Hussar

By the 19th century, hussars were wearing jackets decorated with braid plus shako or busby fur hats and had developed a romanticized image of being dashing and adventurous.

[7] Several alternative theories are summarised below: The hussars reportedly originated in bands of Serb warriors,[16] crossing into southern Hungary after the Ottoman conquest of Serbia in the late 14th century.

His son, Matthias Corvinus, later king of Hungary, is claimed to be the creator of these troops, commonly called Rác[citation needed] (a Hungarian exonym for Serbs).

[17] The medieval Hungarian written sources spoke disparagingly and contemptuously of the light cavalry and the hussars in general, and during battles the texts praised only the virtues, endurance, courage, training and achievements of the knights.

[19] The 16th and 17th centuries saw a major change and during the Thirty Years' War they fought as light cavalry and increasingly used firearms, instead of more traditional weapons such as bows and spears.

When Stephen Báthory, a Transylvanian-Hungarian prince, was elected King of Poland in 1576, he reorganised the Polish–Lithuanian Hussars of his Royal Guard along Hungarian lines, making them a heavy formation, equipped with a long lance as their main weapon.

[24] In 1578, Charles II took command of the Croatian and Slavonian Military Frontier and prepared written orders and rule of service for infantry (Haramije) and horsemen (hussars), using the Serbo-Croatian language.

[25][26] The oldest written trace of the surname Husar in Croatia is from 1507 in Vinica where Petrus Hwzar (Petar Husar) was mentioned, in a document dated 1598 entitled "Regestum", mention was made of "hussar" at Lobor ("Castrum Lobor cum suis pertinentiis portiones magnificorum dominorum Joannis et Petri Keglyewich…“Blasius Hwszar, Inq(uilinus)”.

In the late 17th and 18th centuries, many Hungarian hussars sought employment in other Central and Western European countries and became the core of similar light cavalry formations created there.

During the Spanish War of Independence against Napoleon (1808–1814), the unit fought the Battles of Bailén, Tudela, Velez, Talavera and Ocaña and the actions of Baza, Cuellar, Murviedro and Alaquàs.

On 14 October 1741, during the regency of Grand Duchess Anna Leopoldovna, four Hussar regiments, a Serbian (Serbskiy), a Moldavian (Moldavskiy), a Hungarian (Vengerskiy) and a Georgian (Gruzinskiy) were authorized.

During the 1750s Serbian and Slovakian Orthodox communities and refugees, plus Poles and Hungarians, provided non-Russian recruits for the expanding hussars who evolved into a semi-regular corps of frontier light horse.

While the hussars were increasingly drawn from Prussian and other German cavalrymen, they continued to wear the traditional Hungarian uniform, richly decorated with braid and gold trim.

A hussar regiment under the command of Colonel Sigismund Dabasi-Halász helped win the Battle of Hohenfriedberg at Striegau on May 4, 1745, by attacking the Austrian combat formation on its flank and capturing all of its artillery.

The uniform of the Napoleonic hussars included the pelisse, a short fur-edged jacket which was often worn slung over one shoulder in the style of a cape and was fastened with a cord.

[39] The hussar's accoutrements included a Hungarian-style saddle covered by a shabraque: a decorated saddlecloth with long, pointed corners surmounted by a sheepskin.

[40] On active service, the hussar normally wore reinforced breeches which had leather on the inside of the leg to prevent them from wearing due to the extensive time spent in the saddle.

He rose through the ranks of the hussars in the wars of Belgium and the Rhineland (1794–1798), fighting against the forces of Austria and Prussia before receiving his marshal's baton in 1804, after the Emperor Napoleon's coronation.

Towards the end of the 18th century, British light dragoon regiments began to adopt hussar style accoutrements such as laced jackets, pelisses and sabretaches.

The heroic action of the Hussars of Junín Regiment as part of the light cavalry commanded by General José María Córdova was victorious, the battle eventuating in the capitulation of the Spanish forces, affirming the final independence of Peru.

[47][48] On the eve of World War I, there were still hussar regiments in the British,[49] Canadian, French,[50] New Zealand, Spanish,[51] German,[52] Russian,[53] Dutch,[54] Danish,[55] Swedish, Romanian, and Austro-Hungarian armies.

Thus, both the Belgian Guides (prior to World War I) and the Mounted Escort, the so-called Blue Hussars, of the Irish Defence Forces (during the 1930s) wore hussar-style uniforms.

Usually, this uniform consisted of a short jacket known as a dolman, or later a medium-length atilla jacket, both with heavy, horizontal gold braid (sujtás) on the breast and yellow braided or gold Austrian knots (vitézkötés) on the sleeves, a matching pelisse (a short-waisted over-jacket often worn slung over one shoulder), colourful riding breeches, sometimes with yellow braided or gold Austrian knots at the front, a busby (kucsma) (a high, fur hat with a cloth bag hanging from one side, although some regiments wore the shako (csákó) of various styles), and high riding boots (often Hessian boots).

Arthur Conan Doyle's character Brigadier Etienne Gerard of the French Hussards de Conflans has come to epitomise the hussar of popular fiction – brave, conceited, amorous, a skilled horseman and (according to Napoleon) not very intelligent.

Until the 17th century, it included a cavalry sabre, lance, long wooden shield and, optionally, light, metal armour or simple leather vest.

In modern times they serve as the president's honor guard and security detail, and carry AK-47s and SKS instead of sabres, worn only by officers assigned to the unit.

Originally written by essayist Charles Péguy in 1913, the phrase hussard noir de la République ('the black knights of the Republic') has a military undertone: It is meant to capture the tense atmosphere of the late 19th century in France, as schoolteachers felt entrusted with a superior mission to actively promote Republican and secular values, among a largely illiterate population still much influenced by the authority of royalist or Catholic powers.

Except for the Huzaren van Boreel, the regiments operate in an armoured role in one of the two mechanised brigades of the Dutch army, using the Leopard 2 main battle tank.

The 1st Light Cavalry Regiment, the "Glorious Hussars of Junín", was until 2012 the horse guards unit of the Peruvian Army, with a history spanning almost two centuries.

This uniform is of similar design, but with different colors and braiding, to that worn by the Argentine Regiment of Mounted Grenadiers General San Martín, which assisted in its raising and in the training of its first troopers.