The Mongol Invasion of Europe (As Witnessed By Master Roger, 1241)

may it be allowed to send to you this little writing of mine in order that the entry of the tatas and the very great destruction and harm of the Christian people may stand clearly before you would ship may you read it carefully for indeed you will find in it much that happened before my own eyes and many other things that I experienced myself but should you at times finding it such matters that may appear horrendous and terrible to the human mind you should not be astonished at me the writer all the events but give thanks

to the King of Kings who forgetful of his Mercy did not spare his oppressed people but wetted his sword as the lightning against them I'm not telling this without purpose because he who should fall into the hands of the tatas it were better for him not to have been born and I say this as one who has known it I was among them for a time and a half and death would have been a Solace for life it was but a torture in the year of the Lord's Incarnation 1242 it happened that kutan King of

the humans sent solemn envoys to the king with the message that he had fought the Tartus for many years and twice defeated them but the third time as he was unprepared they suddenly broke into his land and so being unable to have an army he was forced to turn his back to the cursed tatus they devastated most of his land by force and killed his people after the passing of one year of the Lord news came that the tartars were devastating the confines of Hungary adjacent to ruse when this was announced all across Hungary the

hungarians amidst their exceeding hilarities did not believe it and maintained that they had often heard such things about the tatas and always found out they meant nothing said that many things are reborn that have fallen before about the middle of Lent one of the palatine's men arrived post haste to the king and reported in the name of the counter Palatine that the tartars had reached the Russian gate and were destroying the Border obstacles the King was still incredulous but on the fourth day the Palatine himself arrived having ridden night and day and reported that in

early March on the 12th he had engaged them at the gate almost all his men had been cruelly killed by arrows and swords he'd escaped with a few and come to report what had happened the king although quite astounded by the bad news released his archbishops Bishops and others his ispens and Barons firmly and strictly ordering them to gather their troops and returned to him as soon as possible not losing time as urgent necessity and evident need demanded the enormous Mongol attacks on Japan in the 13th century were the largest seaborne Invasion fleets in history

until the Normandy Landings some 700 years later and so our sponsor today is the visceral World War II multiplayer shooter enlisted a great choice for historically accurate Dynamic action and a game where you get a first person view of D-Day itself it's free and available to play on PC Xbox series SX and PS4 and 5 with cross-platform support you can battle in distinct historical campaigns such as Normandy and the battle for Moscow with several more already being worked on for me I was most impressed that the uniforms vehicles and even locations have been crafted with

historical authenticity in mind join me in enlisted and watch me embarrass myself again and again in suitably realistic ways follow the link in the description to get the game as well as three days of Premium Time and several orders for troops and weapons thanks to enlisted for supporting history content on YouTube the city of Aradia was very famous in Hungary therefore many Nobles ladies and peasant women had gathered there even though the bishop had left with some of the Cannons I stayed there with the remaining people who had the castle repaired with a strong wall

so that we could find Refuge there should we be unable to defend the city but when one day the tartars suddenly arrived in my situation in the city was precarious I did not want to go to the castle but ran away into the forest and hid there as long as I could they however suddenly took the city and burned down most of it and left nothing outside the walls of the castle having collected the booty they killed men and women commoners and Nobles alike on the streets houses and Fields they pardoned neither sex nor age

that done they suddenly retreated gathered up everything in the retreat unsettled five miles from the castle they didn't return for days and those in the castle thought they had left because of the strength of the castle when the tartars did not come to the castle for several days and everyone thought that they had completely withdrawn from there many of the Warriors and others who were in The Castle confident that they had withdrawn left the castle and moved together into the houses that still remained outside of it then one day a dawn the Tartus whose whereabouts

they could not know rushed upon them and killed those who did not manage to flee to the castle they immediately surrounded the fortification set up seven Siege engines across from the new wall and bombarded it ceaselessly with stones day and night until the new wall collapsed totally They seized the Warriors cannons and others who had not been killed by The Sword in the attack the late these damsels and Noble girls tried to escape into the cathedral but because they could not easily enter the cathedral they set fire to it and burnt the church together with

the women and whatever there was in the church in other churches they perpetrated such crimes that it is better to keep silent as people get ideas for most evil Deeds then they ruthlessly beheaded the Nobles citizens soldiers and canons on a field outside the city they violated the Saints Graves trampled upon the relics with their sinful feet smashed to Pieces the sensors crosses golden chalices and vessels and whatever else was designed for the service of the altar they dragged men and women alike into the churches and shamefully mistreated and then killed them there after they

had destroyed everything they left the place empty people hiding in the nearby forests came back to find some food and while they were searching among the stones and the bodies the tatas suddenly returned and of those living whom they found there none was Left Alive and this Slaughter was repeated day after day the king of kings and Lord of the tartars who entered Hungary was called by the name of Batu having entirely and single-mindedly destroyed ruse and kumania they decided to occupy Hungary when the king marched out from the city of pescht as I mentioned

and moved with a great number of armed men against the tatars they stopped burning Villages quickly assembled and retreated by the way they had come meanwhile the king encouraged his men to prepare manfully for battle and personally handed out many flags among the Great Men the hungarians though trusting their number made fun of all this and owing to the mat as discussed above had neither mind nor spirit for fighting they thought that any such Calamity would only hit some in particular and not all in general but not now the present was no way like the

past the tartars found a Ford far from the Army and crossed overnight adorned they surrounded the entire Royal Army and started shooting arrows like a hail storm the hungarians being both disconcerted and outwitted by their ruse armed and mounted their horses but the soldiers could not find their commanders the commanders their men and when they set out to battle they marched frankly and slackly arrows were shot into the air so densely that they almost covered the Warriors in Shadow and flew like locusts and grasshoppers that move in swarms unable to resist the shower of arrows

they returned to the camp there the King was unable to set up battle Lines no message not a word was passed among them while the king thought they were going into battle they were escaping rather than going to fight the slaughter among those both fleeing on the broad road towards pesht and those who stayed with the Army were so enormous so many thousand men perished that one could not estimate it nor can one very well trust reports as the loss was so huge thank you no mortal man may have certain knowledge of the major and

lesser Layman who drowned in the marshes and rivers were consumed by fire or perished by the sword horses ran around in the fields and Groves with saddle and bridle but without Riders and was so panicked by the noise that they seem to have gone mad their naying sounded like groaning or crying the tatas were at that time concerned only with slaying people and seemed to care little for loot we who stayed in the forest among the Border obstacles took flight at night towards damashta a large German Village on the Krish River but the Germans did

not let us cross the bridge instead many of them insisted that we had to defend their fortified City together with them which didn't please us at all so we turned off to an island which was being well fortified since I dared not go on I stayed with them when I realized that this place was so well fortified I liked it and I stayed there when I'd been there for a few days with my servants how Scouts reported that the tartars were approaching I hired a guard and a servant each of us heading three horses and

hastened by night to the city of trinad on the muresh river eight miles from the island as we were riding all night as fast as our horses could carry us Adorn we reached chanad but a day before it too had been taken and destroyed by the tatas who had entered Hungary from the other side the whole region was occupied with left our horses in some huts and hid for the day in some pits and at nightfall we crept back in amidst the tatas with great difficulty and fear to the old place and entered the island

eyes downcast and ashamed while we were in such danger my servants who were guarding the horses outside and some others who were with me fled from the island with all my money and my clothing the tartars caught them in flight and cut them down while I remained with one servant and almost naked on the island not much later the news came that the Tartus had taken a dawn that said tamashta the village of the Germans and All Those whom they did not keep alive were beheaded by the sword with horrendous cruelty hearing this my hair

stood on end my body shivered with fear my tongue stuttered miserably for I saw that the inevitable moment of dreadful death was menacing me I also saw human beings when earnestly expecting death unable to grab weapons raise their arms move their steps to places of safety or survey the land with their eyes I saw people half dead of fear I called the people of the island together so that we would be better protected then I left together with the people and taking two children the sons of the headman my host and the only servant I

still had I hid among the Border obstacles pretending to go further into the forest sent word to the father of the children that I was afraid to return to the island thinking that if I kept and hid his sons he would send over Necessities to us but when at the break of dawn the rituals were sent the tartars suddenly arrived and surrounded the island they gave out that they would attack the island from the water thus the Island's people were tricked into defending it from that side the tatas however stormed the unguarded gates on the

other side seized them and took the island without any of us having shot an arrow or engaging with them on Horseback or on foot Not only was it horrible to see how many great crimes and what cruel Deeds they perpetrated there but even to hear it would make people recoil in Terror they took all the booty and left only the bodies when very many people who had hidden after three days thought the tartars had withdrawn they returned to the island to find food and the tartars who were concealed there called them and only very few

escaped when hunger and thirst pained me too much I too was forced to go to the island at night overturning remains to look for hidden flower or meat or some other food stuff whatever I could find I took it deep into the forest after 10 or 20 days I again went to the island behold what grief there was what stench What Fear I think no one however much he imagines all types of suffering would not shudder at this suffering I had to seek caves excavate pits or find Hollow trees to have shelter while the tatas

like hounds tracking rabbits and boars rushed through the thick of the thorn bushes the Shadows of the Groves the depths of the waters and the Heart of the Wasteland they searched the forests for a month or more and since they could not slay everyone there they invented a new trick as follows they captured some who were hiding in the forest and sent them out with the message that whoever gave himself up to their trust before a set deadline would be allowed to return home safely because the people were already dying for lack of food they

fully believed their word and so all who were there returned to their homes and since these forests are vast and innumerable people hid there the land in an area of three days walk came to be repopulated and every village chose its king from among the tatas at its will after this all brought in the crops as it was Harvest time including the hay and the straw and everything else to be stored many of the tatas who were there with us looked at all this and enjoyed and were delighted that fathers redeemed their lives through their

daughters husbands through their wives Brothers through their pretty sisters kept for their pleasure they said bailiffs over the people in order to render Justice and Supply them with useful horses animals weapons presents and clothing so he had peace quotes of Law and everyone obtained Justice the most beautiful girls were sent to them and those who procured them received sheep oxen or horses I often went there to find out if there was any way of getting free all the bailiffs gave the order that from certain Villages the men women and children should appear before them with

gifts we were quite frightened by this news for we did not know its reason therefore I chose to go to the Army rather than stay in the village in such uncertainty the bailiffs went to receive the gifts and after they had received them they led the bearers of the gifts into a valley and killed them there after terribly despoiling them another part of their army turned towards estergum but only a few went that far they mostly settled some distances away and prepared some 30 Siege engines those of esterigum had meanwhile fortified themselves with moats walls

and wooden Towers the commoners knights Nobles and ladies who gathered in that remarkable Fortress was so self-confident that they thought they could resist the whole world but the hungarians and the French and the Lombards who were like Lords of the city realized that they could not hold out so they set fire to the suburbs and the wooden houses of which there were many all the way to the stone Palace in the houses they burned immense amounts of dyed clothes and garments slaughtered the horses buried gold and silver and hid whatsoever Goods they had before retiring

to the Palaces to defend themselves when the tartars found out that all by which they wanted to get rich had been burnt they became very angry and swiftly closed off the city with wooden Palisades so that whoever tried to escape would run into the throat of the sword having taken them swiftly I believe to tell the truth that no more than 15 people were not killed in or outside the city they who would you to be captured and killed the better ladies dressed as beautifully as they could gathered in one of the Palaces and appealed

for an audience with the grand Prince all about 300 of them were LED out of the city to The Prince and asked for the gift of being Left Alive under his rule he however in his anger for not having won any booty ordered them to be robbed and beheaded and that was done right away they held the country both Beyond and on this side of the Danube but the part on this side of the Danube was not as much destroyed because they did not encamp here but only wasted all they found when marching through thus

moving back slowly we reached Transylvania where many people who had survived and several castles were what more with the exception of a few castles they occupied the whole country as they passed through they left the country desolate and empty as I had no hope of survival and a bitter and cruel death was already waiting at the door I thought it were better to die here than be tortured by this steady stings of fear therefore I left the highway as if following the cool of Nature and rushed towards the dense forest with my only servant and

hid in the hollow of a creek covering myself with leaves and branches my servant hid further away so that the chance detection of the one should not cause the unhappy capture of the other were they thus for two full days as in Graves not raising our head and heard the terrible voices of those who following the footprints of urine beasts past close by in the forest and often shouted after the prisoners who were in hiding and when we could no more repress in the Deep Silence of our hearts the very just demands of hunger we

lifted our heads and began to crawl like snakes using arms and legs we mournfully wept and groaned that it would have been easier to Die By The Sword than that the bond of our Limbs and the unity of body and soul fall apart through starvation while we were exchanging such words of consolation a man appeared and as soon as we set our eyes on him we took to fearful flight and did not turn our sight away to see whether he was gaining or falling behind us in Flight we began to walk across the waist and

abandoned land that they had destroyed while retreating Church Towers were our way signs from one place to another and the road they marked for us was rough the roads and paths had vanished grass and Thorn bushes had taken over leaks purslane onions and garlic left in The Gardens of the peasants were when they could be found brought to me as the choices Delicacies The Others May do with mallow House Lake and cowbane Roots we filled our hungry stomachs with these and the spirit of life was revived in our drained bodies finally on the eighth day

after leaving the forest we arrived at the city of albayulia there we found nothing saved the bone and skulls of the Dead the destroyed and Broken Walls of basilicas and palaces soiled by the blood of an enormous number of Christians ten miles from there next to the forest was a village and here four miles within the forest a marvelously high mountain on the peak of it was a rock a looming Crag where a great number of men and women had taken Refuge they received us with joy among tears and inquired about the perils we had

passed through all of which we could not tell them in a few words finally they gave us black bread baked of flour and the ground bark of oak trees and it tasted sweeter than any seminal cake we had ever eaten although we often visited the formerly inhabited Villages forced by need of food it was never safe for us to come down until the king returned to Hungary with many companies of Warriors from the maritime region assisted by the Knights of Rhodes and the Lord's frankopan having been previously informed by hungarians of the retreat of the

tartars and so I have written all this to you father without adding in anything false so that you father who knows about the felicitous turn of my fortune may know as well about the true nature of my Misfortune and danger good health my father remember to follow the link in the description to dive into the chaotic world of enlisted and its historically accurate action clicking on the link will also give you three days of Premium Time and several orders for troops and weapons [Music] foreign