How to repel a MONGOL INVASION

They swept across Asia with terrifying efficiency. Yet, as 13th-century Europe quaked at the prospect of a Mongol invasion, there was an empire that, as Nicholas Morton writes, learned to beat the invaders at their own game

- Nicholas Morton

In 1247, the papal envoy John of Plano Carpini returned home a worried man. During the past two years, he had travelled across the greater part of the vast Mongol empire and his experiences confirmed his fears that the Mongols were both exceptionally dangerous and that they were readying themselves for a second assault on Europe.

“It is the intention of the Tartars [Mongols] to bring the whole world into subjection if they can,” Carpini declared, and the evidence of the past decade appeared to support this observation. Back in 1236 – having established a vast empire spanning from the Sea of Japan to the shores of the Caspian Sea, in one of the most extraordinary feats of conquest in human history, the Mongols had begun a new offensive into western Eurasia. City after city fell to their forces, including Kyiv in 1240. “After they had besieged the city for a long time,” reported Carpini, “they took it and put the inhabitants to death.”

In 1241, the Mongols launched an invasion of the kingdoms of Hungary and Poland, causing widespread destruction and defeating every army sent against them. With advancing troops on the outskirts of Vienna, western Europe appeared to be at the mercy of the Mongol juggernaut. But then, suddenly, they were gone. The Mongol emperor, ÖgÖdei, had died and his armies returned home to elect a new leader.