Then Jesus said to him: Return your sword to its place, for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.
Gospel of Matthew 26:51
Knights and chivalry of three centuries.
How interesting history is sometimes! The Hungarians were one of those peoples who came from Asia along the Steppe Corridor to Europe and for many years terrified its inhabitants with their campaigns, along with the Arabs and Vikings. They invaded France and Germany, made campaigns in Italy and even in Spain. However, after losing the battle on the Leh River in 955, they stopped their forays to the west and began to develop their state. Former nomads and light-armed archers, they quickly adopted European military traditions and knightly culture and, over time, were practically in no way inferior to the armies of Western Europe. Well, we will now tell you about what their own troops were in 1050-1350.
State of many provinces
Note that the medieval Hungarian state was very large and included many provinces inhabited by non-Magyar peoples, although after the conquest, a significant Hungarian population lived in them. But there were also areas where it remained in the minority. That is, it was not a monocultural and monolingual population in that era. Many cities were also home to many Germans. The most significant were such non-Magyar regions as Transylvania (whose population was a mixed Hungarian, Romanian and German population) and Slovakia, Croatia, Bosnia, Temeshvar (northern Serbia) and northern Dalmatia, and the people living there were mainly Slavs. In the east, Wallachia and Moldavia were also under Hungarian suzerainty for some time, although not for a very short time.
Initially, the Hungarians, or Magyars, were a nomadic people of Finno-Ugric origin who came to Europe from Siberia, although they included a significant contingent of representatives of the Turkic nationality. When a significant part of their former military aristocracy perished on the battlefield of Lech, the psychology of those who remained changed dramatically, and they gradually integrated into Christian European civilization.
Hungary officially became Christian quite late, namely in 1001, with the baptism of its first king, Stephen. Along with religion, Western European feudal institutions were introduced, and its elite adopted Western culture, including the traditions of military affairs. Peace now reigned along the western border, but the new Christian Hungarian kingdom immediately began to fight with its northern, southern and eastern neighbors, trying to expand the boundaries of their lands.
From the middle of the 10th century, the western border of Hungary included Slovakia, but not Moravia. Then it ran slightly to the west of the present Hungarian-Austrian border, where it remained throughout the entire period under consideration. By the middle of the 13th century, Croatia and Dalmatia entered the Hungarian kingdom through marriage alliances. Bosnia was conquered from the Serbs, and western Wallachia was under Hungarian suzerainty. Further, Hungary had to experience the full horror of the Mongol invasion in 1241, but the country, nevertheless, was never included in the Mongol empire. In fact, Hungary recovered quite quickly, and during the XIV century turned into a powerful centralized state, oriented in everything to the West. Bosnia was re-conquered in 1328, while Wallachia and Moldavia remained under Hungarian suzerainty until the 1360s.
Nomads in the center of Europe
As for the Magyars' military affairs, the traditional military culture of this people is the culture of the nomads. But having ceased to be such, they completely forgot her. Now, having become Christians and focusing on the West that defeated them, they began to rely on a small knightly cavalry, which, as a tribute to the ancient tradition, was supported by horse archers. Archers had lighter armor, horsemen with spears and swords - heavier. The bows of the Hungarians were also closer to the Sassanian, Caucasian, Byzantine or early Arab type than to the Turkish. There is also evidence that the tactics of Magyar equestrian archery were closer to those of the Middle East than Central Asia. How this could have happened is not entirely clear. After all, they came just from Asia, and by no means from the Middle East. There can be only one explanation. The habitat of the Magyar tribes did not coincide with the area of the prototurks, and they did not touch each other in the vastness of Asia. But the Caucasus and Iran had contacts with them during their resettlement to the West, and in the course of these contacts the Magyars just got acquainted with the military affairs of ancient Iran and adopted something from it. Interestingly, the early Magyars used rather sophisticated siege weapons. That is, it is obvious that Hungary had trade contacts with the Islamic world in the 10th and 11th centuries, and they were not in vain for her.
The first phase of "Westernization" in the 10th and 11th centuries probably only affected the royal family, mercenary troops and head barons. Some strata of Magyar society, especially those who lived on the Great Plain, that is, in Pannonia, retained their customs until the 12th century. Traditionally, their main occupation was horse breeding. However, the majority of the population, especially in areas with a population of the Slavs, has always been engaged in agriculture. Many Magyars also settled in these places and quickly adopted from the Slavs the words relating to horse breeding, which had Finno-Ugric roots, but to agriculture - Slavic! In turn, this led to the strengthening of the feudalization of the country and the army. The light cavalry did not disappear, but its importance was greatly diminished, while weapons and armor became largely, although not completely, Western European.
And now we will look at a number of wonderful miniatures from the Hungarian manuscript "Chronicle of Piktum" 1325-1360. (National Library of the Section, Budapest, Hungary) On the first one we see a warrior literally repeating, with the exception of the shield, the attire of the warrior depicted in the effigy, but without armor on his legs.
Hungary received another wave of nomadic settlers from the East just before the Mongol invasion, when the Kumans - Polovtsian tribes fled to its lands. The migrants were nomads, they were engaged in nomadic animal husbandry, and thus they were close to the Magyar population of Hungary. But after the Mongol invasion and the death of a huge number of people, returning to their former life became impossible. Moreover, the now devastated lands came from Germany. Thus, a motley multinational mixture of languages, cultures and peoples arose on the territory of Hungary, in which, however, the dominant feudal nobility was almost indistinguishable from their German or Italian counterparts, just like the German settlers and German Teutonic knights in areas such as Transylvania.
Long-term wars of Hungary with nomads in the steppes located beyond the Carpathian Mountains, perhaps, just explain the fact that despite the "Westernization" of its mounted army, there continued to use a large number of relatively lightly armed horse archers of various origins. At the same time, in fact, the Hungarian army of the XIII century had a lot in common with the Byzantine army, which also speaks of the presence of a strong influence from this side.
Crossbow vs bow
Foot crossbowmen played a prominent role, with most of these warriors recruited from Slavic lands such as Slovakia. The crossbow, by the way, very quickly became a popular weapon in Hungary, although even by the 15th century it had not completely replaced the complex composite bow. The Hungarians, like many other steppe peoples, used fortifications from carts, known to both Czechs and Poles, and also to the soldiers of Russia. Some believe that there are noticeable oriental features in the military affairs of the Hungarians, a consequence of Turkish influence. However, the Hungarians hardly met the Ottomans face to face until the end of the 14th century, although the Turks crossed the Bosphorus into Europe in 1352, and already in 1389 later inflicted a defeat on the Serbs in the Kosovo field. So the use of carts as field fortifications, as well as firearms, respectively, can be seen as examples of influence from Hungary, which quickly adapted all the novelties of military affairs from Western Europe.
By the way, scenes of the battle with Muslims of European knights at that time were often placed in manuscripts, and often images of Muslims were, let's say, somewhat "removed" from reality, for example, as in this miniature from "Queen Mary's Psalter". Created between 1310 and 1320, it contains 223 full-color and partially colored miniatures. (British Library, London)
References:
1. Nicolle, D. Arms and Armor of the Crusading Era, 1050-1350. UK. L.: Greenhill Books. Vol.1.
2. Nicolle, D. Hungary and the Fall of Eastern Europe 1000-1568. UK. L.: Osprey (Men-At-Arms # 195), 1988.
