Szabla
In particular, it served as one of the symbols of the nobility and aristocracy (szlachta), who considered it to be one of the most important pieces of men's traditional attire.
The first type of szabla, the Hungarian-Polish (węgiersko-polska), was popularized among the szlachta during the reign of the Transylvanian-Hungarian King of Poland Stefan Batory in the late 16th century.
It featured a large, open hilt with a cross-shaped guard formed from quillons and upper and lower langets and a heavy blade.
[2] Since a number of such weapons were made by order of the king himself during his reform of the army and were engraved with his portrait, this kind of sabre is also referred to as batorówka – after Batory's name.
Unlike the early "Hungarian-Polish" type, it featured a protected hilt and resembled the curved sabres of the East.
[2] The heavier, almost fully closed hilt offered both good protection of the hand and much better control over the sabre during a skirmish.
The soldier fighting with such sabre could use it with his thumb extended along the back-strap of the grip for even greater control when 'fencing' either on foot or with other experienced horsemen or, by using the thumb-ring, a small ring of steel or brass at the junction of the grip and the cross-guard through which the thumb is placed, could give forceful downward swinging cuts from the shoulder and elbow with a 'locked' wrist against infantry and less experienced horsemen.
An example that bears a considerable resemblance is the famous British 1796 pattern Light Cavalry Sabre, which was designed by Captain John Gaspard le Marchant after several visits to Central and Eastern Europe and research being conducted into those and other nations' cavalry tactics and weapons.
Poland had ceased to exist as a separate nation, but Hungary was still an existing nation and was the source of all things "Hussar", it was the Polish-Hungarian szable of 150 years earlier, rather than the oftened-quoted Indian tulwar, that was the main source of inspiration for the first "mainly cutting" sabre in the British Army.
