i!!*H 



I' ■' 



182 



A HISTORY OF CAVALRY. 



[period II. 



profited by this circumstance to fall upon them while 

 unarmed. 



The Polis^ iny for many centuries consisted mainly 

 of cavalry, i . which service they excelled. The old 

 system of allodial tenure was maintained in Poland for 

 many centuries after it had lapsed into the feudal system 

 in the other parts of Europe. The nation, until modern 

 times, consisted of a great body of free landholders, or 

 nobles, who preserved inviolate the right to assemble in 

 person and discuss public affairs. These nobles, who, 

 clad in furs and magnificently armed, appeared mounted 

 on horseback in the assemblies, formed the legislature of 

 the nation in peace, and its army in war. Their sove- 

 reign was elected by the free choice of the allodial pro- 

 prietors, and so impatient were they of restraint, and so 

 highly did they value the rights of freemen, that all 

 decisions were required to be unanimous. These proud 

 horsemen looked upon trade and commerce as degrading, 

 and the pursuit of arms as the only occupation fit for a 

 gentleman.^ Their love for equality was so strong, that 

 hereditary offices were unknown among tnem, every 

 position or station of eminence b*^ing held only for life.* 



Tlie arms of the Polish nobility were ornamented to 

 the highest degree. They used poignards and cimeters 

 set with brilliants, bucklers of costly workmanship, 

 battle-axes enriched with silver and decorated with 

 emeralds or sapphires, and bows and arrows. The horses 

 were often clad in iron, and each knight wore a 

 splendid signet-ring, which, in imitation of the Roman 

 equites, was the badge of his rank as a member of the 

 equestrian order. ^ 



The army was divided into difierent parts : the 

 national troops, a small body of regular soldiers equipped 

 and paid by the Republic, the pospolite or general 

 assembly of all the free citizens or nobles on horseback, 

 the armed valets, and the mercenaries who were generally 

 Germans.* Nearly all these bodies fought on horseback. 



> Salvandy, i. 72. 

 352; Salvandy, ii. 195. 

 126. 



2 Ibid. i. 71 ; Alison, i. 351. " Ibid. 



* Alison, i. 353 ; Salvandy, ii. 125, 



