The
Polish Hussars (, , or ; ), or
Winged Hussars, were one of the main types of the
cavalry in the
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth between the 16th and 18th centuries. When this cavalry type was first introduced by the Serbian and Hungarian
mercenary horsemen at the beginning of the 16th century, they served as
light cavalry banners in the Polish army; by the second half of the 16th century and after
Stephen Báthory's reforms, hussars had been transformed into heavily armored shock cavalry. Until the reforms of the 1770s, the
husaria banners were considered the elite of the Polish cavalry.