The battle of Muhi is over. The field is filled with bodies. Both Hungarian and Mongol. The King is running away with a handful of knights and with Mongols in his trail. Many warriors are trying to get away through the fields, forests and marshes. The glorious and victorious Mongol army started their march into the heart of the country…
WARNING: in the following there will be pictures of skeletons. If you don’t like to see them, I advise on not enlarging the pictures!
The second and third phase of the invasion
If we would like to divide the Mongol invasion of Hungary into parts, then the first phase could be the border attacks and the first movements until the battle of Muhi. The second and third phases were mostly dominated by besieging of the villages and cities (the difference between the phases is the side of the river Duna). From archaeological evidences we know, that most of the important settlements were reinforced with palisade or walls, made out of earth, weeks before the invasion. However these were not enough to keep the Mongols, who were experts in sieges too, outside. Villagers from non-protected settlements often decided to hide in nearby marshes or hills. This saved their life in some cases, in other only delayed their fate. Using force, siege equipment or tricks, city after city fell. Eger, Pest, Várad, Szeged and many other settlements and plenty of villages couldn’t be protected from the Horde.
The ruins of these places still show us the cruelty of the attackers. Women and children were killed next to men, or brought away as slaves. Executions were carefully planned and carried out, with high ‘efficiency’. Of course violence was a part of military campaigns at that time, but the scale and organisation were horrific to the Hungarians.
A skull of a dog, protecting its owners. Killed by sabre and mace [https://m.mult-kor.hu/ritka-pillanatkep-1241-bol-elfeledett-kzepkori-varos-a-bugaci-homokban-20200715?fbrkMR=cookie] 
Skeletons of executed children [https://m.mult-kor.hu/ritka-pillanatkep-1241-bol-elfeledett-kzepkori-varos-a-bugaci-homokban-20200715?fbrkMR=cookie] 
The skeleton of a small boy and girl and maybe their mother. They hide and died inside the oven [https://sirasok.blog.hu/2010/04/16/halottak_a_kemenceben]
However, there were places that could withstand Mongol attacks. These places had stone defences, trained soldiers protected them (e.g.: with crossbows) or simply the terrain made a successful siege hard or even impossible for the Mongols.
In the summer of 1241 the combined Mongol troops decided on pausing operations and resting the last six months of campaign. They conquered most of Great Plains around the river Tisza, which was suitable for them to stop and set up camps. They waited until January 1242. The winter of 1241-1242 was really cold. Although Hungarian troops hold most of the strongholds along the western side of the river Duna (Danube) and constantly broke the ice on the river, the Duna got frozen. Legend says that the Mongols moved some horses (or cattle) on the frozen river and waited. The Hungarians couldn’t see any enemy, rushed on horses to them and brought them back to their side. This was enough for Mongol scouts to identify the parts where ice was strong enough to hold the troops while crossing. With this the third phase of the invasion started, during which more settlements were destroyed.
The King’s journey
After the battle of Muhi, Béla IV fled the field of battle and escaped to the Western borders with his retinue, where his family and some of the church leaders were evacuated before the battle. He turned for help to his cousin, Friedrich, the Duke of Austria. The Duke invited the King to negotiate, but when Béla arrived he was captured. To be free he had to pay a huge amount of money, golden and silver plates, plus had to pawn 3 Western counties, which were immediately invaded by the Duke’s troops. The Duke planned on stopping the Mongols on Hungarian soil and sent for help to the Holy Roman Empire, but neither help, nor the Mongols arrived. Austrian soldiers occupied the castles of Kőszeg and Győr, but were beaten out by local Hungarian units.
After the Austrian fiasco Béla IV went first to Segesd, then to Zágráb (today Zagreb in Croatia). He sent several letters to the Pope and other foreign monarchs, but no help was sent to help him holding the line of the Duna. Seeing how the cities and castles were taken one by one, Béla decided on fleeing to the city of Trau (today Trogir in Croatia), which is on an island, after the Mongols crossed the Duna. A Mongol detachment followed him to Dalmatia, but they couldn’t get to the island, as the sea and mud were not suitable for crossing. Finally, during the spring of 1242 the Mongol units disappeared suddenly. Not just from Dalmatia, but from the whole country.
The Mongols are leaving
There are many theories why the Mongols left Hungary in a short time. One, which seems the most credible, is that the great Khan Ogodei died on December 1241, the news reached Batu in around February 1242 and he had to move to join the Kurultai to elect the new great khan. Another is that the Mongols lost so many men in the previous campaigns and during the invasion, that they had to retreat for reinforcements. Or that the great plains of Hungary couldn’t provide enough forage for all the horses, or that the Hungarian campaign was just a side quest and the main aim was to conquer the Cumans, in which they succeeded.
We may never know which theory is the best, in Hungary the Kurultai version is the widely accepted one. What is certain, that the Mongol troops went away, leaving the middle of the country in ruins, the population dead, enslaved or in poor condition (sources say that even cannibalism appeared in some places). If this would not be enough in the following years famine and a locust invasion decimated the population.
Aftermath and consequences
After the Mongols left the country, Béla IV had to rebuild what was destroyed. As with many things there are no universally accepted number for the population loss. Older sources state that around 50% of the whole population died or was enslaved. The newer ones say that the number is more likely 15-20%, which is still a significant amount. After returning, the King decided on several reforms. He made many land grants, but as an exchange, he demanded military service from the nobles. He decreased the amount of soldiers nobles needed to send into the royal army, so that the remaining ones had better equipment. A programme was started to build more and more stone castles and reinforced forts, which could be used as a safe heaven for the local population. In 1246 he made peace with the Cumans and granted them lands within the country. For the next centuries the Cumans will be one of the main pillars of the royal armies of Hungary.
The tales of the total destruction of the whole country could not be so true, especially if we closely examine the military campaigns in the following years: in 1242 the remaining Hungarian troops had enough strength to drive out the Austrian units from the Western counties. In 1243 Hungary joined both a Polish civil war and a war with Venice over Dalmatia. Béla even had enough power to suppress a ‘rebellion’ in Bosnia. From 1243 to 1245 several campaigns were led into Halic, although with limited successes. If the whole army and population would be destroyed, how could Béla had so many wars in a short amount of time?
The Mongols tried to invade Hungary again in the following decades but with limited or no success. Later, the internal problems of the great Empire eliminated this threat fom the Hungarian borders.
For all his hard work today Béla IV is called as the Second Founder of the Nation.
Well, with this post the first part of my project is closed. I rushed through all the relevant history and hope that I could write something new and/or interesting for you. If you would like to have more info, check the sources at the end of all the posts. The next part of the project will be the army building and some games to play. Hope you will join me there too!
Sources:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friar_Julian
https://hu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tat%C3%A1rj%C3%A1r%C3%A1s
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Mongol_invasion_of_Hungary
B. Szabó János: A tatárjárás – A mongol hódítás és Magyarország (The Mongol invasion and Hungary)
https://sirasok.blog.hu/2010/04/16/halottak_a_kemenceben
https://m.mult-kor.hu/ritka-pillanatkep-1241-bol-elfeledett-kzepkori-varos-a-bugaci-homokban-20200715?fbrkMR=cookie
Minis with moustaches 
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