The combat pay and soldiers’ wages of Polish Infantry Mercenaries during the reign of Aleksander Jagiellończyk and Zygmunt I Stary

The registers of infantry companies (Polish: rota) from the years 1522-1547, preserved in the Central Archives of Historical Records in Warsaw, enable to carry out a calculation of profitability of a military service in the Polish Infantry Mercenaries during the Reign of Aleksander Jagiellończyk i Zygmunt I Stary. Existing data concern almost 12 000 soldiers, that is more than 15 000 pay rates, what gives a chance to talk over the title issue with high probability. The regular rate of pay, paid quarterly for a one infantryman, was an amount of 5 florin. Some categories of armed, like: foot heavy lancers, pavise infantrymen, standard-bearers (propornicy), received the double pay. The combat pay was given partly in cash, partly in products that were an equivalent of a salary. The biggest payment crisis experienced the Crown at the beginning of the 16th century. economic reforms, and especially the monetary reform, executed by the King Zygmunt I Stary, brought an improvement in a situation. However, sometimes there fallen behind with payment. Then soldiers ‘took’ the pay, seizing royal or church properties. It is necessary to notice, that infantrymen had not only to buy a food, but also a military equipment. About the middle of the 16th century, increase in prices, without the raise of remuneration, brought into the deterioration of the service conditions of Polish infantrymenin consequence