I was looking up Sigismund, cumans etc, to find out if there is anything I can read about the main story in the game, but I couldn’t find a thing about Sigismound raiding Bohemia. All I found was that he was involved in the hussite wars, but that happened a little more than a decade after this story takes place.
Has anyone had more luck with it, and if so, could I get a link?
BTW I am hungarian. Sigismund is known as Zsigmond in our language. He is not considered as particulary great king, he lost control of Dalmatia for the kingdom, he made some laws and he was the first hungarian king that had to deal with turkish expansion so he comissioned the building of many castles on the southern border.
As far as cumans go, they were admitted into the kingdom just before the mongol invasion, but their leader was murdered and they marched out just before the mongols came and did nothing to help. After the mongols left the area between the two big rivers in Hungary was settled by them again, as the mongols killed off most of the population there. But they were still nomads by life style and that caused lots of issues with the locals as their animals would destroy crops and so on.
The area I talked about is today called Kunság, what pretty much means “where the cumans live”. But that is about it. They were absorbed into the general population in the melting pot called Karpatian basin.
The Cumans plotline is obviously made up without any historical background.
They were almost completely slaughtered by Mongols in XIII century and in Hungary those who were left alive were certainly refugees, not an elite army.
The idea of being a military power in XV century in their own Asian equipment must be a joke. All these lamellars, helmets, etc. must me 200-300 years old by that time, museum tier stuff.
A game that made ppl research historical topics is a great one :>
I didn’t finf any other English resource so far except this one:
There are many sources in Czech of course and Cumans were very real in Sigismonds forces.
No it is not! Please look up for King Béla IV of Hungary, he used the Cuman refugees and transformed them into the guard forces of the Hungarian king.
Their equipment in the game is outdated, but not by 200-300 years, but by around 100 years. Which isn´t much for military equipment and if you consider the situation of Hungary after the mongol invasion.
Even nowadays military equipment is used for a long time. Take the Boing B52, the Browning M2. The T34 was still in usage in the 90s in some countries, same for the Sherman.
As like people of Cuman/Kypchack/Bulgar/Polovets ethnicity serving in Hungarian army, or as like an elite army made of a Cuman Spetsnaz?
As Daniel Vávra said - Sigismund’s army attacked Stříbrná Skalice in March of 1403. Radzig fled at night, just as it happened in the game. I haven’t found any English source, but here is one in Czech: http://www.hradec1.cz/kroniky/dejiny-stribrne-skalice/
Very good, thank you
I don’t understand your question. Cumans were real part of Sigismonds forces . Their visualisation in KCD matches the historical sources also regarding the attrocities (also regarding the pillaging of Skalice)
More like an elite Army in the Serive of the King. Cumans had special rights in Hungary, read their history under Béla IV of Hungary. Interesting also Ladislaus IV “the Cuman” of Hungary
Thanks for the link, google translated it ok.
But I see no reference to cumans there. Not saying it’s totally made up, but Béla IV lived a 150 years before this story and a 150 years is a long time. By that time I doubt steppe light cavalry was such an asset as it was before.
Yes, by the time of the game, the cumas were no steppe light cavalry anymore. They were more personal guard forces for the hungarian king.
Their armor probably looked more european in reality than it looked in the game, this was a design decision to make them more distinguishable, but it is very likely, that a lot of them still had a very Cuman touch, as they had special rights in Hungary and didn´t assimilated into hungarian society yet.
Yes, and I asked whether they were a part of his forces as
a) people of Cuman ethnicity serving among his men, assimilated among them, or
b) a Cuman-only ethnical special task force wearing the Cuman armor and weapons (which were certainly not produced in Hungary and must be 200+ years old by XV century)?
As I understand - there is lack of historical evidence for many things. And every movie/game based on real events is not 100 % accurate. For example - Radzig’s wife was killed there. And I don’t remember any reference to his wife in the game (I haven’t finished it yet). So maybe there is not “hard” proof Cumans were there, maybe there were just rumors about them and Warhorse just added them to the game. (I haven’t investigated it, so sorry for spaming)
What I know about Cumans (not that I am some expert), they were quite autonomous group inside Kingdom of Hungary, I don’t agree with you that their armour couldn’t be produced at the time of the story.
So no, not as assimilated ethnicity but as distinctive group among other kings forces.
Okay, your opinion makes sense
Cumans are frequently mentioned in historical sources regarding Sigismonds intervention in Bohemia 1402-1403…mainly due to attrocities commited on local population. Again…I saw only Czech sources
There is a bachelor thesis about Sigismund’s Cuman army. Unfortunately it is in Czech language.
Quote from thesis translated by google:
" The continuity of Kumán with our territory then appears, for example, in the 15th century.
century when they invaded Bohemia with Zikmund. It was the turn of the year 1402 and
1403.152 Likewise, in 1421, the Kumans and Zikmund and
they have committed terrible cruelty to the civilian population."
Everything is historically accurate.
Well, it doesn’t say much about Cumans during the story time…but is fina work on Cumans in general…
I must strike back…here is a documentary about cumans and it’s in hungarian
I am halfay trough watching it, I’ll come back here to report if I find out about any reference to our story.
So far what they wearing in game looks to be accurate…