Batu Khan

Batu Khan (c. 1205–1255) founded the Golden Horde, a division of the Mongol Empire that emerged after Genghis Khan’s death. He was the son of Jochi, making him a grandson of Genghis Khan by official reckoning, though Jochi’s actual parentage remains highly uncertain. For roughly 250 years, Batu’s ulus controlled the Kievan Rus’, Volga Bulgaria, Cumania, and the Caucasus. Giovanni da Pian del Carpine described Batu as kind to his own people, who greatly feared him, but most cruel in battle, and very shrewd and crafty from long experience in war. He earned the nickname *сайн* (meaning “good”), used by Marco Polo. William of Rubruck noted Batu stood about the height of his lord John de Beaumont and had his entire face covered with reddish spots. After Jochi’s death, Genghis Khan distributed Jochi’s appanages among his sons, installing Batu as Khan of the Golden Horde (also called the Ulus of Jochi or Kipchak Khanate). Jochi’s eldest son, Orda Khan, agreed that Batu should succeed their father. Genghis Khan’s youngest brother Temüge attended the coronation as Genghis’s official representative. Upon Genghis’s death in 1227, Jochi’s family received 4,000 Mongol men. Jochi’s lands were split: Orda’s White Horde ruled between the Volga River and Lake Balkhash, while Batu’s Golden Horde ruled west of the Volga. In 1229, Ögedei sent three tumens under Kukhdei, Sundei, and Humpdei to conquer tribes on the lower Ural River. According to Abulghazi, Batu joined Ögedei’s campaign against the Jin dynasty in North China while his younger brother fought the Bashkirs, Cumans, Bulghars, and Alans in the west. Despite heavy resistance, the Mongols took major Jurchen cities and made the Bashkirs allies. In the 1230s, Ögedei granted Batu and Jochi’s family lands in Shanxi, but they appointed officials under the Imperial governor’s supervision, and similarly in Khorasan. At a kurultai in Mongolia after the Mongol-Jin War, Ögedei ordered Batu to conquer western nations. In 1235, Batu—who had earlier directed the conquest of Crimea—was assigned an army of perhaps 130,000 to invade Europe. His relatives Güyük, Büri, Möngke, Khulgen, Khadan, Baidar, and generals Subutai, Borolday, and Mengguser joined him by Ögedei’s order. The army, actually commanded by Subutai, crossed the Volga and invaded Volga Bulgaria in 1236, taking a year to crush the Volga Bulgarians, Kypchaks, and Alani. In November 1237, Batu sent envoys to Yuri II of Vladimir-Suzdal demanding allegiance. When Yuri refused, the Mongols besieged Ryazan. After six bloody days, the city was annihilated and never regained its former glory. Alarmed, Yuri sent his sons to stop the horde, but they were soundly defeated. After burning Kolomna and Moscow, the horde besieged Vladimir-Suzdal on 4 February 1238. Three days later the city was taken and burned; the royal family died in the fire, and the grand prince fled north. He mustered a new army, which the Mongols exterminated on the Sit’ River on 4 March. Batu then split his army into smaller units that ransacked fourteen Rus’ cities: Rostov, Uglich, Yaroslavl, Kostroma, Kashin, Ksnyatin, Gorodets, Galich, Pereslavl-Zalessky, Yuriev-Polsky, Dmitrov, Volokolamsk, Tver, and Torzhok. The toughest was Kozelsk, whose boy-prince Titus and inhabitants held out for seven weeks. Legend says the city of Kitezh submerged in a lake with all its inhabitants at the news of the Mongol approach. Khadan and Buri stormed Kozelsk in three days after joining Batu. The only major cities spared were Smolensk, which submitted and paid tribute, and Novgorod with Pskov, unreachable due to distance and marshes. At a victory banquet, Batu drank wine before the others. Büri complained that Batu had received such vast, fertile steppe unfairly, and the army, along with Güyük, mocked Batu as an “old woman with a beard.” They left the banquet. Batu sent an envoy to Ögedei complaining of his cousins’ rudeness. Ögedei, angered, recalled Buri and Güyük. According to some sources, Buri—sent to his grandfather Chagatai—never returned to the European campaign; Güyük returned to the Russian steppe after Ögedei harshly criticized him. In summer 1238, Batu devastated Crimea and pacified Mordovia and the Kipchak-controlled steppe. In winter 1239, he sacked Chernigov and Pereyaslav. After several days of siege, the Mongols stormed Kiev in December 1240. Despite fierce resistance from Danylo of Halych, Batu took Halych and Volodymyr. Ruthenian principalities became vassals of the Mongol Empire. Cuman refugees took shelter in Hungary. Batu sent at least five messengers to King Béla IV, but all were killed.