The Polish court banner in the Moldavian expedition in 1497

Abstract

Abstract:The paper discusses the expedition of the kingdom of Poland to Moldavia in 1497. The army of 50,000 included a detachment of courtiers (curienses) who were organised as the so-called court banner. It was a kind of royal guard of up to 2000 men. The army, led by the Polish king John I albert, set off at the beginning of June from Lviv, and on 24 september the troops began a siege of suceava, the capital of Moldavia. a well-fortified city was not captured and on 19 October the siege ended. during the retreat, on 26 October the Polish troops were attacked by the Moldavians and their allies in the cosmin Forest in bucovina (present-day ukraine). In the clash, the court banner played an important role, by saving the knights of the general levy from a complete defeat. In the central archives of Historical records in Warsaw there are registers of armaments lost in this battle by the curienses. The paper discusses the armaments of members of the court detachment and losses they suffered during the battle.Keywords: battle in the cosmin Forest, John I albert (Jan Olbracht), kingdom of Poland, Moldavia, war, 15 th century

Fantastic Flails and Where to Find Them: The Body of Evidence for the Existence of Flails in the Early and High Medieval Eras in Western, Central, and Southern Europe

“…I will dub the type of flails used in this conflict as weaponised threshing flails, reflecting the similarity in design to the farming tool with adaption for greater lethality. Depictions of weapons evidently derived from threshing flails appear from around the turn of the 14th into the 15th centuries (Snook 1979;Tihle 2017;DeVries and Smith 2012;Sturtevant 2017;Grabarczyk 2000). This "weaponisation" appears to have been achieved in a similar manner to earlier warclubs (see folio from Moniage de Guillaume and ) (Tzouriadis and Deacon 2020;Tzouriadis 2017), via the addition of iron or copper nails as force concentrators, rather than relying purely on the bludgeoning effect of the wooden head, though more elaborate designs with all-metal heads were certainly produced, and perhaps used by the Mongols (Moreno 2015;Kuleshov 2019).…”

“…Several wagons would then form a circle to create the Wagenburg, from which the Hussites would fight as a makeshift fortress (McLachlan 2011; Górski and Wilczy ńska 2012). In this setting, the flails are believed to have been primarily defensive in nature, and given the inability to use a shield, some degree of body armour was also worn by their wielders (Grabarczyk 2000). Women may also have been part of the crews (Moreno 2015).…”

“…Although the sceptics would cite the risk to one's own self and allies (Brooks 2019;Sturtevant 2016aSturtevant , 2016bSturtevant , 2017, the flail does possess a number of distinct advantages over other weaponry: to the unaware opponent, such a strange device would hold a potent psychological effect; the ability to entrance, hold off, or possibly even hit multiple opponents at the same time; bypass shields and blocks, and entrap opponents' weapons; and effectively negate the benefits of armour, all with minimal risk to the user if used properly (Moreno 2015). A lone flail would be of little benefit in an infantry battle line, with later medieval sources noting their effectiveness when used en masse, a tactic demonstrated to great effect by the Hussites (Grabarczyk 2000). One-handed flails were generally regarded as secondary weapons by infantry, used for exploitation once other blows had been struck with more conventional weapons such as spears and axes, or for close-in use by lighter-equipped troops such as horse archers (Kirpičnikov 1970;Sitdikov et al 2015;Osypenko 2020).…”

Fantastic Flails and Where to Find Them: the Body of Evidence for the Existence of Flails in the Early and High Medieval Eras in Western, Central, and Southern Europe

“…Depictions of weapons evidently derived from threshing flails appear from around the turn of the 14 th into the 15 th Centuries. (Snook, 1979;Tihle, 2017;DeVries and Smith, 2012;Sturtevant, 2017;Grabarczyk, 2000) This "weaponisation" appears to have been achieved in a similar manner to earlier warclubs (see folio from Moniage de Guillaume and Figure 1), (Tzouriadis and Deacon, 2020; Tzouriadis, 2017) via the addition of iron or copper nails as force concentrators, rather than relying purely on the bludgeoning effect of the wooden head, though more elaborate designs with all-metal heads were certainly produced. (Moreno, 2015) As long, unwieldy, two-handed weapons, these are nearly always depicted being used by infantry, with several "fight manuals", such as works of the Germans Hans Talhoffer (MS Thott 290 2 o , 1459, see Link), (Hull, 2007 The former and the halberd are wielded by men riding a war wagon, possibly of Hussite origin, as these types of flail were popular amongst the Hussites during their prolonged struggle for independence, (Lawrynowicz and Nowakowski, 2008;Bena, 2014;Gorski and Wilczynska, 2012) along with a plethora of other weaponry.…”

“…(McLachlan, 2011; Gorski and Wilczynska, 2012) In this setting, the flails are believed to have been primarily defensive in nature, and given the inability to use a shield, some degree of body armour was also worn. (Grabarczyk, 2000) Women may also have been part of the crews. (Moreno, 2015) Skulls found in the modern-day Czech Republic and Slovakia with depressed skull fractures verify the effectiveness of flails on the battlefield (Warner, 1968) -as Osgood describes it (Osgood, 2005):…”