"FoGR Polish Jagiellonian Army" Topic

Are the notes about the XVI century polish army provided in the "Field Of Glory: Renaissance" book ( link ) accurate? I'm specially curious about the replacement of the crossbow by the composite bow, and the mentioned later change for the arquebus, since I couldn't find more about it in english…

Any polish members willing to help? (:

Improving the question, does anyone knows better how did the heavy lancer and mounted crossbow banners became the "cossack" (pancerny) and heavy hussar banners under Stephen Bathory? I'm specially interested in the supposed change of equipment from the crossbows to the bows and firearms of the pancerny cavalry.

The replacement of crossbows with bows ended in 1540s during the so called "cossack reform". IIRC firearms appeared in cavalry about this time or 1550s.

As for hussars – they gradually used more and more armor (at least from 1530s), and usually being mixed with heavy lancers (those in gravioris armaturae) after some time became almost indistinguishable from the latter. So hussars and heavy lancer were using different kinds of armor in one unit (from only plate cuirass to almost full plate or just mail). Oh, and hussars usually used smaller and faster horses as opposed to heavy lancers.

King Stephen Bathory reorganized polish hussars after its transylvanian counterparts – he instructed rotameisters to conscript those with armor(plate cuirass – anima style, vambraes or chainmail and shishak) and dress of hungarian fashion, sabre,pistol and pallash (or koncerz).

As for cossack and hussars banners – up too 1590s most banners were of mixed composition, and upon this – the proportion between cossacks/hussars/arkebusers it was determined whether given unit was cossack or hussar.

Sorry for poor english, I hope it helps.

Thank You very much, Mihai! It's really helpfull! Could You tell more about the "cossack reform"?
Also, is there any good book about the polish armies of the XVI century?

Yes there is a whole series, but unfortunately in polish (if you know polish, send me PM).

As for the cossack reform, I know little about it just that it has ended in the begining of reign of King Sigismund August and that it reequiped horse crossbowmen with bows, sabres and rohatynas (spears). They usually wore some kind of armor, be it chainmail or some kind of reinforced leather or linen coat. And by mid 1550s they used firearms.

As for FOGR accuracy, I've heard it's total crap. But the early polish list seems ok, but I'm not an expert.

Mihai, can you suggest the book here? I don't know polish, but I can always find someone to help me translate here in my city.

Marek Plewczyński, Wojny i wojskowość polska w XVI wieku, t.I-III, Inforteditions. If you give me your e-mail, I'll send you images of cavalry from that time.

That would be awesome! My email is miguelmentrin AT gmail.com