On my painting table: My approximation of early 16th Century Polish hussars. This is my educated guess based on two modern Polish sources, and figures I liked, could easily get, and needed only a small amount of conversion.
By 1500 unarmoured Serbian hussars were serving in Polish armies as light horse. In 1501 hussar companies begin appearing made up entirely of Poles, Lithuanians and Hungarians. These soon began wearing armour. I have illustrations showing the first unarmoured hussars and heavily armoured hussars from later in the 16th Century. But what did they look like during the transition?
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| According to Richard Brzezinski, "Polish Winged Hussar 1576-1775", various winged devices were used on shields in central Europe in the early 16th Century, and evidently inspired some horsemen to tack layers of feathers on to the shields. Later, when shields were abandoned, these wings seem to have quickly evolved into the stylised wings worn by winged hussars. |
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