Folia archeologica 54.

Kocsis László - Mráv Zsolt: Egy késő római sisak arcvédő lemezének töredéke Dunafalváról (Bács-Kiskun megye)

316 KOVÁCS S. TIBOR POSSIBLE ORIGINS OF THE HUNGARIAN HUSSAR PLATED С HAINMAIL In 1934, the Hungarian National Museum purchased a Hussar plated chainmail made in the last quarter of the 16

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h century from an antiquities dealer based in Munich (Fig. 1). A charter issued to the Bakács family in Lippa in 1532 depicts Hungarian soldiers clad in Hussar plated chainmails in their coat-of-arms (Fig. 2). Hussar plated chainmails made their appearance in the 1520s; a long-sleeved mesh armour was generally worn underneath it. Many lavishly adorned Hussar plated chainmails were made for the ruling elite from the mid-16

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h century, the best example being the Hussar plated chainmail made for István Báthori, Prince of Transylvania (15711586). The armour was probably made in a southern German workshop (Fig. 3). The conical helmet complementing the Hussar armour harks back to Ottoman Turkish models. A study of 15

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h century Ottoman Turkish armour is therefore indispensable; a typical Turkish armour of this type is shown in Figure 4. A plated chainmail worn with a conical helmet (Fig. 6) was the principal defensive armour of the Ottoman Turkish elite cavalry. The Oriental armour type, a mail coat with interlinked metal plates known as bechter (Fig. 5), became popular is Russia from the early 16'

1' century onward. Northern Italian copies of these armour types began to be manufactured from the 1530s. Interestingly enough, Russian helmets were copied in southern Germany (Fig. 8), while copies of Turkish helmets were manufactured for the Hussars (Fig. 7). Oriental chainmails were popular in Western Europe too, as shown by the Ottoman Turkish armour in Emperor Charles V's illustrated armour inventory (Fig. 10). The oft-quoted Turkish armour in the Metropolitan Museum of New York is generally dated to the 15

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h century (Fig. 11). Even a cursory glance at this Turkish armour and the Hussar plated chainmail shown in Figure 1 reveals the striking similarities between them. The Hussar plated chainmail, an obviously much-improved version of the armour worn by Turkish elite corps, was created in the 1520s in Hungary and later copied in northern Italy. Following the disastrous Battle of Mohács in 1526, the Hussar units replacing the earlier heavy cavalry troops were raised with the purpose of matching the Turkish elite cavalry. The use of plated chainmails undoubtedly made the Hussars resemble the Turkish spahis, even if this piece of armour was significantly improved according to Western European norms. Plated chainmails were at first onlv worn by some of ficers; their more widespread use began in the 1570s among the Hussars, and they attained their greatest popularity during the Fifteen Years' War. Translated by Magdalena Seleanu