In 1526, the Hungarian army were defeated by the Turks at the Battle of Mohacs. The king and the cream of the nobility died in this battle, and Hungary broke up into three parts: one was occupied by Turks, who installed their administration; another acknowledged the rule of Vienna, hoping to gain protection from the Turks; the third proclaimed its own king and converted to Protestantism, so that feudal lords could take over the church’s rich lands. These divisions led to constant conflict over the next 300 years: part of the Hungarian nobility acknowledged the rule of the Habsburgs, part fought against them alongside the Turks, and part with the Habsburgs against the Turks. Alliances depended on circumstances and estimates of where the greater evil lurked.

In the Turkish Great March on Vienna (1683), Austria was devastated by Tartars, Akinjis and Hungarian light horsemen – the hussars. They were led by Imre Thököly, a Hungarian lord who headed the uprising against the Habsburgs. With the help of allied forces from Poland and the German statelets, the Austrians succeeded in defending Vienna and then undertook an offensive against Turkey. In 1686, the Austrian army was reorganized and the same year Budim fell to Austrian forces. Preparing for further thrusts east, Austrian Emperor Leopold I founded the first regular Austrian hussar regiment.

The Austrian army had seasonal units of light horsemen which could number up to 3,000 men. These were led by Hungarian and Croatian noblemen, who could change allegiance overnight, especially if the Viennese court tried to make them pay their feudal obligations. Leopold ordered Count Adam Czobor to select 1,000 men and form an imperial hussar regiment which would be paid from the imperial treasury, and be loyal to the crown. It was to consist of men aged 24 to 35, and have horses between 14 and 15 hands tall and 5 to 7 years old. On its formation, the regiment had a staff and ten companies of 100 hussars each. The officers of other Austrian regular cavalry units did not have a high opinion of the hussars, considering them ‘little better than bandits on horse’. However, they were very effective in war, and a second regiment under the command of Colonel Deák was formed in 1696; a third, commanded by Colonel Forgach, in 1702.

The year 1688 is taken as the date of the first regular hussar regiment. At slightly earlier dates, occasional regular companies of hussars, consisting of Hungarian emigrants opposed to the Habsburgs, could be found at European courts. However, regular hussar regiments were not founded until 1692 in France and 1695 in Spain.