There is a certain stereotype that a great ruler and military leader should look stern and formidable. As for our today’s hero, he was often ill during his not very long life and looked like an “old woman with a beard”, if we believe the description of his cousins.
Nevertheless, after Genghis Khan, he was the most powerful man in the history of the Mongol Empire. He owned more land than anyone else; controlled the treasury of the entire state; and could appoint khans at will, whom he outranked in power.
Who was Batyi? Why did he not become the supreme ruler of the Mongol Empire?
His father Dzhuchi was born immediately after Genghis Khan had returned his wife Borte from the Merkite captivity. Therefore, the khan already then closed the question of the boy’s origin, saying that the child was conceived before his beloved fell to his enemies. Nevertheless, this prevented the firstborn son of the ruler to inherit the throne of the Mongol Empire. And though at the time of Juchi’s sons this story was no longer remembered, they still had to keep it in their minds.
And sons at the senior tsarevich was a lot. Historians till now have not established full number, but figures are named in a wide interval from 13 up to 40. Therefore there is some confusion in family dynasties of Djuchid, rulers of Crimean, Kazan, Kazakh, Uzbek and Siberian khanates.
Anyway, our hero, born a few years after the foundation of the Mongol Empire, was not the first. The eldest son of Djuchi was Orda-Ezhen, who was born of another mother. Nevertheless, after the death of the common father, Genghis Khan, who was still alive, it was Batu who passed on the primacy.
Batu in a Chinese engraving
We do not know how his youth was spent, but the young man must have received a typical Mongol princely upbringing. What we do know is that he was often ill, and was visited by his cousin Munkae, the son of Genghis Khan’s youngest offspring, Tolui. Even the name Batu, re-interpreted to Batu in the Russian chronicles, testified to his poor health. In Mongolian this word means “strong”, and such names were given to sickly children with a wish to prolong their age.
In 1227, when Batu was eighteen, his grandfather appointed him at the head of the family line of Dzhuchids. Thus, Horde-Ezhen got the eastern part of the paternal possessions, and our hero — the western lands, which still had to conquer. However, he did not do this, and spent a long time in China, where he participated in the conquest of the Jurchen empire Jin. For ten years he gained military experience, gained fame as a promising commander, and in 1235 was appointed head of the long-planned western campaign.
Historians still argue about the size of the army was sent to Europe. But it is necessary to remember, that in it there were 13 tsarevich-chingizids. At that time to command a detachment less than a tumen for them was somehow not comilfo. Therefore I believe in the figure of 120 thousand — minus the troops intended for Batu himself, who was the supreme commander.
He showed himself to be a good commander, who knows how to break armies and take cities. But most importantly, a man who never loses his head. During the battle of 1241 at the river Szajó, the Hungarian army repulsed several Mongol attacks, and the battle was actually won by Subudai, who changed the original plan. Batu found in himself moral forces to publicly apologize to the old man.
When winners of Russia, Volga Bulgars and Polovtsians have met together and have arranged a feast, Buri, grandson of Chagatai, has complained on injustice that at Batu now such big possessions. And Guyuk, son of Ugedei, laughed at him and compared his cousin to an old woman with a beard. Toluid Munke, on the contrary, supported his old friend and current chief. This family conflict became a harbinger of the collapse of the empire and the division of the Genghisids into coalitions. On one side stood the descendants of Dzhuchi and Tolui, on the other — the descendants of Chagatai and Ugedei.
Soon the tsareviches were withdrawn, in connection with what it is considered, that the attack to the Central Europe Batu began by own forces. At least now his armies did not outnumber the European armies: at the battles of Chaillot and Legnica the Mongols were fewer in number than the Hungarians and, accordingly, the Poles.
Who knows whether he planned the conquest of the region or whether he wanted to strike fear and secure his rear. However, letters were sent demanding submission to the Hungarian king and the German emperor. The former preferred to kill the ambassadors, the latter reduced the matter to a joke and promised to become Batyi’s falconer.
Nevertheless, soon came the news that the great khan Ugedei had passed away. Subudai advised to continue the campaign, but Batu showed that he was not so much a warrior as a politician. He preferred to return and fortify his ulus to prepare for a possible attack. Since the Juchids would not send their ambassadors to Karakorum for elections, the kurultai was not held until five years later.
In the end, Buyuk did sit on the throne, and immediately moved an army on his cousin. However, the first civil war in the Mongol Empire did not take place — he passed away during a campaign against the Golden Horde. It is quite probable that poison was used: the great khan was a healthy forty-year-old man, and Mongols at that time often thus eliminated rivals.
The next throne was occupied by Munkhe, who was always considered a friend of Batu. And the latter, as a reward for his forceful support, received the title of the head of the family, that is, the senior in rank among all the Genghisids with the ability to stick his nose in all their squabbles. In addition, our hero acquired pleasant material bonuses. He was appointed treasurer of the entire Mongolian state, under the suzerainty of the Golden Horde transferred Georgia, Azerbaijan and the Seljuk sultanate in Anatolia. Thus, Batyi not only won the impending civil war without a fight, but also became the most influential man in the world.