Although they are best known for their participation in the hugely significant Battle of Vienna in 1683, the Polish Hussars dominated the battlefield from the late 16th century.

They repeatedly crushed their enemies, such as the fivefold army of Dantzig in 1573 and the Austrians of Maximilian III 15 years later. In 1601, they played a decisive role in the defeat of the superior Swedes, and these excellent riders repeated it four years later when they literally trampled the almost triple Swedes, this time under Charles X. Again, they devastated the sixfold united Swedish-Russian army in the Battle of Klushino in 1610.

The Ottomans and the Crimean Tatars (their subjects) were next in line to be crushed in successive battles for 30 years from Hotin to Brestetsko. The huge numbers were not an insurmountable obstacle for the Poles who forced them into humiliating defeats until the climax with the epic siege in front of the gates of Vienna and the relatively unknown but critical Battle of Parkany immediately thereafter.