Pospolite Ruszenie - Rise

Rise

Before the 13th century, the feudal levy of knights was the customary method employed in the raising of Polish armies in the Kingdom of Poland of the Late Middle Ages. Earliest mentions of the term are tracted to the reign of Władysław I the Elbow-high (1320–1333). Statutes of Casimir the Great made the service in the military obligatory for all knights-landowners, under the penalty of land confiscation. The more wealthy knights provided a lances fournies unit (known in Poland as kopia), and the less prosperous ones served as a light horseman or even infantryman. They were obliged to take arms and defend the country, and to participate at wars at foreign land.

As the knights (later, nobles - the szlachta class) started to acquire privileges, some of them begun he change the way that the pospolite ruszenie functioned. The length of the service was set at two weeks. The Privilege of Buda from 1355 required to king to compensate any losses incurred by the nobles in fights abroad, and the he Privilege of Koszyce of 1374 required him to pay the ransom for any nobles taken into captivity during wars abroad. A privilege of 1388 extended that compensation for losses incurred when defending the country, confirmed that the nobles were to receive a monetary wage for their participation, and that they should be consulted with by the king beforehand.

The early pospolite ruszenie also put the requirement of military service on the landowning knights in the priesthood, and on the peasant leaders (sołtys' and wójts). The few townsfolk who owned land estates would also have the obligation to serve. It could be called by the king, or in his absence and in dire need, from the 14th century, the starost of the affected territory. From 1454 another privilege (the Privilege of Cerkwica, confirmed same year by the Statutes of Nieszawa) made the calling of a pospolite ruszenie conditional on the agreement of the local sejmik (regional parliament), and by the end of the 15th century, this required the agreement of the national parliament, the sejm. Some of the above privileges were extorted by the szlachta from the king, as a pospolite ruszenie was known to refuse to act unless more privileges were granted to it (this was the case, for example, in 1454).

Pospolite ruszenie units were usually organized based on a territorial and administrative division of Kingdom of Poland (later, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) - within units known as voivodeship (Latin 'palatinate'), and smaller ones. They knights (nobles) would be gathered by castellans and voivodes, who led them to the chosen points where the command would pass to the military commanders (hetmans) or the king. The units would be organized into units of about 50-120 strong (chorągiew), based on their territorial origin. There were some exceptions, as the most powerful magnates would form their own chorągiew's.