What were the winged hussars' greatest battles?
Vienna in 1683 tops our ranking: the charge the hussars led broke the Ottoman siege and is the one the world remembers. Next come Kircholm in 1605, the textbook hussar victory, Klushino in 1610, Byczyna in 1588 and Khotyn in both 1621 and 1673. The fourteen run from Orsha in 1514 to Parkany in 1683.
This page ranks fourteen battles won by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with the winged hussars in the field, from the light hussars at Orsha in 1514 to Sobieski's victories at Lwów in 1675 and Parkany in 1683. They are ranked by score, with most weight on how well known each one is as a hussar battle and on how much the hussars' charge decided it; see how we chose them. Defeats in which the charge failed, at Gniew, Warsaw and Kliszów, are told below the list. Our guide to the winged hussars explains the lance, the wings and the tactics, and the greatest cavalry charges compare them with the horsemen of other armies.1
1 Vienna, 1683
- Where
- From the Kahlenberg heights into the Ottoman camp outside Vienna, Austria
- War
- Great Turkish War
- Sides
- Relief army of Polish, imperial and German troops under King John III Sobieski vs the Ottoman army of Grand Vizier Kara Mustafa
- Strength
- About 100,000 to 120,000 Ottomans at the siege vs a relief army of 65,000 to 69,000; about 20,000 horse in the final charge (an estimate)
- Result
- Siege broken on 12 September 1683; Ottoman losses about 10,000 to 15,000
In July 1683 Kara Mustafa's army, 100,000 strong by the Wilanów Palace Museum's count and about 120,000 by the City of Vienna's, laid siege to the Habsburg capital. King John III Sobieski had signed an alliance with the emperor that spring, and on 12 September he led a relief army of 65,000 to 69,000 Poles, Austrians and Germans down from the Kahlenberg, with the Poles on the right wing.2
At about four in the afternoon Sobieski tested the ground with a trial charge by Prince Aleksander's hussar company and two others; they lost heavily, and Stanisław Potocki was killed, but the charge showed the way was open. Then came the main blow. The Wilanów museum and the Museum of Polish History both put it at 20,000 horsemen, the hussars at their head and Austrian and German squadrons beside them, and the Ottoman army broke and fled, losing 10,000 to 15,000 men. Sobieski wrote to the Pope: “Venimus, vidimus, Deus vicit”, we came, we saw, God conquered.3
Myth vs fact: it is often called the largest cavalry charge in history, but nobody counted the riders, and how many of the 20,000 were hussars is not known. The victory began the Holy League's long war that ended at Karlowitz in 1699, and in 1983 Pope John Paul II marked its 300th anniversary on the Kahlenberg.4
Why it ranks here: No. 1 because it is the only battle with full marks for recognition, hussar role, consequence and memory: the charge decided the day, and the victory, in dzieje.pl's words, ended the era of Ottoman victories. Only certainty holds it back, at 3, since the size of the charge is an estimate.5
2 Kircholm, 1605
- Where
- Kircholm on the Daugava near Riga (now Salaspils, Latvia)
- War
- Polish-Swedish War
- Sides
- Lithuanian army of Hetman Jan Karol Chodkiewicz vs the Swedish army of King Charles IX
- Strength
- About 3,600 Polish-Lithuanian vs about 11,000 Swedes
- Result
- Swedish army destroyed; 8,000 to 9,000 Swedes dead (estimate) against 100 to 200 Polish-Lithuanian
In September 1605 King Charles IX of Sweden was besieging Riga. The Lithuanian hetman Jan Karol Chodkiewicz marched to relieve it with about 3,600 men against a Swedish army put at 11,000 by the Museum of Polish History; the lexicon Bitwy polskie counts about 2,400 horse and 1,000 foot under Chodkiewicz, and 8,300 infantry and 2,500 cavalry under the king. On 27 September the two armies met at Kircholm on the Daugava.6
The Swedes stood on a hill, and Chodkiewicz would not attack them there. After hours of skirmishing he faked a retreat, Charles IX ordered his army forward, and the winged hussars charged. They broke the Swedish ranks, and after three hours the Swedish army was smashed. Swedish dead are estimated at 8,000 to 9,000, about 70% of the army; the Commonwealth lost 100 to 200 men, only 13 of them hussars.7
News of the victory ran across Europe: the rulers of England and Persia and the Pope sent their admiration, and today the battle is in every Polish history textbook. Yet it brought no strategic gain. Unpaid soldiers left the hetman, the Swedes agreed to a truce, and the war went on for years.8
Why it ranks here: The model hussar victory, won by a charge against an army three times larger, so recognition and hussar role 5 and memory 4. It saved Riga only for the moment and the war went on, so consequence 3, which keeps it second.
3 Klushino, 1610
- Where
- Klushino, west of Moscow, Russia
- War
- Polish-Muscovite War
- Sides
- Polish-Lithuanian army of Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski vs the Russian army of Dmitry Shuisky and foreign mercenaries under Jacob De la Gardie
- Strength
- About 2,700 to 7,000 Polish-Lithuanian troops, almost all cavalry (disputed) vs about 15,000 to 30,000 Russians and up to 8,000 mercenaries (estimates)
- Result
- Russian and mercenary army broken; Tsar Vasily Shuisky deposed weeks later
In 1610, with Russia torn by the Time of Troubles, King Sigismund III was besieging Smolensk, and a Russian army under Dmitry Shuisky, with a corps of foreign mercenaries under Jacob De la Gardie, marched to relieve it. Hetman Stanisław Żółkiewski went to meet it with an army made almost entirely of cavalry. How many he had is disputed: Przemysław Gawron of the Wilanów Palace Museum sets out estimates from about 2,700, the figure Radosław Sikora favors, to 7,000, while Maciej Adam Pieńkowski calls the traditional figure of 7,000 an error. For the Russians Gawron cites estimates from about 15,000 (Sikora) to the 30,000 of Żółkiewski's letter to the king and more; De la Gardie's mercenaries were 4,000 to 8,000 in the sources Pieńkowski cites, while Sikora counts 1,830 horse and 1,500 foot.9
After a night march the Poles attacked on 4 July. The hussars charged again and again, some companies, as the participant Samuel Maskiewicz described, eight or ten times against a line they could not break, until a flank attack by Zborowski's companies broke the mercenary horse and De la Gardie fled. Left alone, the mercenary infantry surrendered. On 27 July Tsar Vasily Shuisky was deposed, and Polish troops held the Moscow Kremlin until November 1612. In 2019 the Sejm named 2020 the Year of Hetman Żółkiewski, recalling his victory with about 3,000 horse, mostly hussars, over an army of more than 30,000.10
Why it ranks here: A pure hussar battle, charge after charge until the enemy broke, so hussar role 5, and it put a Polish garrison in the Kremlin, consequence 4; it is less known than Kircholm and the size of both armies is disputed, so recognition 4 and certainty 3.
4 Byczyna, 1588
- Where
- Byczyna, Silesia (now in Poland)
- War
- War of the Polish Succession, 1587 to 1588
- Sides
- Crown army of Grand Hetman Jan Zamoyski for King Sigismund III vs Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg and his Polish supporters
- Strength
- About 6,000 under Zamoyski (about 3,700 of them horse) vs about 6,500 to 7,000 under Maximilian
- Result
- Maximilian's army routed and the archduke captured; the Habsburgs recognized Sigismund III in 1589
After Stephen Báthory died, the election of 1587 split: Jan Zamoyski's party proclaimed the Swedish prince Sigismund Vasa, the Zborowski faction Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg. Maximilian failed to take Kraków, Sigismund was crowned there on 27 December, and Zamoyski followed the archduke into Silesia. The armies were about equal, by Marek Plewczyński's study about 6,000 under Zamoyski and some 7,000 under Maximilian; as Konstanty Górski noted, Zamoyski was stronger in horse, the archduke in foot.11
On 24 January 1588 Zamoyski struck from the flank, forcing Maximilian's troops into awkward maneuvers, and Zygmunt Boras wrote that he smashed an equal army in half an hour. The hussars' part rests on thinner ground. According to the Jagiellonian University lexicon of Polish battles, Zamoyski's Cossack companies were thrown back, a Polish hussar charge forced the archduke's horse back, and when Maximilian sent in his Hungarian hussars, Zamoyski hit their flank with his reserve of 1,200 hussars and the whole enemy cavalry fled. Stanisław Żółkiewski, badly wounded in the leg, took the archduke's banner. The archduke and his chief supporters were captured, and in the Treaty of Bytom and Będzin of 9 March 1589 the Habsburgs recognized Sigismund as king.12
Piotr Krzyżański calls it an interesting but relatively little known episode, small in scale and large in consequence.13
Why it ranks here: It kept the Habsburgs off the Polish throne, so consequence 4, and hussars on Zamoyski's side broke the archduke's horse, but hussars fought on both sides and the detailed course rests on one account, the lexicon's, so hussar role 4 and certainty 3; it is little known today, recognition 3.
5 Khotyn, 1621
- Where
- Fortified camp at Khotyn on the Dniester (now Ukraine)
- War
- Polish-Ottoman War of 1620 to 1621
- Sides
- Polish-Lithuanian army (Jan Karol Chodkiewicz, after his death Stanisław Lubomirski) and Zaporozhian Cossacks vs the army of Sultan Osman II
- Strength
- About 30,000 Polish-Lithuanian troops and about as many Cossacks vs at least 100,000 Ottomans and Tatars (150,000 by one count)
- Result
- Ottoman assaults repulsed; treaty of 9 October 1621, no territory lost
The war began in disaster at Cecora in 1620, where Hetman Żółkiewski was killed. The Sejm voted taxes for 60,000 men but only half that number could be raised, and in 1621 Osman II marched north with about 100,000 men; the Encyclopedia of Ukraine counts 150,000 Ottomans and Tatars. Chodkiewicz crossed the Dniester and dug in at Khotyn, and about 30,000 Cossacks joined him on the eve of battle.14
From 2 September the Ottomans stormed the camp again and again. Gates in its rampart let the defenders sally out to fight in front of the camp, and the hussars did: on the evening of 7 September, by the accounts retold in Polish popular histories, four hussar companies of about 600 horse under Chodkiewicz himself drove off a force many times larger. The Cossacks, though, bore the brunt of the fighting from 2 to 28 September. Chodkiewicz died on 24 September, a last assault failed on the 28th with the camp down to a single barrel of powder, and the treaty of 9 October left the sultan without a gain. In 2021 the Polish Senate marked the 400th anniversary.15
Why it ranks here: The camp held the sultan's army for over a month, but it was held as much by infantry and Cossacks as by the hussars' counter-charges, so hussar role 3, with consequence 3 and memory 4. It ties Khotyn 1673 on 33 points and on recognition, and goes above it on consequence.
6 Khotyn, 1673
- Where
- Ottoman camp by the fortress of Khotyn on the Dniester (now Ukraine)
- War
- Polish-Ottoman War
- Sides
- Polish-Lithuanian army of Grand Hetman Jan Sobieski, with Moldavian and Wallachian allies, vs the Ottoman army of Hussein Pasha
- Strength
- A larger allied army (about 45,000 raised, by dzieje.pl's count) vs about 30,000 Ottomans
- Result
- Ottoman camp stormed; by the Wilanów museum's account only about 4,000 Ottomans got away
In 1672 the Ottomans took Podolia with the fortress of Kamieniec, and the Commonwealth had to accept the Treaty of Buczacz. The Sejm voted taxes for 43,000 men, about 45,000 were raised, and in autumn 1673 Grand Hetman Jan Sobieski led them to the Dniester, where Hussein Pasha's army of about 30,000 lay entrenched in the old camp at Khotyn.16
After a night of rain and snow the assault began on the morning of 11 November. The infantry and dragoons took the ramparts within about fifteen minutes and began filling the ditch under fire, and when the Ottoman cavalry rode at them, the hussars charged into the camp and decided the battle. On the right wing Stanisław Jabłonowski led seven hussar companies, about 750 men, and one of his charges threw the Ottomans off the ramparts and deep into their camp. Another hussar charge saved Sobieski's own retinue from Soliman Pasha's horse. Fleeing men fell from the cliffs above the Dniester or drowned when the bridge gave way.17
Sobieski was elected king in 1674, but the war went on, and Podolia came back only at Karlowitz in 1699.18
Why it ranks here: The hussars poured through breaches the infantry had opened, so hussar role 4 and memory 4, but the victory did not end the war, consequence 2. It ties Khotyn 1621 on 33 points and on recognition, and goes below it on consequence.
7 Parkany, 1683
- Where
- Parkany, on the left bank of the Danube opposite Esztergom (now Štúrovo, Slovakia)
- War
- Great Turkish War, the campaign after the relief of Vienna
- Sides
- King John III Sobieski's Polish army, joined on 9 October by Charles of Lorraine's imperial troops, vs the Ottoman army of Kara Mehmed, pasha of Buda
- Strength
- 7 October: about 4,000 Polish horse vs about 15,000; 9 October: about 30,000 allies vs 20,000 to 36,000 Ottomans (accounts differ)
- Result
- 7 October a Polish rout, about 1,500 lost; 9 October an allied victory, about 9,000 Ottomans killed, Parkany taken
Less than four weeks after Vienna, Sobieski marched down the Danube toward Esztergom, reached only through the bridgehead fort of Parkany on the left bank. On 7 October he pushed ahead without waiting for the rest of the army. Stefan Bidziński's vanguard of about 1,000 horse chased a screen of Ottoman riders straight into the army of Kara Mehmed, pasha of Buda, some 15,000 who had crossed in the night.19
Janissary fire and the fort's guns cut up the Polish horse. The king came up with about 4,000 cavalry, but Hetman Stanisław Jabłonowski's men pursued against orders and were nearly surrounded, and when Sobieski led a few hussar companies to their rescue the center and right took it for a retreat and fled for 3 to 4 kilometers. About 1,500 Poles were lost.20
On 9 October Sobieski anchored one wing on the Danube and the other on the hills. The Ottomans, about 20,000 by the Wilanów museum's count and 36,000 in the Jagiellonian lexicon of Polish battles, spent themselves against the left; then Hieronim Lubomirski's horse struck from the right, and the imperial reiters and Michał Rzewuski's ten hussar companies counter-charged. The bridge to Esztergom broke under the fugitives, about 9,000 Ottomans died, and Esztergom surrendered on 27 October.21
Why it ranks here: Two battles in three days give a hussar role of 3: on 7 October the charge failed and the king nearly fell, and on 9 October Rzewuski's hussars shared the decisive counter-charge of an allied victory that opened the road to Esztergom, consequence 3. The Ottoman numbers differ widely, certainty 3. It ties Trzciana on 30 and on recognition, and goes above it on consequence.
8 Trzciana, 1629
- Where
- Trzciana (Honigfelde) near Sztum, Polish Prussia (now Trzciano, Poland)
- War
- Polish-Swedish War of 1626 to 1629
- Sides
- Polish army of Hetman Stanisław Koniecpolski with imperial cavalry under Hans Georg von Arnim vs the Swedish army of King Gustavus Adolphus
- Strength
- About 3,700 to 4,500 Polish and imperial horse (sources differ) vs a Swedish rearguard of about 2,000 cavalry, later joined by the king
- Result
- Swedish horse routed and the king nearly captured; Swedish losses disputed, from 200 to about 1,500
Gustavus Adolphus invaded Polish Prussia in 1626, and at Gniew that autumn the Polish army had to withdraw. Under Hetman Stanisław Koniecpolski two more years of fighting gave neither side the upper hand, until in 1629 he was joined by 5,000 imperial troops under Hans Georg von Arnim. When the Swedes fell back toward Sztum, Koniecpolski chased them with cavalry alone: Paweł Piasecki counted 1,300 Polish horse under eight hussar banners and 1,200 Cossacks, besides 2,000 imperial cavalry, while Arnim gave 700 hussars and 1,000 Cossacks.22
On 27 June the allies caught the Swedish rearguard of about 2,000 horse. Hussars hidden in a valley struck its left flank, the Swedes broke, and at Pułkowice, where the king himself came up, the hussars and imperial reiters broke them again. Axel Oxenstierna recorded that a Pole seized Gustavus Adolphus by his sword belt; the king slipped it over his head, losing his hat, and when another seized his arm, Eric Soop shot that rider off his horse. The king admitted 200 dead; the Poles claimed nearly 1,500, and Maciej Adam Pieńkowski puts the real figure at 600 to 800 including prisoners. Within weeks the king agreed to talks, but the six-year Truce of Altmark that September left Sweden most of the Prussian ports, Elbing among them.23
Why it ranks here: The hussars and imperial reiters together routed the Swedes and nearly took their king, so hussar role 4, but the truce that followed favored Sweden, so consequence 2. Strength and losses are disputed, certainty 3. It ties Parkany on 30 and on recognition, and goes below it on consequence.
9 Berestechko, 1651
- Where
- Near Berestechko on the Styr, Volhynia (now Ukraine)
- War
- Khmelnytsky Uprising
- Sides
- King John II Casimir vs the Cossacks of Bohdan Khmelnytsky and the Crimean Tatars of Khan İslam III Giray
- Strength
- Polish horse 18,000 and about 30,000 in all at the June muster, 80,000 to 150,000 with the noble levy; almost 100,000 Cossacks and 50,000 to 100,000 Tatars (all estimates)
- Result
- Polish victory; the khan fled and the Cossack camp was broken, but the war went on
In June 1651 King John II Casimir gathered an army so large, the historian Mykhailo Hrushevsky writes, that old soldiers could not remember its like. At the musters of late May and early June the Polish horse, hussar and cossack companies together, numbered 18,000, and the whole muster about 30,000, before the noble levy arrived. Bogusław Radziwiłł put the camp at 80,000; the Encyclopedia of Ukraine gives 150,000 Poles against almost 100,000 Cossacks and almost 50,000 Tatars, all estimates, and other accounts made the horde 80,000 to 100,000.24
The armies fought near Berestechko in Volhynia from 28 to 30 June. On the last afternoon Prince Jeremi Wiśniowiecki, with the cavalry of the left wing, won the king's leave to attack and broke the Cossack foot and their line of wagons. The Polish center under the king then drove the Tatars from the field, and the khan fled, taking Khmelnytsky with him. The leaderless Cossacks held their camp for ten days before Ivan Bohun led most of them out through the swamps on 8 July, leaving their guns. The victory was not followed up: the Treaty of Bila Tserkva that September halved the Cossack register to 20,000, and in 1652 Khmelnytsky was at war again.25
Why it ranks here: The hussars were one arm of a huge combined army and the khan's flight did as much as the cavalry, so hussar role 3, and every number on both sides is a guess, certainty 2. It ties Lubieszów on 29 points and on recognition, and goes above it on consequence.
10 Lubieszów, 1577
- Where
- The causeway between the Lubieszów lakes on the Motława, near Tczew, south of Gdańsk, Poland
- War
- War of King Stephen Báthory with Gdańsk, 1576 to 1577
- Sides
- Royal army of Hetman Jan Zborowski vs the army of Gdańsk under Hans Winckelbruch von Köln
- Strength
- About 2,300 to 2,500 (some 1,300 horse) vs about 10,000 to 12,000 (3,100 landsknechts, 800 horse, 6,000 to 8,000 militia)
- Result
- Gdańsk army routed; about 4,000 to 4,500 killed against fewer than 100 royal dead; the city held out
Gdańsk, the Commonwealth's great port, refused to accept Stephen Báthory as king, and by the autumn of 1576 it was the last place holding out against him. Hetman Jan Zborowski wintered at Tczew with about 1,300 horse, 1,000 foot and a few guns. In April 1577 the city's hired commander, Hans Winckelbruch von Köln, set out to destroy him with about 3,100 landsknechts, 400 reiters, 400 city horse and 6,000 to 8,000 militia, some 10,000 men in all.26
On 17 April Zborowski blew the bridge at Rokitki and brought his whole force to the Lubieszów causeway, catching the city army before all of it had crossed. Some 600 Hungarian haiduks stormed the Gdańsk guns and turned them on their owners. The Polish attack broke the mercenary infantry, and the reserve hussars struck from the flank. The mercenaries broke, the militia ran, and the royal horse chased them all the way to Gdańsk.27
The Jagiellonian lexicon of Polish battles gives about 4,500 Gdańsk dead and 5,000 prisoners against 188 royal casualties, 58 of them killed; the museum gives about 4,000 dead and 1,000 prisoners. Yet the city withstood Báthory's siege and in December kept its autonomy for an oath of loyalty and 200,000 złoty.28
Why it ranks here: Reserve hussars settled a fight against odds of about four to one, so hussar role 5. But Gdańsk was not taken and the war ended in a compromise, consequence 2, and the numbers rest on Polish accounts, certainty 2. It ties Berestechko on 29 and on recognition, and goes below it on consequence.
11 Orsha, 1514
- Where
- On the Dnieper near Orsha (now Belarus)
- War
- Muscovite-Lithuanian War of 1512 to 1522
- Sides
- Polish-Lithuanian army of Hetman Konstanty Ostrogski vs the Muscovite army of Ivan Chelyadnin
- Strength
- About 28,000 to 33,000, mostly horse (our sums of the museum's and Culture.pl's figures), vs 80,000 by contemporary claim, 50,000 horse in the Polish Army Museum's account, probably far fewer
- Result
- Polish-Lithuanian victory; Chelyadnin captured; Smolensk not recovered
On 1 August 1514, after a third siege, Muscovy took Smolensk, the key fortress on Lithuania's eastern border. Hetman Konstanty Ostrogski's late relief army met Grand Prince Vasily III's army under Ivan Chelyadnin north-east of Orsha, with the Dnieper between them. The Polish Army Museum counts about 25,000 horse and 3,000 foot; Culture.pl gives 16,000 Lithuanian light horse, 14,000 Polish light and heavy horse and 3,000 mercenary foot. Hussars of this age were still light horsemen, riding beside the heavy lancers.29
On 8 September Ostrogski's horse crossed by a ford and the rest on bridges laid on barrels, and he hid almost all his infantry and guns in the brush at the edge of a ravine by the river. When the Muscovite left pressed the Polish wing, the light companies there feigned flight. Chelyadnin, thinking the wing broken, threw in everything, and his horsemen rode into the ravine and into a volley from the hidden guns; the fleeing companies turned and charged, and the Muscovite army broke. Chelyadnin was taken, but Smolensk stayed Muscovite. Myth and fact: contemporaries claimed 80,000 Muscovites; Culture.pl thinks the figure inflated by about half, and the Russian historians Bentsianov and Lobin argue that the scale of the battle has been greatly exaggerated.30
Why it ranks here: Often called the hussars' baptism of fire, but the early light hussars only took part in a feigned flight onto Ostrogski's guns, so hussar role 3; Smolensk was lost and the 80,000 is propaganda, so consequence and certainty 2. It heads the four battles tied on 27 points on recognition.
12 Polonka, 1660
- Where
- Połonka near Lachowicze, Grand Duchy of Lithuania (now Palonka, Baranavichy district, Belarus)
- War
- Thirteen Years' War with Muscovy
- Sides
- Stefan Czarniecki's Crown troops and Grand Hetman Paweł Jan Sapieha's Lithuanians vs the Muscovite army of Prince Ivan Khovansky
- Strength
- About 12,000 to 15,000 vs about 24,000 with 60 guns (estimates)
- Result
- Commonwealth victory; Khovansky's infantry destroyed and much of Lithuania won back
The Peace of Oliva in May 1660 ended the war with Sweden, and the Commonwealth could at last turn on the Muscovite armies holding much of Lithuania. Czarniecki and Sapieha marched to relieve Lachowicze, besieged by Khovansky for almost half a year, and he met them near Połonka. The Jagiellonian lexicon of Polish battles gives the Commonwealth 12,000 to 15,000 men, 3,000 of them foot, against about 24,000 Muscovites with 60 guns.31
Even the day is disputed: a printed relation of that summer, the lexicon and the historian Konrad Bobiatyński give 28 June, while 29 June appears in some accounts. So is the decisive blow. The lexicon puts all the Crown hussar companies in the center under Czarniecki and has their charge on the causeway decide the day. Bobiatyński, working from the commanders' reports, gives the turning point to Gabriel Wojniłłowicz's pancerni and light horse, who got round into the Muscovite rear, but credits the hussars with an important part: two Lithuanian and two Crown companies rode down the Muscovite foot, and the Lithuanians then pinned Khovansky's cavalry. Khovansky's cavalry fled, his infantry was cut down, and the Commonwealth went on to recover much of Lithuania. A memorial stone stands on the field.32
Why it ranks here: The lexicon makes the hussars decisive, Bobiatyński important but not decisive, so hussar role 4, and the victory opened the way back into Lithuania, consequence 3; it is known mainly to specialists and even its date varies, so recognition 2 and certainty 3. Tied on 27, it goes below Orsha on recognition and above Kokenhausen and Lwów on consequence.
13 Kokenhausen, 1601
- Where
- Kokenhausen (Koknese) on the Daugava, Livonia (now Latvia)
- War
- Polish-Swedish war for Livonia, from 1600
- Sides
- Lithuanian army of Grand Hetman Krzysztof Radziwiłł "Piorun" vs the Swedish army of Carl Gyllenhielm
- Strength
- About 2,000 to 3,200 (1,600 to 2,900 horse) vs about 4,900 (4,000 horse, 900 foot)
- Result
- Lithuanian victory; about 2,000 Swedish losses by one count; the Swedish garrison surrendered
Deposed from the Swedish throne, Sigismund III annexed Estonia to the Commonwealth, and the war that followed was fought over Livonia; within a year Swedish troops held almost all of it. Kokenhausen on the Daugava guarded the only ford for miles and held almost all the guns the king had sent to Livonia. Grand Hetman Krzysztof Radziwiłł, called Piorun, the Thunderbolt, feuding with the king and short of troops, had by the end of May cut off the town, held by then, the Polish Army Museum says, by a Swedish garrison.33
On 23 June Carl Gyllenhielm marched up to relieve it with about 4,000 horse and 900 foot. Radziwiłł had 2,900 horse, 300 foot and 17 guns by the Polish Army Museum's count, or 1,600 horse, 400 foot and 9 guns by the Jagiellonian lexicon of Polish battles. The Swedes opened with an attack on the left. It was held, and the hussars counter-charged and broke the Swedish line, while on the right the horse of Jan Karol Chodkiewicz and the hetman's son Janusz Radziwiłł, backed by accurate gunfire, drove off the Swedish cavalry. The guns then scattered the Swedish foot. The lexicon puts Swedish losses at about 2,000, and the garrison surrendered. Radziwiłł then took Wenden but stalled before Rumbork, his army shrinking as the soldiers' service ran out.34
Why it ranks here: A small, almost all-cavalry army broke a larger Swedish one with a hussar counter-charge, so hussar role 5, but the war for Livonia went on, so consequence 2, and few know the name, recognition 2. It ties Lwów 1675 on every tie rule and goes above it as the older battle.
14 Lwów, 1675
- Where
- The Gliniany road by the village of Lesienice, outside Lwów (now Lviv, Ukraine)
- War
- Polish-Ottoman War of 1672 to 1676
- Sides
- King John III Sobieski's Crown army, with Michał Kazimierz Radziwiłł's Lithuanian horse, vs the Crimean Tatars sent by the Ottoman commander Ibrahim Shishman
- Strength
- About 6,000 (about 1,500 hussars) vs about 8,000 to 15,000 Tatars (accounts differ)
- Result
- Polish-Lithuanian victory; the Tatars routed and Lwów saved
In the summer of 1675 Ibrahim Shishman's Ottoman army was ravaging Podolia, and he sent the Tatars of Safa Giray and Hadji Giray toward Lwów: 15,000 by the Wilanów Palace Museum's account, about 8,000 in the Jagiellonian lexicon of Polish battles. Sobieski had about 6,000 men. Guessing that the horde would come along the Gliniany road through a ravine by Lesienice, he lined it with 200 foot, 200 horse and a few light guns, and behind them, on the road, waited about 1,500 hussars with the king himself.35
On 24 August, about three in the afternoon, the Tatars entered the ravine and the hidden guns opened fire; the lexicon dates the battle 22 August. By about five Sobieski, with Radziwiłł's Lithuanians up, had some 4,000 cavalry on a front of barely 300 meters, while, the museum says, he had given part of the hussars' lances to camp servants posing as another company and planted the rest. Twice the Tatars held; at the third charge they broke and fled. The historian Konrad Bobiatyński makes the joint charge of Crown and Lithuanian heavy cavalry the turning point and credits the king's choice of a narrow pass that kept the horde from using its numbers. Lwów was saved, and its defense made Sobieski famous, but Shishman stayed in Podolia.36
Why it ranks here: The heavy cavalry broke a far larger horde in one afternoon, so hussar role 5, but it saved a city rather than changing the war, consequence 2, and the Tatar strength ranges from 8,000 to 15,000, certainty 3. It ties Kokenhausen on every tie rule and goes below it as the younger battle.
How we chose and ranked these winged hussar battles
We counted every battle the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth won with the winged hussars in the field, from the light hussars of Orsha in 1514 to the last great victories of Sobieski, and asked one question of each: did the hussars' charge matter? Defeats in which the charge failed, such as Gniew in 1626, Warsaw in 1656 and Kliszów in 1702, are told in the section below the list rather than ranked. The lance, the wings and the tactics are explained in our guide to the winged hussars, other Polish battles are ranked in the greatest Polish battles, and charges of every army in the greatest cavalry charges.37
We considered 23 candidates and scored each one from 1 to 5 on five criteria. Recognition counts three times, because this page answers the question of which hussar battles are the best known; the hussars' part in the result, consequence and memory count twice and certainty once:
- Recognition (×3). 5 if the battle is known far beyond military history as a hussar battle and appears on most published lists of hussar battles, 1 if only specialists know it.
- Hussar role (×2). 5 if the hussar charge decided the battle, 1 if the hussars were present but did not shape the result.
- Consequence (×2). 5 if it changed borders, dynasties or the balance of power for generations, 1 if the map looked the same a few years later.
- Memory (×2). 5 if it is still a living tradition (a national day, a monument, a proverb, a song), 1 if it is forgotten.
- Certainty (×1). 5 if the numbers and events are confirmed by independent sources, 1 if they rest on one source or are disputed.
The list is ranked by total score, not by date. Ties go to the better known battle, then to the one with the greater consequence, then to the older one. The scores are our editorial judgment, made on the evidence in the sources below, and the table shows every one of them, so you can see exactly why Vienna is first and why Kircholm, the textbook hussar victory, sits only second: it saved Riga for the moment, but the war with Sweden went on for years.
| Rank | Name | Recognition ×3 | Hussar role ×2 | Consequence ×2 | Memory ×2 | Certainty ×1 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vienna | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 48 |
| 2 | Kircholm | 5 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 43 |
| 3 | Klushino | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 39 |
| 4 | Byczyna | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 34 |
| 5 | Khotyn 1621 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 4 | 33 |
| 6 | Khotyn 1673 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 33 |
| 7 | Parkany | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 30 |
| 8 | Trzciana | 3 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 30 |
| 9 | Berestechko | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 29 |
| 10 | Lubieszów | 3 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 29 |
| 11 | Orsha | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 27 |
| 12 | Polonka | 2 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 3 | 27 |
| 13 | Kokenhausen | 2 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 27 |
| 14 | Lwów | 2 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 27 |
Close calls
Four battles came close and did not make the 14:
Chudnov, 1660. In 1660 the Crown hetmans Stanisław Potocki and Jerzy Lubomirski beat Vasily Sheremetev's Muscovite army in the field, then blockaded it in its camp for three weeks until it capitulated. The defeat brought Yurii Khmelnytsky's Cossacks back to the Commonwealth by the Treaty of Slobodyshche, consequence 4, but blockade won it, not the charge, hussar role 2, and it misses Lwów 1675 by two points.38
Obertyn, 1531. On 22 August 1531 Hetman Jan Tarnowski met about 17,000 Moldavians of Petru Rareș with about 5,600 men in a wagon fort chained together; after hours of gunfire he led his cavalry out and the encircled Moldavians broke. Hussars rode with the lancers, but all the cavalry struck, hussar role 3, and it kept only Pokuttya, consequence 2. It ties Okhmativ and goes above it as the older.39 › Jan Tarnowski
Okhmativ, 1644. On 30 January 1644 Grand Hetman Stanisław Koniecpolski broke a great Tatar invasion near Okhmativ. Stefan Czarniecki's hussars charged first, but the Jagiellonian lexicon counts some 19,000 men of all arms, with wagon forts, guns and foot, against about 30,000 raiders under Tuhaj Bey, so hussar role 3, and the battle is little known outside Poland. It ties Obertyn and goes below it as the younger.40
Hodów, 1694. On 11 June 1694 about 400 horsemen, by tradition seven companies of hussars and pancerni, held the village of Hodów against a Tatar force put at 40,000 until it gave up. It is a famous Polish stand, but Zbigniew Hundert counts fewer than 100 hussars among the defenders, so hussar role 2; it is told in our guides to Polish victories against the odds and to last stands.41
Where the charge failed
The hussars were not invincible, and three defeats show where the charge stopped working. At Gniew, between 22 September and 1 October 1626, Gustavus Adolphus marched his army past the Polish position: charge after charge of the Polish horse broke in Swedish musket fire, and when Swedish infantry climbed the hill held by the Polish cavalry, a hussar charge threw back the first wave, then broke in the fire of the guns and the second. The Swedes took the hilltop and King Sigismund III left the field.42
At Warsaw on 29 July 1656, the second day of a three-day battle, the hussars under Aleksander Hilary Połubiński charged the advancing Swedish and Brandenburg army and, after early success, were stopped by Swedish fire. The older count, still given in the Jagiellonian University lexicon of Polish battles, is about 1,200 Polish and Lithuanian hussars. Newer research finds that only Lithuanian hussars charged, most likely just two banners, the king's and Sapieha's, with about 340 horses between them, and that the Crown hussars took no part. On the third day the Polish army was driven from the field with about 2,000 men lost.43
At Kliszów on 19 July 1702 Charles XII placed infantry and guns between his cavalry squadrons. Hetman Lubomirski threw all his cavalry into a counterattack, led by a column of four hussar and six pancerni companies; Swedish infantry and gunfire stopped it, and Lubomirski then led his troops off the field, which uncovered the Saxon right flank and decided the battle. Kliszów is usually counted the hussars' last use in battle; afterward, Tadeusz Korzon writes, they turned out mainly for parades, above all at funerals, and our guide to the winged hussars tells how the formation ended in 1776.44
