DBA Armies

This list covers the Greater Serbian empire from its foundation until its final absorption by the Ottomans. It only became a real empire under Stephan Dushan from 1334 to 1355, extending over most of Byzantine-ruled Greece and seriously threatening Constantinople. After his death, it subsided into factionalism and in 1390 became a vassal state of the Ottomans. Vlastela were nobility serving as armoured cavalry. At first, Byzantine-style equipment predominated, the cavalry primarily using the lance but also having bows. Later the full western knightly panoply became widespread. The Serbian charge was greatly feared. At Kosovo Pole in 1389 it broke the Ottoman left flank, at Nicopolis in 1396 it won the battle for the Ottomans, and at Ankara in 1402 it three times broke through Timur’s best cavalry. Voynuks were upper-class peasants serving as armoured infantry with spears or later other pole-weapons, but the majority of the infantry were unarmoured archers provided by the vlastela’s servants. Krayishnici were Serbian, Bosnian or Croat mountaineers serving border lords and given to raiding. Gusars or usars were lance-armed light cavalry who later developed into hussars. References: Armies of Feudal Europe 1. Heath, Armies of the Middle Ages Vol 2 1. Heath.