Armoured companion

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You can help expand this article with text translated from the corresponding article in Polish. (01 2024) Click [show] for important translation instructions. View a machine-translated version of the Polish article. Machine translation, like DeepL or Google Translate, is a useful starting point for translations, but translators must revise errors as necessary and confirm that the translation is accurate, rather than simply copy-pasting machine-translated text into the English Wikipedia. Do not translate text that appears unreliable or low-quality. If possible, verify the text with references provided in the foreign-language article. You must provide copyright attribution in the edit summary accompanying your translation by providing an interlanguage link to the source of your translation. A model attribution edit summary is Content in this edit is translated from the existing Polish Wikipedia article at [[:pl:Pancerni (I Rzeczpospolita)]]; see its history for attribution. You may also add the template {{Translated|pl|Pancerni (I Rzeczpospolita)}} to the talk page. For more guidance, see Wikipedia:Translation.

Towarzysz pancerny
Allegiance	Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth
Type	cavalry
Role	Standing professional military
Equipment	war hammer, Mace (bludgeon), hatchet, sabre spear Lance

Armoured companion (Polish: Towarzysz pancerny Polish: [tɔˈvaʐɨʂ panˈtsɛrnɨ], plural: towarzysze pancerni) was a Polish medium-cavalryman in 16th to 18th century Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, named after their chainmail armor. These units were the second-most-important (and successful) cavalry in the Polish-Lithuanian army, after the hussars.

Most pancerni were recruited from the middle or lower classes of the Polish nobility.^[1]

These companions were organized into companies, with each company (Polish: chorągiew or rota) consisting of 60 to 200 horsemen.

The Cossacks were renamed armored cavalry (jazdę pancerną) in 1676 as the Cossack name was associated with the Khmelnytsky Uprising. After the reforms in 1776, both hussars and armored companions were transformed into National Cavalry units.^[2][3]