The infantry were mainly armed with spears, long-handled axes or other polearms (particularly bills and rawcons), bows and, later, crossbows, archers and crossbowmen clearly predominating. The foot-soldiers of a Serbian border-lord were described by Gregoras in 1327 as ‘clad in black woollen garments. . . They wore no heavy armour, being armed only with spears, battle-axes and bows and arrows.’ Others in fact did wear some armour, but in the 14th century rarely more than a helmet and a light toya plus a shield. Figure 73, from Bosnian stecaki of the 15th century, is unarmoured. His arms comprise a yew short-bow (with horn nocks) that had a maximum range of about 200-220 yards, plus a dagger and a sabre (sabla), though a sword or a corda (a traditional single-edged weapon with its pommel shaped like a stylised bird’s head) might be
Substituted. The sabre began to be adopted early in the 14th century. Despite Gregoras’ reference to ‘black woollen garments’, principal Serbian clothing colours were apparently red, green and yellow, plus the usual browns, tans and off-whites. Most Serbians, and certainly the nobility, wore beards, and Bertrandon de la Brocquifere confirms that they generally wore these and their hair long.
The basically rectangular shield is from a 14th century stecak. This type, which was particularly widespread in Bosnia, undoubtedly evolved from the traditional rectangular Slavic shield (see Armies of Feudal Europe); it was later adopted in Hungary, and note 92 should be consulted regarding its subsequent evolution. 73a and b depict two variants from other stecaki, while 73c is another form of angled, rectangular shield to be found in use in Serbia and Bulgaria. Like most Serbian and Bosnian shields, these would have been of light, soft wood faced in iron or painted leather. Other infantry shields were once again either almond-shaped or of the straight-sided, triangular Byzantine variety depicted in figure 50.
74 is a 14th-15th century Serbian crossbowman from a ms. miniature. His armour and equipment is basically Western European in style, with the exception of his crested helmet which is of a traditional Slav design; the quiver at his belt normally held 25 bolts. He is probably a paid regular, some of whom in the 15th century were equipped with handguns in place of bows or crossbows. It has been suggested that the guns fielded by the Serbians at Ankara were in fact handguns, but there is no evidence to support this. The handgun had actually come into common use in Serbia by the 1420s, probably in the hands of Hungarian mercenaries, while the earliest reference to handguns in neighbouring (and usually more progressive) Bosnia dates only to the end of 1436. 74a depicts a Serbian puzhka of the first half of the 15th century (note that the name derives from the German Puchse or Biichse).
World History
