Voynuks

For today's post we return to the 15th and 16th century Ottoman wars in the Balkans with a unit of voynuks. Voynuks were essentially Christian Ottoman subjects from states such as Serbia, Wallachia, Bulgaria and Macedonia who fought in Ottoman armies. As with many of the military units fielded by the Ottomans in this period there are a range of different descriptions of who these troops were, what their role was and how they were organised. A look at some of these descriptions may help to shed some light on the voynuks of the late 15th and early 16th centuries.

Ian Heath in his "Armies of the Middle Ages Volume 2" explains how Serbian armies of the Middle Ages were feudal in nature. Men were granted a pronija, a system of landholding inherited from the Byzantines, or a bashtina, an area of hereditary freehold land, the holder of such land being called a bashtinik or voynici. The holders of pronijas and bashtinas, made up the Serbian nobility, but many of the bashtiniks or voynici were simply well off peasants as oppose to wealthy nobles. As such in times of war the pronijars, holding the pronijas, would serve as heavy cavalry whilst the bashtiniks or voynici would serve as the infantry hence the name the Ottomans gave them of voynuks.

In his description of late medieval Ottoman military organisation Heath explains that in Ottoman usage the term voynuk meant an armoured Balkan Christian infantryman who provided military service for tax exemptions. He states troops under this name could be found in Albania, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Herzegovinia, Macedonia, Serbia and Thessaly. Thought to have been established as a force in the Ottoman military in the late 14th century, Heath gives a date of 1376, they fell under the command of a voynuk bey, with unit captains being called ceri-bashis. By the 15th century the voynuks comprised an important part of Ottoman armies.

David Nicolle's Osprey books on the Armies of the Ottoman Turks 1300-1774 and The Janissaries provide further descriptions of voynuks. In the first book Nicolle states "Voyniks were Balkan Christians. They are first recorded as the infantry followers of Christian sipahis fighting for Murat I. They were expected to be armoured, unlike their yamak (apprentice) squires, and formed gönder (flag-staff) units. Among the most effective were the Vlachs of Thessaly who, after fighting for the Byzantine Despot of the Morea against the Sultan's Christian sipahis, played a leading role in Mehmet II's army which captured Istanbul in 1453. Voyniks remained important well into the 16th century, at which time more then one in ten Christian households had such military obligations. They were reduced to non-combatant, though still highly paid and skillful, pioneer duties in the 17th century".

Nicolle's later Osprey on the Janissaries states: "The history of the Voynuqs is even more varied. Essentially they were auxiliaries recruited from the Ottoman Empire's Balkan Christian vassals under a system inherited from Pre-Turkish times, though they do seem to have included Muslims from early on. Most were armoured cavalry, but again they included some footsoldiers. Their ranks were largely Slav Bulgarians and Serbs, as well as Vlach- or Rumanian-speakers. Like many Ottoman auxiliaries a Voynuq was supported by other households known as Gönder, a term probably stemming from the Greek word Kontarion or lance. The Voynuqs had their own Çeribaşı officers under overall command of the Voynuq Beyi, and were attended by Yamak servants or subordinates. Although the Voynuqs had no Ocak or corps structure they included a registered reserve which kept them up to strength.  By the 15th century some Voynuqs had additional duties such as looking after herds of cavalry horses in Bulgaria. The Dogancis ('hawkers') were similar to these Voynuqs and raised hawks for the Imperial Court. Elsewhere Vlach Christian nomads enjoyed special privileges in return for serving the Ottoman Empire as frontier Voynuqs , guides, guards and raiders. The autonomous Rumanian principality of Moldavia also supplied Voynuqs during the 16th century".

Unlike Heath, Nicolle states the voynuks were predominantly cavalry, to such an extent that in his book the "Cross and Crescent in the Balkans" the glossary defines Voynuq as "Balkan Christian auxiliary cavalry in Ottoman service". Nicolle's mention of some voynuks looking after the cavalry horses is interesting as Konstantin Mihailovic in his account of life as a janissary, although whether he was really a janissary or not is up for debate, states "There are also some other Christians. They will give nothing to any of them, nor is any wage paid them. They are called woyniczy. They belong to and serve the emperor, and lead the emperor's empty horses when necessary". So we have a range of different spellings of voynuk and explanations of who they were. It seems that at least some were infantry from Balkan territories under Ottoman rule and that they fought under officers called Çeribaşı/ceri-bashis with a voynuk bey being their overall commander.

Hungarian Combatants, escort to Maximilian I, Hans Burgkmair c.1516-1518.

Having, perhaps, established who these troops were the question of how to represent them on the tabletop arises. What did they look like? Both Old Glory and Warlord Games make specific voynuk miniatures in 28mm. The problem is that these miniatures are based on a single conjectural piece of artwork by Angus McBride in the Osprey Armies of the Ottoman Turks 1300-1774 that I have already quoted from above. The image is not included in this post but you can view it here: https://i.pinimg.com/564x/3b/dd/f0/3bddf0816536bc45fdb28288ca319c7e.jpg. 

Angus McBride presented a convincing image of what a voynuk might be dressed like, combining western European with Turkish and Byzantine fashions. The description of the image explains this, stating "Wallachian Voynik auxiliary, c1500. The military equipment of the Balkans under Ottoman domination soon added Turkish styles to previous Byzantine and western European fashions. This man's helmet is of Asiatic form. His armour is Italian, but old-fashioned, while his weapons and shield are typically eastern European." Whilst the sword, halberd and shield carried by the conjectural voynuk  are from various museum collections credited under the above description a Burgkmair woodcut is also referenced. I think this woodcut is the one included above. The Osprey voynuk is clearly in a coat based upon that of the second Hungarian on the left, although McBride did not give the voynuk the long sleeves that hang down the back of the man's coat in the woodcut.

Whilst this seems like an entirely plausible representation of a voynuk at the start of the 16th century having a whole unit of them all identically armoured and clothed seems very unlikely! In the old Warhammer Ancient Battles "Vlad the Impaler" supplement it suggested that the best way to represent voynuks was to mix the Old Glory voynuk miniatures with western halberdiers. This inspired me to have a go and do just that but using the Warlord Games voynuk miniatures. 

For this unit I have chosen miniatures from Front Rank's Wars of the Roses range, that can be suitably tweaked and given a Balkan flavour. Some of the armour these figures wear would be dated by the 1510s and 1520s but that works well, especially as the voynuk shown in the Osprey Ottoman Armies art was in old-fashioned Italian armour. The Front Rank figures have been mixed with the Warlord voynuks. The voynuk miniatures have also been converted as they look far too uniform otherwise. Redoubt Enterprises have a few 16th century eastern European sculpts in their old renaissance range. Some of these miniatures have been added to give a further eastern European feel to the unit. Finally The Assault Group's "Vlad Drakul" miniature has also been included as an officer. He really looks the part at the head of this armoured unit.

Changing the weaponry and adding Balkan shields to the figures really helps to give them an eastern European look. Fellow blogger Charlie, https://fullharness.blogspot.com/, kindly sent me some of his recently commissioned resin miniatures that can be seen here: https://fullharness.blogspot.com/2023/11/i-commissioned-some-miniatures.html. The glaive and partisan style polearms in this commission are fantastic and have been a real game changer when converting these miniatures. They suit the voynuk figures perfectly and add lots of variety to the unit.

Some photos of the voynuks can be seen below. The unit is very useful addition to the collection as the voynuks can be fielded in Ottoman armies or in Hungarian or Balkan forces opposing them. Included below is a photo of each of the eight bases that make up the unit so the detail can be seen. I am keen to add more to my Hungarian and Ottoman collections as these states fielded such a variety of colourful troop types in the 1500s and they are a lot of fun to collect, paint and attempt to research.

28mm voynuks.

Late 15th/early 16th century voynuks.

28mm voynuks - a mix of Warlord Games, Redoubt Enterprises, Front Rank and Assault Group figures, many of which have been converted.

These figures show a mix of eastern and western style armour.

Some of the figures are in Ottoman style helmets whilst others wear sallets.

One of the command bases with a voynuk captain or Çeribaşı in Italian harness and a trumpeter. The image of Christ on the cross on the captain's shield clearly identifies him as a Christian subject of the Ottomans.

The other command base with the Çeribaşı or ceri-bashis and his right hand man in late 15th century gothic harness.

The figure carrying the red shield on this base is a Front Rank man at arms. The figure has had the poleaxe replaced with a glaive and a shield, shield strap and plume of feathers added.

The charging figure on the left and the figure in green on the right both carry some of the excellent resin polearms from Charlie.

This base shows a mix of figures from Redoubt Enterprise and Warlord Games.

The final base with a drummer in the second rank.

A unit of 28mm voynuks, suitable for Ottoman armies or their eastern European opponents.

A view of the voynuks with some Balkan light cavalry.