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The reason is: They were trying to POLISH up their lances

Napoleon never declared himself Duke of Warsaw. That title was bestowed on King Frederick Augustus of Saxony, effectively restoring the Wettin union.

Because they're cavalry and do whatever the hell they like.

Polish cavalry, in particular the husaria from the mid 16th century, used red-white pennants. In the case of the husaria they were 2.5m long and were used to mask the rider and horse from enemy infantry. The tradition was continued with Polish light cavalry lancers, right thru to WW1. The Polish flag was all red in the medieval period, 3 banded red-white-red 1569 to 1792 and resuscitated white above red from 1831 to present day. The husaria flags were white over red or red over white. Other Polish cavalry regiments used pennants of various colour combinations .

A cavlary man I knew (Swedish trained in the 1920:s) primarily talk about signaling within a group. Basically its easier to point out threats with the lance if you have a tassel or pendant on it. This are both to when scouting and when chasing the enemy, apparently it is easier to see who your flankman is aiming for. Secondary a messenger or scout rides with his lance up if he is free of danger and down if there is enemies close by. There where other things but he didn't know if that was a local thing, riding in to camp with the butt upwards was a sign to break camp (in an orderly fashion, the enemy isn't about to strike) and riding in with the lance pointing backwards means casualties are coming in.

Pennants are for scaring horses. You got it right. What about the colors? Waiting... Waiting... *It's because of the Poles* ! A sight of relief. Yes, it's true. I had a good day today, but you made it better. Edit: Chapka, tshapka (czapka) means just a "soft hat" in Polish. It's not specific (actually misleading) to the style of a hat used by lancers. That one we would call "rogatywka", which means a hat with sharp corners or literally horns. Nobody cares, I know.

Interesting idea re the feel of a lance with a pennon. I'll pop out and try to see if there's much of a difference. I quite like the safety idea as people often wave spears about too much, and novice troopers might need to be shouted at to keep their lance upright!

It's worth to mention that Polish light cavalry, esp. lancers, was very much valued if not feared by cossacks during 1812 campaign in Russia. Their skills and tenacity was one thing, but the crucial element was also the fact that, unlike possibly most of the western cavalry, Polish cavalry was composed from genntry with very high level of horsemanship skills, which included also deep knowledge on how to take care about horses. Their rural traditions proved to be of extremely value during long retreat from Moscow....

"Czapka" word is "the hat". Polish word for this type of hat is "rogatywka" from word "róg" - "corner" from his square top. This type of hats was used in Poland by all troops, and in modernised form is still in use today.

I was recently reading Dr Stephen Summerfield's book on the Prussian Landwehr of the Napoleonic War. Landwehr Ulhan (lancers) also had coloured pendents on their lances. The colours of the prendent varied to signify which squadron the trooper was assigned to, os the first squadron was say red over blue, the second squadron was blue over white and so on.

The US Army also uses red and white swallowtail pennons (Guidons) as flags in cavalry-designated units. They're larger than a lance pennon at around 27x21 inches (68x53 cm) and are placed in front of a formation for the unit to 'guide on' (not certain if that's the reason for the guidon term). Red-and-white pennons are primarily used by the 3rd and 11th Armored Cavalry Regiments, but they were also used by 'Divcav' - Divisional reconnaissance. The terms 'troop' and 'squadron' were restricted to cavalry designated units as well. US armor units use 'platoon' and 'company' instead. As of the 1990s there were also still a handful of ceremonial units that drilled on horseback in frontier blue cavalry uniform which employed the red-and-white pennon. Swallowtail pennons are ubiquitous as US company flags in the traditional color for that branch of service. Yellow is for armor companies, blue for infantry, red for artillery, etc. I find the use of the red-and-white pennon interesting because the US never went in for lancers in a meaningful way. Instead the US largely employed dragoon style cavalry equipped with carbines, pistols and sabers and which usually fought dismounted.

Love these kind of informational, historical views on more than simply weapons and weapon effectiveness. Glad you spend time doing them.

It’s truly sad that the vast majority of people do not realise how important Poland is to European history. When I dated a Polish girl for 5 years I had the shock of my life when I started reading translated Polish history books. The Polish Lithuanian alliance really blew my mind away. On this topic I knew this , but like you thought maybe it’s a myth etc clearly not lol

Thanks, that was indeed interesting and instructive. Since Poland played such a role in the Napoleonic Army, and since this is about Lancers, i.e. soldiers on horseback - it would be great if you could cast your eyes over the famous Polish winged Hussars who played a major role especially in repulsing the Ottoman siege of Vienna in 1683 ...

One lancer unit put flags on their lances because they looked cool. All of the other lancer units wanted to look cool too, so they put them on. The enemy saw this and decided that they wanted to be cool as well. Military fashion was a thing.

So, as you know for sure, asian spears have these red fibers near the tip called tassels, these warriors used to move these fibers with the intention of confuse the opponent about where the point was exactly going to attack, making it more difficult to dodge or block. This sounds perfectly replicable with a flag, and it was perhaps more effective on horses than people. Oh and also they were used to keep the blood from going trough the pole.

Very interesting! The Royal Canadian Mounted Police also use red and white pennants on their lances.

I think that the "safety" aspect, marking the main "business end" of the lance makes sense, certainly more than it would make on a pike. Beside that the later was (AFAIK) longer and less mobile as cavalry lances, pike men usually operated rather slowly in close formation, while cavalry lancers are much "higher up" (from a standing persons perspective) and much more and faster milling about, so within a unit, knowing where the sharp end of the stick is would be quite useful...

My grandfather joined the British army near the end of World War I, in 1918 when he was still 17 (he was a big man), and was trained as a lancer. He said the lances had a wooden ball on the end that would hit you in the back of the head if you didn't use the right technique they were taught for swinging the lance around to pull it out of the target you had just speared, a blow hard enough to knock you out. I'm not clear on whether the ball was just found on the training lances, or were features of the lances they would use in action. Their training wasn't completed before the war ended however, so he ended up never serving on the western front. From his description of his subsequent service, it doesn't sound like they ever actually delivered a charge.

Earliest references I found to flags on lances was in the Eastern Roman ("Byzantine") Army of the 6th Century and the seem to have continued under throughout the life that Empire.

For a second I thought you said "skillet arms" and I thought you were going to talk about people using cast iron skillets as weapons... But no, it was "skill at arms." 😞

Surprisingly fascinating video and insights! Always love the Napoleonic era content. Cheers.

The safety arguement has some merit. Even today people tie a rag on to a load that extends outside their truck bed. One thing not mentioned is that it would be a lightweight method of restricting penetration.

I have heard that pennants made it easier to remove from the flesh of the target on the run. Without a flag the lance will penetrate too far to far and have to be dropped, however, the pennant stopped to the penetration so that it came free as the horse galloped by. I have no idea if this is factual or even theoretically possible but it makes a certain amount of sense to me.

The Polish lancer hat is not "czapka" (which means any soft hat), it is "rogatywka" (which means hat with corners/horns).

As someone who does chinese spear, I wonder if some of the benefits are the same. The primary one being that its a sort of blind for the opponent. Its really hard to see what the opponent is doing if they’re waving a big red distracting thing in your face. It doesn’t need to be big in order to be an effective blind because its on the end of a long pole, so it can be very close to the enemy and due to perspective it will hinder line of sight to a lot more than you would expect. I’ve never used a spear with a pennon so I have no idea if they would work the same way though.

This is great! Also big History Hits fan and subscriber.

Excellent video. I'd just like to point out that Napoleon's guard lancers were not initially lancers. They were armed primarily with sabres when the formation was created in 1807, and then given lances no earlier than the Battle of Wagram in 1809. That is why paintings of the Battle of Somosierra depict the unit fighting with swords.

Having been a Jouster and Cavalryman and used a lance & pennon on parade and tent pegging, the idea of the pennon for balance and feel actually fits in my experience. That resistance from the pennon is useful I found. Mainly when upright in the stirrup bucket.. I don't remember using a pennon in tent pegging though?

I think the safety and horse distraction element might be bigger then you think. combine the two even. "pikemen don't do it for safety" well pikemen aren't riding around on horses at 30mph. pikes are carried sticking up, 20ft into the air, not pointed at people. the only time a pike gets lowered into position is in lines. when riding in a charge with lances, you'd want to easily see where lances of your neighbors are. in fact, it'd help you keep pace. its alot easier for you to keep your lance head in position with the others next to you, looking at the flags through your helmets visor. and same with the horse, can the HORSE see the flag better.

16:01 Grand Duchy of Warsaw was a French client state established in 1807, but the Duke of Warsaw was not Napoleon himself, but the King of Saxony - as the heir of the Wettin dynasty ruling in Poland in the 18th century.

What about as a distraction? If the opponent focuses on the more visible flag, they could misinterpret the distance to the pointy end thats actually sticking them.

Back in the 50s there was a series on American TV called "Tales of the 77th Bengal Lancers." Of course it was in black and white so you couldn't tell what colo(u)r their pennants were.

Fun video. More about lances, please (construction, training, etc.).

15:50 The Polish regiment of the imperial guard weren't Lancers, they were called light cavalry and they used sabers, they changed to Lancers only years later because Napoleon was impressed with Austrian Uhlan He later changed many French Dragon regiments to Lancers, Also Napoleon didn't declare himself Duke of Warsaw he gave that to the King of Saxony whos family used to rule Polish Lithuanian commonwealth

Notes: to signify units/teams (gamer anolgy hahaha) and for safty of your own people so they can avoid the tip, Another thought he says is it creates drag to make it essyer to know where your tip is We know it was used to confuse/frighten enemy houses Ww1 they were removed as aparntly a colored flag makes them more noticeable when there a big loud beasts sometimes kicking up dirt snd dust

Important to point out that the Polish were NOT lancers initially but light horse. I think it was 1810 -ish the Poles were seen to pick up enemy lances that Napoleon decided to arm them with lances.

Ex 9th/12th Royal Lancer here. They parade with the Lance and occasionally attach pennon onto the antenna of armoured vehicles. It’s all to do with regimental tradition ‘Ich Dein’ I was always told was that it was to distract the horse during the charge and that the red on the ‘flag’ was to ‘hide’ or obscure blood that had ran from the point of the lance. The purpose of this was to not ‘upset’ the mount. This had began as a practical matter and since then became tradition

thank you for the very reliable material. I would like to point out that the Polish word "czapka" means almost any type of headgear. The four-cornered cap used by the Polish army is called a "rogatywka cap", abbreviated as "rogatywka".

In military traditions there is much borrowing from friends or enemies to express admiration of "the best"... And Polish cavalry was the best!

grew up with horses and as a queens royal lancer cadet, joined up at 16 but was sadly medicaly discarged before compleated phase 2. no longer a big horse culture but learning drill with lancers was so fun and cool to do. only part of drill i liked 😅for me they have some of the best military history behind them.

These possible reasons all took me by surprise. 😮. Great vid.😊 But im so curious about those terrarium behind you. Do you have pets?

Brazilian cavalry also uses red and white pennants as a symbol of tradition. The Independence Dragoons are the presidential cavalry honor guard and they use a 19th century uniform with red and white pennants in their lances to this day.

American Cav units still use red and white pendants also.

As someone who has been around horses most of his life, I think the possible answer "to spook an opponent's horse" might be correct....however I'm wondering why it would not spook the lancer's horse as well. The reason why I'm inclined to think that this answer is correct is that, at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, some Indians got close enough to one of Custer's dismounted battalions to wave blankets in the hopes of spooking the latter's horses ang getting them to bolt...an endeavor in which, if memory serves, they succeeded (it should be noted that it was standard cavalry practice that, when fighting dismounted, every 5th or 6th cavalryman held the horses of the other cavalrymen who were engaged in fighting. So I can see where it would be pretty easy to get the horses to bolt if only one person was trying to control 5 or 6 horses). On another related note, I remember riding along one breezy day a few years back, just ambling along, when my horse suddenly went into full-on reverse. He was scrambling backwards like something out of a Road-Runner cartoon....in fact, he almost managed to scramble out from underneath me. I looked around to try to figure out what the hell was the problem when I saw, about 100 yards away, a plastic bag lazily blowing across the pasture. I don't know what it is about things that billow that spooks horses....plastic bags....flags....whatever, but spook them they do.

Your mid point about rifle targeting gives me the feeling they may have been a good training aid for inexperienced riders. A little flag in front does convey a sense of speed and position which would help me at least were I to start lugging a heavy lance on horseback.

I flicked through my old Funcken Napoleonic uniform books. Based on that I wonder if the red/white pattern was primarily a French thing. The Polish lancers were red over white, and as far as I can see so were all the other lance-armed troops except the Dutch Lancers, who were white over red. Troops of other nationalities used a variety of colors. Green/white, blue/white. black/gold etc. My books had a very small section on the Polish armies, but what they showed was that red/white was not used consistently by Polish lancers in this period. I confirmed that elsewhere; blue over white and a red over white with a blue triangle were also used. However, red over white was used by the Legion of the Vistula, which were the model for the French line lancers.

The Guidon's of the 16th 'Scarlet' Lancers had 16 creases ironed in them to simulate the blood encrusted Guidons after the Battle of Aliwal [28/01/1846]. They were successful at breaking the infantry triangle [not square].

I am really looking forward to hearing more about lances and how they were used. I struggle imagine how having a thin pointy stick is going to cause a lot of damage nor how they don't just get stuck into a person, horse, mud, whatever and get lost, broken or hurt ther person carrying the big pointy stick! I say this as someone who is a descendent of infamous lancers on the Borders of England and Scotland! (I'd also interested in the use of two-ended lances by stratioti / stratiodi, originally Greek-Albanian mercenary horsemen of the late Medieval / Early Modern Period).

After the Napoleonic wars, the British even reintroduced cuirassiers (although, not nominally). Life Guards were outfitted with cuirasses that looked very much like the French ones (as opposed to Russian or Austrian ones) in the 1820s.

Interesting on why have pennants. My first thought (I'm not a horseman either) was that the pennant was also an aid to aiming the tip of the lance. When travelling at full gallop with the dust and smoke of battle raging and a heaving sweaty horse under you it might have been difficult to see the tip. With the pennant it allowed you to concentrate more on the target as your spatial awareness of the tips position was aided. Maybe rubbish but it might be worth exploring with an expert. Failing that it might be just because it's a marvellous sight when in full flight as armies of this time were all about image as much as skill at arms.

Would the colorful flag also make it easier to find and recover a dropped lance?

PS this sorta reminds me of one of the stories in David Nivens autobiography during the filming if 'The Charge of the Light Brigade' one of the Irish background actors/stuntmen thought it would be amusing to poke Erroll Flynns horse in a delicate area with the rubber tip of his lance after Flynn picked himself up he pulled the guy if his horse and beat the crap out if him, people didn't realise he was 100% against mistreatment of horses

I'd be very interested in more information on lances as I think I have a lance point but know very little about it. I'm unsure what period it's from, what shaft wood it should be mounted on, and the style of ferrule. Any info greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Frederick the Great's regulations apparently used pennant colors to distinguish squadrons. By the 1800s, each color represented a numeral with which to distinguish numbered units.

Mat, not "Czapka" but "Rogatywka" and in Poland we have cavalry formation called Ułani.

Certainly interested in more lancer videos.

Fun Fact: ‘Skill at Arms’ doesn’t just to refer bearing arms on horseback, it is currently the term used in the British Army for training on all current weapon systems, including infantry etc

I understood that the red and white was reflecting the Polish ancestry in the same way as the Hussars jacket referred to the Hungarian ancestry. The exception to the latter was the use of the Hussar jacket but fully worn by the Royal Horse Artillery. The Hussar jacket was often worn across the body. Most British arms have a colour quadrant still painted on the mud guard of the vehicles.

And I had always thought it had something to do with the crusades, possibly Templars because of their pennants

I love the fact, that the answer seemed to be joke, but turned out to be true. I certainly haven't suspected it and I see the reenactors of the original unit at least yearly.

Without any knowledge on the subject and before watching I’m gonna guess it’s to make the point easier to see

Great video! The Brazilian Army (Cavalry units) also uses the Red and White Flags on their lances, in fact red and white colors represents the Cavalry branch of service here in Brazil.

lol. In the medieval reenactment role I have used pennants on spears to wave in front of people's eyes to temporarily partially or totally blind in dismounted melee. It works like a charm if the opponent doesn't know it's coming.

+scholagladiatoria *I'd a now-shelved war novel around a Mountain Cavalry regiment in the U. S. Army.* I envisioned bullpup self-loading rifles in 6.8x48mm (probable number: M32), M1 Sabers (more commonly known as the Thompson Saber, after Lynn C. Thompson, in civilian circles), and 1838A2 Lances (equilateral-tricorn head and spike foot). The 1838A2 would have provision for a 15x30cm swallowtail flag.

It is primarily used for seeing the end of your lance while in action, like in a mass charge dust storm or low light, so you can find the tip and aim it.

Maybe worth mentioning that the combination of red and white has been around in Poland and it's military for quite a few centuries. There is some wider cultural background to this but it is clearly also related to the coat of arms of Poland's first rulers, the Piast dynasty - white eagle on red background. It survives till today in Poland's modern coat of arms and national flag.

Great video I appreciate it!

Also US cavalry (best known from westerns) was based on Polish cavalry. US cavalry was effectively created by Polish cavalry general Kazimierz Pułaski, who also wrote first US cavalry manual.

Interesting history. My thought was the flags would help rear observers (if in an elevated location) keep track of where their forces were during contact with the opponent in battle. As for the drag and telling the lance point position, plausible as the horseman must also concentrate on surrounding soldiers and when in close contact with the opponents (guessing on that). In competition the flag would not be needed as the horseman is concentrating on a specific target without other riders or soldiers near him. Plus the flags waving from the lance looks cool, like the flags of Medieval heraldry when riding into battle.

In Denmark, when you have an object on your car that is longer than your car, you need to have a piece of cloth on it for every starting meter. Same goes with horses all throughout time :P

I'll have to admit - the first time I saw the British Lancer cap (Crimean War vintage) I thought it looked pretty silly. The original Polish Lancers in Napoleon's army wore czapkas which were essentially square-topped shakos. The British version looked like a round helmet with a square board attached with a stalk. The German and Austrian versions looked even sillier, essentially a pickelhaube with a small square board on a stalk in place of the spike. In Napoleon's army it was only the Lancer regiments in the Guard who wore the czapka - the "line" Lancer regiments wore plumed helmets instead, though they did wear Polish-style tunics.

My gut feeling is that the lance pennon, having originated as a heraldic device, was adopted into the British army because the period practice was "adopting the weapon = adopting the 'style' of those it is adopted from". I'd further surmise that its retention in the field was primarily due to its heraldic utility (identifying the moving unit/sub-unit through a spyglass), that its reduced usage in the later nineteenth century may parallel the rising effectiveness of visual intelligence gathering and use of khaki battledress etc., and that its other benefits ( point control, disturbing horses, increased safety) were beneficial side effects of its use rather than the reasons it was used.

Would they have been of any use in preventimg over penetration or aiding in extraction from the Fuzzy Wuzzy target?

Thanks for the information

The Polish are great lancers, so we need to dress OUR lancers like Poles! The same logic pervaded throughout European military uniform design of the early 19th century. The Hungarians are great light cavalry? Dress the hussars like Hungarians! Algerians have great light infantry? Fezzes for our zoaves too! I would also add that in this same period, light lances were in use in Spain's colonies in North America as well. In Alta California (the modern American state), under both Spanish and Mexican colonial rules, lancers played a big role in a number of small conflicts through to the Gold Rush.

Also, the volume of all those flags also makes a unit appear much larger than it actually is, encouraging friendly forces and frightening enemy forces compounding the effect on the charge. Same reason a lot of art from the early modern period show pike blocks flying obnoxiously large flags in the center of the block.

Being partial to infantry I believe it means “shoot me first”.

As a Pole I found it very interesting. Thanks!

one might think the flag at the end of the lance is a safety measure necessitated by the number of quickly moving objects like the requirement for trucks hauling poles or lumber to attach a red flag in traffic, so that others know where the tip is one might also think it is also for signaling on a crowded and noisy battlefield or that one benefit was coincidentally derived by the implementation of the other

Unit marker is what I would say. t's always a good idea to know where your forces are especially during that time. As for the us cavalry scouts, not the tanker units. But the red over white represents "death before dishonor". Same flag design used since the 1800's.

Just a question: were pennants/flags important for friendly forces or commanders determining, from a distance, if a cavalry unit’s lances were raised, or leveled? A bare pole is more difficult to see than a pole with a flag, when viewed from a long distance. Is this important to know for an 18th-19th century field commander? Wellington looking through his spyglass… “Hmmm… The 7th Hussars don’t have their lances leveled.”

Dice verse? The reasons I read were unit I.D. and one claim I saw said that the flapping pennant gave lift and made it easier to keep your end up.

A few small but important details: A) The Polish "lancers" of the Imperial Guard were not called lancers (lanciers) but "chevaux-legers polonais" (Polish Light Horsemen) because originally they did not carry lances but hussar-style sabres. B) The Polish Light Horsemen (formed in 1807) did not carry lances until 1809 when its commander, Colonel Vincent Krasinski, requested the Emperor to have his men armed with lances. After witnessing the lethal power of the lances in the hands of the Polish cavalrymen during the 1809 campaign, Napoleon decided to create his own regiments of lancers and he did so in 1811 by converting 9 regiments of dragoons into "chevaux-legers-lanciers". C) After being armed with lances the regiment became "1er regiment de chevaux-legers-lanciers de la Garde Imperiale" (1st regiment of Light Horsemen Lancers of the Imperial Guard) D) The famous regiment known as "The Red Lancers" was the 2nd regiment of lancers of the Imperial Guard, created in 1810 from the former Dutch Royal Guard of Louis Bonaparte, King of Holland since 1806.

In 1651, Guillaume Le Vasseur de Beauplan, who served as an engineer in the Polish army, wrote a book - Déscription de l'Ukraine. In the book he described the appearance of Polish winged hussars, including their lances; "There are banners flying on the tops of the lances, which are either white and red, blue and green or black and white. However, they always remain two-colored and 4 to 5 cubits (240-300 cm) long. This is probably intended to scare enemies' horses. As soon as [the hussars] lower their lances and rush at the horse's speed, these pennants spin around, arousing fear of the enemy horses, whose ranks they want to break."

Gerry Owen! From a a former member of The A Troop 2/7 Cav 4th Aviation Brigade 4th Infantry Division

I have seen many paintings of native american cavalry having something like hair or fur on their lances. Especially on pictures of 19th century Mapuche. Maybe these have a similar function and developed for similar reasons but in a different tradition.

Nice to see Fort Rinella getting a look in during the intro section.

My question for this video is this. When are you going to get together with Tod Cutler/Todd's Workshop and do a small series to test the various thoughts on why the use of flags in a lance.

Could the flags also help the unit commander (as well as everyone else in the unit I suppose) keep an eye on the units formation and cohesion? Having a bunch of riders around you it might be hard to see everyone out to the flanks of the formation but seeing the colored flags high up might be easier.

to me its an aesthetic choice. the only weapon i know of(and use) that makes use of a flag to function is the rope dart. the flag adds drag and allows the dart to align when shooting. it also slows the dart down to a usable speed. when i removed my flag from my rope dart, it became unwieldy and almost hit me in the face because i lost track of it. it also causes the dart to strike on the sides instead of the point when you dont have enough space to do a full extension thrust

This reminds me of why the RCMP wore red during the 1800s. Apparently they wanted to distinguish themselves to the Native Americans in the region that they were not US Army. Also if you are in trouble, seeing a red uniform in the wilderness was like a siren. It may give you away to the bad guys, but at least people in trouble can see you.

I once told that they helped stop over penetration and to stop blood going down the shaft. I have noticed you sometimes see them used in Chinese martial arts.

Not a horseman but ... 1. The thing about knowing where the lance tip may be rubbish for experts but most cavalrymen were not experts. Many British troopers were novices at horse riding, never mind poking something with a sharp stick, so maybe for the rank and file it was useful? 2. Distracting horses seems like a good call, but it could also be a distraction for the enemy riders too. 3. Was it a copy of the Polish, or was it just because the British liked red over white, being Red Coats? Also, I read somewhere, can't recall where, but that not all troopers carried lances in lancer units. It was restricted to certain ranks. So maybe the pennant was to tell the swordsmen where their command and front line were?

Re. the safety idea: If you transport something in your car that sticks out a bit, you're required to put a bit of cloth on it to call attention to it.

Fun fact: Polish cavalery was so loyal to Napoleon that they followed him when he got exiled to Elba

Yes ❤ PLZ more lancer videos. Charging with a pointy stick from horseback is such a wild thing to imagine our ancestors loved doing

I seem to remember from somewhere that a practical use of the flag was to prevent blood running down the shaft and making it slippery. Has anyone else heard this?

Horses can't see right in front of them, so the waving thing seems sketchy. Given all the stuff going on in a battle or mele, not sure a pennant was going to be the thing that spooks a horse. Waving a long lance seems like it's just going to create an opening for your opponent. Yes, the colors helped to identify the nationality of the lancer and that is principally why they had pennants stemming back to eastern European cavalry tradition. Only the guard lancers (Dutch and Polish) wore the Czapska, the line lancers, of which there were many more regiments, formed from dragoons and chasseurs wore a crested helmet and looked awesome. Austrian Uhlans wore the Czapska as well as the Russians, it wasn't just a Polish thing.