Bołdyrew, Aleksander; Łopatecki, Karol. Volley fire in Europe in the mid-16th century

Bołdyrew, Aleksander — Dr. hab., Associate Professor, Uniwersytet Łódzki, Łódź, Poland, ORCID 0000-0002-8626-9582; e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.;
Łopatecki, Karol — Dr hab., Associate Professor, University of Bialystok, Białystok, Poland, ORCID 0000-0002-7921-9421; e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

The article was written as part of the research project of the National Centre for Science SONATA, no. 2016/23/D/HS3/03210 «The military revolution as a modernization factor in the public finance and state organization of the Polish-Lithuanian state in the comparative perspective».

The article explores the application of volley fire in European armies in the mid-16^th century. On the basis of Polish sources, the authors established that shooting volleys was applied by Polish infantry in 1558. There was also training in collective loading and shooting conducted by a commander every few days. Fire was conducted in the Turkish manner, i. e. having fired a salvo the rank would kneel and load the weapon in this position. The painting referred to in the article «The Battle of Orsha» (created in the 1530s or 1540s) shows the West European manner of conducting combat by an infantry unit. It involved setting the shooters in three ranks and alternating firing at enemy positions with a simultaneous countermarch. This suggests that the method described for the first time by the Spanish in 1592 was spread half a century earlier. The sources show that in the mid-16^th century, volley fire was known in vast Eurasian tracks from remote China, through the Ottoman Empire to the western ends of Europe. The difference lay in the way of conducting the volley fire, and the most effective form of fire applied in battles was invented by the Dutch in the 1590s. As a result of the enlargement of weapon size and the introduction of muskets, the method proposed by Tarnowski of loading firearms in kneeling position became increasingly obsolete.

Ágoston, Gábor. Firearms and Military Adaptation: The Ottomans and the European Military Revolution, 1450–1800, in Journal of World History. 2014. Vol. 25. No. 1. Pp. 85–124.

Andrade, Tonio. The Arquebus Volley Technique in China, c. 1560: Evidence from the Writings of Qi Jiguang, in Journal of Chinese Military History. 2015. Vol. 4. Pp. 115–141.

Andrade, Tonio. The Gunpowder Age: China, Military Innovation, and the Rise of the West in World History. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2016. 496 p.

Andrade, Tonio; Kang, Hyeok Hweon; Cooper, Kirsten. A Korean Military Revolution?: Parallel Military Innovations in East Asia and Europe, in Journal of World History. 2014. Vol. 25. No. 1. Pp. 51–84.

Blackmore, David J. (ed.). The Renaissance Drill Book, Jacob de Gheyn. London: Greenhill Books Publ., 2003. 247 p.

Bołdyrew, Aleksander. Piechota zaciężna w Polsce w pierwszej połowie XVI wieku [Mercenary infantry in Poland in the first half of the 16^th century]. Warsaw: Wydawnictwo DiG Publ., 2011. 420 p. (in Polish).

Börekçi, Günhan. A Contribution to the Military Revolution Debate. The Janissaries use of Volley Fire during the Long Ottoman-Habsburg War of 1593–1606 and the Problem of Origins, in Acta Orientalia Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae. 2006. Vol. 59. No. 4. Pp. 407–438.

Chemperek, Dariusz (ed.); Sawa, Robert (transl.). Dziennik podróży Jana Tarnowskiego do Ziemi Świętej z 1518 roku [Jan Tarnowski’s travel diary to the Holy Land from 1518], in Odrodzenie i Reformacja w Polsce. 2005. Vol. 49. Pp. 187–194. (in Polish).

Dworzarzek, Włodzimierz. Hetman Jan Tarnowski. Z dziejów możnowładztwa małopolskiego [Hetman Jan Tarnowski. From the history of the Malopolska region’s magnates]. Warsaw: Instytut Wydawniczy Pax Press, 1985. 476 p. (in Polish).

Dziubiński, Andrzej. Polsko-litewskie napady na tureckie pogranicze czarnomorskie w epoce dwu ostatnich Jagiellonów [Polish-Lithuanian attacks on the Turkish Black Sea border in the era of the last two Jagiellons], in Kwartalnik Historyczny. 1996. Vol. 103. No. 3. Pp. 53–87. (in Polish).

Eguiluz, Martin de. Milicia, discurso y regla militar [Militia, speech and military rule]. Madrid: Luis Sanchez Publ., 1592. 319 p. (in Spanish).

Filyushkin, Aleksandr. Livonian War in the Context of the European Wars of the 16^th Century, in Russian History. 2016. Vol. 43. No. 1. Pp. 1–21.

Gheyn, Jacob de. Wapenhandelinghe van Roers Musquetten ende spiessen. Gravenhage: Robert de Baudouz Publ., 1607. 132 p. (in Dutch).

González de León, Fernando. The Road to Rocroi Class, Culture and Command in the Spanish Army of Flanders, 1567–1659. Leiden; Boston: Brill Publ., 2009. 408 p.

Grabarczyk, Tadeusz. Piechota zaciężna Królestwa Polskiego w XV wieku [Mercenary infantry of Kingdom of Poland in the 15^th century]. Lodz: Wydawnictwo Ibidem Publ., 2000. 314 p. (in Polish).

Hernández, Antonio José Rodríguez. Breve historia de los Tercios de Flandes [The short story of tercios of Flanders]. Madrid: Editiones Nowtilus Publ., 2015. 320 p. (in Spanish).

Janicki, Marek A. Obraz «Bitwa pod Orszą» ― geneza, datowanie, wzory graficzne a obraz bitwy «na Kropiwnej» i inne przedstawienia batalityczne w wileńskim pałacu Radziwiłłów [The painting «Battle of the Orsha» ― genesis, dating, graphic patterns and the painting of the Battle of Kropiwna and other battle scenes in the Radziwill Palace in Vilnius], in Biblioteka Epoki Nowożytnej. 2015. Vol. 3. Pp. 173–225. (in Polish).

Kaushik, Roy. Military Transition in Early Modern Asia, 1400–1750. London; New York: Bloomsbury Publ., 2014. 285 p.

Khan, Iqtidar Alam. The Nature of Handguns in Mughal India: 16^th cfc 17^th Centuries, in Proceedings of the Indian History Congress. 1991. Vol. 52. Pp. 378–389.

Kopplin, Dieter. Neue Werke von Lukas Cranach: und ein altes Bild einer polnischen Schlacht — von Hans Krell? [New works by Lukas Cranach and an old painting of a Polish battle by Hans Krell?]. Basel: Schwabe Publ., 2005. 167 p.

Laichen, Sun. Military technology transfers from Ming China and the emergence of northern mainland Southeast Asia (c. 1390–1527), in Journal of Southeast Asian Studies. 2003. Vol. 34. No. 3. Pp. 495–517.

Lesmaitis, Gediminas. LDK samdomoji kariuomenė XV a. pabaigoje – XVI a. antrojoje pusėje [Mercenary army in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania at the end of the 15^th and second half of the 16^th century]. Vilnius: Baltos Lankos Publ., 2010. 222 p. (in Lithuanian).

Lidin, Olof G. Tanegashima: The Arrival of Europe in Japan. Copenhagen: Nordic Institute of Asian Studies Publ., 2002. 304 p.

Łopatecki, Karol. «Disciplina militaris» w wojskach Rzeczypospolitej do połowy XVII wieku [«Disciplina militaris» in Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth till the second half of the 17^th century]. Bialystok: Instytut Badań nad Dziedzictwem Kulturowym Europy Press, 2012. 802 p. (in Polish).

Parker, Geoffrey. The Army of Flanders and the Spanish Road 1567–1659. The Logistics of Spanish Victory and Defeat in the Low Countries’ Wars. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972. 310 p.

Parker, Geoffrey. From the House of Orange to the House of Bush: 400 years of military revolutions, or how to prepare for the next Gulf War, in Military Spectator. 2003. Vol. 172. No. 4. Pp. 177–193.

Parker, Geoffrey. The Limits to Revolutions in Military Affairs: Maurice of Nassau, the Battle of Nieuwpoort (1600), and the Legacy, in Journal of Military History. 2007. Vol. 71. No. 2. Pp. 331–372.

Parker, Geoffrey. Od domu orańskiego do domu Bushów: czterysta lat «rewolucji militarnej» [From the House of Orange to the House of Bush: 400 years of «military revolution»]. Transl. Michał Kopczyński, in Przegląd Historyczny. 2005. Vol. 96. No. 2. Pp. 217–243. (in Polish).

Peterson, Harold L. The Treasury of the Gun. New York: Ridge Press Book Publ., Golden Press, 1962. 252 p.

Spieralski, Zdzisław. Jan Tarnowski 1488–1561 [John of Tarnow 1488–1561]. Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Ministerstwa Obrony Narodowej Publ., 1977. 440 p. (in Polish).

Spieralski, Zdzisław. Jana Tarnowskiego rozmowa o prowadzeniu wojny z Turkami (1542) [Discource of war conducting with Turks by John of Tarnow (1542)], in Studia i Materiały do Historii Wojskowości. 1986. Vol. 29. Pp. 287–312. (in Polish).

Tarnowski, Jan. Consillium rationis bellicae [War Council]. Ed. by Sikorski, Janusz; Nowak, Tadeusz Marian. Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Ministerstwa Obrony Narodowej Publ., 1987. 208 p. (in Polish).

Varley, Paul. Oda Nobunaga, Guns, and Early Modern Warfare in Japan, in Baxter, James C.; Fogel, Joshua A. (eds). Writing histories in Japan: texts and their transformations from ancient times through the Meiji Era. 2007. Pp. 105–125.

Wimmer, Jan. Błażeja Lipowskiego pierwszy polski regulamin piechoty [First Polish infantry regulations by Błażej Lipowski], in Studia i Materiały do Historii Wojskowości. 1976. Vol. 20. Pp. 345–357. (in Polish).

Winczura, Łukasz. Hetman hetmanów Jan Amor Tarnowski (1488–1561) [Hetman of the hetman Jan Amor Tarnowski (1488–1561)]. Cracow: Collegium Columbinum Publ., 2005. 370 p. (in Polish).

Żygulski, Zdzisław jun. The Battle of Orsha. An explication of the arms, armour, costumes, accoutrements and other matters for consideration portrayed in the approximately contemporary painting of a battle fought in Byelorussia in 1514, in Held, Robert (ed.). Art, Arms and Armour: an International Anthology. Vol. 1. Chiasso: Acquafresca Editrice Publ., 1979. Pp. 108–143.