ROLKA SZTOKHOLMSKA A KWESTIA POLSKIEGO PROTOMUNDURU WOJSKOWEGO
THE STOCKHOLM SCROLL AND THE QUESTION OF THE FIRST POLISH MILITARY UNIFORMS

ON THE ROLE OF ICONOGRAPHY IN RESEARCH ON THE ARMAMENTS AND COLOURS OF THE POLISH ARMY OF THE EARLY MODERN ERA

Summary/Abstract: The collection of the Royal Castle in Warsaw houses the so-called Stockholm Scroll, alsoknown as the Ceremonial Entry of the Wedding Procession of Sigismund III and ArchduchessConstance of Austria into Kraków or the Polish Scroll.The scroll – which has so far been underutilized by researches – is an excellent source ofknowledge about the infantry and mounted formations of the Crown army in the earlyseventeenth century. Based on an analysis of the scroll itself, as well as a comparative analysisof the iconography, sources and literature on the subject, we advance the thesis that alreadyin the later period of the reigns of Báthory and Sigismund III there were specific criteria forselecting a colour that was consistent and which resulted from: a) royal proclamations; b) theordinances of the magnates themselves, and c) Western European models.The troops shown on the scroll are depicted with a clear predilection for maintaining consistentrules of dress and armaments within the individual formations and/or divisions. They probablypresent an ideal state of affairs, due to the exceptional importance of the event and itspropagandistic nature. However, written sources and comparative iconographic material fromthe period show that also in the field, efforts were made to apply similar guidelines for thedress of infantry soldiers when fighting on the battlefield, as well as certain elements of hussarunits. The comparative material in the European iconography of the time seems to indicate thepioneering nature of similar measures in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

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