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Was there a Franco-Mongol alliance? Or the hope of an alliance? What did the historians say?
Overview
[edit]The question is, "What do historians say about whether or not there was an alliance between the Crusaders and the Mongols?"
My (Elonka's) interpretation is that:
- The clear consensus among modern historians is that there were many attempts to put together an alliance, but that the attempts failed.
- Some older historians (such as Rene Grousset) spent time in their books arguing that an alliance would have been a good idea, and was a "missed opportunity" for the Crusaders
- Modern historians are generally acknowledging Grousset's interpretation, but the main dispute is not whether or an alliance occurred, but, "Would an alliance have been a good idea or not?"[1]
- At least one modern historian, Jean Richard, argues that the alliance actually existed; however, most other more recent historians (Jackson, Morgan, Atwood) are clear that the alliance did not occur.
Notes
[edit]Historian quickref
[edit]- for a quick overview (2-3 paragraphs) of the historical context of this dispute
Historian | Opinion | Year | Type of analysis (in-depth, pop culture, etc.) |
---|---|---|---|
Barber, Malcolm | alliance seen as "possible" but was not realized | 2001 | Minor mentions in a larger book about the Templars |
Maalouf, Amin | alliance was a "cherished dream" that didn't occur | 1984 | Pop culture book about Arab historians |
Newman, Sharan | no strong mention | 2006 | Templar historian |
Schein, Sylvia | said an alliance was "planned" but didn't come together | 1989 | Mongol scholar - major |
Martin, Sean | no strong mention | 2005 | Templar pop culture book |
Tyerman, Christopher | hoped-for alliance never occurred | 2006 | Crusades historian - major |
Nicolle, David | Mongols were regarded as "potential allies" but not that the alliance occurred | 1990 | Mongol historian |
Grousset, Rene | argued that an alliance would have been a good idea, and was a "missed opportunity" | 1930s | Crusades historian - major |
Demurger, Alain | called the alliance a "strategy" that never came to clear fruition | 2002 | Templar scholar |
Riley-Smith, Jonathan | said forces were "ready" to ally, but not that it occurred | 2002 | Crusades historian |
Stewart, Angus Donal | Said the alliance was promoted, but not that it occurred | 2001 | Cilicia Armenian scholar |
Encyclopedia Britannica | called the alliance a "chimera" or fantasy | 20th century | encyclopedia |
Richard, Jean | said the alliance occurred, but was a "lost opportunity" | 1999 | Crusades - Respected historian on the Crusades and the Mongols |
Morgan, David | said there were attempts at an alliance, but that it did not occur | 2006 | Well-known scholar of the Mongols |
Oldenbourg | timeline mention that an alliance occurred in 1280 | 1966 | Passing mention in a book about a different time period |
Runciman, Steven | said the alliance was a "hope" but ultimately a waste of time | 1951 | Noted English scholar of the Crusades |
Jackson, Peter | no alliance occurred | 2006 | Well-known scholar of the Mongols |
Prawer, Joshua | attempts that failed | 1972 | Crusades historian |
Prawdin, Michael | attempts that failed | 1961 | Mongol historian |
Lebedel, Claude | no alliance | 2004 | French Crusades historian |
Clough/Garsoian | possible allies, but didn't come together | 1964 | Textbook of Western Civ |
Sinor, Denis | possible, but didn't happen | 1999 | Mongol historian |
Turnbull, Steven | possible, but didn't happen | 1980 | Mongol historian |
Burger, Glenn | alliance refused | 1988 | Armenian historian |
Phillips, J.R. | said the Pope made no commitment to an alliance | 1988 | historian of medieval Europe |
Cahen, Claude | said an alliance was sought but did not occur | 1970 | Mongol historian |
Nersessian, Sirarpie Der | alliance did not occur | 1969 | Historian of Cilician Armenia |
Atwood | alliance was not achieved | 2004 | Wrote encyclopedia about Mongol Empire |
Edbury, Peter | attempted ineffectually to join forces | 2000 | Article in major work: New Cambridge Medieval History |
Mantran, Robert | attempted unsuccessfully | 1983 | Chapter in major work: Cambridge Illustrated History of the Middle Ages |
Prestwich, Michael | absence of the hoped-for alliance | 1997 | Major work on King Edward I |
Powell, James | potential that was rejected/pursued | 2004 | Major work on Crusades |
Robinson, John J. | no alliance | 1991 | Templar/Freemason historian |
Andrea, Alfred | all proposals failed | 2003 | Crusades encyclopedia |
Amitai-Preiss, Reuven | Unsuccessful in achieving the goal of a common venture | 1995 | Major scholarly work on Mongols and Mamluks |
Quotes
[edit]Number | Historian | Book | Page # | Descriptor | Term used | Quote | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Barber, Malcolm | The New Knighthood | 293-294 | "possibility" | alliance | The period of the most intensive effort, though, seems to have been between 1300 and 1302, partly because it was believed in some quarters that there was a genuine possibility of an alliance with the Mongols. Both Pope Innocent IV and King Louis IX had sent representatives to the Mongols, but neither had found much to encourage them. However, the rise of Mamluk power and the defeat at Ain Jalut in 1260 seems to have persuaded the Mongols to take a more positive attitude to the Christians and, from 1267, embassies came to the west reasonably regularly in the hope of organising a joint campaign. The idea was not therefore new in 1300, but the attempts at practical implementation were to show that the logistical and political difficulties which had wrecked previous initiatives still existed. | |
2 | Maalouf | Crusades Through Arab Eyes | 254 | "cherished dream" | alliance | Arghun, grandon of Hulegu, "had resurrected the most cherished dream of his predecessors: to form an alliance with the Occidentals and thus to trap the Mamluk sultanate in a pincer movement. Regular contacts were established between Tabriz and Rome with a view to organizing a joint expedition, or at least a concerted one." | |
3 | Maalouf | 267 | guilty of having made common cause with the Mongol invaders" | ||||
4 | Newman, Sharan | Real History Behind the Templars | 174 | "join forces" | But these were all small matters compared to the long-dreaded arrival of the Mongols in the Near East. Under Genghis Khan, they had already conquered much of China and were now moving into the ancient Persian Empire. Tales of their cruelty flew like crows through the towns in their path. However, since they were considered "pagans" there was hope among the leaders of the Church that they could be brought into the Christian community and would join forces to liberate Jerusalem again. Franciscan missionaries were sent east as the Mongols drew near." | ||
5 | Schein, Sylvia | "Gesta Dei per Mongolos" | "joined" | "the Mongol khan, joined by the Christian kings | |||
6 | Schein | "plans" | alliance | "plans for an alliance" | |||
7 | Sean Martin | Knights Templar | 114 | "combined force" | |||
8 | Tyerman | God's War | will of the wisps | "Mongol alliance" | "Edward contented himself with pursuing the will of the wisps of a Mongol alliance with the il-khan of Persia" | ||
9 | Tyerman | 798 | chimera | Franco-Mongol anti-islamic alliance | "The mission [of William of Rubruk] was regarded by some on all sides as another attempt to capture the chimera of a Franco-Mongol anti-Islamic alliance" | ||
10 | Tyerman | 798-799 | chimera | Franco-Mongol alliance | "an attempt to capture the chimera of a Franco-Mongol alliance....[turned out to be] a false hope for Outremer as for the rest of Christendom" | ||
11 | Tyerman | 816 | "led nowhere" | Mongol alliance | "The Mongol alliance, despite six further embassies to the west between 1276 and 1291, led nowhere" | ||
12 | David Nicolle | potential | "potential allies" | "potential allies", but that overall the major players were the Mamluks and the Mongols, and that the Christians were just "pawns in a greater game" | |||
13 | "History of Crusades", Vol. III | 513-544 | "relations" | "The Mongols and Western Europe". In this chapter an attempt will be made to give a succinct but comprehensive picture of the relations that existed between the Mongols and Western Europe." | |||
14 | "History of Crusades", Vol. III | 526 | "relations" | "the Mongols' relations with the west" | |||
15 | "History of Crusades", Vol. III | 516 | possibility | "possibility of an alliance | "The possibility of an alliance with the Mongols was completely lost from sight" | ||
16 | "History of Crusades", Vol. III | 532 | attempt | "alliance" | "Arghun's boldest attempt to establish an alliance with the western powers" | ||
17 | "History of Crusades", Vol. III | 537 | offered | "alliance" | "Oljeitu... followed the same friendly policy towards the Western powerns... and offered in very general terms an alliance... No answer by the French king to Oljeitu's letter has come to light" | ||
18 | Grousset, Andre | Croisades | 521 | "L'Alliance Franco-Mongole" | "Louis IX et l'Alliance Franco-Mongole" | (1930s) Adam Bishop refers to Grousset as "quaint and outdated"[2] | |
19 | Grousset | 653 | understood the value | "l'Alliance Mongole" | "Seul Edward I comprit la valeur de l'Alliance Mongole" (Only Edward I understood the value of the Mongol alliance) | ||
20 | Grousset | 686 | ? | "la coalition Franco-Mongole" | "La coalition Franco-Mongole dont les Hospitaliers donnaient l'exemple" (The Franco-Mongol alliance, exemplified by the Hospitallers) | ||
21 | Grousset | The Empire of the Steppes: A History of Central Asia | 363 | advantage | Franco-Mongol alliance | "Kitbuqa, now in control of Mongol Syria and Mongol Palestine, was well-disposed toward the Christians there, not only because he himself was a Nestorian, but also, it seems because he appreciated the advantage to both parties of the Franco-Mongol alliance. Unfortunately, though Bohemund VI, prince of Antioch-Tripoli, might share his views on the subject, the barons of Acre continued to see in the Mongols mere barbarians to whom even the Muslims were to be preferred. One of these barons, Count Julien of Sidon, attacked a Mongol patrol and killed Kitbuqa's nephew. The enraged Mongols replied by sacking Sidon. This was the end of the alliance, explicit or tacit, between Franks and Mongols."[3] | |
24 | Demurger | The Last Templar | 91 | tried to form | strategic alliance with the Mongols | "The Cypriot Christians tried to form a strategic alliance with the Mongols" | |
25 | Demurger | 98 | hope | Mongol alliance | "in the hope that all the promises made by the Mongol alliance would finally be realised" | ||
26 | Demurger | 102 | strategy | Mongol alliance | "the strategy of a Mongol alliance was not yet quite dead" | ||
27 | Demurger | 105 | strategy | Mongol alliance | "Thus ended the strategy of a Mongol alliance" | ||
29 | Demurger | 207 | possible | Mongol alliance | "...idea of a rapid reconquest of the Holy Land and Jerusalem was widely shared, all the more so because an alliance with the Mongols looked possible" | ||
31 | Demurger | 217 | opportunity | Mongol alliance | "in the late thirteenth and fourteenth century there was still an opportunity to be seized: the Mongol alliance" | ||
32 | Demurger | 147 | seal | Mongol alliance | "Above all, the expedition made manifest the unity of the Cypriot Franks and, through a material act, put the seal on the Mongol alliance." | 1300 - Ruad (Mongols didn't show up) | |
33 | Demurger | Croisades et croises au Moyen-Age | 287 | concretization | alliance | ""The concretization of this alliance met with three obstacles etc..." | |
35 | Demurger | 287 | cooperated | "These are the only Frank forces, located in Armenia and Cyprus, which cooperated with the Mongols" | |||
36 | Demurger | 287 | promises | Mongol alliance | "This ended the promisses of the Mongol alliance" | ||
37 | Riley-Smith, Jonathan | Atlas of the Crusades | 114 | ready to ally | "En 1285, Qalawun, nouveau sultan mamelouk, reprend l'offensive, qu'il dirige contre les Hospitaliers du nord, qui s'etaient montres prets a s'allier aux Mongols" | ||
38 | Stewart, Angus Donal | "The Assassination of King Het'um II: The Conversion of The Ilkhans and the Armenians" | promotion | Mongol alliance | "for the Armenian alignment with the Mongols, they were prominent in their promotion of a Mongol alliance, and a Franco-Mongol entente" | ||
39 | Encyclopedia Britannica | chimera | "alliance with the Mongols | "The alliance with the Mongols remained, from the first to the last, something of a chimera"[4] | 1911 | ||
41 | Richard, Jean | Histoire des Croisades | 469 | missed | Franco-Mongol alliance | ""The Franco-Mongol alliance (...) seems to have been rich with missed opportunities" "In 1297 Ghazan resumes his projects against Egypt (...) the Franco-Mongol cooperation had thus survived, to the loss of Acre by the Franks, and to the conversion of the khan to Islam. It was to remain one of the political factors of the policy of the Crusades, until the peace treaty with the Mamluks, which was concluded in 1322 by khan Abu Said." |
|
42 | Richard | 453 | rallied | alliance | "The sustained attacks of Baibar (...) rallied the Occidentals to this alliance, to which the Mongols also convinced the Byzantines to adhere" | ||
43 | Richard, Jean | 468(f)/455(e) | survived | Franco-Mongol cooperation | "Franco-Mongol cooperation thus survived both the loss of Acre by the Franks and the conversion of the Mongols of Persia to Islam. It was to remain one of the givens of crusading politics until the peace treaty with the Mamluks, which was concluded only in 1322 by the khan Abu Said. The Franks may be criticised for having done too little to promote this policy.... But we need to emphasise the role of the Frankish adventurers who had entered Mongol service and who made themselves the zealous agents of the agreement between their Mongol masters and the West." | ||
44 | Richard, Jean | 424 | hope | Mongol alliance | "The Mongol alliance could mean the intervention of a large army and other forms of assistance which could be helpful to a crusade. It is hardly surprising that, for nearly forty years, the Westerners remained hopeful of achieving this combination of their efforts and those of the sovereigns of Persia"[5] | ||
45 | Richard | 456 | foundered | Franco-Mongol alliance | "The Franco-Mongol alliance... foundered in the face of the vastness of the distances, and the impossibility of predicting events that make joint operations not feasible or of seizing chances offered. It is a story of lost opportunities." | ||
46 | Richard | 487 | offered | alliance | (Timeline) Hulegu offered an alliance to King Louis[6] | ||
47 | Richard | 502 | promulgation | liaison | (timeline) "1274: Promulgation of a Crusade, in liaison with the Mongols" | ||
48 | Sinor/Hazard | History of the Crusades | 516 | attempts | alliance | "It is important to note that attempts to seek an alliance with the Mongols were made by princes of France or England..." | |
49 | Sinor/Hazard | 519 | possibility | alliance | "The possibility of an alliance with the Mongols" | ||
50 | Sinor/Hazard | 523 | [despite positive overtures, the] "policy of rapprochement was destined to fail" | ||||
51 | Sinor/Hazard | 524 | hopeful | join forces | "Perhaps in the darkest moments of affliction Louis had the hopeful thought that the Mongols might wish to join forces with him against the common enemy" | ||
52 | Morgan, David | The Mongols | 183 | attempts | alliance | "From 1263 until well into the fourteenth century repeated attempts were made to arrange an alliance" | |
53 | Morgan | 185 | problems | "No really effective joint action had ever been organized: in thirteenth-century conditions the problems of co-ordination appear to have been insuperable" | |||
54 | Morgan | 186 | attempts | alliance | "Contacts were maintained under Oljeitu... But after Oljeitu's reign attempts at alliance at last ceased." | ||
55 | Oldenbourg | The Crusades | 620 | alliance | alliance | (timeline mention) "1280: Alliance of Franks and Mongols against Qalawun" | Oldenbourg's 1966 book is about the Crusades through 1200. No other scholars agree with the "1280" date |
56 | Runciman, Steven | A History of the Crusades | 332 | suggest | alliance | "The King of Aragon, in conjunction with Pope Clement IV [sent a messenger to Abaqa] to suggest a military alliance. But Abaga, who was fully occupied by his war against the Golden Horde, would only make vague promises." | |
57 | Runciman | 332 | military aid | In 1270, [Abaga] wrote to King Louis undertaking to grant military aid as soon as the Crusade appeared in Palestine. King Louis went instead to Tunis, where the Mongols could not help him." | |||
58 | Runciman | 335-337 | hope | help | "Edward..hoped to unite the Christians of the East into a formidable body and then to use the help of the Mongols....The English Prince was not much more successful with the Mongols.... By the spring of 1272 Prince Edward realized he was wasting his time." | ||
59 | Morgan, David | The Mongols (2nd ed.) | 136 | missed opportunity | allied | "This has long been seen as a 'missed opportunity' for the Crusaders. According to that opinion, most eloquently expressed by Grousset and frequently repeated by other scholars, the Crusaders ought to have allied themselves with the pro-Christian, anti-Muslim Mongols against the Mamluks. They might thus have prevented their own destruction by the Mamluks in the succeeding decades, and possibly even have secured the return of Jerusalem by favour of the Mongols." | |
60 | Morgan | The Mongols (2nd ed.) | 160 | repeated attempts | alliance | "From 1263 until well into the fourteenth century repeated attempts were made to arrange an alliance, and these appear to have been entered into in perfectly good faith by both sides. We possess the texts of numerous letters sent in both directions. The Popes were always enthusiastic, as much for evangelistic as for specifically crusading reasons, and several western monarchs also treated the idea of an alliance seriously." | |
61 | Jackson, Peter | New Cambridge Medieval History, vol. 5 | 719 | no | military collaboration | "No military collaboration against the common Mamluk enemy resulted from the Il-khans' frequent embassies. The Mongol rulers did not come over to the Roman Church; nor did the Latin missionaries succeed in winning many of their subjects to the faith." | |
62 | Jackson | 716 | had it been forged | Mongol-western alliance | "Like the failure to assist Hulegu's forces during their invasion of Syria in 1260, the lukewarm reaction accorded to his successors has been seen as a wasted opportunity. Underlying both verdicts, of course, is the belief that, had a Mongol-western alliance been forged and the Mamluk empire been overthrown, the Il-khanid state would in time have adopted Christianity and thereby changed the whole history of Persia and the Near East -- a dubious proposition." | ||
63 | Riley-Smith | Oxford Illustrated History of the Crusades | 41 | prospect | joint alliance | "The brunt of the sudden, ferocious descent of the Mongols upon Europe is 1241 was borne by the hapless Poles and Hungarians, prompting in the same year that declaration of the first of a number of crusades against them. Attitudes would change in the later thirteenth century with the prospect of a joint alliance against the Muslims." | |
64 | Riley-Smith | 175 | accommodation | "King Het'um II [of Cilician Armenia] was able to reach an accommodation with the Mongols in the 1240s." | |||
65 | Richard, Jean | 468 (english) | promise | cooperation of Franks and Mongols | [Cioli Bofeti's] mission was perhaps primarily to secure the cooperation of Franks and Mongols, and to implement the promise the latter had made to their allies, the return to them of the recovered Holy Land." | ||
66 | Prawer | The Crusaders' Kingdom | 32 | attempts | alliance | "The attempts of the crusaders to create an alliance with the Mongols failed." | |
67 | Prawdin | Mongol Empire: Its Rise and Legacy | 371 | attempt | alliance | "the failure of the attempt at an alliance" | |
68 | Runciman | History of the Crusades, vol. III | 439-440 | chances | Mongol alliance | "chances of a Mongol alliance with the Christians faded out" | |
69 | Lebedel, Claude | Les Croisades, Origines et consequences | 75 | refused | alliance | "the Barons of the Holy Land refused an alliance with the Mongols, except for the king of Armenia and Bohemond VI, prince of Antioch and Count of Tripoli" | |
70 | Clough , Garsoian, Hicks, Gay, Brandenburg | A History of the Western World: Ancient Times to 1715, 2nd ed. | 299 | possible | allies | "Despite the extreme cruelty of the new barbarian hordes, some western leaders saw in the still-heathen Mongols possible allies against Islam, and Christendom deluded itself with many tales about the legendary kingdom of Prester John. Missionaries traveled to the distant court of the khan hoping to convert him and win his aid, while the Latin attack against Islam continued unsuccessfully in the south." | (textbook) |
71 | Sinor, Denis | "Mongols and the West" (in Journal of Asian History)[7] | possibility | alliance | "The possibility of an alliance between the il-khans and the Franks was explored by both parties. ... Contacts between the two were quite frequent and aimed at establishing a coordination of eastern and western forces to counterbalance the formidable Mamluk threat...For a number of reasons which it cannot be our task to analyze here, the alliance between the il-khans and the West failed to become operative. Efforts by Berke and his successor Mongke Temur (1267-1280) were certainly instrumental in barring the il-khans from the Mediterranean world until such time as the collapse of Frank implantations in Outremer made any hope of cooperation between them and the il-khans illusory." | ||
72 | Jackson, Peter | Mongols and the West | 6 | failure to perceive | alliance | "Although several scholars have criticized the Catholic world for its failure to perceive what the Mongols of Persia offered, I shall argue that the majority of Western observers were lukewarm about an alliance precisely because they recognized Ilkhanid ambitions for what they were." | |
73 | Jackson, Peter | Mongols and the West | 4 | Ilkhanid-Western contacts | "In trying to elicit why Ilkhanid-Western contacts bore no fruit..." | ||
74 | Jackson, Peter | Mongols and the West | 4 | failure | Ilkhanid-Western negotiations | "The failure of Ilkhanid-Western negotiations, and the reasons for it, are of particular importance in view of the widespread belief in the past that they might well have succeeded." | |
75 | Jackson, Peter | Mongols and the West | 1 | concerted operations | "The Mongol Ilkhans of Persia made repeated overtures to Western rulers for concerted operations against the Muslim Mamluk Empire in Egypt and Syria." | ||
76 | Jackson, Peter | Mongols and the West | 362 | stillborn attempts | Ilkhanid-Western collaboration | "The still-born attempt to launch Ilkhanid-Western collaboration, the relatively fruitless efforts of the friars" | |
77 | Jackson, Peter | Mongols and the West | 179 | diplomatic contacts | "Why, then, did the diplomatic contacts between the Ilkhanate and the West fail to lead anywhere?" | ||
78 | Jackson, Peter | Mongols and the West | 173 | attempts | assistance | "In their successive attempts to secure assistance from the Latin world, the Ilkhans took care to select personnel who would elicit the confidence of Western rulers and to impart a Christian complexion to their overtures." | |
79 | Jackson, Peter | Mongols and the West | 172 | Mongol-Latin relations | "In many respects, the Mongol occupation of Syria in 1299-1300 represents the high water-mark of Mongol-Latin relations." | ||
80 | Jackson, Peter | Mongols and the West | collaboration | "Hulegu and his successors made a series of overtures designed to gain Latin collaboration in the war against the Mamluks. These diplomatic contacts, which continued into the early fourteenth century, were made with the popes and with Western European sovereigns, particularly the French and English kings and sometimes also those of Aragon and Sicily. Only minimally and rarely did they involve the Near Eastern Franks, who were now a negligible quantity." | |||
81 | Nicolle, David | The Mongol Warlords | 114 | lost opportunity | joined forces | "In later years Christian chroniclers would bemoan a lost opportunity in which Crusaders and Mongols might have joined forces to defeat the Muslims. But they were writing from the benefit of hindsight, after the Crusader States had been destroyed by the Muslim Mamluks. Few at the time -- certainly not those in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem -- thought in such terms while Hulegu still aimed to extend Mongol rule over the entire known world." | |
82 | Turnbull, Stephen | The Mongols | 8 | possibilities | alliance | "Christian kingdoms began to explore the possibilities of an alliance with the Mongols against the Muslim infidels." | |
83 | Burger, Glenn | A Lytell Chronicle | xiii-xiv | refusal | Western-Mongol alliance | "The arrival of the Mongols in Persia in the middle of the century, and with it the possibility of a Western-Mongol alliance, provided a chance to break out of the strategic impasse that had always plagued Outremer: its dependence on constant infusions of European men and aid, and its uneven position against the forces of the sultans of Egypt. While the kingdom of Cilician Armenia under Hetoum I quickly responded to the potential offered by an alliance with the Mongols, the refusal of the Latin Christian states in the area to follow Hetoum's example and adapt to changing conditions by allying themselves with the new Mongol empire must stand as one of the saddest of the many failures of Outremer." | |
84 | Morgan, David | "The Mongols and the Eastern Mediterranean" | 204 | neutrality | "The authorities of the crusader states, with the exception of Antioch, opted for a neutrality favourable to the Mamluks." | ||
85 | Phillips, J.R. | The Medieval Expansion of Europe | 122 | fell short of a commitment | alliance | "The pope expressed his pleasure at Abaka's letter, and promised that any future crusading army would seek the active co-operation of the Mongols. Yet, despite the fact that a crusade was actively being planned, Gregory X's reply fell short of a definite commitment to an alliance." | |
86 | Cahen, Claude | "Mongols and the Near East" (in Setton's Crusades) | 719[8] | good diplomatic relations | "The Il-khanid state...encompassed... rather good diplomatic relations with the Byzantine state in common opposition to the Golden Horde and the Mamluks, and also with the western Christans specifically against the Mamluks." | ||
87 | Cahen | 722-723 | sought | alliance | "The Mongols now sought an alliance which would produce a concerted effort by the Christians of Europe and themselves against the Mamluks." | ||
88 | Nersessian, Sirarpie Der | "The Kingdom of Cilician Armenia" (in Setton's Crusades)[9] | 653 | tried to win over | Christian-Mongol alliance | "Hetoum tried to win the Latin princes over to the idea of a Christian-Mongol alliance, but could convince only Bohemond VI of Antioch" | |
89 | Nersessian | 654 | without any success | Mongol-Christian alliance | "Leon III believed, as his father had, in a Mongol-Christian alliance which would save the Holy Land; he made repeated pleas to the western powers; Abagha also sent envoys to the popes and to Edward I of England, without any success." | ||
90 | Atwood | Encyclopedia of Mongolia and the Mongol Empire Entry on "Western Europe and the Mongol Empire" |
583 | never achieved | alliance | "Despite numerous envoys and the obvious logic of an alliance against mutual enemies, the papacy and the Crusaders never achieved the often-proposed alliance against Islam." | 2004 |
91 | Jackson, Peter | Mongols and the West | 170 | persisted in the quest | Western alliance | "Arghun had persisted in the quest for a Western alliance right down to his death without ever taking the field against the mutual enemy." | |
92 | Edbury, Peter | "Christians and Muslims in the Eastern Mediterranean", The New Cambridge Medieval History, Vol. VI | 871 | attempted | join forces | "The Cypriots had attempted -- ineffectually it is true -- to join forces with the Mongols in their invasions of Syria in 1299 and 1301, and a Cyprus-based Templar force had briefly reoccupied the island of Ruad near Tortosa in 1301-1302. But after 1303 there were no more Mongol campaigns into Syria, and the idea that the Holy Land might be recovered for Christendom by the Ilkhans of Persia, who in any case by now had adopted Islam, ceased to be taken seriously." | 2000 |
93 | Mantran, Robert (Fossier, Robert, ed.) | "A Turkish or Mongolian Islam" in The Cambridge Illustrated History of the Middle Ages: 1250-1520 (trans. from French: Le Moyen Age. 3. Le Temps des Crises 1250-1520) | 258 | attempted unsuccessfully | alliance | "A more far-seeing policy might have enabled the Franks, by seeking an alliance with the Mongols sooner than they did (Louis IX attempted one unsuccessfully), to keep all or some of their positions in Syria and Palestine." | 1983 |
94 | Prestwich, Michael | Edward I | 331 | absence | Mongol alliance | "The prospects for the crusade were undoubtedly diminished in the absence of the hoped-for Mongol alliance." | |
95 | Powell, James | Chapter 7 in Crusades: The Illustrated History, Madden, Thomas (ed.) | 159 | potential/rejected | Christian-Mongol alliance | "Mongke agreed to an alliance as long as Louis became his vassal, a condition the French king naturally rejected. Still, as the Mongol advances on Islam continued, the potential for a Christian-Mongol alliance remained and was later pursued by Lord Edward I of England." | 2004 |
96 | Robinson, John J. | Dungeon, Fire and Sword: The Knights Templar in the Crusades | 372 | no alliance | alliance | "Having failed to achieve their mission at the council [of Lyon], the Mongol envoys stayed behind in Europe to visit some of the secular rulers and make direct appeals for alliances to fight the Muslims, but they finally returned home to report to the ilkhan that there would be no alliance with a Christian Crusade." | 1991 |
97 | Robinson | 381 | no help | ally | "The one substantial fighting force that might be sought as an ally was that of the Latin Christians of the Crusader states, including the military orders. Abaga sent ambassadors to Acre. The Mongol envoys explained to the barons and grand masters that during the following year, 1281, the ilkhan Abaga planned to send all his forces, a mighty army of one hundred thousand men, into Syria with the final objective of the conquest of Egypt. In exchange for the assistance of the Crusaders with men and military supplies, Abaga would guarantee that their rewards would include all of the original kingdom of Jerusalem. Every object of the crusading desire would be fulfilled. The Latin Christians still had no central authority and no central voice. They had been so splintered by internal squabbles that they could not address the Mongol proposals.... Abaga's ambassadors went back to him frustrated and confused, but quite certain that the ilkhan could expect no help from the Crusaders." | ||
98 | Andrea, Alfred J. | Encyclopedia of the Crusades | 218 | all proposals failed | allies | "During the latter half of the thirteenth century, several popes and King Louis IX of France unsuccessfully sought to convert the Mongols, whom they mistakenly called the Tartars, to Latin Christianity and to enlist them as allies in the struggle against Islam. Likewise, during the late thirteenth century, several Mongol leaders sought military alliances with various Western leaders against the Mamluks, but all proposals failed." | 2003 |
99 | Amitai-Preiss, Reuven | Mongols and Mamluks: the Mamluk-Ilkhanid War, 1260-1281, chapter 4 "The Īlkhāns and the Franks" | 105 | unsuccessful | common venture | "…the fact is that through his reign Abagha sent at least four embassies to the West. Each visited more than one court, including that of the Pope, and carried a letter calling for a joint anti-Muslim campaign. This phenomenon, perhaps more than any other, indicates the importance which Abagha attributed to the war with the Mamluks, and the extent to which he wanted to extend his sway into Syria and perhaps beyond. Most of his successors shared these goals, and in order to realize them they attempted, like him, to interest the Christian West in a common venture. They were all equally unsuccessful in achieving this goal. " | 1995 |
100 | Barber, Malcolm | possibility | alliance | The two cities: medieval Europe, 1050-1320 | 135 | in the context of Louis IX's crusade at Damietta, and after the payment of his ransom ... "During the withdrawal [from Damietta] the king was captured and only released on payment of a ransom of 800,000 besants and the cession of Damietta. Despite this disaster the king stayed in Outremer for another four years, rebuilding his defences and making contact with the Mongols, with whom the possibility of an alliance was being canvassed." | 1992 |
101 | Barber, Malcolm | The two cities: medieval Europe, 1050-1320 | 507 | hope had vanished | Mongol-Christian alliance | "Although in the east Kubilai remained amenable to visits by westerners, including the Polos and the mendicants [friars in this case], any slim hope that a Mongol-Christian alliance could revive the sinking fortunes of the Crusader States had largely vanished by the 1260s, despite sporadic attempts at reviving it." | 1992 |
102 | Payne, Robert (2000) | The dream and the tomb: a history of the Crusades | 390 | time not ripe | alliance | in 1300 "Ghazan, before leaving Damascus, sent ambassadors to the pope and the sovereigns of Europe, urging them to pour men, money and armaments into Palestine, which was his gift to them. He wanted an alliance between the Mongols and the countries of Europe against the Mamelukes, and he was prepared to back up the alliance with his vast army." and later "The pope told the Mongol ambassadors that the time was not ripe for another Crusade, and the sovereigns of Europe said the same." It should be noted that this is a popular history, and is not footnoted very well." | 2000 |
103 | Prestwich, Michael | Edward I | 75 | try to organize | concerted action | dealing with Edward's crusade in 1271, "Edward spent frustrating weeks in Acre before moving against the enemy. His men and horses had to be prepared, and diplomatic arrangements had to be made. An English embassy was sent to the Mongol II-Khan Abagha, to try to organize concerted action against the redoubtable Baibars." (this is footnoted to Liber de Antiquis Legibus: Cronica maiorum et vicecomitum Londoniarum ed. T. Stapleton Camden Society 1846 p. 143) | 1997 |
104 | Prestwich, Michael | Edward I | 78 | no intention | help | still dealing with 1271-1272, this after Edward's attempt to take the fortress of Qaqun, while the Mongols advanced on Syria. "He [Edward] may have hoped that help would be provided by the Mongols, but Baibars soon entered into negotiations with them, and it became clear that they had no intention of launching a major campaign in the Holy Land." | 1997 |
105 | Prestwich, Michael | Edward I | 80 | efforts | co-operation of the Mongols | an assessment of Edward's crusade "In Palestine, Edward's diplomatic efforts to obtain the co-operation of the Mongols achieved little, and in military terms his troops were too few to achieve much." | 1997 |
106 | Prestwich, Michael | Edward I | 331 | absence of the hoped-for | Mongol alliance | talking about a proposed crusade after the fall of Acre in 1291, "The prospects for the crusade were undoubtedly diminished in the absence of the hoped-for Mongol alliance." and later on the same page "In that year the West rejoiced at news that a Mongol army under a new Il-Khan, Ghazan, had retaken Jerusalem, which was now thought to be safe for Christianity. The news was, of course, a considerable exaggeration of the facts, for Ghazan's control of the Holy Land only lasted a few months, and he was the first of the Il-Khans to accept the Moslem faith, a piece of information his envoys withheld from the West." | 1997 |
107 | Prestwich, Michael | Edward I | 332 | failure | Mongol alliance | "The failure of the Mongol alliance was but one of the many obstacles in the way of Edward's crusade in the early 1290's." | 1997 |
108 | Housley, Norman | The Later Crusades | no alliance | alliance | "...although Oljeitu, Ghazan's successor, made several overtures to Philip the Fair, Edward I, and Pope Clement V in the new century's first decade, no alliance was forthcoming." | 2002 | |
109 | Knobler, Adam | "Pseudo-Conversions and Patchwork Pedigrees"[10] | 184 | attempts | alliance | "The centerpiece of this diplomacy was the attempt to form an alliance against the Mamlûks in conjunction with a Latin crusade to re-cover the East." | 1996 |
Antioch
[edit]Did Bohemond VI, Prince of Antioch and Count of Tripoli, ally with the Mongols, or submit to the Mongols? I say submit:
Number | Historian | Book | Page # | Descriptor | Quote | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Morgan, David | Mongols (2nd ed.) | 135 | submission | "The Crusader ruler of Antioch and Tripoli hastened to make his submission and to join forces with the all-conquering Mongols" | |
2 | Jackson, Peter | Mongols and the West | 117 | surrendered | "The city of Antioch...surrendered and accepted a Mongol resident. Prince Bohemond VI, perhaps under the influence of his father-in-law King Het'um of Lesser Armenia, waited upon Hulegu in person and was allowed to reach a settlement that covered his county of Tripoli as well." | |
3 | Richard, Jean | Crusades: 1071-1291 | 410 | submission | "Under the influence of his father-in-law, the king of Armenia, the prince of Antioch had opted for submission to Hulegu" | |
4 | Grousset, Rene | Epic of the Crusades | 259 | joined forces | "The prince of Antioch-Tripoli, Bohemund VI, in agreement with the King of Armenia, Hethoum the Great, resolutely joined forces with them." | |
5 | Tyerman, Christopher | God's War | 806 | Mongol overlordship | "Bohemund VI of Antioch-Tripoli, briefly one of Outremer's most important power brokers, had already accepted Mongol overlordship, with a Mongol resident and battalion stationed in Antioch itself, where they stayed until the fall of the city to the Mamluks in 1268." | |
6 | Nicolle, David | The Mongol Warlords | 114 | submission | "Bohemond VI of Tripoli and Antioch, along with neighbor and father-in-law, the Armenian King Hethoum of Cilicia, had become vassals of Hulegu. Both had received extra territory in return for their submission. Antioch's action was, however, denounced in the Crusader Kingdom of Jerusalem and Bohemond was not particularly well treated by his new Mongol overlord. His lands were still ravaged by Mongol raiders and, in the words of his contemporaries, he 'tasted the baseness of Tartar slavery'. Later stories of the honour in which Bohemond was held by Hulegu appear to be fables, like the story that Bohemond accompanied Kit-Buqa during the capture of Damascus, where he converted a mosque into a Latin church." | |
7 | Howorth, Henry Hoyle | History of the Mongols: From the 9th to the 19th century | 166-167 | pay tribute | "Soon after this Bohemund, Prince of Antioch, and many other Christian princes agreed to pay tribute to the Mongols | Published 1876 |
8 | Runciman, Sir Steven | "The Crusader States, 1243-1291 (in Setton's Crusades)[11] | 572 | vassal | "Hetoum I, king of Armenia, had long been an advocate of alliance with the Mongols. In 1254 he had himself visited the Great Khan Mongke at Karakorum. In return for calling himself the Khan's vassal he was promised increase of territory and protection against the Anatolian Turks. He persuaded his son-in-law Bohemond VI, who seems in some way to have regarded him as an overlord, to follow his policy. When Hulagu appeared in northern Syria, Hetoum and Bohemond hastened to pay a deferential visit to his camp" | |
9 | Amitai-Preiss, Reuven | Mongols and Mamluks: The Mamluk-Īlkhānid War, 1260-1281[12] | 24 | tributary/submission | Already in 1246, it is reported that Bohemond V of Antioch, along with King Het'um of Cilician Armenia ... had become a tributary of the Mongols. In 1259, as the Mongols approached Antioch, his son and successor, Bohemond VI, went with his father-in-law, the same Het'um, and made his submission to Hulegu. | 1995 |
Cilician Armenia
[edit]- Point of dispute at Talk:Franco-Mongol alliance: Did the Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia, under King Hetoum I of Armenia, ally with the Mongols, or submit to the Mongols? I (Elonka) say that the consensus of modern historians is that the correct definition is "submission."
Number | Historian | Book | Page # | Descriptor | Quote | Notes |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Richard, Jean | "European voyages in the Indian Ocean and Caspian Sea (12th-15th centuries)" in Journal of Persian Studies | 46 | submission | "The Mongol conquest of Persia and Mesopotamia removed the obstacles to these journeys, and the submission of the Armenian King of Cilicia and the Seljuq Sultan of Turkey to these same Mongols guaranteed the Europeans an easy access to the territories controlled by the conquerors." | |
2 | Cahen, Claude | La Syrie du Nord | 693 | Vassals (vassaux) | "Le roi Hethoum a obtenu les bonnes graces du grand Khan, et Antioche, en se reconciliant avec les Armeniens, entresdans l'orbite mongole elle aussi. Mais en Egytpe, le regime ayyoubide a ete reuverse par la milice des Mamlouks qui, sous la conduite de grands sultans, expulsera les Mongols et leurs vassaux franco-armeniens de toute la Syrie" (approx trans: King Hethoum was in the good graces of the Great Khan, and Antioch, linked with the Armenians, entered into the Mongol orbit as well. But in Egypt, the Ayyubid regime had been deposed by the Mamluk military, who, under the direction of the sultans, expelled the Mongols and their Franco-Armenian vassals from all of Syria) | |
3 | Stewart, Angus Donal | "Logic of Conquest" | 8 | subjection | "The Armenian king saw alliance with the Mongols -- or, more accurately, swift and peaceful subjection to them -- as the best course of action." | |
4 | Jackson, Peter | Mongols and the West | 74 | submission | "King Het'um of Lesser Armenia, who had reflected profoundly upon the deliverance afforded by the Mongols from his neighbbours and enemies in Rum, sent his brother, the Constable Smbat (Sempad) to Guyug's court to offer his submission." | |
5 | Amitai-Preiss, Reuven | Mongols and Mamluks: The Mamluk-Īlkhānid War, 1260-1281[13] | 24 | tributary/submission | "Already in 1246, it is reported that Bohemond V of Antioch, along with King Het'um of Cilician Armenia ... had become a tributary of the Mongols." | 1995 |
6 | Nicolle, David | The Mongol Warlords | 114 | submission | "Bohemond VI of Tripoli and Antioch, along with neighbor and father-in-law, the Armenian King Hethoum of Cilicia, had become vassals of Hulegu. Both had received extra territory in return for their submission." | |
7 | Riley-Smith | The Crusades | 82 | subject power | "In the 1250s King Hetoum entered, as a subject power, into an alliance with the Mongols." | |
8 | Runciman, Sir Steven | "The Crusader States, 1243-1291 (in Setton's Crusades)[14] | 572 | vassal | "Hetoum I, king of Armenia, had long been an advocate of alliance with the Mongols. In 1254 he had himself visited the Great Khan Mongke at Karakorum. In return for calling himself the Khan's vassal he was promised increase of territory and protection against the Anatolian Turks. He persuaded his son-in-law Bohemond VI, who seems in some way to have regarded him as an overlord, to follow his policy. When Hulagu appeared in northern Syria, Hetoum and Bohemond hastened to pay a deferential visit to his camp." | |
9 | Luisetto, Frederic | Armeniens et autres chretiens d'orient | 237 | Soumission (submission) | "1244: Soumission d'Hét'oum Ier, roi de Cilicie" | 2007 |