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Men-at-Arms

SPREY

PUBLISHING

Medieval Polish

Armies 966 –1500

W Sarnecki & D Nicolle

•

Illustrated by G & S Embleton

Men-at-Arms • 445

Medieval Polish Armies

966–1500

W Sarnecki & D Nicolle

Series editor

Mar tin Windrow

•

Illustrated by G & S Embleton

WITOLD SARNECKI, born in

Poland in 1974, gained his

master’s thesis in art history

at Jagiellonian University,

Cracow, in 1997, and

specializes in historical

military art. He currently lives

in the town of Novy Sacz,

where he catalogues artefacts

for a monument preservation

bureau and serves as a guide

at the District Museum. This

is his first contribution to

Osprey’s military list.

CONTENTS

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

• The first Christian kingdom, 10th century

• The Division in the Provinces, 12th–14th centuries

• The Jagiello dynasty and the expansion of the Polish-Lithuanian

kingdom, 14th–16th centuries

CHRONOLOGY

ORGANIZATION OF POLISH ARMIES

DAVID NICOLLE worked in

the BBC Arabic service for a

number of years, before going

‘back to school’, gaining an

MA from the School of

Oriental and African Studies,

London, and a doctorate from

Edinburgh University. He later

taught world and Islamic art

and architectural history at

Yarmuk University, Jordan. He

has been a prolific author of

Osprey titles for many years.

• Castellanies, household troops and levies, 10th century

• Rise of heavy cavalry and knight service, 11th–12th centuries

• The reforms of Casimir the Great, 14th–15th centuries: cavalry

and infantry levies – urban militias – mercenaries – firearms

• Response to the Eastern threat, 16th century: heavy and light

cavalry – the ‘Old Polish Array’

ARMS AND ARMOUR

GERRY EMBLETON is an

internationally respected

authority on military costume

and material culture, in

particular the 15th and 18th

centuries. He has illustrated

more than 40 Osprey titles.

His company Time Machine

AG has made 3D life sized

historical figures for more

than 60 museums world-wide.

He and his son Samuel

Embleton have collaborated

on several works but this is

Sam’s first Osprey title.

• The Early Period, 10th–12th centuries: helmets – shields –

mail – swords – axes – spears – bows

• The Middle Period, 12th–14th centuries: swords – polearms –

bows and crossbows – armour: plate elements and ‘great helms’

• The Late Period, 14th–16th centuries: soft armours and coats-of-

plates – ‘white harness’ – swords and sabres – daggers –

war-hammers and maces – firearms

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY

PLATE COMMENTARIES

INDEX

MEDIEVAL POLISH ARMIES

966–1500

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Detail from ‘David and Goliath’

on an embossed chalice, dating

from c.1175–1200. Note the

sword passing through a slit in

the left hip of the mail hauberk,

and the kite-shaped shield.

(Abbey of Tzemeszno)

Christian country in AD 966, and in military

terms the state was uniﬁed under the rule of Prince Mieszko I.

However, the new kingdom was constantly threatened by

numerous enemies, and consequently Mieszko and his successors were

obliged to recognize the Western or German Emperors – later known as

the Holy Roman Emperors – as their overlords. At the same time they

often continued to ﬁnd themselves in conﬂict with neighbouring

German feudal lords, as well as with the Emperors themselves. Other

foes during these early centuries included the pagan tribes of

Pomerania; the Russians, including those now identiﬁed as Belarussians

and Ukrainians; and the Bohemians (Czechs).

Such conﬂicts were partly in defence of the newly

formed Kingdom of Poland, and partly wars of

conquest or expansion by the Poles themselves.

In military terms this period was typiﬁed by units

of professional household troops called the

druzhina,

who were supported during wartime by

local militias or

woye.

The next period of Polish history is known as

the Division in the Provinces, and lasted from

1138 to 1320. This long era of fragmentation

was characterized by a decline of part-time

militias in favour of professional – or at least,

better-trained – household and local troops. It

was upon these that the rulers of Poland now

relied. It was also during this period, from the

mid-12th to early 14th century, that a true Polish

knightly class emerged as part of a gradually

developing feudal system of government and

social organization. Furthermore, in 1154–55

the crusading military orders – the Hospitallers

and Templars – gained their first footholds on

Polish soil. Later in this notably turbulent

period the Teutonic Knights joined the older-

established military orders, arriving on the

scene in 1226, almost simultaneously with the

foundation of the specifically Polish Brethren of

Dobrzyn (Knights of Christ). Then came the

Mongol invasions, with raids deep into Europe

that culminated in the battle of Liegnitz/

Legnica in 1241.

OLAND BECAME A

The 14th century saw the reunification of Poland under the rule

of King Wladyslaw I Lokietek, known as ‘the Short’, and his son

Casimir III, ‘the Great’. It also witnessed a growing threat from the

Teutonic Knights, until the latter were defeated at the battle of

Plowce in 1331. As a consequence of his relatively peaceful reign,

King Casimir III went down in Polish history as one of the country’s

greatest administrators and castle-builders; about 80 strongholds

were constructed during his time.

In 1370 the still relatively small Kingdom of Poland was joined with

the sprawling Angevin state in Central Europe, based upon the

Kingdom of Hungary. This was, however, merely a personal union, that

came about when King Louis of Hungary succeeded the childless

Casimir the Great as ruler of Poland; it fell apart soon after Louis’ own

death, there being little or no economic, political, ethnic or even

strategic reason for its continuing existence.

The Jagiello dynasty and union with Lithuania

The so-called ‘Spear of St

Maurice’ was given to Boleslaw I

of Poland by Emperor Otto III of

Germany in AD 1000. It is a

simpliﬁed version of the so-

called ‘Holy Imperial Spear’ of

the Western Empire. (Cathedral

Treasury, Wawel, Cracow)

There now followed one of the most signiﬁcant events in medieval

European history, when one of King Louis’ daughters, Jadwiga, was

betrothed to the pagan Lithuanian Grand Duke Jogaila in 1386. Jogaila

was baptized as a Christian, and his already huge Lithuanian state similarly

became at least ofﬁcially Christian in the process, Jogaila himself ruling as

King Wladyslaw II Jagiello of Poland and Lithuania.

The history of later medieval Poland cannot be properly understood

without looking at the history of its neighbour, rival and now partner

Lithuania. This is equally true of later medieval Polish armies; these

would develop to a large extent along highly distinctive lines, which set

them apart from the military forces of Poland’s western and Baltic

neighbours. The Mongol invasion and conquest of most of the Russian

principalities in the 13th century, and their domination by the Mongol

Golden Horde successor state, shattered the previous political and

military order. This in turn enabled the small, largely pagan and in

many respects still tribal Grand Duchy of Lithuania to expand at the

expense of its Russian neighbours to the south-east, taking over several

Russian principalities starting with Polotsk. This remarkable and still

theoretically pagan expansion continued throughout the 14th century,

eventually overrunning the whole of southern or Kievan Russia up to

the frontier with the now declining Mongol Golden Horde. The once

powerful Mongols were themselves pushed back in their turn, and by

1392 the Lithuanians had reached the north-western shores of the

Black Sea. By that date, of course, the now vast Grand Duchy of

Lithuania was a Christian state, and was six years into its union with

emphatically Catholic Christian Poland. Nevertheless, the two ‘united’

states continued to operate and function separately, only really joining

forces to ﬁght common foes such as the Teutonic Knights.

The 15th century was a period of signiﬁcant change for medieval

Polish armies, as it was for armies across most of Europe. The Teutonic

Knights suffered a further and even more catastrophic defeat in 1410 at

the battle of Tannenberg/Grunwald, where they were defeated by King

Wladyslaw II Jagiello of Poland-Lithuania. The following year the Peace

of Thorn/Torun ended what is known as ‘The Great War against the

Teutonic Order’. Jagiello’s son, Wladislaw III Warnenczyk, the young

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