Towarzysz - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

A Towarzysz ("Companion", plural: towarzysze) was sort of a junior cavalry

Cavalry

Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...

officer

Officer (armed forces)

An officer is a member of an armed force or uniformed service who holds a position of authority. Commissioned officers derive authority directly from a sovereign power and, as such, hold a commission charging them with the duties and responsibilities of a specific office or position...

or rather knight

Knight

A knight was a member of a class of lower nobility in the High Middle Ages.By the Late Middle Ages, the rank had become associated with the ideals of chivalry, a code of conduct for the perfect courtly Christian warrior....

-officer in the autorament narodowy Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was a dualistic state of Poland and Lithuania ruled by a common monarch. It was the largest and one of the most populous countries of 16th- and 17th‑century Europe with some and a multi-ethnic population of 11 million at its peak in the early 17th century...

National army, both in cavalry and infantry, from the 16th century until 1794 AD.

In the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth's National army (until the 1775 AD reforms) towarzysz was usually a noble who served for a period of time (usually less than 5 years) in the Army as a horseman with his mounted retainers (cavalry) and free servants (hussars, cossack

Cossack

Cossacks are a group of predominantly East Slavic people who originally were members of democratic, semi-military communities in what is today Ukraine and Southern Russia inhabiting sparsely populated areas and islands in the lower Dnieper and Don basins and who played an important role in the...

- pancerny, petyhorcy

Petyhorcy

Petyhorcy was a type of 16-18th century medium-armoured cavalry in Great Duchy of Lithuania and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Initially it was formed from Circassians which came to Lithuania from under the rule of the Russian Tsardom...

, haiduk), or with none or one retainer and very few free servants (light cavalry eg Wallachian, lisowczyk, Tatar), organized into banners/companies (chorągiew

Choragiew

Chorągiew was the basic administrative unit of the Polish cavalry from the 14th century. An alternative name until the 17th century was Rota.The name may derive from Slavic word Khorugv ....

). His pay was relative to the type of cavalry unit he served, whether in (hussars, cossack

Cossack

- pancerny), banners. He usually brought between 1 to 4 men (pocztowy or pacholiks) with him in his "retinue" (poczet

Poczet

Poczet was the smallest organized unit of soldiers in Kingdom of Poland and Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from the 15th until the 18th century. The name of a medium or heavy-cavalry soldiers in poczet was pocztowy.In the cavalry, each poczet was commanded by a towarzysz husarski or towarzysz...

) prescribed by his current military contract with his commander, the rotameister (rotmistrz), and the state. He armed, provisioned and commanded his retainers, and his free servants, that provided care for horses and weapons, forage, set up camp, and mended equipment. In the light cavalry, a towarzysz usually fought with a very small poczet.

They were differentiated based on their horse unit origin, depending on whether they joined a heavy cavalry

Heavy cavalry

Heavy cavalry is a class of cavalry whose primary role was to engage in direct combat with enemy forces . Although their equipment differed greatly depending on the region and historical period, they were generally mounted on large powerful horses, and were often equipped with some form of scale,...

unit - (Towarzysz husarski

Towarzysz husarski

Towarzysz husarski or Husarz , was the name of a type of heavy cavalryman in Poland....

), a medium cavalry banner - towarzysz kozacki (name change after 1648 AD - Towarzysz pancerny

Towarzysz pancerny

Towarzysz pancerny was a medium-cavalryman in 16th-18th century Poland, named for his chainmail armor...

), a light cavalry

Light cavalry

Light cavalry refers to lightly armed and lightly armored troops mounted on horses, as opposed to heavy cavalry, where the riders are heavily armored...

banner - towarzysz lekkiego znaku etc. The richest and most prestigious were towarzysze that came from the winged hussar banners, but their own expenses' burden was the most excessive and grew as the 17th century progressed.
After 1775 reforms that modernized Polish-Lithuanian cavalry towarzysz was usually a lancer

Lancer

A lancer was a type of cavalryman who fought with a lance. Lances were used in mounted warfare by the Assyrians as early as and subsequently by Greek, Persian, Gallic, Han-Chinese, nomadic and Roman horsemen...

and a head of the smallest unit in the Kawaleria Narodowa, Pulk Jazdy Przedniej or other various guard cavalry regiments of the Commonwealth.

Curiosities

In Austrian empire, after the Second Partition of Poland

Second Partition of Poland

The 1793 Second Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was the second of three partitions that ended the existence of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. The second partition occurred in the aftermath of the War in Defense of the Constitution and the Targowica Confederation of 1792...

, in 1781 a Polish-style cavalry regiment under the name Königliche galizische adelige Leibgarde was organized, preserving the Towarzysz-pocztowy unit organization.
In Russia, after the Third Partition of Poland

Third Partition of Poland

The Third Partition of Poland or Third Partition of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth took place in 1795 as the third and last of three partitions that ended the existence of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.-Background:...

in 1797, two Polish-based cavalry regiments were organized: Konnopolski Regiment and Tatar Regiment along the lines of towarzysz-pocztowy organization.
In the Prussian army under Frederic William II of Prussia and his successor there were several cavalry regiments organized along the lines of Polish towarzysz cavalry from the Polish and Polish Tatar nationals under the Prussian rule, and one cavalry regiment was actually called Towarczys Regiment, organized in 1799. The regiment retained towarzysz and retainers structure and a Polish uhlan lance as primary weapon, but this regiment did not survive Prussian collapse of 1806, where most men went, along with their horses and weapons into Polish service. However other Polish-based regiments were converted to Uhlan

Uhlan

Uhlans were Polish light cavalry armed with lances, sabres and pistols. The title was later used by lancer regiments in the Russian, Prussian, and Austrian armies....

regiments in 1807 and formed basis for Prussian uhlan regiments until the end of Prussia.

During the 19th century Towarzysz assumed the same meaning as the Russian communist товарищ (tovarishch), or 'comrade

Comrade

Comrade means "friend", "colleague", or "ally". The word comes from French camarade. The term is frequently used by left-wing organizations around the globe. "Comrade" has often become a stock phrase and form of address. This word has its regional equivalents available in many...

' in English language, and as such was used in the 20th century and today.

Reference

Richard Brzezinski, Polish Armies:1569-1699,London 1987. vol. 1, pp.12-19.
Richard Brzezinski, Polish Winged Hussar, New York 2006, pp.8-10.
Konstanty Górski, Historia Jazdy Polskiej, Kraków 1894.
Peter Hofschröer, Prussian cavalry of the Napoleonic Wars, Volume 1, London 1985.
Radosław Sikora, Wojskowość polska w dobie wojny polsko-szwedzkiej 1626-1629. Kryzys mocarstwa, Poznań, 2005, s. 76-77;
Jan Wimmer. Wojsko Polskie w drugiej polowie XVII wieku, Wojskowy Instytut Historyczny, Wydawnictwo Ministerstwa Obrony Narodowej, Warszawa 1965,
Zygmunt Gloger, Encyklopedia starapolska ilustrowana, Volume 4, Warszawa 1903 pp. 379-380.

Curiosities

Reference

See also