Piechota wybraniecka
Piechota wybraniecka also known as piechota łanowa was a type of an infantry formation in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Formed in 1578. Consisted of "royal" peasants from not charged and revendicated royal lands.
Difficulties in recruitment:
- mostly due to lack of constant dynasty in Poland, royal lands were under notorious, often illegal, control of Polish magnates, who opposed losing their workers, legal revendication actions of King and Execution movement didn't give satisfactory results,
- even in free of charge and revendicated royal lands noble overseers preferred to cut costs by limiting the amount of training and equipment available, which reduced the military value of the unit,
- attempts to expand this duty to non-royal lands met with vast opposition from feudally-bounded lesser and middle szlachta so the formation was never expanded beyond the revendicated royal lands.
- armed "royal" peasants were inconvenient for stability of obsolete feudal political system of the country,
- nobility in Poland was much more numerous than in other countries reaching about 1,15 million people in 1618, a number high enough to fulfill any contemporary military requirement, without additional need to recruit "royal" peasants.