Kingdom of Hungary In 1604-1606,
István Bocskay, Lord of
Bihar, led an insurrection against the
Habsburg Emperor, whose army had recently occupied
Transylvania and begun a reign of terror. The bulk of Bocskay's army was composed of
serfs who had either fled from the war and the Habsburg drive toward
Catholic conversion, or been discharged from the Imperial Army. These
peasants, freelance soldiers, were known as the
hajduks. As a reward for their service, Bocskay emancipated the hajduk from the jurisdiction of their lords, granted them land, and guaranteed them rights to own property and to personal freedom. The emancipated hajduk constituted a new "warrior estate" within Hungarian
feudal society. Many of the settlements created at this time still bear the prefix
Hajdú such as Hajdúbagos,
Hajdúböszörmény, Hajdúdorog, Hajdúhadház, Hajdúnánás, Hajdúsámson,
Hajdúszoboszló, Hajdúszovát, Hajdúvid etc., and the whole area is called
Hajdúság (Land of the Hajduk) (see
Hajdú County). The Hajdú have always been an important pillar of Hungarian society and its defence. During the great Turkish attack of 1551/52, it was possible to recruit several hundred or even several thousand Hajdú troops from the Nyírség-Debrecen region for an action against the Turks. Among the Hungarians, the Hajdú lifestyle was significant. At the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries, we know of tens of thousands of hajdú, who were also the first to fight in wars in the first half of the 17th century. Their activities were significant both as mercenaries and as Defence Forces. Hajdú life provided social mobility, as their success was illustrated by the fact that, although they were born as peasant or petty nobles, they often received substantial land donations from the ruler and became quasi-nobility.
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth The word
hajduk was initially a colloquial term for a style of footsoldier, Hungarian or Turco-
Balkan in inspiration, that formed the backbone of the Polish infantry arm from the 1570s until about the 1630s. Unusually for this period, Polish-Lithuanian hajduks wore
uniforms, typically of grey-blue woolen cloth, with red collar and cuffs. Their principal weapon was a small calibre
matchlock firearm, known as an
arquebus. For close combat they also carried a heavy variety of
sabre, capable of hacking off the heads of enemy
pikes and
polearms. Contrary to popular opinion, the small axe they often wore tucked in their belt (not to be confused with the huge half-moon shaped
berdysz axe, which was seldom carried by hajduks) was not a combat weapon, but rather was intended for cutting wood. In the mid-17th century hajduk-style infantry largely fell out of fashion in Poland-Lithuania, and were replaced by
musket-armed infantry of Western style. However, commanders or
hetmans of the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth continued to maintain their own liveried bodyguards of hajduks, well into the 18th century as something of a throwback to the past, even though they were now rarely used as field troops. In imitation of these bodyguards, in the 18th century wealthy members of the
szlachta hired liveried domestic servants whom they called hajduks, thereby creating the meaning of the term 'hajduk' as it is generally understood in modern Polish.
Serbian Militia (1718–46) The Serbs established a Hajduk army that supported the Austrians. The army was divided into 18 companies, in four groups. In this period, the most notable obor-kapetans were
Vuk Isaković from
Crna Bara,
Mlatišuma from
Kragujevac and
Kosta Dimitrijević from
Paraćin. ==Cultural influence==