes on the appearance and equipment, taken from the translated version:
 

about the helmet for the Horse companies

 The English translator failed here as per lances (these must have been very foreign to the British readers during the time of publication MDCCLIX), but I am going to add it anyway but first the French original as written by de Saxe, especially it is important here that he calls these lances 'a la Polonoise' or in Polish [winged hussar] style:

De Saxe calls for 15 feet long, hollowed lances and a lance boot attached to the front arch to be used when attacking a foe - exactly in the Polish manner
 Below,  the much edited English version of the above paragraph on the lances:

lance

 to be continued
ps
I will return to the subject of de Saxe saddle as he described it some other time.
valete

Maurice de Saxe & ... mechanical hackamore

Salve,
I have been interested in the life and works of the spirited German prince Maurice de Saxe, son of our awful Polish king Augustus II der Starke and beautiful Aurora von Königsmarck.
Prince Maurycy Saski, as we call him in Polish, was a very brave and talented soldier who won many important victories, mostly against the enemies of the French Crown, amongst others he defeated Duke of Cumberland at Fontenoy. He dictated his ideas about military, in the fashion of other famous military commanders, and these were published as ''Mes Reveries'' in 1757, almost 10 years after his untimely death. Had he lived perhaps the world would not have been celebrating that Prussian king Frederic the Great, soldier, philosopher, and thief. Why Frederic of Prussia was a thief? well, that is a story for another time, but perhaps for now it suffices to say he had the counterfeit Polish money minted in Prussia, but with much reduced amount of gold and silver in each respective coin, and then introduced that fake and injurious currency into the Polish market thus taking millions in gold and silver from Poland  and then in 1772 he took our lands and people, building his military state.
Ad rem, in volume I article III of''Mes Reveries'' prince Maurycy goes in detail about cavalry, its types and their equipment. Amongst the detailed description of the horse trappings we have a description of the bridle without a bit, looking like a curb-bit thus I naturally call it a 'mechanical hackamore'.
Well, ladies and gentlemen, there is prince Maurycy Saski's ''bride sans mors,''after the one invented by warrior-king of Sweden Charles XII while the Americans call mechanical hackamore, awfully inaccurate name for this device I daresay, for it has little if nothing to do with the vaquero's hackamore aka jaquima. One set or reins and plenty of control needed in one-handed military riding.

'Je ne veux point de bride avec ùn mors. II faut qu'il ait une têtière  avec deux branches droites, comme il y en a à nos brides, avec des bossèttes. De la place où est le mors ordinairement , il passe un cuir sur le nez du cheval; la gourmette venant à serrer, lorsque l'on tire les rênes, ramène parfaitement bien le cheval, & mieux qu'aucune bride : il n'y a point de cheval que l'on n'arrête avec cela, & que l'on ne manie bien; l'on ne sçauroit leur gâter la bouche, hi leur échauffer les barres.

II en résulte un autre avantage qui est trèsgrand; c'est que les chevaux peuvent tepaître sans que l'on soit obligé de débrider : dès que l'on lâche les rênes, ils peuvent ouvrir la bouche toute grande; & lorsqu'on les tient dans la main, ils ne sçauroient l'ouvrir, tirer la langue, & s'accoutumer à quantité de mauvaises habitudes qu'ils prennent avec la bride. D'ailleurs cela les relève plus, & fait fort bien. Cette invention est de Charles XII roi de Suède.'

'' I do not see a point in having a curb-bit (bride avec un mors): instead of which, it should have a head-stall (une tetiere) having two straight shanks like those of our curb-bits, with small round ornaments (avec des bossettes); and from the spot where the bit is usually placed, a leather [strap] passes over the horse's nose, [while] a curb bit chain (la gourmette) comes to draw close [this bridle], in proportion as the rider tightens his reins, will govern a horse effectively, and better than any curb-bit: one may stop and manage the most headstrong horse at pleasure, without spoiling his mouth, or inflaming (echauffer) his jaws.

There is another advantage [to this bridle] that is very important, in that horses will be able to feed with it on, without obligation to take it off (debrider): for, by only slackening the reins, he is able to to open his mouth all the way, and again by gathering them in hand ('one hand' riding), he is not able to open his mount  and will prevent  lolling out his tongue, and put a stop to number of bad habits, that take hold with [use] of a bit. By the way, it will moreover make him raise and carry well [his head] ( elevating the front and lowering the hindquarters - better collection). This invention belongs to Charles XII, King of Sweden.''

I will bring more of prince Maurycy writings and inventions regarding cavalry, the next of his writing brought here should be the saddle prince Maurycy invented. By the way, when we get to the cavalry , he may shock some of you, enthusiasts of XVIII century warfare,, for he advocated using an armoured cavalryman with a 15 feet long lance a la Polish winged hussaria.