The Devil’s Horsemen: The Mongol Invasion Of Europe

On Christmas Day 1241, the armies of Batu Khan, the founder of the Golden Horde, crossed the Danube while the disunited kingdoms of the West lay at their mercy. The Mongol invasion of Europe was entering its final phase, and it seemed as if all of Christendom was about to be destroyed by soldiers from Hell.The Devil’s Horsemen is an examination of the origins and consequences of this extraordinary campaign. Based on a wealth of contemporary sources, it describes in detail the tactics and training of the finest army the world had ever seen, and tells the story of Subedei Bahadur, the illiterate military genius who brought 20th-century warfare to medieval Europe.Remembered today only as savage barbarians, the author shows how the Mongols were in fact formidable soldiers who invented strategies and tactics later adopted to devastating effect by Rommel and Patton.Chambers also explains how one of the most impressive military operations in history resulted in the drawing together of the two hemispheres of the old world and the start of East-West communications. In particular, he chronicles the uneasy relationship that developed between the papacy and the Mongol Khans and pin-points the reasons for the Church’s failure to consolidate the spread of Christianity in the East.Finally, Chambers establishes that Europe was saved from Mongol domination solely by chance – had Ogedei and Mangku, last of the great Khans, lived only a few years longer, the largest empire ever known would have stretched not just to the Carpathians and the Euphrates, but as far as the Atlantic Ocean itself.