Hussars

Matthias Corvīnus compelled every twenty families to provide him with one horse-soldier free of all charge. This was in 1458, and in confirmation of this story we are told that huss is an Hungarian word meaning “twenty,” and that ar means “pay.”

⁂ When Matthias Corvīnus succeeded to the crown of Hungary (1458), Mohammed III. and Frederick III. conspired to dethrone “the boy king”; but Matthias enrolled an army of Hussars, and was able to defy his enemies.

“Item si contigerit ut aliqui predones aut huzarii Hungari aliquam rapinam … . intulerint … .”—A clause in a truce between the Turks and George Brankovich, May 21st, 1449.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.