Military of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

The military of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth consisted of two separate armies, the Crown Army of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Ducal Lithuanian Army of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which continued side by side after the 1569 Union of Lublin created the Commonwealth as an elective monarchy. Each army was commanded by its own hetmans, and a distinctive formation of both was the winged hussars. The Commonwealth navy never played a major role and ceased to exist in 1643. Commonwealth forces fought the Ottoman Empire to the south, the Tsardom of Muscovy and later the Russian Empire to the east, and the Kingdom of Sweden to the north, as well as internal conflicts, most notably numerous Cossack uprisings. The military was usually successful for roughly its first century, then did less well from about the middle of the seventeenth century, hampered by insufficient funds and outnumbered by the growing armies of its neighbors. Its traditions were later continued by the Napoleonic Polish Legions and the Army of the Duchy of Warsaw.