Noptes: Polish Batorowka & Zygmuntowka sabres

[wolviex]

This thread is a result of Radu’s article: Notes on development of modern sabers, which is now one of the most popular on this forum (congratulation Radu!). While the discussion goes to the earlier times, when the sabres were born, I would like to stay a while longer by “gold era” of Polish history – in the 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries, and introduce some facts about one of the most popular dedicated sabres: Batorowkas

The name of this sabres come from the king Stefan Batory, which was elected in 1576 and quickly became known as a great leader and very popular man.

For many years there was existing conviction that sabres called like that were property of the king. Of course it became obvious that there are too many sabres with Batory’s name, to accept this theory as probably. Before the II WW, Polish arms historians called as Batorowka all the sabres of Hungarian-Polish type – so every sabre with classic boot-like pommel, with cross-guard and open hilt. It changed just after the war, when knowledge about sabres became established. So nowadays we can call “Batorowka” only a sabre which bears the name, bust or imagination of king Batory, no matter from what period, and of what type this sabre is.

There are two theories, when the Batorowkas appeared. The first one says it was during the rule of the king, when his victories and successful politics made him very popular among the noblemen. The second one, I think more probably and actually accepted, says they were produced just after the death of the king (1586 y.). Then the noblemen who put mourning after the king, started to wear batorowkas sabres, while another noblemen, celebrating election of the new king (Zygmunt III Waza – Sigismundus Wasa, from Sweden), started to wear sabres Zygmuntowkas.

Bacause of their popularity, Batorowkas were produced even in the 18th century. As a curiosity, I can tell there was even an Italian craftsman, Jan Hieronim Caccia, who lived in Warsaw, and produced batorowkas – unfortunately we don’t know how do they looked like. There is an interesting problem with it. Can we call 18th century batorowkas as a fakes? There is no doubt, I think, some of them could be produced as 16th or 17th century weapon. In 19th century, when Poland loose independence, during romantic and historical period, Batorowkas became popular once more. But of course these sabres are rather less interesting and very often made of poor materials.

Photographs:

Photo 1: King Stefan Batory himself, painting from 16th century;
Photo 2: King Stefan Batory in the later painting of Polish famous historical painter – Jan Matejko (19th century), “Batory at Pskov” – fragment. King’s armour, depicted on painting is now preserved in Hofjagd und Rustkammer Museum in Wien;
Photo 3: Stefan Batory’s sabre (not Batorowka), now in Polish Army Museum in Warsaw;
Photo 4: Batorowka sabre, at least – and by the way classic hussars sabre, National Museum in Krakow;
Photo 5: …and closeup of the same sabre – “Stefanus Batori * Rex Poloniae *”;
Photo 6: Another Batorowka sabre with classic hussars sabre hilt, from Polish Army Museum in Warsaw;
Photo 7: Blade of Batorowka sabre;
Photo 8: Sketches from the blade of Batorowka sabre, late 16th century;
Photo 9: Another blade of Batorowka sabre…;
Photo 10, 11: Two Batorowkas probably from the same workshop, middle of 18th century. King Stefan Batory lost his personableness and looks more like dwarf – just a thought

and Zymgmuntowkas:
Photo 12: King Zygmunt III himself, king of Poland from 1587 y.;
Photo 13: Fragment of Zygmuntowka sabre from National Museum in Krakow – it’s a fishy thing. No doubt it’s not a fake. But take a look at date: 1526 – it’s a date of election of Zygmunt II August, not Zygmunt III Waza. Interesting thing that date is visible on many others sabres called Zygmuntowka, so there appeared even a theory telling this sabres were made during the rule of Zygmunt I Stary (Sigismund I The Old – lived 1467-1546) or Zygmunt II August (lived 1520-1572), what cannot be true, I think;
Photo 14, 15, 16: Examples of Zygmuntowkas blades and sabres;