Ethnographic Arms & Armour - View Single Post - Polska szabla husarska

Radu Transylvanicus · 12th December 2004, 09:17 PM

This is my take on the subject:
In the 9th century or even earliear, the Magyars (ancestors of today’s Hungarians) eventually inspired by the Alans (a nomadic nations of the Sarmatian group) develop a solid model of a back curved sword with a front curved pistol hilt and cross-guard quillions. This type, with few differences, mainly in decoration is present in Caucasus (Turkoman nations) and the eastern steppes of Ukraine (Mongol-Tartaric nations) known as ,,Tcherkesso-Tartar scimitar,, and it directly influenced the later “ormianka” and “karabella” sabers, cousins of the Ottoman “kilij”. In the 13th century the Mongols were constantly raiding via steppes of Ukraine all Poland, Hungary and neighboring countries carrying ,,Tartar scimitars,, .
In very late 14th early 15th century Poland allies with Lithuania and subdues the vast Ukraine, who was also home of the Crimean ,,Golden Horde,, of Tartars and tremendous interaction in weaponry started.
Hungary, has troubles with the increasingly powerful and almighty Ottoman Empire and after the failure of the lame crusade of Nicopolis (1396) is observant via Transylvanian king John Hunyadi (Janos Hunyadi in Hungarian, Ioan de Hunedoara in Romanian) that his armament and organizing is obsolete and improper with the times and after his death in 1456 in the defending Belgrade, his son Mathias Corvinus, at first inheriting just Transylvania, then elected king of all Hungary continues and develops his father’s ideas developing a military Renaissance. The only reason for mentioning them here is not the apotheosis of my heritage but the simple fact that they are the creators of the Hussars regiments. The reformed ,,militia portalis,, of John Hunyadi evolves in the famous ,,Black Army,, of Mathias Corvinus incorporating for the first time the ,,Hussars,, light cavalry regiments, at the beginning Serbo-Croatians , then from all parts of the kingdom. They quickly started become equipped with curved sabers with blades of Turko-Tartaric fashion but mounted differently and styled differently replacing completely the medieval straight swords in a complete different manner faster than western Europe who preferred going to the way of rapiers and ,,schiavonna,, (ironically another eastern European weapon) based broad swords.
In 1576, prince of Transylvania (again no apotheosis of this land intended but this fact is confirmed by Wolviex) Stephen Bathory is elected king of Poland, a fearless combatant, he brought the ,, epee a la hongroise ,, (transl. from French: Hungarian type saber) to the rank of a symbol and it was all what the Polish ,,szlachta,, (nobility) was carrying in terms of swords; he is also cited as being the initiator (correct me if I am wrong, Wolviex !) of the legendary ,,Winged Hussars,, of Poland. It was very common to fashion sabers after the one of the king apprehendedly named after him like: ,,batorowka,, after Stephen Bathory (having classic boot like hilt), ,,zygmuntowka,, after king Sigismund (Zygmunt in Polish) or ,,janowka,, after Jan Sobieski for example (on a less serious note,

I called the main saber of this thread “wolviexowka”., hehehe). A notable innovation, like Wolviex was saying was the knuckle guard, likely inspired from the more decorative ,,chain knuckle guard,, in late 16th early 17th century Poland initiates the solid metal knuckle bow (kablak glowny) and the thumb-ring (paluch) who revolutionised the art of fencing and the edged weaponry forever ! That is the beginning of the ,,epee a la Hussarde,, or Hussar style saber who was adopted quickly by all most powerful armies of Europe from Prussian, French and British and glorified by the Napoleonian wars and in the mid 18th century it ceased to be ,, Hungaro-Polish,, hence its mainstream adoption. Its key elements remained little changed until late 19th century when firearms put an absolute end to the cavalry charges and real fighting sabers were bygone declining into only parade and ceremonial pieces.
For those interested I’ll bring more to the table from types and nomenclature (Wolviex I beg your help on this one) and images to go along ...

12th December 2004, 09:17 PM	#9
Radu Transylvanicus Member Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: 2008-2010 Bali, 1998-2008 USA Posts: 271	Brief history of the Hussar sabers ... This is my take on the subject: In the 9th century or even earliear, the Magyars (ancestors of today’s Hungarians) eventually inspired by the Alans (a nomadic nations of the Sarmatian group) develop a solid model of a back curved sword with a front curved pistol hilt and cross-guard quillions. This type, with few differences, mainly in decoration is present in Caucasus (Turkoman nations) and the eastern steppes of Ukraine (Mongol-Tartaric nations) known as ,,Tcherkesso-Tartar scimitar,, and it directly influenced the later “ormianka” and “karabella” sabers, cousins of the Ottoman “kilij”. In the 13th century the Mongols were constantly raiding via steppes of Ukraine all Poland, Hungary and neighboring countries carrying ,,Tartar scimitars,, . In very late 14th early 15th century Poland allies with Lithuania and subdues the vast Ukraine, who was also home of the Crimean ,,Golden Horde,, of Tartars and tremendous interaction in weaponry started. Hungary, has troubles with the increasingly powerful and almighty Ottoman Empire and after the failure of the lame crusade of Nicopolis (1396) is observant via Transylvanian king John Hunyadi (Janos Hunyadi in Hungarian, Ioan de Hunedoara in Romanian) that his armament and organizing is obsolete and improper with the times and after his death in 1456 in the defending Belgrade, his son Mathias Corvinus, at first inheriting just Transylvania, then elected king of all Hungary continues and develops his father’s ideas developing a military Renaissance. The only reason for mentioning them here is not the apotheosis of my heritage but the simple fact that they are the creators of the Hussars regiments. The reformed ,,militia portalis,, of John Hunyadi evolves in the famous ,,Black Army,, of Mathias Corvinus incorporating for the first time the ,,Hussars,, light cavalry regiments, at the beginning Serbo-Croatians , then from all parts of the kingdom. They quickly started become equipped with curved sabers with blades of Turko-Tartaric fashion but mounted differently and styled differently replacing completely the medieval straight swords in a complete different manner faster than western Europe who preferred going to the way of rapiers and ,,schiavonna,, (ironically another eastern European weapon) based broad swords. In 1576, prince of Transylvania (again no apotheosis of this land intended but this fact is confirmed by Wolviex) Stephen Bathory is elected king of Poland, a fearless combatant, he brought the ,, *epee a la hongroise* ,, (transl. from French: Hungarian type saber) to the rank of a symbol and it was all what the Polish ,,szlachta,, (nobility) was carrying in terms of swords; he is also cited as being the initiator (correct me if I am wrong, Wolviex !) of the legendary ,,Winged Hussars,, of Poland. It was very common to fashion sabers after the one of the king apprehendedly named after him like: ,,batorowka,, after Stephen Bathory (having classic boot like hilt), ,,zygmuntowka,, after king Sigismund (Zygmunt in Polish) or ,,janowka,, after Jan Sobieski for example (on a less serious note, I called the main saber of this thread “wolviexowka”., hehehe). A notable innovation, like Wolviex was saying was the knuckle guard, likely inspired from the more decorative ,,chain knuckle guard,, in late 16th early 17th century Poland initiates the solid metal knuckle bow (kablak glowny) and the thumb-ring (paluch) who revolutionised the art of fencing and the edged weaponry forever ! That is the beginning of the ,,epee a la Hussarde,, or Hussar style saber who was adopted quickly by all most powerful armies of Europe from Prussian, French and British and glorified by the Napoleonian wars and in the mid 18th century it ceased to be ,, Hungaro-Polish,, hence its mainstream adoption. Its key elements remained little changed until late 19th century when firearms put an absolute end to the cavalry charges and real fighting sabers were bygone declining into only parade and ceremonial pieces. For those interested I’ll bring more to the table from types and nomenclature (Wolviex I beg your help on this one) and images to go along ...