Franco-Mongol Alliance - Christian Vassals

Christian Vassals

See also: Mongol invasions of Georgia and Armenia

As the Mongols of the Ilkhanate continued to move towards the Holy Land, city after city fell to the Mongols. The typical Mongol pattern was to give a region one chance to surrender. If the target acquiesced, the Mongols absorbed the populace and warriors into their own Mongol army, which they would then use to further expand the empire. If a community did not surrender, the Mongols forcefully took the settlement or settlements and slaughtered everyone they found. Faced with the option of subjugation to or combat with the nearby Mongol horde, many communities chose the former, including some Christian realms.

Christian Georgia was repeatedly attacked starting in 1220, and in 1243 Queen Rusudan formally submitted to the Mongols, turning Georgia into a vassal state which then became a regular ally in the Mongol military conquests. Hethum I submitted in 1247, and over the following years encouraged other monarchs to enter into a Christian-Mongol alliance. He sent his brother Sempad to the Mongol court in Karakorum, and Sempad's positive letters about the Mongols were influential in European circles.