The Polish Winged Hussars and the ‘Military Revolution’ in the East | Evolution of Warfare

the polish wingless stars dominated the eastern european theaters of war for much of the early modern period while the western european art of war of this period relied on infantry-heavy pike and shot tactics eastern armies continue to rely on cavalry on the battlefields of italy france germany and flanders heavy cavalry such as knights and lancers found a counter in combined pikes and muskets western european battles according to the historian jeffrey parker were won primarily with infantry in eastern europe by contrast cavalry was still key the polish cavalry most notably not only frequently bested the muscovites and ottomans on their eastern and southern front respectively but also defeated western powers such as the swedes under gustavus adolphus therefore some scholars argue that early modern western military doctrine lacked a crucial component namely a cavalry unit such as the polish wing to stars that frequently and successfully charged home with steel in hand it is not surprising that the winged with stars eventually influenced the western art of war and they did so lastingly to understand this development properly the period between 1550 and 1620 is key this video will look at how contemporary historiography discusses the early successes of the polish lithuanian who stars in september 1605 carl the ninth of sweden abandoned the siege of riga and chased a small polish force down the divina the swedes caught up with the polish near the town of kircholm the historian and expert on the polish swedish wars robert frost stresses the fact that on the morning of september 27th carl's 11 000 men were arranged in pike squares of 30 by 30 men drawn up in a typical western battle order of four lines with four infantry battalions in the first line and six in the third line fearing the enemy's superior cavalry carl had his own horsemen forming the second and fourth lines to charge and retreat through their own formation the polish under their leader jan karal kordkievich brought an entirely different army to the battlefield it numbered only 3 600 men in total 2 600 of which were cavalry and 1 000 infantry being outnumbered almost three to one the polish intended to lure the swedes out of their superior position kotkiewicz sent his light cavalry to skirmish between the two armies and ordered his force to close ranks so that it appeared even smaller than it was after four hours of waiting he pretended to withdraw unwilling to let the polish escape karl pushed forward onto the plane the swedish cavalry of the second line was deployed on the wings to provide flanking cover while the infantry of the first line closed up and advanced to the bottom of the slope with nine field guns the polish who had been waiting exactly for this movement suddenly turned their horses around and smashed into one of the swedish infantry squares this was not intended to break the swedish infantry but to disorder it all along the polish were aware that they had to win on the flanks quickly they attacked with numbers particularly on the polish lithuanian left supported by steady infantry fire 900 to 1200 who sars and cossack horsemen charged home against 720 swedish cavalrymen protecting the flanks of carl's army after a short-lived resistance the swedish cavalry was shattered and while fleeing disordered the infantry of the third line within half an hour the swedish cavalry was in retreat on both flanks while the lithuanian light cavalry was pursuing them the hussars could turn on the infantry in the swedish center the swedish infantry was now separated into three groups facing combined attacks from the firepower of the polish infantry and the shock attacks of the hussars the result was a massacre the swedish infantry was largely butchered where it stood kirchholm was only one of many decisive victories the polish would achieve throughout the so-called northern wars a series of conflicts fought in northern and northeastern europe in the 16th and 17th century yet despite such successes many historians among them the swede peter mikhail englund have noted that the strong reliance on heavy cavalry was a feature of a supposed eastern backwardness this opinion on heavy lancers was shared by many contemporary western tacticians for example the famous maoris of orange who made significant advances in contemporary tactics prohibited the mounted lancer altogether in his 1597 military reforms of the dutch army because views like maurits's were so dominant many saw heavy cavalry as a medieval old timer not fit for the early modern battlefield all this has been extensively discussed in the military revolution debate a modern research paradigm which looks at changes in warfare and their impact on the modernization of society at large michael roberts and jeffrey parker among many published extensively on this topic and usually argued that the spanish dutch and swedish reforms were of utmost importance for changing warfare by contrast in their view eastern states did not adopt the so-called gunpowder and infantry revolution sufficiently this means that they did not rely on infantry equipped with pikes and muskets and only built few star fortresses that is modern forts in the italian style with thick walls that could withstand artillery fire for a long time however more recent scholarly works tend to disagree with the sentiment of eastern backwardness robert frost for example considering the events of the battle of kirchholm note sarcastically quote if east european methods were backward they were remarkably effective end quote this begs the question what exactly made the heavy polish cavalry so effective and how exactly did they deal with western pike and shot tactics the origins of the polish heavy hussars lie in a lighter cavalry unit confusingly called hussars as well these lighthouse stars were primarily at home in serbia ukraine and russia the polish heaviosaurus sometimes also referred to as a medium cavalry developed only during the 16th and 17th century frost argues therefore that they were not the last remnants of the middle ages quite to the contrary their techniques and weaponry were as much a response to changes in contemporary warfare as were those of western pike and shot formations the polish stars were mounted on a crossbreed between eastern and western horses relatively small but very swift and quite resilient these mounts were different from the medieval charger or the slower heavier mounts used by contemporary western horsemen the principal weapon of the winged stars was the lance it was about one and a half meters longer than a medieval variant however it was built much lighter which meant that strength was sacrificed for weight as a result the polish lance is often shattered on contact but they were actually intended to do exactly that the hussars usually attacked in repeated charges when alans broke they would simply get a new one from the supply train for cavalry engagements the hussars used to concess a straight pointed sword resembling a rapier but rigid and much longer this was used as a kind of lance held out embraced in front of the trooper each hussar also wielded the curved saber which inflicted devastating slashing wounds especially on unprotected infantry finally many who sars carried bows far lighter than firearms used by western cavalry they could be fired while galloping by a skilled rider additionally they could be fired in any direction and over the heads of the front ranks of a formation which a firearm could not later the hussars also carried pistols some scholars think that the polish tactics only worked in the east michael roberts and richard halley for example both pointed to the vast plains and steps of the east as an ideal terrain for the polish tactics and the constant threat of the tatar raiders from the south who were quite capable of striking to the heartlands of the polish-lithuanian commonwealth the tatars reached bresclitovsk in 1500 minsk in 1505 and vilno in 1510 in addition the arrival of the ottomans in the south of the carpathians after 1526 meant that the polish faced another great power so it is true that cavalry was central both to the polish lithuanian and the muscovite defense against the constant threat of tatar attacks it was also of great importance in operation against the turks but it is simply a misconception that the polish stars only fought in the steps in the northern wars the polish and the muscovites fought the swedes around the baltic sea the terrain of this region is radically different from the eastern steps roughly at the latitude of scotland but without the benefits of a maritime climate which softens the scottish winters the climate around the baltic sea is continental summers are short and hot winters are long and cold heavy rain dominates spring and fall which often render the few and poor roads almost impassable although the terrain is relatively flat much of it was either forest or bulk and it was drained by an immense network of rivers and lakes yet even in these conditions polish cavalry units led to military success given the vast distances these armies had to cover between their main areas of operation cavalry was actually superior to slow moving infantry in a direct line vilno and slomansk are 430 kilometers apart the asthma is 580 kilometers away from vilno and 625 kilometers from briansk on top of these in early modern terms vast distances the nature of the terrain added to the cavalry advantage robert frost notes quote as late as 1750 half of lithuania consisted of forest and marsh in the borderlands with moscowi where most of the fighting took place this rose to 70 it seems therefore that cavalry wasn't backward at all it fitted these specific conditions very well another recurring argument for the supposed backwardness of eastern warfare was the absence of italian-style star fortresses and the assumption that war in the east consisted mostly of pitched battles while it is true that eastern europe saw few defensive structures in the design of the star fortress the strong points that did exist were of vital importance they usually controlled important roads however like in the west pitched battles were actually quite rare most fighting occurred in and around major cities or in raids traditionally cavalry played a minor role in siege warfare a siege in the west would see army's dig extensive earthwork to secure their position these trench systems were called contra and circumvallation and were extremely work intensive to build maintain and defend in the east however cavalry served to secure the besieger's positions against enemy sorties or relief forces cavalry was therefore anything but useless in siege warfare as is often perceived at cokenhausen in 1601 for example polish cavalry beat off a swedish relief army while maintaining the direction of the siege cavalry was also beneficial to a forward defense for example by disorganizing or distracting relief operations in 1581 during the livonian war 5 600 polish usars covered the eastern flank of the polish army under king bhattori against attacking muskovites forcing them to march in a wide arc northeast to novogorod far from the main direction of its operations meanwhile a 2 000 strong polish force raided muscovy as far as the opera another vital benefit of cavalry units was their ability to secure supplies like in the west the polish brought enormous supply trains to sieges but it was often impossible to feed a large body of men over a long period of time from what could be brought along at the same time transport problems over the vast distances especially in the rainy fall were unlikely to tempt merchants to make the long journey with further supplies thus the army had to forage far afield this was done by teams of wagoners and servants escorted by calvary to protect them and enforce supply from locals [Music] during the siege of scoff in october 1581 the polls ordered every company to send a fifth of its strength to form raiding parties of 120 horses these units succeeded in maintaining the army before the walls of scoff for five months from an astonishingly wide area as they ventured ever further afields to find supplies in september of 1581 they were traveling 40 to 70 kilometers in one direction by december 210 to 280 kilometers by january up to 350 kilometers in one direction the round trip took nearly a month an infantry army would have either abandoned the siege or starved these supply problems made it difficult to keep a large force together for any length of time in addition raising a large army quickly in order to fend off an incoming attack in a pitched battle was almost impossible in these vast territories thus the major pitch battles that did take place were almost always the result of attempts to relieve besieged cities however if there was a pitch battle the polish demonstrated that their cavalry was well capable of defeating enemies one famous example is the battle of crushino the 4th of july 1610 near the village of klushino an outnumbered and outgunned polish army showed that they could go toe to toe with a western style army about 5 500 polish who stars about 1 000 light cossack cavalry and 200 foot men faced a force of 25 to 30 000 moscowites and an additional five to seven thousand western mercenaries led by the experienced commander jacob de la gardie who spent two years in the netherlands learning from maoris of orange himself he was by the way later to become the tutor of gustavus adolphus the polish stars unable to outflank the enemy and exploit their superior maneuverability decided to charge the muscovite left flank composed of light cavalry head on some units charged into the mass of the muscovite horses 8 to 10 times the hussars were hampered by a palisade which had been only partly demolished the gaps were only large enough for 10 horses to pass through in close order this prevented them from attacking in their usual extended formation at the same time the steady fire of the enemy infantry caused heavy casualties the muscovite horsemen however were beginning to crack the swedish cavalry tried to support them by deploying the so called caracol a skirmisher tactic often used in the west as they advanced the hussars exposed this tactic as ineffective samuel maskievich a contemporary witness describes his experience as follows they handed us the victory for as they came at us we were in some disorder and immediately having fired their carbines they wheeled away to the rear of their formation to reload and the next rank advanced firing we did not wait but at the moment all had emptied their pieces and seeing that they were starting to withdraw we charged them with only our sabers in our hands they having failed to reload while the next rank had not yet fired took to their heels we crashed into the whole muscovite force still drawn up in battle order at the entrance of their camp plunging them into this order as the muscovite cavalry fled the poles turned to the swedes their hussars many of whom had already shattered their lances had little chance of defeating the western mercenaries in swedish service on their own at this point however a small force of infantry and two guns which had been bogged down in the forest arrived to rescue the situation as the infantry and the cannon shot gaps in the palisade and the enemy's lines the polish sent out one of their last companies of usars whose lances were still intact samuel maskievich describes it as follows quote the whole swedish foreign infantry was standing in battle order protected by stakes beside their camp they broke this infantry having attacked it with courage we supported them having broken our lances we could only join the attack with our sabers in our hands end quote the polish decisively defeated the swedish enter mercenaries historian robert frost notes quote vela gardee had instructed muscovite troops in western methods especially pike tactics and there were native muscovite units of mounted western style archibazires officered by foreigners at clichino end quote he concludes quote if klushino demonstrated anything it was that western methods were no magic elixir end quote klushino proved that eastern tactics in general and cavalry in particular was not outmoded not an ancient relict of past medieval times similarly to pike and shot tactics in the west it was an eastern answer to the new problems posed by the evolution of early modern warfare however in 1621 11 years later gustavus adolphus entered the stage his reformed swedish army posed a new challenge to the polish he found many means to counter the hussars and effectively halt their storm assaults most notably he had his troops dig field fortifications and taught his own cavalry to charge home with steel in hand instead of using the caracone thus imitating the poles in that regard but how gustavus managed to deal with the polish with stars in detail and how this affected his later campaigns in germany during the 30 years war will be dealt with in two separate videos however even when faced with the swedish kings reformed army the hussars did not become useless they still were invaluable in battles traits and ambushes the winged stars would go on winning victories for many years most famously perhaps at vienna in 1683 when the ottomans almost conquered the city but then the winged hussars arrived you

Channel: SandRhoman History

Views: 351,951

Rating: 4.9491096 out of 5

Keywords: winged hussars, evolution of warfare, polish winged hussars, documentary, educational, education, sandrhoman, polish history, battle of kircholm, battle of klushino, early-modern warfare, early modern warfare, evolution of cavalry warfare, history

Id: ZEJak1DDm6k

Length: 19min 35sec (1175 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 20 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/meatball4u]

Well sourced, nice video!

[u/Gregorz_Bzzzchhwww]

How was the Polish commander able to see what was going on during the entire battle?

The video provides a clear top-down view so it's easy to follow along.

How did the Polish commander prevent himself from getting confused as to what was where and who was doing what?

I'm not trolling or trying to talk shit. Genuinely curious as to how these commanders could see what was going on without the usage of drones, cameras, and instant communications such as walkie-talkies etc.