SABRE Hussar smooth ON decorative board

SABRE Hussar smooth ON decorative board

Manufacturer: SPANISH DEPARTMENT armourers

Present sabre is the exact reconstruction of Polish Hussar sabre. This is the polish cavalry (include Polish Hussar) battle sabre used in the 17^th and 18^th century. It replaced ?Batorowka? sabre used in the 16^th century.

Specifications:

Length: 92 cm
Weight: 1,2 kg

It had circular curved blade with so called feather on the foible. Cross-guard  fully close to protect the hand and to increase the weight of the hilt was made of brass and decorated by ornament. The hoop decorated with beads. The pommel slightly moved forward covered by brass hood also ornamented. Both sides of the blade are smooth but able to engraving. It had also brass thumb-ring suitable to support the thumb, strengthened the grip and simplified using the sabre. Upper part of the blade was blunt and used to block an opponent cuts.

The set includes also a wooden board.

Board length: 110 cm
Board high: 20 cm
Board weight: 1,9 kg

Historical sketch:

History of sabre in Polish military reaches the second half of the 15^th century. It appeared in Poland under the influence of the Hungarians, who maintained contacts with Turks.
Initially it was only weapon of light cavalry and infantry, but even knights, who used sword in the battle, willing to use the sabre while travelling, hunting and various festivals.
Above all, served them where they performed without armour, but wanted to have an effective weapon by side.
To the beginning of the 16^th century sabre gained a great popularity in Poland. Already in 1503, on the streets of Cracow people said, that no one wanted to buy swords, everyone preferred sabre.

So quick growth of popularity of sabre was related with military raids the Crimean Tatars into lands of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Tatars cavalry, armed with bows and sometimes also sabres were mostly highly mobile and uncatchable. They?re attacking  in a small groups called besh-bash (five heads). The reception of sabre into the polish army was necessity from the military point of view. An invasions of Crimean Khanate were especially often in 1474-1534 and in 1605-1633. Those raids, a lot of wars with Russia and also military alliance between Cossacks and Tatars (1648-1654) forced changes in the polish army, which extend beyond the armour modernization. After the reforms of polish parliament (sejm) in 1562 the vocational army called Permanent Defense (obrona potoczna) was replaced by quarter army (wojsko kwarciane) financed by a quarter of income from the regal land. Moreover at the beginnings of the 16^th century developed new military formation called Old Polish Unit (stare urządzenie polskie). Two strongest detachments set one after the other were supported on the flanks by three lines of smaller detachments. At the second half of the 16^th century to the unit included infantry and artillery.

The Polish Hussar, which at the beginning were light cavalry, at the half of the 16^th century took over the role of lancers. Armoured with a lance (only comrades), sabres, plate armour and helmets (often kettle hats), polish hussars were the base of polish army. From the 1630s the number of polish hussars were gradually reducing. Abandoned plate armour and replaced these with leopards and tigers skin leathers. They started to use pistols. In the 1690s, at the end of wars with Turks, the lances were replaced by muskets. The Polish Hussar proved to be the decisive factor in the spectacular wins in the following battles: battle of Curtea de Arges (1600), battle of Kircholm (1605), battle of Kłuszyn (1610), battle of Chocim (1621) and also battle of Vienna (1683). Polish Hussar existed to the half of the 18^th century.