Organizace žoldnéřského jezdectva sloužícího během patnáctileté války v císařské armádě

The Organization of Mercenary Cavalry Serving in the Fifteen Years' War in the Imperial Army

Autor: BAGI Zoltán

BAGI, Zoltán: Organizace žoldnéřského jezdectva sloužícího během patnáctileté války v císařské armádě 

BAGI, Zoltán: The Organization of Mercenary Cavalry Serving in the Fifteen Years' War in the Imperial Army.

Vojenská história, 1, 17, 2013, pp. 33-55.

In this paper the author builds on his work published in the journal Hadtorténelmi Kôzlemények, 2001, on the organization of the imperial army during the wars against the Turks, considerably deepening the understanding of the evolution of the organization and formation ofmercenary cavalry during the  Fifteen Years' War. He focuses primarily on the recruitment process, inspections, demobilization and the conditions for continuous service in this branch. The author also undertakes to explain selected military terms, which in the past were differently interpreted. In this context, he points out the fallacies committed by older generation professionals, especially in German and Hungarian literature, while at the same time admitting inaccuracies in his own studies. In his research, the author relied mainly on archival materials from the Kriegsarchiv, Vienna, adding some older literature of German (Austrian) and Hungarian provenance. The author points at the difficulties in translating some military technical terms, names of ranks from German into Hungarian, and thus indirectly points to the fact that, from a professional point, this issue hardly receives any attention in Slovakia. The author warns against uncritical assimilation of some terms among historians, without a more detailed verification. In the sub-chapters attention is paid to the creation, distribution, and conduct of operations by imperial troops and to the way how western cavalry troops were admitted to the imperial service, their organization, recruitment process, inspections of recruited cavalrymen, dismissal from service, forms of extended military service, and other related issues. The author brings up a lot of questions when it comes to the detailed analysis of cavalry branches, for example, he points out that even the use of the term dragoons is contradictory and erroneous in military history books.

Keywords: Military History. Habsburg Monarchy. Fifteen Years' War. Imperial Army. 16th Century. 17th Century.

Ročník: 17 | Číslo: 1/2013 | Stránky: 33-55