2020, vol. 8, no. 4. Uzelac A.

2020, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 662-674

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.22378/2313-6197.2020-8-4.662-674

   SAINT LOUIS AND THE JOCHIDS

Aleksandar Uzelac
Institute of History, Belgrade
Belgrade, Serbia
aleksandar.uzelac@iib.ac.rs

Abstract: Research objectives: To provide an analysis of the relations between the Jochids and the French monarch, Louis IX. Particular attention is dedicated to the channels used by the Tatars to obtain information about the political conditions in Western Europe.
Research materials: Contemporary Western sources including the report of the Franciscan traveler, William of Rubruck, and German chronicles in which Berke’s embassy to the French king in 1260 has been recorded.
Results and novelty of the study: The Tatar view of Medieval Europe is an insufficiently researched topic. In the decades that followed the Mongol invasion of Central Europe in 1241–1242, the accounts of Western travelers and chroniclers remain the sole material from which glimpses of the Jochid perspective of the Western world may be discerned. Nonetheless, fragmentary sources at our disposal reveal that the Jochids used Western travelers and envoys to learn more about the Christendom. In this way, the image of Louis IX as the leader of the Christian world was firmly entrenched among the Jochids by the early second half of the thirteenth century. It is attested by Berke’s mission sent to Paris in 1260, and also by testimony of William of Rubruck, recorded several years earlier. According to the Flemish Franciscan author, Batu’s son Sartak, who regarded Louis IX to be “the chief ruler among the Franks”, had heard about the French king from an earlier envoy from Constantinople, Baldwin of Hainaut. The report of Rubruck and other sources at our disposal indicate the importance of the rather neglected Jochid relations with the Latin empire of Constantinople as a channel through which the Tatars gathered valuable reports about the political conditions in the West.

Keywords: Louis IX (Saint Louis), Jochids, Sartak, Berke, William of Rubruck, Constantinople, embassies, diplomats

For citation: Uzelac A. Saint Louis and the Jochids. Zolotoordynskoe obozrenie =Golden Horde Review. 2020, vol. 8, no. 4, pp. 662–674. DOI: 10.22378/2313-6197.2020-8-4.662-674

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About the author: Aleksandar Uzelac – Ph.D. (History), Senior Research Fellow, Institute of History, Belgrade (36/II, Kneza Mihaila Str., Belgrade 11000, Serbia); ORCID: 0000-0003-0626-2928. E-mail: aleksandar.uzelac@iib.ac.rs

Received June 17, 2020   Accepted for publication  November 25, 2020
Published Online December 29, 2020