ARTICLE
	Blades with the Name and Pictures of Stephan Bathory, King of Poland   by Stanisław Meyer

Below you'll find short but very informative essay on Polish sabres with the pictures and inscriptions reffered to the famous Polish king and Grand Duke of Lithuania Stephan Bathory. These sabres are usually called "Batorowka" in Poland. The article was originally published in the "Zeitschrift fur Historische Waffen - und Kostumkunde", 6. Band, Berlin 1937-1939, pages 54-57. It was written in German, so I tried to do my best to translate it into English. I'm sorry for any mistakes. If you read German you can find the original ariticle here and compare the content:

GERMAN VERSION

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In all major weapons collections and in many museums in Poland and abroad one will find sabres and swords, which blades bears a bust of King Stephan Bathory. You can divide these blades in two different groups: the first, which bears the inscription “Stephanus Rex Poloniae”, and the second one where the first name is completed with the surname of “Bathory” (in very different spelling). In view of the generally accepted custom of the rulers to come with only first names, we must assume that only the first group dates from the reign of King (1576-1586).

Most existing blades with the first name of the king bear the following inscription: “Stephanus D. G. Rex Pol. D. Prus.” (Stephanus Dei Gratia Rex Poloniae Dux Prussia). We have found six blades in various national and international collections that all carry the same inscription with the same abbreviations and very similar decoration, namely: two blades in Warsaw -  Army Museum, one in the collection of Count Krasiński in Warsaw, one in Berlin Arsenal (Inventory No. PC 14167), one in the Livrustkammaren in Stockholm (inv. 1850) and one commercially available in Warsaw. All these blades are decorated with trophies and contribute ornamentation other than the aforementioned words -  the word “Frangia”( in different writings) and in one case the word “Genoa”.

It is interesting to observe that all six blades - apart from the equality of the inscription and ornamentation – are completely different. Some are of Italian origin, others seems to be of German work. It is noteworthy that the inscriptions put on all these blades refers to various titles of the king but only to the King of Poland and the Duke of Prussia, while the title of Grand Duke of Lithuania, usually placed in the second place in order, is omitted. We can find an analogy of these inscriptions on the coins, which were characteristic in Danzig (Gdańsk) at the time of King Stephan. Some of the coins have even the same abbreviations. Since this is the only case where we find the titling of the king in this form, it is assumed that these blades - regardless of how different they are - have been decorated and marked in Gdańsk.

It seems to be that King Stephan had a special favors for putting his image on weapons. This circumstance we owe the fact that relatively many blades are available with his name. The same tradition is also observed on blades from 17^th century, and it began shortly after the death of the king. Everybody wanted to have arms bestowed by the King Stephan and show it off, thanks to the popularity of the king, who has been a very extraordinary person, whose legend was still alive in the beginning of the 18^th century. As an expression of reverence for the great king, the knights have had his picture and his name etched into the blade. This was established after the death of the king, when blades usually born his family name what will assigned them to the above-mentioned second group. They preferably belong to the 17^th century, mainly its first half. It is characteristic that blades of this group almost always bear a date, and we know those blades have the correct date of their creation. Most, however, are designated with an incorrect date, which oddly enough not fits to the time the rulres of King Stephan, very often one finds date of 1526! This date is also seen on blades, with the image and name of King Sigismund III, the successor of the king Bathory. It is obviously result of the scarce historical knowledge of the one who forged a blade.

The Bathory-blades of the second group, present in various arms collections, were usually manufactured in Poland: the most known is an Italian blade-smith, Joannes Hieronimus Caccia, active in the 17^th century first in Krakow and then in Kielce.

It should be mentioned that on the blades of the first group, those who fall into the age of reign of King Stephan, the portraits and the decorations are usually etched or engraved; on the other hand, the inscriptions and the image on the later blades are almost always inlaid with gold.

In many earlier descriptions and catalogs one can find weapons that bearing the name of King Stephan Bathory, that are erroneously referred to as his property. The only sword, we can say about, with pretty high probability, that has belonged to the King Stephan, has no inscriptions at all. It is hard to imagine, that on king’s arms, any of his images, or his name - let alone his family name - could have been engraved. In the same way other blades with busts, names and initials of other kings as a form of worship of the monarchs are seen as a Polish tradition retained until the end of the 18^th century. It is necessary to emphasize, that the names and pictures of kings has been quite often erroneously given as proof of their ownership and ipso facto regarded as a determination of the age of the weapons, what led many a collectors astray.

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