After leaving his homeland in the 13th century In the 13th century, the Englishman was able to travel to Crusader states and served as an envoy to the Mongol Empire

The Englishman’s story reveals the interconnectedness that existed in the world of medieval times. It demonstrates how the development of the Mongol Empire set travelers in motion, requiring them to travel long distances and discover new lands and civilizations that were far beyond Europe’s boundaries. Illustration by Meilan Solly / Images from Wikimedia Commons in public domain

The Mongol Storm: Making and Breaking Empires in the Medieval Near East

The way was it that Mongol invasion of the Middle East reshaped the balance of world power during the Middle Ages

The story of the Englishman’s exploits finally reached the country where he was born through a letter written by the cleric Ivo of Narbonne in the year 1243. Matthew Paris, a monk who lived in St. Albans, just north of London, was later able to read the letter and reproduce it to the Chronica Majora, which is a sprawling historical work that concludes in 1259 when he died. death. It is unclear if Paris or Ivo did take the liberty of telling the story of the Englishman is hard to establish, given that there are no other sources that have him mentioned. His life reveals the interconnectedness of the world in the middle ages as it demonstrates how the rising of the Mongol Empire set travelers in motion, forcing them to travel far and discover new lands and cultures beyond the borders of Europe.

The author Antony Eastmond, the author of Tamta’s World Tamta’s World: The Story and Experiences of Tamta’s World: The Life and Encounters of a Medieval Noblewoman from Mongolia to Middle East to Mongolia, explains, “People undertook enormous journeys across the Mongol Empire–as ambassadors, as warriors and as slaves–and returned to their homes with remarkable stories that mixed fact and fiction to create a semi-legendary account of the empire and its peoples.”

When the Englishman was cast into exile, he set out to make a new life for himself in the Middle East. At first glance, this was perhaps a surprising choice. In the 1210s and 1220s, when the Englishman likely arrived in the region, the Middle East was riven by war and upheaval, with many powers locked in a struggle for supremacy. Crusading armies from Western Europe sought to conquer Jerusalem , then under Muslim control, and rival claimants vied for authority over the vast Ayyubid Empire , established by the Muslim leader Saladin in 1171. Most significantly, the Mongol Empire was expanding aggressively into the area, just as it was across Eurasia.

Self-portrait of Matthew Paris Public domain via Wikimedia Commons

In addition to the fact that the Englishman was exiled “for certain crimes,” according to an 1852 translation of the letter written by Ivo, according to an abbreviated version of the Chronica Majora called the Historia Anglorum The historians do not know why or how Ivo decided to travel towards the east. Perhaps he was a part of the band of Crusaders or set off to seek spiritual renewal through a trip towards the Holy Land. There’s a chance that he saw potential in the ambitious as well as brave in the chaos that was sweeping the region. Whatever the reason, it wasn’t the first exiled person to embark on a long journey over the Mediterranean.

Think about, for example, Bonel, for instance. Norman knight Hugh Bonel (also spelled Bunel) escaped from his hometown in the middle of the 11th century after slashing “off the head of the Countess Mabel [of Belleme], because she had taken away his paternal inheritance by force,” according to the English chronicler Orderic Vitalis. In 1099, as the Christian army that was part of the First Crusade was besieging Jerusalem, the city of Jerusalem, they came across Bonel, who had spent long periods within The Middle East. Bonel provided the Crusaders with valuable details about their Muslim enemies’ strategies and practices.

The Englishman was eventually a resident of the port city of Acre, which was then the capital of the Kingdom of Jerusalem immediately following his exile. In the early days, Jerusalem was an important part of the Crusader states, which comprised four Christian territories that were established within the Middle East around the turn of the 12th century in the First Crusade. The Crusader states were once powerful within the area; however, after the victory of Saladin’s forces during the Battle of Hattin in 1187, they were restricted to a tiny strip of land that ran along the Levantine coast.

This drawing, which is from the 13th-century Matthew Paris manuscript, shows Saladin fighting Guy de Lusignan at the Battle of Hattin. Public domain through Wikimedia Commons

Acre is a huge and diverse city; by the mid-13th century, Muslim writer Abu Shama dubbed it the “Constantinople of the Franks,” or people who came from Western Christendom. The city was a magnet for traders from all over Africa and Eurasia, and a variety of languages were spoken on its streets. In the markets, shoppers could buy items that included linen from Egypt ceramics, linen from Egypt, silk from China and locally made sugar that was crystallized. Large ships were sighted from into the Mediterranean Sea daily, bringing merchants, religious pilgrims, and Crusaders to this bustling city of people. The refugees seeking refuge away from Mongols were also seeking refuge within the city’s walls.

The encapsulation of the multitude of people within such a small space made Acre’s harbor dirty with dirt. Acre was a sanctuary for mercenaries, criminals, and exiles; the Englishman was not the only one. The bishop of the city, James of Vitry (also referred to as Jacques of Vitry), was adamant about the fact that, for a lot of people, Acre was a den of vice. “In the city, there were drug and poison traffickers, trust between people was virtually nonexistent, and a man’s foes [were] those of his own household,” James wrote in the 1216 or 1217 letters.

However, the Englishman was not content in Acre. After losing what remained of his earnings, He was stricken with poverty and strayed beyond the borders of states of the Crusaders in search of jobs with rulers from neighboring countries.