POLISH KNIGHT 1428

An extract from Armies of the Middle Ages, Volume 2
by Ian Heath

134. POLISH KNIGHT 1428

This figure is based on the incised grave slab of the celebrated Zawisza Czarny of Garbow, one of the heroes of the Battle of Tannenberg. Together with many other Poles he later served under Sigismund during the Hussite wars and commanded those of the Emperor’s troops who covered his retreat by their courageous defence of Nemecky Brod in 1422. He died in battle against the Ottomans in 1428, still in Sigismund’s service, being the ‘Sir Advis, a Polish knight’ whom Brocquiëre records killed at Golubac. With the exception of the helmet, his armour is again no different from that in use further west, probably the work of one of the many German armourers who had been encouraged to settle in Poland by the promise of such perks as tax-exemption. His shield, however, is of the old-fashioned heater type. The helmet he wears is an Eastern European development of the chapeau de Montauban, a type of kettle-helmet with eye-slits in the brim, that was in widespread use in Germany, the Low Countries, Bohemia and Poland alike.

[Based on the Effigy of Jan Zawiszyc of Garbów, City of Koło, Poland, c.1454., son of Zawisza Czarny of Garbow who does not appear to have a known grave.]

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List of Extracts from Armies of the Middle Ages, Volume 2 by Ian Heath