With war with Germania looming, Grand Duke Orzepovski has authorized the mobilization of the town militias and is personally conducting a tour to instill confidence in the towns people.
In carrying out the policy, the magnates of Litharus rely
on their towns not simply as fortified points of defense. When necessary, towns
mobilize their militias, and could be further utilized for the maintenance of
permanent garrison battalions and concentration of local military groups made up of
mercenary soldiers and servitude boyars.
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| Called out for exercise in the presence of the Grand Duke |
Town militias existed as early as the beginning of the 16
th
century, when Litharusians defended their towns from invasion by the Crimean
Tartars. Town inhabitants, most likely generically related to the town militias
of Kievan Ruthenia, allied themselves with the lord’s feudal detachments.
 |
| Townsmen in their own clothing turn out |
In practice, most militias were concentrated in larger, fortified towns and
were utilized mainly for local defense. The existence of the town militia was of
primary concern not only to the magnates, who strove to exploit all resources,
including human ones, for the defense of their holdings, but also to the
inhabitants of the towns themselves.
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| "But they come late, shoot poorly and are slow to reload...." |
Working people were dependent on them for their safety since war affected
them most of all. The conquest of a town by the enemy was accompanied by
looting, rapes, murders, fires, epidemics and, not infrequently, considerable
destruction to the town itself. Under conditions of feudal anarchy, frequent
wars, and the decline of the central authority in the old Polish Republic, town
militias represented a force able to defend the town and its possessions as well
as the lives of its inhabitants. The town militias
had no independent military significance; they carried on military operations
only in defense of siege or raids.
 |
| Attempting to form up |
Military service of the majority of the townspeople in a magnate's town was
considered a local obligation to the lord of the town, and not to the state. The
magnate defined the principles of the practical application of this duty, and
the higher officials of his administration, or the garrison commanders,
exercised a general control over the fulfillment of this duty. As a rule, the
magnates, while making use of the town militia, relied on the wealthy merchant
class as well as on the members of the town board and the guild elders. One
should note that the magnates regarded both the town militia and the towns
themselves as tools, a means to political power, and often exposed the towns and
their militias to grievous losses.
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| Wearing traditional woad colors along with greens and browns |
Excerpts taken with minor paraphrasing and thanks from:
The Militias of Magnate Towns in Belorussia
and Lithuania in the 16th-18th centuries
by Anatol Hryckiewicz (Minsk,
BSSR)
translated from Polish by Sigmund S. Birkenmayer and Eugenia
J.Okoniewska
edited by Margot Topkins Tutun
Great looking figures, the Grand Duke is fantastic!
ReplyDeleteThank you for an illuminating history and visual treat Michael.
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Bill