BATTLE OF MOHI
The Mongol Empire’s assault on Hungary in 1241 was not inevitable. Despite their reputation for unleashing panic and bloodshed on an epic scale, the Mongols did at first attempt to reason with the state they would soon seek to crush, but, as was so often the case during the medieval period, the path of diplomacy was a short one. Unfortunately for Hungary and its proud king, the road to recovery would be anything but.
Since their crushing victory over a contingent of Rus’ principalities at the Battle of the Kalka River in 1223, the Mongols were confident in their ability to fight their way deeper into a Europe just beginning to appreciate the terror that had swept throughout central Asia since 1206.
Eager to follow in the footsteps of his father Genghis, in 1235 Ögedei Khan ordered Batu Khan (leader of the fearsome Golden Horde since 1227) to conquer Rus’, a network of states in eastern Europe. By November 1240 Batu’s armies had slashed their way to Kiev, a city they promptly sacked, its 50,000 citizens slain without mercy.
In the same year as the razing of Kiev, Mongol ambassadors were dispatched to Pest to parlay with King Béla IV. The reason for their journey was the recent influx of Cuman refugees into the country following the Mongols’ subjugation of their home. Regarding the Cumans as their rightful slaves, the Mongols implored Béla to force the Cumans to
