51�Թ�

It was spread by the movement of Batu Khan’s Golden Horde.

No European army at the time could have withstood the force of Asia, but the Mongols’ commander, Batu Khan, was summoned back to the Mongol capital at a critical moment to negotiate the succession among his relatives.

It was in 1226, that the Mongol or Tatar hordes led by Batu Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, after invading Russia, Poland, and Hungary, made their first appearance in the Crimea, and laid the foundations of the Tatar kingdom, which was soon to attain a high degree of power.

Batu Khan's tent was pitched in the centre of a vast plain, and round it were gathered a large number of Mongols, some mounted, some on foot.

That morning very early, Paul Héderváry and Ugrin, the Archbishop of Kalócsa, had sallied forth unknown to anyone, to satisfy themselves as to whether the scattered parties of Mongols who had been seen several times beneath the very walls of Pest, were mere bands of brigands, or whether they were part of Batu Khan's army.