Byzantine–Mongol Alliance
A Byzantine-Mongol alliance[1][2][3] occured during the end of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century between the Byzantine Empire and the Mongol Empire. Byzantium actually tried to maintain friendly relations with both the Golden Horde and the Ilkhanate realms, who were often at war with each other. The alliance involved numerous exchanges of presents, military collaboration and marital links, but disolved in the middle of the 14th century.
Diplomatic overtures
In the early 1250s, the Latin emperor of Constantinople Baldwin II sent an embassy to Mongolia in the person of the knight Baudoin de Hainaut, who, following his return, met in Constantinople with the departing William of Rubruck.[4]
Marital and military alliance under Michael VIII (1263-1282)
Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos, after re-establishing Byzantine Imperial rule, was anxious to establish an alliance with the Mongols,[5] who themselves were highly favourable to Christianity, many of them being Nestorian Christians.
He signed a treaty in 1263 with the Mongol Khan of the Kipchak (the Golden Horde),[6] and he married two of his daughters (conceived through a mistress, a Diplovatatzina) to Mongol kings: Euphrosyne Palaiologina, who married Nogai Khan of the Golden Horde, and Maria Palaiologina, who married Abaqa Khan of Ilkhanid Persia.[7]
According to a 1267 letter by Pope Clement IV from Viterbo, Abaqa had agreed to combine forces with his father-in-law Michael VIII to help the Latins in the Holy Land, in preparation for the Eighth Crusade (the second of Louis IX):
"The kings of France and Navarre, taking to heart the situation in the Holy Land, and decorated with the Holy Cross, are readying themselves to attack the enemies of the Cross. You wrote to us that you wished to join your father-in-law (the Greek emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos) to assist the Latins. We abundantly praise you for this, but we cannot tell you yet, before having asked to the rulers, what road they are planning to follow. We will transmit to them your advice, so as to enlighten their deliberations, and will inform your Magnificence, through a secure message, of what will have been decided."
— 1267 letter from Pope Clement IV to Abaqa[8]
When Michael became an ally of Noghai, he used his help to defend himself against Bulgaria when it tried to attack the Byzantine Empire in 1273 and 1279.[9] A group of 4,000 Mongol soldier was depatched to Constantinople in 1282, just before the death of Michael, to fight against the despot of Thessaly.[10][11]
Marital and military alliance under Andronicus II (1282-1328)
This alliance with the Mongols would also benefit his son Andronicus II; in 1305 Ilkhan Oljeitu promised Andronicus II 40,000 men, and in 1308 despatched 30,000 men to recover many Byzantine towns in Bithynia.[12]
Andronicus II gave daughters in marriage to Toqto'a, as well as his successor Uzbek (1312-1341),[13] but relations turned sour at the end of Andonicus's reign and the Mongols mounted raids on Thrace between 1320 to 1324, until the Byzantine port of Vicina Macaria was occupied by the Mongols.
End of friendly relations
Under Andronicus III relations seem to have turned even more conflictual. In 1341, the Mongols planned to attack Constantinople, and Andronicus III has to send an embassy to stop the attack.[14]
Notes
- ^ The Islamic World in Ascendancy, Martin Sicker, p.132 "This Byzantine-Mongol alliance..." [1]
- ^ "...agreed to prolong the Byzantine-Mongol (Iranian) alliance." Pré-Actes - Page 309 by Gilbert Dagron
- ^ "From 1273 Michael allied with Noghai, giving him an illegitimate daughter in marriage and using him as a means to put pressure on Bulgaria", Jackson, The Mongols and the West, p.202-203
- ^ Jean Richard, p. 377
- ^ "The sustained attacks by the Sultan Baibars (…) rallied the Occidentals to this alliance [with the Mongols], to which the Mongols also convinced the Byzantines to adhere", Jean Richard, “Histoire des Croisades”, p. 453
- ^ Cambridge-p.304
- ^ Runciman, History of the Crusades, p.320
- ^ Quoted in Grousset, p.644
- ^ Jackson, p.202-203
- ^ Jackson, p.203
- ^ I. Heath, Byzantine Armies: AD 1118-1461, 24
- ^ I. Heath, Byzantine Armies: AD 1118-1461, 24-33
- ^ Jackson, p.203
- ^ Jackson, p.203
References
- I. Heath, Byzantine Armies: AD 1118-1461
- Nicol, Donald. The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261-1453, 1993
- Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press, 1991
- Vannier, J-F. Les premiers Paléologues (Etudes prosopographiques), 1989
- Jean Richard, “Histoire des Croisades"
- Peter Jackson, "The Mongols and the West"
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
{{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty|title=(help)
