Choragiew pancerna rotmistrza Jozefa Hulewicza

Chorągiew (; literally: "banner") was the basic administrative unit of the

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

and Lithuanian cavalry from the 14th century. An alternative name until the 17th century was '' rota''.

14th to 17th centuries

Between the 14th and 17th century the ''Chorągiew'' was composed of smaller sub-units – the ''

Poczet A poczet (, "fellowship" or "retinue"; plural ''poczty'') was the smallest organized unit of soldiers in the Royal Polish Army and later also the Grand Ducal Lithuanian Army from the 15th until the 18th century. The name of a medium or heavy-caval ...

''. Types of ''Chorągiew'' were: * (District banner), formed by knights of a district. * (Clan banner), formed by

clans A clan is a group of people united by actual or perceived kinship and descent. Even if lineage details are unknown, a clan may claim descent from a founding member or apical ancestor who serves as a symbol of the clan's unity. Many societie ...

. * (Court banner), formed by troops of the King.

15th century (2nd half) to 18th century (1st half)

In the cavalry, since the second half of the 15th century until the first half of the 18th century, a ''Chorągiew'' was formed according to the "companion system" (system zaciągu towarzyskiego). See: ''

Towarzysz Companion (Polish: ''towarzysz'' , plural: ''towarzysze'') was a junior cavalry officer or knight-officer in the army of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from the 16th century until its demise in 1795. Name During the 20th century, ''towa ...

'' (companion). Types of ''Chorągiew'' were: * (Hussar banner), formed by

Hussars A hussar, ; ; ; ; . was a member of a class of light cavalry, originally from the Kingdom of Hungary during the 15th and 16th centuries. The title and distinctive dress of these horsemen were subsequently widely adopted by light cavalry ...

. * ("Light" banner), formed by light-cavalry. * ("Armoured" banner), formed by

Pancerni The armoured companion (, , ) was a medium-cavalryman used by the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 16th to 18th centuries. They are named after their chain mail armour. These units were the second-most important (and successful) cavalry in ...

. * (Tatar banner), formed by

Tatars Tatars ( )Tatar
in the Collins English Dictionary are a group of Turkic peoples across Eas ...

. * (Vlach banner), light cavalry, not only formed by

Vlachs Vlach ( ), also Wallachian and many other variants, is a term and exonym used from the Middle Ages until the Modern Era to designate speakers of Eastern Romance languages living in Southeast Europe—south of the Danube (the Balkan peninsula ...

. * (Cossack banner), light cavalry, not only formed by

Cossacks The Cossacks are a predominantly East Slavic languages, East Slavic Eastern Christian people originating in the Pontic–Caspian steppe of eastern Ukraine and southern Russia. Cossacks played an important role in defending the southern borde ...

. Typical family/village clans of the Chorągiew Rodowa who provided men for battles consisting of approximately 100 men were: * Topór, Dołęga and

Gryf Gryf ( Polish for "Griffin"), also known as Jaxa, is a Polish coat of arms that was used by many noble families in medieval Poland and later under the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, branches of the original medieval Gryfita-Świebodzic fa ...

Gallery

File:Chorągiew grodzieńska.JPG, District Banner of the Land of

Grodno Grodno, or Hrodna, is a city in western Belarus. It is one of the oldest cities in Belarus. The city is located on the Neman, Neman River, from Minsk, about from the Belarus–Poland border, border with Poland, and from the Belarus–Lithua ...

(1613–1619) File:Choragiew-husarska.png, A Hussar banner during the

Battle of Kircholm The Battle of Kircholm (; Polish: ''Bitwa pod Kircholmem''; Swedish: ''Slaget vid Kirkholm''; ) was one of the major battles in the Polish–Swedish War of 1600–1611. The battle was decided in 20 minutes by a devastating charge of Polish-Li ...

in 1605 File:Kłuszyn 1610.JPG, A Hussar banner during the

Battle of Kluszyn The Battle of Klushino, or the Battle of Kłuszyn, was fought on 4 July 1610, between forces of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Tsardom of Russia during the Polish–Russian War, part of Russia's Time of Troubles. The battle occu ...

in 1610

References

* PWN Leksykon: Wojsko, wojna, broń, Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN, Warszawa 2001,
''Winged Hussars''
Radoslaw Sikora, Bartosz Musialowicz, ''BUM Magazine'', October 2016. Military history of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth Polish cavalry {{Europe-mil-stub