Poglądy Floriana Zebrzydowskiego dotyczące ufortyfikowania, obrony i poddania twierdz

Abstract

The article presents views of Florian Zebrzydowski (Hetman of the Crown, Greater Castellan of Lublin) concerning preparedness of castles for defence and the admissibility of their surrender. Zebrzydowski was the first person in the Commonwealth to formulate the need to rebuild castles and to introduce bastion fortification. He stressed that it was important to build field fortifications and to construct provisional tower fortifications next to castles. As far as organizational matters are concerned, he divided the army in such a way that only 10% of soldiers stood guard while maintaining vigilance. Finally, he was critical about his contemporary military practitioners and theoreticians, who considered various circumstances allowing to surrender a fortress. According to the Hetman, the only premise to do so was hunger combined with the lack of possibility to get rescue. Summing up, with reference to the analyzed matter, Florian Zebrzydowski presents the most coherent and rational program among those created by the XVI c. Commonwealth military theoreticians.