Napoleon's Imperial Guard - Light Cavalry 

Absolutely loving your channel - let's hope it continues to grow

Fat re-enactors dishonor the uniform and the memory. No excuses.

the story with polish lancers its true but it was in battle of Wagram. Poles take on austrian ulhans mostly from occupied Poland and grab ther lances after a hard fight. No other cavalry inflicted more casualties on polish light horse then the poles in austrian uniforms. And all of the prussian, russian and austrian kirasjers have ther chances :)

...in the early 80's, there was an old guy in our paper mill who was a Polish Lancer in WW2. Amazing he survived to come to Canada.

As always, an excellent video! The only gripe I have is that, when talking about the lancers, you'd mention the polish tradition and the winged hussars (which is of course the right thing to do), but in the video about hussars and light cavalry and than about the french hussars you don't mention the Hungarians at all. The clothing, equippment, tactics and ethos of these light cavalry units come from this tradition and it's no coincidence that pretty much all other countries copied them. As a great grandson to a Hungarian hussar, I personally begrudge you this ommission (just kidding, of course, but with some truth in it too) ;)

Wonderful video, please keep the coming

WELL DONE BUDDY YOU MAKE MY DAYS SO MUCH BETTER WAITING ON NEW VIDS ,,,THERE ARE ALOT OF PERSONALITIES ALSO TO DO .....O YA KEEP THEM COMING BUDDY...

Very informative, well done.

If those Austrian hussars had got him, how much subsequent history would have changed? A few years after Napoleon's encounter, some French negotiators at Rastatt were murdered under mysterious circumstances and it was reckoned that Austrian hussars killed them.

If i understood correctly You are asking about polish lancers sabre fighting skills. Well, i had read a written realtion of an old polish 1st lancier some time ago. In 1810 i think he, among few other comrades,.was sentenced to death by shooting for killing few Frenchmen of the old guard in a tavern fight. The fight broke out allegadly, when French guardsmen did offend Poland in some way. Beeing outnumer few times, they (Poles) killed few guardsemn an one gendarme and wounded countless others. The sentence was overturn only when Kozietulski (i think) interveen to a Napoleon himself. So about sabers - in all these close quarter fighting none of the Poles was even scratched - so the story tells. Oh btw., Napoleon changed his view on the 1st Lancers after Somosierra. He was very found of them, and that is why the sentence was overturned.

You said it was the Polish Lancers that counter attacked the Scots Greys at Waterloo but it was in fact regular Line Lancers from Jacquinots Division, the 3rd and 4th, who were part of the 1st Cavalry Division, part of d'Erlons corps. Bondarchuk used Polish Lancers almost exclusively in "Waterloo" to represent the majority of "French" cavalry. Think of his almost completely "British" red uniforms in the scene showing the massed French cavalry attacks against "red" squares. He used it as a cinematic device to allow the average viewer to identify who the beligerents were

16:02 Ah, a Polish woman in a Napoleonic uniform: the Best of Both Worlds!

Great video! Really enjoy listening to these while I’m painting and like how you relate them to Black Powder. Thanks for putting all of these informative vids together. Have a great week!

That was Ponsonby, Major General Ponsonby, lanced (reluctantly) by the counter-attacking Lancers, but the film is egged up. They weren't Polish Lancers, but regular Frenchmen, and Ponsonby wasn't ridden down, as the film shows; the Lancers gestured to him to surrender, he couldn't get them, some elements of his Union Brigade (not just the Scots Greys) were riding to the rescue, and the Lancers felt that he had to be killed before he was rescued. It is a pity that only the Scots Greys (the 2nd Royal North British Dragoons) get mentioned; the 1st Royal Dragoons and the 6th Inniskilling Dragoons were also part of the Union Brigade of heavy cavalry, that charged d'Erlon's Corps in flank after Picton's attack, and broke it. It was, ironically, the cavalry component of d'Erlon's Corps that counter-attacked and stopped the British heavies.

Awesome video

SUperb, truly superb!

nicely done

17:25 there is some controversy on that. Oman disputes entirely the idea that the Poles carried the day asserting rather that it was a bloody blunder brought on by Napoleon's impatient. Here asserts that the Duty Sqaudron which he says was only 87 officers and men was cut pieces with the closest they got to be 30 yards of the Spanish batteries. There was then a second much more successful charge by the rest of the Polish light horse, they weren't equipped with lances at this time, that was much more successful because the French infantry had worked their way up and were now in supporting positions

150 against 12,000 was staggering odds. 12,000 against 40,000 was not a cakewalk, though; standing against an enemy four times your number isn't a walk in the park, either.

Like Napoleon, the Chasseurs á Cheval have always been my absolute favourite Napoleonic Wars unit - the beautiful dark green uniforms combined with orange facings of some regiments were outstanding, to say the least. I do not consider the uniform to be drab at all, as was stated in the narrative, but that is a matter of taste, I suppose. I prefer such colours to the often gaudy colours of other nations, such as the Spanish. Likewise, I have always liked the British Riflemen, whether of the 95th Regiment or the Light Infantry of the King's German Legion, the dark green uniforms set off with black facings look so impressively professional and wonderful to look at. Having said that, I personally think that the Napoleonic era was the zenith of military uniforms, none before or since could match the beauty of the uniforms, in particular those of the French, although there were other nations who had wonderful uniforms, such as the Russians.

Brilliant video as always. This is a long standing question, especially when considering the prominent role of the unit in question and their appearance which caused the British upon first sight to believe they must be Napoleons personal bodyguard. Therefore I ask again, has anyone present come across a satisfactory explanation as to why a Cuirassier formation was never attached to the Guard????

Somossierra battle is very known in Polish historiography. I really recommend to watch the old film by Wajda 'Popioly' (Ashes) where there is the episod of this battle, and it also explains why Poles was in Napoleon's army. I enjoyed to watch your video. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-tPZmac0ycBc.html

Oh by the way, all the swords of 1st lancers were british, since 1808.

Well presented. I really love my French black powder lancers

FAAAAAAANTASTIC FUCKING VIDEO!!! now how am I supposed to go to Sainsbury’s without starting on security after being so invigorated by the lancers history???

Nice