Wici (pronounced: ''Vee-chee'') was a call to arms in the medieval

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

(lat. ''restis''), known from prehistoric times. It was a specific method to spread a warning that the country is in danger, and that warriors should immediately go to the nearest commandant's headquarters, where an army attachment would be formed. It was a simple tuft of osier or garland made of straw (sometimes of rope), delivered to the towns and villages by horse relays from the local administrators (a

voivode Voivode (, also spelled ''voievod'', ''voevod'', ''voivoda'', ''vojvoda'' or ''wojewoda'') is a title denoting a military leader or warlord in Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe since the Early Middle Ages. It primarily referred to the me ...

or a

starost The starosta or starost (Cyrillic: ''старост/а'', Latin: ''capitaneus'', german: link=no, Starost, Hauptmann) is a term of Slavic origin denoting a community elder whose role was to administer the assets of a clan or family estates. Th ...

) to the subjects of the Crown. Horse messengers threw the wici in the center of a settlement and galloped away to deliver their messages to the other places in the shortest possible time. Later (possibly in the 15th century) wici was replaced by the letter mustering the

pospolite ruszenie ''Pospolite ruszenie'' (, lit. ''mass mobilization''; "Noble Host", lat, motio belli, the French term ''levée en masse'' is also used) is a name for the mobilisation of armed forces during the period of the Kingdom of Poland and the Polish–Li ...

. Sending the wici was described in ''Libri Inscriptionum'' or the "Books of Enrolment" of the

Crown Metrica of Poland A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, partic ...

(Latin: Metrica Regni Poloniae). Today, although not in common use, the term wici still means in the Polish language a "sudden, important message".

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