Role of Serbian medieval cavalry in formation of Polish hussars

In researching the history of the Serbians, the “old” books, now often out of print but still available if you search for them, are invaluable. Given the particularly volatile relationship the Serbs have had with the British over the years, it’s important to consider just how highly the Brits regarded the Serbs BEFORE the poison of Communism and political expediency entered into and compromised that relationship.

"Now, when we return to England, we shall, at any rate, be in a position to declare that we found one Balkan race, the Serbs, to consist of the best of fellows. Our companies have had Serbs attached to them, as guards or drivers, and very sorry we were when they were withdrawn. Though most of us could not say anything to them except 'Dobro' (‘Good’), we managed to understand them, and to make ourselves understood. They were always cheerful, kindly, helpful, with a skill in many handicrafts that made camp-life more comfortable for themselves and us. And I think we may flatter ourselves that they liked us and our ways, and found the British character sympathetic with their own."

"…It will be necessary throughout to remember that the Serbs look back with pride to the great days of their independence in the Middle Ages, and to their empire which once embraced the whole Balkan peninsula, except southern Greece and the coast-towns."

The Serbian Empire (Serbian: Српско Царство, Srpsko Carstvo) was a medieval empire in the Balkans that emerged from the medieval Serbian Kingdom in the 14th century. The Serbian Empire existed from 1346 to 1371.

Tsar Dušan, before he came to throne as king of all Serbs, proved himself as a very talented battle leader, who proved himself in the battle of Velbazhd, where Serbia heavily defeated the Bulgarian Empire.

The medieval Serbian state reached its apex in the mid-14th century, during the rule of Stefan Dušan, who proclaimed himself in 1345 tsar in Serres and was crowned in Skopje on the 16th April 1346 as the "Emperor of Serbs and Greeks" by the newly proclaimed Serbian Patriach Joanikie II with the help of the Bulgarian Patriarch Simeon and the Archbishop of Ohrid, Nicholas.

Tsar Dušan enacted Dušan's Code (Serbian: Dušanov zakonik) in 1349 and added in 1354. The Code was based on Roman-Byzantine law. The legal transplanting is notable with the articles 171 and 172 of Dušan's Code, which regulated the juridical independence. They were taken from the Byzantine code Basilika (book VII, 1, 16-17). The Code had its roots in the first Serbian constitution — St. Sava's Nomocanon (Serbian: Zakonopravilo). from 1219, enacted by Saint Sava. This legal act was well developed. St. Sava's Nomocanon was the compilation of Civil law, based on Roman Law and Canon law, based on Ecumenical Councils and its basic purpose was to organize functioning of the young Serbian kingdom and the Serbian church. The Serbian Empire flourished, becominging one of the most developed countries and cultures in Europe.

For a time indeed the Grand Zupan Michael (1050-80) was able to maintain his independence; he even received the title of king from Pope Gregory VII. In the twelfth century the family of the Nemanyich, to whom the union of the Serbs is due, became prominent in Servian history. Urosch, who was Zupan of Rassa from about 1120, entered into friendly relations with the Hungarian king, Bela II.

Stephen I, Nemanja, who was a Catholic, maintained amicable relations with the popes in ecelesiastico-political affairs, especially with Pope Innocent III. He received the latter's legates and letters in a friendly manner and repeatedly assured the pope of his attachment. His brother Vlkan, as lord of Antivari and Cattaro, was also closely connected with the Catholic Church. Nevertheless, the Greek Orthodoxy Church grew constantly stronger in the eastern part of the country,...

After the fall of the Latin Empire the relations between the papacy and Servia grew gradually less intimate; although married to a Catholic Frenchwoman, Helena, Stephen Urosch permitted both his sons to be brought up in the Greek Orthodox religion.

till now

By the 17th century, Polish hussars were held in even higher esteem and they made their own style of dress. The wings were of Serbian origin too. It was thought the wings were made to defend the backs of the men against swords and lassos, but modern theory is that they were used as intimidation. The noise and appearance of the feathers in the wind would spook the enemy's horses. The wings were mounted on a brass-edged wooden frame. The feathers were inserted into this frame, which was mounted on brackets or hinges (see illustration above). The wooden poles were arched at the top.

The hussar concept began in Serbia, near the end of the 14th century. In the 16th century, painted wings or winged claws began to appear on cavalry shields. Wings were originally attached to the saddle and later to the back. In 1645, Col. Szczodrowski was said to have used ostrich wings.

In 1500, the Polish Treasury books make reference to hussars. Early on, they were foreign mercenaries, and were called Racowie from "Rascia" a word meaning "of Serbia." They came from the Serbian state of Ras.

In that same year Orkhan, the ruler of the Turks, died bequeathing his dominion to his son Murad who, having become the master of the Thracian cities, besieged Adrianople and took possession of all of Thessaly with the exception of Thessaloniki. Since he now held practically all the lands of the Romans, he advanced to the Triballi [Serbs]. He destroyed many of their fortresses and towns and took their inhabitants captive; he then transported them to the Asiatic shore over the straits of the Chersonese. When Lazar, the son of Stefan, kral of Serbia, and himself kral of Serbia at that time, beheld these things, he assembled all his forces and joined battle with the tyrant; many fell on both sides. There took place afterwards an incredibly novel stratagem. A young Serb nobleman, who was more daring than any other man of his time, separated himself from the Christian phalanx, as though he were deserting, and fell into the midst of the Turkish ranks. When the Turks immediately laid hands on him, he called out the ruler's name, saying, 'I wish to see him and tell him something secretly so that he can win this battle; this is the reason I have deserted.' They presented him to the ruler. As Murad motioned with his hand for the youth to approach, he rushed forward and, when near enough, mortally wounded Murad by plunging a sword into his heart; he then was hacked to pieces by Murad's axe-bearers and bodyguards.

(e) The totally absurd thesis of the so called ‘late arrival’ of the Slavs in Europe must be replaced by the scenario of Slavic continuity from Paleolithic, and the demographic growth and geographic expansion of the Slavs can be explained, much more realistically, by the extraordinary success, continuity and stability of the Neolithic cultures of South-Eastern Europe (the only ones in Europe that caused the formation of tells) (Alinei 2000, fc.b)

The Austro-Hungarian Empire went into the war quite seriously under-prepared and without anything like a good enough fighting force for what was to unfold. They essentially fell out big-time with Serbia after a Serb militant group murdered the heir to their throne, Franz Ferdinand, in July 1914. Wishing to try and head off a Serbian revolt at the pass, the Empire, bolstered by a friendship with more powerful Germany, gave the Serbs an ultimatum. The Serbs agreed to 9.5 of the 10 points but the Empire declared war anyway. Bad move, because the Russians waded in on the side of Serbia and went on over the coming years to kick the stuffing out of the Empire to the point that it all went tits-up in about 1916. In fact, the losses on both sides in that year contributed not only to the end of the A-H Empire but also gave fuel to the Russian Revolution the following year and the distancing of Germany from A-H, feeling by then that it was “shackled to a corpse”. Anyway, this whole mess took the A-H Empire well and truly out of the way of Polish Independence.

The hawks in Austria-Hungary had an ally in Germany's supreme army commander, von Moltke, who wrote his Austrian counterpart that a war between "Germandom" (which included German Austrians) and "Slavdom" (the Russians and Serbs) was inevitable.

For days people in Vienna paraded, carrying flags and portraits of Franz Joseph and singing patriotic songs. People chanted "God protect our king, our land!" And people chanted "death to Serbs" and "Serb dogs must die!" The archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Piffl, gave voice to what many saw as a holy crusade. He proclaimed that it was the voice of God that spoke through the roar of Austria-Hungary's guns. He called on his flock to go forward in happiness and in confidence to attack the enemies of God.

Pope Pius X took a different approach. The ambassador from Austria asked him to bless the Habsburg armies, and the Pope refused saying he blessed peace.

Why four great powers should fight over Serbia no fellow can understand.

In effect, I was asking that if Russia mobilized against Austria, the German Government, who had been supporting the Austrian demand on Serbia, should ask Austria to consider some modification of her demands, under the threat of Russian mobilization.

I had furthermore spoken on the assumption that Russia would mobilize, whereas the assumption of the German Government had hitherto been, officially, that Serbia would receive no support; and what I had said must influence the German Government to take the matter seriously.

"Exactly at three o'clock, the enemy is due to be crushed by your fierce charge, destroyed by your grenades and bayonets. The honor of Belgrade, our capital, must not be stained. Soldiers! Heroes! The supreme command has erased our regiment from its records. Our regiment has been sacrificed for the honor of Belgrade and the Fatherland. Therefore, you no longer need worry about your lives: they no longer exist. So, forward to glory! For King and Country! Long live King, Long live Belgrade!"

Serbia and Poland shared the day at the Altar of Liberty in Madison Square yesterday. The flag of Serbia was raised on the altar at noon and the celebration for Poland took place in the afternoon.

When in 1941 Yugoslavia signed a pact with Hitler, General Mirkovich, on March 27, 1941, unseated the government abrogated the pact, and brought Yugoslavia in on the side of the Allies. The importance of the move was tremendous, and directly affected the course of the Second World War. That this was so was proved at the Nuremberg trials. "It became crystal clear that ... the decision of 27 March 1941 to chose certain destruction of their homes and country by Hitler, rather than the dishonor of being his accomplices, had a decisive effect upon history."
Hitler's war-plan was totally upset. "Hitler reacted immediately. He at once summoned a meeting of his generals and the commanders of his satellites. In his secret report of this meeting, held on that same day, he underlined that 'the beginning of the Barbarossa operation will have to be postponed for up to four weeks."' (Barbarossa was the code name for the attack against Russia.) The four weeks' delay forced upon Hitler by General Mirkovich was decisive for the whole war, according to Karl Ritter, German Foreign Office Liaison Officer with the Nazi High Command. "This delay," he stated, "cost the Germans the winter battle before Moscow, and it was there that the war was lost." (Quoted by Anthony Eden, British Foreign Minister, later Lord Avon, in his Memoirs.) Winston Churchill that same morning told the British people: "I have great news. Early this morning the Yugoslav nation found its soul."(Vatican Billions, pp. 144-145).

Following agreements with Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria that they would join the Axis, Hitler put pressure on Yugoslavia to join the Tripartite Pact. The Regent, Prince Paul of Yugoslavia, succumbed to this pressure on March 25, 1941. However, this move was deeply unpopular amongst the anti-Axis Serbian public and military. A coup d'etat was launched on March 27, 1941 by anti-Prince Paul, Serbian military officers, and the Regent was replaced on the throne by King Peter II of Yugoslavia.

Upon hearing news of the coup in Yugoslavia, Hitler called upon his military advisers to Berlin on March 27. Hitler was so angered that he was determined "without waiting for possible declarations of loyalty of the new government to destroy Yugoslavia militarily and as a nation.", despite the apparent readiness of the new Yugoslav rulers to maintain Yugoslavia's involvement in the Tripartite Pact.

Hitler, infuriated at Yugoslavia's defiance, ordered the implementation of Operation Punishment (Unternehmen Strafgericht). At 7 am on 6 April the Luftwaffe opened the assault on Yugoslavia by conducting a saturation-type bombing raid on the capital. Flying in relays from airfields in Austria and Romania, 300 aircraft, of which a quarter were Junkers Ju 87 Stukas, protected by a heavy fighter escort began the attack.

Prince Czartoryski's intention was to make conditions for the establishment of independent Poland by using the Eastern question. Assuming that Russia and Austria intended to divide the Balkans between themselves in the near future, as they had done with Poland (only now without Prussia which had no direct interests in the East), Czartoryski and his associates made a project of a vast Southern Slav state that should be created around Serbia, and lean on France and Great Britain in its foreign policy.

Hardly is there a nation which has met with a sadder fate than the Servians. From the height of its splendor, when the empire embraced almost the entire northern part of the Balkan peninsula and a large portion of what is now Austria, the Servian nation was plunged into abject slavery, after the fateful battle of 1389 at the Kosovo Polje, against the overwhelming Asian hordes. Europe can never repay the great debt it owes to the Servians for checking, by the sacrifice of its own liberty, that barbarian influx.

Damn, what a depressingly emotive and over-excited article. It was written by an American, wasn't it? You can tell by the sheer amount of romanticized crap.

Thread attached on merging:
Badass of the Week - The Winged Hussars

Damn, what a depressingly emotive and over-excited article. It was written by an American, wasn't it? You can tell by the sheer amount of romanticized crap.

Who would have thought our Turk smashing Husaria could also help you smash your business opposition? Interested?