The Dragon Turns its Gaze to the West: The Mongol Empire’s Global Diplomacy in the Mirror of Outsiders’ Chronicles

In the political confrontation between the Emperor Frederick II and Pope Innocent IV, both sides sought allies not only in the West but also in the East, and the search was not fruitless. A comparative analysis of contemporary Latin, Rus, and Mongol sources shows that the split and confrontation between the Holy Roman Empire and the Church took place while the Mongols were making preparations for a new campaign of conquest against the West. Alarming rumours about Frederick’s readiness to take assistance from Mongol forces based in Rus reflected the diplomatic preparations for a new Western campaign, announced by Güyük Khan. In addition to the Holy Roman Emperor and the pope, the Latin emperor of Constantinople, Baldwin II, King Louis IX of France, King Béla IV of Hungary, and the Rus prince Daniel Romanovich were also tied into the wide diplomatic network of the Mongols, whose aim was to intensify the divisions between the rulers of the West and pressure them into peace agreements on their terms.