The more than one thousand years of the history of the Hungarian people is full of devastating events, including the catastrophic Mongol invasion that occurred in the thirteenth century. When the Mongol expansion westward toward Europe began, Hungary was in a state of feudal anarchy. The Golden Bull of 1222, issued by King Andrew II (1205-1235), had given power to the magnates of Hungary to rebel against the king in some circumstances and made the king first among equals (“primus inter pares”) of Hungarian nobles. King Bela IV (1206-1270) tried to restore the king's former power without much success.
The Hungarians first heard about the Mongol threat in 1229 after Andrew II granted asylum to the fleeing Russian boiars. More news came in 1237 when Julianus, a Dominican friar who was leading Magyars from the upper Volga area to Hungary, was arrested by the Mongols. Julianus was sent back to Bela IV with a letter from Batu Khan (1205-1255), the founder of the Mongol Golden Horde in Russia. In the letter Batu Khan ordered the Hungarian king to surrender his kingdom, but Bela did not reply.
Bela IV had heard about the Mongols again in 1239 when a Mongol force under the command of generals Jebe and Subutai defeated the Kun (Cuman) tribes. The Kuns asked for, and received, asylum in Hungary. In return they offered to convert to Western Christianity, which would have enhanced Hungary's prestige with the Pope. Also, the Kuns contributed to Hungary's defense with forty thousand warriors who were experienced in Mongol-style warfare.
At the end of 1240 Batu Khan sent another ultimatum to Bela IV to stop harboring the Kuns. Bela rejected the ultimatum, and sent heralds throughout the kingdom with a bloody sword, which was the symbol of national emergency. This gave the sign to rally the nobles and vassals to the defense of the Hungarian kingdom.
The Hungarians needed more manpower against the devastating Mongol army. So Bela IV asked the papacy and the rulers of Western Europe for help, but this aid came only in the form of a small knight-detachment, which turned out to be of little help. Bela also did not receive firm support from the Hungarian nobility. Some of the Hungarian magnates did not realize the seriousness of the Mongol danger, and others hoped for the defeat of the king's army, which would force Bela to stop his centralizing efforts would weaken the king’s power. To further exacerbate the situation the Hungarian population did not get along with the Kuns, and after a riot in which the Kun khan was killed, the enraged Kuns left Hungary for Bulgaria, looting Hungarian villages along the way.
About two centuries before the Mongol invasion, the tactics of the Hungarian army had been very similar to those used by the Mongols: light cavalry with a sudden rush on the enemy, or a feigned retreat. Unfortunately the Hungarians had stopped using these tactics by the thirteenth century, and although the Kuns used light cavalry tactics, they had left Hungary. By the time Batu Khan's army attacked Hungary, the main force of the Hungarian army was the heavy knights and infantry. But the Hungarians were handicapped by a lack of appropriate tactical knowledge and proper commanders. The Hungarian knights fought more like individual fighters than as an army.
At the end of March 1241, the Hungarian army moved from Buda (the Hungarian capital on the banks of the Danube River) toward the invading armies of Batu Khan in order to stop the Mongol invasion. The Hungarians arrived at the Hernad River and encamped on 10 April without having yet engaged the Mongols. The area was excellent for nomadic tactics with the many tributaries of the Hernad and Tisza Rivers and the numerous forests and meadows; it was not an area suitable for a heavy cavalry army. The Mongols attacked first on the night of 11 April, and quickly defeated Bela's sixty thousand strong army in battle by the Sajo River in Muhi.
After the defeat, Bela fled to Pozsony (present-day Bratislava), with the Mongols after him, until they decided to rest and enjoy the spoils of the war. The Mongols occupied the great Hungarian plains and in the winter, after crossing the Danube River, they moved towards Austria. Only after Batu Khan received the news about the death of the Mongol khan, Ogedei, he and his forces moved back to Asia. Batu was a contender for the throne and therefore had to return for the election of a new ruler. This ended the immediate Mongol destruction in Hungary. Western Europe was saved.
Although the Mongols ravaged and controlled the Hungarian countryside, they could not occupy the forts and fortified cities like Fehervar, Esztergom, Veszprem, Tihany, Gyor, Sopron, Moson, Vasvar, Ujhely, Zala, Nitra, Komarom, Abaujvar, Pannonhalma. As a result of this, the fortresses were strengthened or re-built and later they played a significant role in the future history of Hungary.
Hungary was in ruins, half the population was wiped out by the Mongols. But the threat of another Mongol invasion led to restored sense of national unity and provided a great reason for King Bela IV to expand Hungary's defenses by building forty-four new stone castles in the next ten years. He also expanded the Hungarian army with heavily armored cavalry. Today, he is widely regarded as the second most important founder of the Hungarian nation after Stephen I.
References and suggested websites
- The Corvina History of Hungary (From earliest times until the present day), 1991
- Mogyeriektol Mohacsig, by Varga Domokos, 1992
- Wikipedia entry for The Battle of Mohi
- The Mongol Invasion of 1241, a chapter from A Thousand Years of the Hungarian Art of War
- Hungarian History
- The Mongol invasions: Battle of Liegnitz, the Mongol Invasions of Europe and the entries from the New World Encyclopedia and Wikipedia
- For extra credit please suggest to your instructor a relevant website for this unit of the course. Send the title of the site, the URL and a brief explanation why you find the information interesting and applicable to the material being studied in this unit.