I’m a big fan of military history. Always have been. Especially if it has to do with pointy objects; swords, spears, and the like. It’s no surprise, then, that I am a big fan of Genghis Khan and the Mongol Empire. Maybe “fan” isn’t the best word, since they did a lot of really shitty things (mostly of the murder variety), but I certainly find them interesting and fascinating.
I’ve seen quite a few social media discussions over the years where the subject of Genghis Khan’s Mongols facing medieval European knights. Military history fans certainly love their fantasy match ups, and it’s easy to see why this one would be so appealing. After all, the Mongol cavalry wiped the floor with any force they faced in Asia. They absolutely dominated the continent. No one seemed to have an answer for them. By the same token, mounted, heavily armored knights dominated European warfare. They were an absolute force of nature. Imagine those two forces meeting on the field of battle. How badass would that be? Thing is, you don’t have to imagine. It’s already happened.
In the early 1240s, Genghis Khan’s star general, Tsubodai (Subutai), invaded Europe with around 20,000, maybe 30,000, men. At this point in time, the Mongols knew next to nothing about lands to the west and Tsubodai was essentially sent to scout and gather intel. This wasn’t supposed to be an invasion. More of a reconnaissance expedition. A fact finding mission, if you will. In the process of conducting this fact finding mission, the Mongols went ahead and absolutely spanked several major medieval European armies.
Many people who like to theorize about fictional potential military encounters between the Mongols and European knights generally believe that the knights would prevail. The Mongols’ main weapon was the bow and arrow. This is what made them famous and what built their empire. They were highly skilled archers and horsemen, often having spent their entire lives perfecting these disciplines. This had served them well against their enemies in China and Asia Minor, but how much use could simple archery possibly be against heavily armored knights? After all, the knights had encountered archery before. It wasn’t exactly a novel concept in Europe. But how would the Mongols do against the latest in chain mail and plate armor technology? Chinese lacquer armor was one thing, but this was the finest European steel we’re talking about here! Surely it would give the Mongols a fair bit of trouble.
Not so fast. Let’s talk about the Mongol bows for a moment. These weren’t your run of the mill bows that were common in Europe at the time. Mongol bows had a draw strength between 80 and 120 pounds (hard to pin down exactly, since so few reliable records exist), and had a maximum range of around 500 yards. How powerful is that in real world terms? More powerful than the famed English longbow. That’s pretty impressive.
On top of that, the Mongols at this time weren’t your average, run of the mill, archers. These guys were highly skilled warriors, with a lifetime of constant training under their belt. They spent their life in the saddle and trained with the bow every single day. This resulted in these guys not only being able to shoot their extremely powerful bows with ease, but they were able to do so for long periods of time, at a high rate of speed, and with great accuracy. This enabled the Mongols to put a lot of flying steel in the air in a very short amount of time, while staying safely out of the reach of their enemies. That kind of firepower was absolutely devastating. Even the finest European plate armor stood little chance in the face of Mongol bows.
By comparison, the common European bow would do for hunting or fighting an enemy wearing little to no armor. They weren’t very powerful and didn’t have much of a range. This wasn’t really a problem for European armies, since they had crossbows. A crossbow was a pretty popular ranged weapon in medieval Europe because it was more powerful than most bows and required a lot less training. Not only did this make it easier for medieval European armies to put large numbers of crossbowmen in the field; it also made them easy to replace. If an archer went down in battle, he couldn’t be easily replaced, while pretty much anyone could pick up a crossbow, point it at the enemy, and shoot. Even with very little training, a massed block of crossbowmen could still do some serious damage.
Tsubodai figured this out pretty quickly and decided that he wanted no part of these crossbowmen. While the Mongol bows had superior range to European crossbows, the presence of the latter still made it risky trying to close with the enemy. Tsubodai didn’t have 100,000 warriors at his disposal like he was used to when he faced the Chin back in Asia, and he couldn’t very well afford to waste his men. Now you might wonder why the crossbowmen were even a concern, given that the Mongol bows had superior range. Why would the Mongols even need to close with their enemy? Well, if they didn’t close with the enemy, how would they execute their favorite battlefield stratagem, the feigned retreat?
Mongols (and Tsubodai in particular) were very wily strategists. Even though they were usually outnumbered during their European campaign (and quite a few of their Asian ones), they still usually came out on top, thanks to superior strategy. Whereas the medieval European armies would generally seek to meet their opponent on the field of battle, launch a frontal assault, and rely on their force of arms to carry the day, the Mongols sought out every tiny tactical advantage they could exploit. They even used their enemies’ own ferocity against them. In medieval warfare, most of the battle casualties were suffered when one side decided that they’d had enough, broke, and ran. The victors would then run them down and kill as many as they could. The Mongols were keenly aware of this fact and used it to their advantage with great success.
In the heat of battle, the Mongols would signal a retreat, and almost as one, turn back and run. Their enemies, thinking that the Mongols had lost their will to fight, would pursue, relishing their impending victory. Only, it never came. The retreat was a ruse. The Mongols would use the feigned retreat to get their enemies to pursue them, thereby breaking formation, and stretching their own lines across a great distance. The Mongols would then take advantage of this situation in one of several ways. They could employ what’s come to be known as the “Parthian shot”. As they were apparently running away, they would turn around in the saddle and start shooting at their pursuers . This is a maneuver that could only be executed successfully by a force of extremely good horsemen who were also extremely good archers. The Mongols happened to be both. This maneuver dealt massive casualties to their enemies.
Another tactic the Mongols liked to combine with the feigned retreat was the classic ambush. They would have fresh troops hidden away from the battle, and during their feigned retreat, they would lead their pursuers right into the trap. The fresh troops would then hit the enemy in the exposed flank, causing absolutely massive casualties. And if the troops that moments ago were apparently running away turned back and also engaged their pursuers, they might even manage to completely encircle their pursuing enemy, with devastating results.
The Mongols were also very tough and durable. They could ride all day without getting tired. Their horses, while not as fast or as strong as the European battle horses, were bred for durability and toughness. This meant that while they wouldn’t win a race against mounted knights, they could outlast them. European battle horses were large and strong. They had to be, in order to be able to carry heavily armored knights into battle. And they were fast. But they couldn’t keep up that speed for very long and would tire very quickly compared to their Mongolian counterparts. Once their horses ran out of steam, the knights were practically sitting ducks. They were still highly skilled warriors, absolutely deadly in single combat, but the Mongols wouldn’t engage them on those terms. Rather, with no crossbows to worry about, they would turn back on their exhausted foes and fall upon them with savage fury.
For one, the bow and arrow, while still being the main weapon in the Mongol arsenal, was hardly the only one. Aside from their core of light cavalry of mounted archers, the Mongolian army of this time period also featured heavy cavalry with lances. Also, while the European knights were certainly familiar with bows and arrows, they weren’t familiar with Mongolian bows and arrows. Mongolian bows were extremely powerful. More powerful than anything the Europeans had ever faced; even the English longbow. Combined with the Mongols’ incredibly high skill level, these bows were absolutely deadly, even to knights wearing the latest European plate armor. Combine this with the heavy lancers who could run down fleeing enemies as well as charge at formed ranks, and the knights are in some serious trouble.
But the powerful bows and heavy lances weren’t even the most fearsome weapons in the Mongols’ arsenal. The biggest advantage the Mongols had over their European counterparts was their leadership. They were EXTREMELY well lead. Tsubodai didn’t become Genghis Khan’s no. 1 general by chance. He was a born leader and brilliant tactician. While the Europeans were playing checkers, Tsubodai was playing 4-d chess. A big part of Tsubodai’s success was his intelligence gathering ability. He used spies and scouts to great effect, always staying one step ahead of his enemies. By the time his enemies even knew he was there, Tsubodai already had their number, their strengths, and their weaknesses, as well as a plan for how to exploit them.
Another thing worth noting is that the Mongols moved with incredible speed, especially for their time period. This is because, unlike traditional European armies, the Mongols did not travel with a cumbersome baggage train. Everything they needed, they carried with them. And being composed entirely of mounted warriors, they also had no infantry to slow them down. Each warrior had several remounts (spare horses), enabling them to constantly be on the move. They wouldn’t need to stop in order to rest their horses.
This speed of movement was something their opponents had never encountered before and it had a dual effect. Not only were they able to get from point A to point B in record time; their speed of movement also made their numbers seem much larger than they actually were. Because settled societies simply couldn’t get their head around an army moving that fast, they assumed they were fighting multiple armies. This kept the Mongols’ enemies from concentrating all their forces in one spot and using their superior numbers to their advantage. Instead, they would leave their forces fractured, allowing the Mongols to dispatch them one by one.
Another trait the Mongols had for which the European armies were entirely unprepared, was the Mongols’ unprecedented brutality. Tsubodai wasn’t satisfied merely defeating an enemy on the field of battle. Once the enemy broke and ran, the Mongols would ride them down and kill every last man. Total annihilation was their goal and they accomplished it with terrifying efficacy. They made damn sure that after they defeated an enemy, they could never rise up to trouble them again. They didn’t want the remnants of the force they just defeated to go off and join up with another army.
Even when the Europeans were able to put a sizeable force into the field, they were still at a disadvantage to the Mongols. The Mongol force was organized in units led by skilled commanders who earned their right to command through skill and merit, with a strict top to bottom hierarchy. Discipline and obedience were paramount and strictly enforced. Every warrior knew to whom to answer and everyone knew who was in charge. Their European counterparts were organized slightly differently.
When it came to warfare, the European feudal system presented its own unique set of challenges and limitations. While the various armies may have all coalesced under the banner of a particular prince or duke, they were each commanded by, and loyal to, whichever minor duke or noble brought them there. This could prove to be an issue in battle, as these nobles could simply take their army and go home for any of a myriad of reasons. Maybe they didn’t like the way the battle was going and weren’t too keen on seeing any more of their men slaughtered for a lost cause. Maybe they disagreed with an order the prince had given. Maybe they disagreed with the way the order was given. Maybe they didn’t feel like they were given the honor they were due or didn’t like that another noble was getting preferential treatment. Regardless of the reason, the prince who gathered the army didn’t have absolute command over it.
Tsubodai’s men, on the other hand, were fiercely loyal to their general and would obey his orders without question. Even the Mongol princes who were on campaign with Tsubodai and were direct descendants of Genghis Khan himself, knew better than to question their general when it came to battle. Tsubodai was a brilliant commander with absolute command of a brilliant army. Whereas many in the European ranks weren’t full time soldiers, every single man under Tsubodai’s command was a highly trained professional soldier, who spent every waking hour either fighting or training.
On top of all the issues I’ve already listed, the main one was the issue of unity. While the Mongols were a completely unified force with fierce loyalties and a clear cut command structure, Europe was anything but. A lot of the European Christian kingdoms of the time didn’t really like each other all that much. This was probably the biggest of all the obstacles facing the Europeans in this fight. Even with all of the Mongols’ military prowess, their sophisticated tactics, excellent leadership, and killer weaponry, the Europeans still had a pretty good chance. They were on their own home turf and knew the geography better. That meant that they could essentially pick the battleground that they felt was the most advantageous to them. On top of that, unlike the Mongols, the Europeans didn’t need to forage for food and supplies. One of the big benefits of being at home. Also, they had (at least on paper) the ability to put large numbers of men in the field, dwarfing the Mongols’ numbers. If Europe could present a single, solid, unified front, there was a pretty good chance that it could beat back this fearsome invader. Problem is, they couldn’t.
Europe at the time was a far cry from the Europe of today. There didn’t really exist what you might call a European mentality. People didn’t think of themselves as Europeans. They thought of themselves as Russians, Frenchmen, Germans, and so on. Far from being any kind of a union, Europe at this time was a bunch of small independent kingdoms, most of whom didn’t like each other very much. So when the Mongols came knocking on the door of the kingdoms and principalities in the East of Europe, their neighbors to the west didn’t really see this as much of a problem. The figured “This guy to the East has been a pain in my ass for ages. If the cursed Tatars (what the Europeans called the Mongols), give him a bloody nose, all the better!”
Problem is, the cursed Tatars didn’t stop at a bloody nose. They tended to finish the job. And when they had finished dispatching one kingdom, they would move on to the next one. So now, the kingdoms to the West no longer had the guy to the East to act as a buffer. The cursed Tatars were now knocking on THEIR doors. The guy even farther to the West would look at this situation and react pretty much the same way. He’d figure “Hey, this guy to the East has been a pain in my ass for ages. If the cursed Tatars give him a bloody nose, all the better!” Wash, rinse, repeat. By the time enough European kings got their heads far enough out of their asses to figure out what was going on and what the logical conclusion would be, it was more or less too late. The Mongols were rampaging all over the place, doing as they pleased. They had absolutely demolished every single army that tried to stop them, and Europe was running out of armies with which to fight them and gold with which to bribe them.
In the end, Europe got lucky. Genghis Khan died and Tsubodai and his men got recalled back to Mongolia to participate in the election of the next Great Khan. Had Genghis Khan not been such a heavy drinker, Europeans may very well be speaking Mongolian today. But then again, you don’t become the greatest conqueror in the history of humanity by doing things in moderation.
