Companion ( Polish: ''towarzysz'' , plural: ''towarzysze'') was a junior

cavalry Historically, cavalry (from the French word ''cavalerie'', itself derived from ''cheval'' meaning "horse") are groups of soldiers or warriors who Horses in warfare, fight mounted on horseback. Until the 20th century, cavalry were the most mob ...

officer An officer is a person who has a position of authority in a hierarchical organization. The term derives from Old French ''oficier'' "officer, official" (early 14c., Modern French ''officier''), from Medieval Latin ''officiarius'' "an officer," fro ...

knight A knight is a person granted an honorary title of a knighthood by a head of state (including the pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church, or the country, especially in a military capacity. The concept of a knighthood ...

-officer in the army of the

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, also referred to as Poland–Lithuania or the First Polish Republic (), was a federation, federative real union between the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...

from the 16th century until its demise in 1795.

Name

During the 20th century, ''towarzysz'' assumed the same meaning as the

Russian Russian(s) may refer to: *Russians (), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries *A citizen of Russia *Russian language, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages *''The Russians'', a b ...

('' tovarishch'', "

comrade In political contexts, comrade means a fellow party member. The political use was inspired by the French Revolution, after which it grew into a form of address between socialists and workers. Since the Russian Revolution, popular culture in t ...

"), with the military meaning fading in use. Use of cultural expressions such as '' pan'' ("sir") was frowned upon and the

communist regime A communist state, also known as a Marxist–Leninist state, is a one-party state in which the totality of the power belongs to a party adhering to some form of Marxism–Leninism, a branch of the communist ideology. Marxism–Leninism was ...

encouraged use of ''towarzysz'' ("companion") or '' obywatel'' ("citizen").

Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

In the

military of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The military of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth consisted of two separate armies of the Kingdom of Poland's Crown Army and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania's Grand Ducal Lithuanian Army following the 1569 Union of Lublin, which joined to form th ...

, (until the 1775 AD reforms) companion was usually a

noble A noble is a member of the nobility. Noble may also refer to: Places Antarctica * Noble Glacier, King George Island * Noble Nunatak, Marie Byrd Land * Noble Peak, Wiencke Island * Noble Rocks, Graham Land Australia * Noble Island, Gr ...

who served in the Army for a period of time, usually less than 5 years, as a horseman with his mounted retainers (cavalry) and ''free servants'' (

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 ...

cossack The Cossacks are a predominantly 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 borders of Ukraine and Rus ...

– Armoured companion, Petyhorcy,

Hajduk A hajduk (, plural of ) is a type of Irregular military, irregular infantry found in Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and parts of Southeast Europe from the late 16th to mid 19th centuries, especially from Hajdú–Bihar Count ...

), or with none or one retainer and very few free servants (light cavalry e.g.

Wallachia Wallachia or Walachia (; ; : , : ) is a historical and geographical region of modern-day Romania. It is situated north of the Lower Danube and south of the Southern Carpathians. Wallachia was traditionally divided into two sections, Munteni ...

n, Lisowczyks,

Lithuanian Tatars The Lipka Tatars are a Turkic ethnic group and minority in Poland, Lithuania, and Belarus who originally settled in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania at the beginning of the 14th century. The first Tatar settlers tried to preserve their Pagan tradi ...

), organized into

banners A banner can be a flag or another piece of cloth bearing a symbol, logo, slogan or another message. A flag whose design is the same as the shield in a coat of arms (but usually in a square or rectangular shape) is called a banner of arms. Also, ...

/companies. His pay was relative to the type of cavalry unit he served, whether in (hussars, cossack – armoured companion), banners. He usually brought between 1 and 4 men ( pocztowy or pacholiks) with him in his "retinue" (''

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 ...

'') prescribed by his current military contract with his commander, the ''rotameister'' (

rotmistrz Rittmaster () is usually a commissioned officer military rank used in a few armies, usually equivalent to Captain. Historically it has been used in Germany, Austria-Hungary, Scandinavia, and some other countries. A is typically in charge of a s ...

), and the state. He armed, provisioned and commanded his retainers, and his free servants, that provided care for horses and weapons, forage, set up camp and mended equipment. In the light cavalry, a towarzysz usually fought with a very small poczet. They were differentiated based on their horse unit origin, depending on whether they joined a

heavy cavalry Heavy cavalry was a class of cavalry intended to deliver a battlefield charge and also to act as a Military reserve, tactical reserve; they are also often termed ''shock cavalry''. Although their equipment differed greatly depending on the re ...

unit – (''Towarzysz husarski'' of the

Winged hussars The Polish hussars (; ), alternatively known as the winged hussars, were an elite heavy cavalry formation active in Poland and in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1503 to 1702. Their epithet is derived from large rear wings, which were ...

), a medium cavalry banner – towarzysz kozacki (name change after 1648 AD – Armoured companion), a

light cavalry Light cavalry comprised lightly armed and body armor, armored cavalry troops mounted on fast horses, as opposed to heavy cavalry, where the mounted riders (and sometimes the warhorses) were heavily armored. The purpose of light cavalry was p ...

banner – towarzysz lekkiego znaku etc. The richest and most prestigious were towarzysze that came from the winged hussar banners, but their own expenses' burden was the most excessive and grew as the 17th century progressed.

From 1775

After 1775 reforms that modernized Polish-Lithuanian cavalry towarzysz was usually a

lancer A lancer was a type of cavalryman who fought with a lance. Lances were used for mounted warfare in Assyria as early as and subsequently by India, Egypt, China, Persia, Greece, and Rome. The weapon was widely used throughout Eurasia during the M ...

and head of the smallest unit in the

National Cavalry The National Cavalry () was a branch of Polish–Lithuanian cavalry in the Polish-Lithuanian armed forces in the last quarter of the 18th century. Formed as a merger of previously-existing units of Winged hussars, pancerni and petyhorcy t ...

, Pulk Jazdy Przedniej or other various guard cavalry regiments of the Commonwealth.

In other European countries

Habsburg Empire

In the Habsburg Empire, after the Second Partition of Poland–Lithuania, in 1781 a Polish-style cavalry regiment under the name was organized, preserving the ''Towarzysz-pocztowy'' unit organization.

Russian Empire

In Russia, after the Third Partition of Poland–Lithuania in 1797, two Polish-based cavalry regiments were organized: ''Konnopolski Regiment'' and along the lines of ''towarzysz''-''pocztowy'' organization.

Kingdom of Prussia

In the Prussian army under

Frederick William II of Prussia Frederick William II (; 25 September 1744 – 16 November 1797) was King of Prussia from 1786 until his death in 1797. He was also the prince-elector of Brandenburg and (through the Orange-Nassau inheritance of his grandfather) sovereign princ ...

and

Frederick William III of Prussia Frederick William III (; 3 August 1770 – 7 June 1840) was King of Prussia from 16 November 1797 until his death in 1840. He was concurrently Elector of Brandenburg in the Holy Roman Empire until 6 August 1806, when the empire was dissolved ...

, there were several cavalry regiments organized along the lines of towarzysz cavalry from the Polish, Lithuanians and Tatars in Prussian lands, with one cavalry regiment being called , organized in 1799. The regiment retained towarzysz and retainers structure and a Polish uhlan lance as the primary weapon, but this regiment did not survive Prussian collapse of 1806, where most men went into the

army of the Duchy of Warsaw The Army of the Duchy of Warsaw ( Polish: ''Armia Księstwa Warszawskiego'') refers to the military forces of the Duchy of Warsaw. The Army was significantly based on the Polish Legions; it numbered about 30,000 and was expanded during wartime t ...

along with their horses and weapons. However other Polish-based regiments were converted to

Uhlan Uhlan (; ; ; ; ) is a type of light cavalry, primarily armed with a lance. The uhlans started as Grand Ducal Lithuanian Army, Lithuanian irregular cavalry, that were later also adopted by other countries during the 18th century, including Polis ...

regiments in 1807 and formed the basis for Prussian uhlan regiments until the end of Prussia.

References

* Richard Brzezinski, ''Polish Armies: 1569–1699'', London 1987. vol. 1, pp. 12–19. * Richard Brzezinski, ''Polish Winged Hussar'', New York 2006, pp. 8–10. * Konstanty Górski, ''Historia Jazdy Polskiej'', Kraków 1894. * Peter Hofschröer, ''Prussian cavalry of the Napoleonic Wars'', Volume 1, London 1985. * Radosław Sikora, ''Wojskowość polska w dobie wojny polsko-szwedzkiej 1626–1629. Kryzys mocarstwa'', Poznań, 2005, s. 76–77. * {{cite magazine, author=Radosław Sikora, author2= Bartosz Musialowicz , url=https://www.msz.gov.pl/resource/21badcbf-0c18-4fb8-8b19-3d382469d25f:JCR, url-status=dead, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190619031940/https://www.msz.gov.pl/resource/21badcbf-0c18-4fb8-8b19-3d382469d25f:JCR, archive-date=19 June 2019, title=Winged Hussars, periodical=Business Ukraine Magazine, year=2016 * Jan Wimmer, ''Wojsko Polskie w drugiej połowie XVII wieku'', Wojskowy Instytut Historyczny, Wydawnictwo Ministerstwa Obrony Narodowej, Warszawa 1965. * Zygmunt Gloger, ''Encyklopedia staropolska ilustrowana'', Volume 4, Warszawa 1903 pp. 379–380.