"The Romanian Armies of Michael the Brave" Topic

Does anyone knows how the armies of Michael the Brave would be organized? Did he have any pike and shot infantry or western style heavy cavalry? What unit types were used?

No mercs or western style troops except as part of the Habsburg troops which supported him for a short time before the Imperial commander (Giorgio Basta) had him assasinated.

His own army would be draw from the native troops of his power base in Wallachia as well as from whatever Moldavians & Transylvanians joined him. (And of course some of these areas, in particular Transylvania had a mix of ethnic & political groups which supplied diffrent types of troops)

Unfortunately just about all of the good information about Michael's armies and the other contemporary 'local' forces are in obscure languages such as Roumanian & Hungarian and this has led to a lot of misconceptions about these armies and their troops in various wargames rules.

Great movie on the subject too.

Cheers,

Helen

Daniel, do you know what troop types Wallachia and the other Romanian areas supported at this time?

I am guessing hussaria and heyduks. Would that be correct?

Would they still have foot archers, or just arquebusiers? Also, did they have any heavy infantry?

Hussars and haiduks were not found in Wallachia as they belonged to the "Hungarian" military tradition. Already in the 15th Century Moldavia and Wallachia was developing in a diffrent direction as far as military matters were concerned. The main part of their cavalry was light cavalry with a focus on horse archers who at times were equipped with a spear/light lance as well. Only the wealthiest men (i.e boyars) wore armour and during the 16th Century they seem to change from light western style lancers to at best mailed horse archers similar to siphais.

In the 17th C Wallachian cavalry was noted for looking down on the use of fire arms an taking pride in their skill with the bow. The infantry however seems to have adopted firearms, early 17th Century sources mention the Semeni who were often not native Wallachians but rather recruited from other parts of the Balkans.

Don't have enough information to tell if there still were foot archers or not. The more rustic levies may still have had some but I expect that as in other parts of the Balkans firearms had become the prefered missile weapon.
No evidence of anything that would be considered "heavy infantry" by the standards of 1600. There was neither the need nor the military tradition necessary to develop heavy infantry.

Thanks daniel!