Dummies on spare horses to fake an army
Editorial contextBishop Benedict of Várad chased a small Tartar band that had sacked Eger. Knowing they were few but had many horses, the Tartars made dummies and figures, set them on the empty horses like riders and hid them behind a low hill. When they pretended to retreat and the 'army' of dummies came out in battle order, the Hungarians thought they had fallen into an ambush and fled, and were cut down.
They made a great many masks and figures, setting them on the empty horses as if they were soldiers. And they left those horses below a little hill, with a few servants left with them … And when these came out from under the hill with the masks, in battle order as had been agreed, the Hungarians, seeing this and thinking an ambush had been laid for them, turned their backs and quickly took to flight.
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Fecerunt autem laruas et monstra quamplurima; ea super equos vacuos tamquam si essent milites ordinando. Et equos illos sub quodam monticulo, paucis cum eis relictis seruientibus dimiserunt … Et dum ipsi cum laruis exierunt sub monte, et ut condictum erat acie ordinata; Hungari hoc videntes, et opinantes eis insidias factas terga dederunt, et fugam velociter inierunt.
About A Tartar (Mongol) raiding party
Keep in mind
Roger was not at this skirmish; he reports it from those who were.
A 13th-century poem calls the Tartars cannibals
Editorial contextIn his notes d'Avezac prints lines, copied by Thomas Wright from a Cotton manuscript, of John of Garland's poem On the Triumphs of the Church. It paints the Tartars as Satan's household and the Church's plague who eat human flesh: no lion eats a lion and no wolf tears a wolf, but these men roast human limbs on spits. D'Avezac traces the poet's 'reliable' information to atrocity letters from priests in central Europe.
A people exceedingly savage, of Satan's household, a plague to the Church, at odds with the faith, in love with slaughter. … Hungry, man gnaws man; no lion fills its slack belly with lion's flesh; no wolf tears a wolf with its claw; this people turns limbs spitted on hazel skewers over the fire.
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Gens est sæva nimis, Sathanæque domestica, pestis Ecclesiæ, fidei dissona, cædis amans. … Esuriens hominem corrodit homo; leo nullus Carne leonina viscera laxa replet; Non lupus ungue lupum lacerat; gens ista colurnis In veribus vertit membra veruta foco.
About Tartars (Mongols invading Europe, 1241)
Keep in mind
War propaganda built on rumour; Garland never met a Mongol. The poem's Latin is quoted from a single manuscript copy and the OCR is rough.
Hungarian hymns called the Cumans 'Tartars'
Editorial contextKuun shows how loosely the name was used in medieval Hungary. Hymns to St Ladislaus sometimes call the Cumans 'Tartars', and the chronicler Thuroczy says the chief of the Cumans whom King Stephen II took in (in 1129) was himself named Tatar. This is more than a century before the Mongol invasion of 1241, so 'Tatar' here is a personal name and a label for steppe Turks, not for the Mongols.
In the old Latin and Hungarian hymns of St Ladislaus the Cumans are sometimes called Tartars … Thuroczy, in his Chronicle, likewise names the supreme chief of the Cumans received into Hungary by King Stephen II 'Tatar': 'King Stephen loved the Cumans at that time; their chief, named Tatar, had fled with a few men to the king from the slaughter by the (Greek) emperor'.
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In antiquis hymnis latinis et hungaricis sancti Ladislai Cumani interdum Tartari nuncupantur … Thuroczy in suis Chronicis, Cumanorum a rege Stephano II in Hungariam receptorum summum ducem itidem Tatar nominat: «Rex autem Stephanus, diligebat Cumanos tunc temporis; quorum dux nomine Tatar, qui a cede imperatoris (Graecorum), cum paucis, ad regem fugerat»
About Cumans (Qipchaqs) in Hungary
Keep in mind
Kuun is assembling medieval Hungarian testimony; Thuroczy wrote in the 1480s about events of 1129.
Checked against the page image.
Bait on the ice: how they crossed the frozen Danube
Editorial contextIn a hard winter the Danube froze over, which had not happened for many years, but the Tartars did not dare ride onto the ice. They drove horses and cattle onto the bank and left them unguarded for three days. The Hungarians, thinking the enemy gone, crossed and led the animals over the ice, which showed the Tartars that it would bear horses; they then crossed in one rush (as the next page tells).
And then in winter a great deal of snow and ice came, so that the Danube froze, which had not happened for many years past. … They brought many horses and animals onto the bank of the Danube and left no one to guard them for three days, so that the beasts seemed to be wandering without keepers, and none of the Tartars appeared in those parts.
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Et ecce in hieme niuis et glaciei abundantia superuenit, ita quod Danubius, quod non acciderat a multis retroactis temporibus, gelabatur. … Multos equos et animalia super ripam Danubii adduxerunt, et neminem per tres dies ad eorum custodiam dimiserunt; ita quod bestiae sine custodibus pergere videbantur, nec aliquis eorum in illis partibus apparebat.
About Mongol army
Continue in this sourceMaster Roger's lament for Hungary, destroyed by the Tartars (1241 to 1242)1241 to 1242 · 12 passages'Barbarian nations that call themselves Tartars', like locusts
Editorial contextKing Bela IV of Hungary, writing to the German king Conrad IV after the disaster at Mohi, describes the invaders as barbarian nations 'which call themselves Tartars', coming out of the East like locusts from the desert. He lists Greater Hungary, Bulgaria, Cumania, Rus', Poland and Moravia as ravaged, with only some castles and strongholds still holding out, and his own kingdom beyond the Danube occupied.
barbarian nations which call themselves Tartars, coming out of the eastern region like locusts from the desert, having laid waste Greater Hungary, Bulgaria, Cumania, Rus' and also Poland and Moravia, except for certain castles and fortifications which still defend themselves to this day
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barbare nationes, que se Tartaros appellant, de plaga orientali velut locuste ex heremo prodeuntes majore Ungaria, Bulgaria, Cumania, Ruscia nec non Polonia et Moravia, castris et munitionibus quibusdam exceptis, que usque hodie se ipsos defendunt, depopulatis
About Tartars (Mongols of Batu's army)
Continue in this sourceLetters of 1241 on the Mongol invasion, printed in the Golden Chronicle of Hohenschwangau1241 · 11 passagesThe khan's letter: 'You live in houses, how will you escape me?'
Editorial contextJulian carried to King Bela a letter the Tartar ruler had sent, written in 'pagan letters and the Tartar tongue', which a pagan he met in Cumania translated. The khan, calling himself the messenger of the heavenly king, demands Bela's surrender and the return of the Cumans who fled to Hungary, and draws a sharp contrast: the tent-dwelling Cumans might escape him, but a king who lives in houses, castles and cities cannot.
For it is easier for the Cumans to escape than for you, since they, going about without houses, with tents, may perhaps escape. But you, living in houses, have castles and cities: how will you flee my hands?
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Facilius enim est Cumanis evadere quam tibi, quia illi sine domibus cum tentoriis ambulantes possunt forsitan evadere. Tu autem in domibus habitans habes castra et civitates, quomodo effugies manus meas?
About The Tartar khan ('Chayn', probably Batu) and King Bela IV
Keep in mind
Known only through Julian's Latin rendering of an oral translation.
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Forty thousand axemen cut the road
Editorial contextKing Béla had blocked the mountain passes into Hungary with barricades of felled trees. Thomas says the Tartars had forty thousand men with axes marching ahead of the army, cutting down woods, laying roads and clearing obstacles, so that the great barricades of fir and oak were crossed as if they were made of straw, then broken up and burned.
they had forty thousand axe-bearers who went before the army, cutting down forests, laying roads and removing every obstacle from the approaches. Therefore they crossed the barricades that the king had had prepared as easily as if they had been built not of a pile of huge firs and oaks but of light straw
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habebant autem quadraginta millia securigeros, qui praeibant exercitum, sylvas caedentes, vias sternentes, & omnia offendicula ab ingressibus removentes. Quamobrem indagines, quas Rex parari fecerat, tam facile transcenderunt ac si non ex ingentium abietum, & quercuum fuissent extructae congerie, sed ex levibus essent stipulis praeparatae
About Mongol army
Keep in mind
The number is Thomas's figure from report, not a count.
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Turning over corpses for buried flour
Editorial contextAfter the Tartars stormed the island refuge where he had sheltered, Roger lived as a fugitive in the woods. Hunger drove him to creep back onto the island at night and turn over the bodies of the dead in search of buried flour and meat. He hid in caves, dug holes or crept into hollow trees, while (he says on the next page) the Tartars combed the thickets like dogs hunting hares and boars.
So, with hunger and thirst pressing me hard, I was forced at night to go onto the island and turn over the bodies of the dead, to find buried flour and meat to eat, or anything else edible … I had to find caves, or dig pits, or look for hollow trees in which I could hide
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Ita quod necessitate famis et sitis me acrius perurgente de nocte compellebar intrare insulam, et corpora euertere mortuorum, ut sepultam farinam et carnes ad esum mihi, vel aliud comestibile inuenirem … Oportebat me inuenire cauernas, vel foveas facere, vel arbores quaerere perforatas in quas me possem recipere
About Survivors hunted by the Mongols
Continue in this sourceMaster Roger's lament for Hungary, destroyed by the Tartars (1241 to 1242)1241 to 1242 · 12 passagesTartar women fought like men
Editorial contextAmong the cruelties of the occupation, Thomas reports that the Tartars' women armed themselves like men and rode boldly into battle. He adds that they treated captive women even more savagely than the men did, killing good-looking ones out of jealousy and disfiguring others to make them servants. Mongol women travelling and sometimes fighting with the army are also mentioned by Matthew Paris's informants.
Moreover the women of the Tartars, girded with arms in the manner of men, charged boldly into battle like men; they raged more cruelly against captive women, for if they saw any with a more beautiful face, of whom they might in any way fear jealousy, they at once drew a sword and killed them
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Praeterea mulieres Tartarorum virili more armis accinctae in pugnam audacter ferebantur, ut viri, hae in mulieres captivas atrocius saeviebant, si quas enim venustiori vultu cernebant, ex quibus zelotypiae motum possent aliquatenus formidare, statim extracto gladio perimebant
About Mongol women with the army
Keep in mind
An atrocity report Thomas did not witness.
The scan is too rough to double-check this quote by machine. Compare it with the page.
Batu, 'king of kings', and the princes who invaded
Editorial contextRoger lists the Tartar leaders who entered Hungary. Batu is the 'king of kings'; under him a commander Roger calls Bochetor held most power, and Kadan was the bravest. Several more names follow in garbled Latin forms, and Roger gives the army as 500,000 men. It shows how a Latin writer who had met the invaders understood their chain of command.
The king of kings and lord of the Tartars who entered Hungary was called by name Bathus [Batu]. Under him the commander more powerful in the army was called Bochetor. Cadan [Kadan] was said to be the most valiant. Coacton, Feycan, Peta, Hermeus, Cheb and Ocadar were counted as the greater kings among the Tartars; though there were among them very many other kings, princes and mighty men, who invaded the kingdom of Hungary with five hundred thousand armed men.
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Rex regum et dominus Tartarorum qui Hungariam intrauerunt Bathus suo nomine vocabatur. Rector erat sub ipso in militia potentior Bochetor appellatus. Cadan in probitate melior dicebatur. Coacton Feycan Peta Hermeus Cheb Ocadar maiores reges inter Tartaros censebantur; quamquam essent inter eos alii reges quamplurimi, principes et potentes, qui cum quinquies centenis millibus armatorum regnum Hungariae inuaserunt.
About Mongol princes (Batu, Kadan and others)
Keep in mind
The figure of 500,000 is a wild overestimate. Only Batu and Kadan are securely identified; the other names are Latin garblings of Mongol princes and generals.
Islam among the Cumans was called 'the Tartar rite'
Editorial contextKuun notes that Islam had spread among the Cumans and that later Latin church writers called their religion 'the Tartar rite'. He quotes John, deacon of Kukullo, saying that King Louis I of Hungary had the Cuman people, 'wrapped in the Tartar rite', converted to Catholicism. So in church Latin 'Tartar' could simply mean 'Muslim steppe people'.
The Muhammadan religion … spread also among the Cumans, and later Latin church writers called this religion of the Cumans 'the Tartar rite', for example John, deacon of Kukullo: 'He (namely Louis I, king of Hungary) also had the Cuman people, wrapped in the Tartar rite, converted to the Catholic faith'.
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Religio Muhammedanica … etiam apud Cumanos propagata fuit, eam Cumanorum religionem scriptores ecclesiastici latini posteriores «ritum tartaricum» nominabant, ita e. g. Joannes diaconus Küküllőiensis: «Hic etiam gentem Chomanorum, ritui Tartarico involutam … ad fidem Catholicam converti procuravit (scilicet Ludovicus I. rex Hungariae)»
About Cumans in Hungary
Keep in mind
Kuun's statement that the Cumans were Muslims is his interpretation; many Cumans were pagan.
Checked against the page image; a dash in the printed quotation is replaced by an omission mark.
Arrows like locusts at the river Sajó
Editorial contextAt the battle by the river Sajó (Mohi), the Tartars crossed at night by a ford, surrounded the royal camp at dawn and shot into it. Roger says the arrows were so thick they almost shaded the fighters and flew through the air like swarms of locusts, so that the king could not even draw up his lines. He was not in the battle himself and writes from survivors' reports.
For so dense was the shooting of arrows that it almost made shade for the fighters; and the arrows flew through the air as locusts and grasshoppers go in swarms. And so, unable to bear the strikes of the arrows, they fell back inside the ring of the army. The king could not draw up his battle lines
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Tanta enim erat crebrosa emissio sagittarum, quod fere umbram pugnantibus faciebant; et sagittae sicut locustae et bruchus congregatim vadunt, per aera volabant. Et sic sagittarum ictus minime sufferre valentes, infra circulum exercitus retro ibant. Rex vero acies non poterat ordinare
About Mongol army under Batu
Continue in this sourceMaster Roger's lament for Hungary, destroyed by the Tartars (1241 to 1242)1241 to 1242 · 12 passagesThey spared the houses to winter in them
Editorial contextRoger watched Tartar and Cuman raiders return from a night of slaughter in the villages, loaded with spoil. Yet they burned neither grain, straw nor houses. He guessed, and later confirmed, that they meant to winter there and needed shelter and food for their horses. It is a telling detail: these herders used the settled country's buildings rather than destroying them.
Yet they burned neither the crops, nor the straw, nor any houses, but brought all these in to keep themselves alive. From this I firmly concluded that they meant to winter in those parts, or leave their families there, so that in winter they would find shelter and provisions for their horses. All of which I afterwards learned to be true.
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Verumtamen nec fruges nec stramina nec domos aliquas combusserunt, sed in praeseruationem vitae omnia haec induxerunt. Pro eo conieci firmiter ipsos velle in illis partibus hiemare, vel familias suas dimittere, ut in hieme pro equis domos et victualia inuenirent. Quod totum postmodum didici esse verum.
About Tartars and Cumans of Batu's army
Continue in this sourceMaster Roger's lament for Hungary, destroyed by the Tartars (1241 to 1242)1241 to 1242 · 12 passagesBela warns that the Tartars are building forts in Hungary
Editorial contextIn the same letter Bela urges the German princes to march with crossbowmen and supplies, warning that a Tartar hold on Hungary would be a heavy threat to the Empire 'because they are raising many fortifications there'. He also says he knows their strength from personal experience of battle, and that their wealth from forty conquered kingdoms could enrich twenty kingdoms if they were destroyed.
since their being received there, that is of the Tartars, would be most burdensome to the Empire, because they are raising very many fortifications there
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cum eorum ibidem receptio, Tartarorum videlicet, esset imperio plurimum honerosa, eo quod munitiones ibidem plurimas erigant
About Tartars (Mongols of Batu's army)
Keep in mind
A king pleading for help; 'many fortifications' may be an alarm rather than a survey. The Mongols withdrew from Hungary in 1242.
Hungary after the Tartars: church towers the only signposts
Editorial contextHormayr's own nineteenth-century retelling of what King Bela found on his return: church towers the only guides, grass growing in the streets, whole days' journeys without a living soul, thousands of unburied corpses, wolves snatching children, and human flesh sold openly. It is vivid but it is Hormayr's rhetoric, built on chronicles like Master Roger's, not an eyewitness text.
church towers were the only signposts, grass and brush on roads and lanes, whole days' journeys without a human soul, but many thousands of unburied, half-rotted, horribly mutilated corpses
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waren Kirchthürme die einzigen Wegweiser, Gras und Gesträuch auf Strassen und Gassen, ganze Tagereisen weit keine menschliche Seele, aber viele tausende, unbegrabene, halb verwesete, grässlich verstümmelte Leichen
About Tartars (Mongols of Batu's army)
Keep in mind
Editorial narrative written six centuries later; the famine cannibalism detail comes from medieval chronicles and is repeated without a source.