ABSTRACT
The Mongol invasions of Europe, and the larger set of Mongol-European interactions, comprise a field in which opinions differ even on fundamental issues that shape an overarching picture of events. After four years of the Mongols conquering territory west of the Volga, the old capital of the Rus’, Kiev, fell in December 1240. Sources from Mongol courts note their forces were divided along five routes as they advanced on Hungary in the first months of 1241. The northern “right” group under Orda (Batu’s elder brother) and Baidar (a Chaghadaid prince) moved swiftly through Poland, which at the time was fragmented into five principalities. They sacked Lublin and Sandomir in February. A “single, satisfying explanation” for the sudden withdrawal of the Mongols from the Kingdom of Hungary in 1242 is still a desideratum in the historiography, but several theories have been offered to explain it.
