Golden Horde

Golden Horde (Tatar āltūn ordū, “golden army”), name applied to a great body of Mongols and Tatars, who, under Mongol leader Batu Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, overran eastern Europe; and to the khanate, or empire, that the Mongols established on the banks of the Volga River and that is also known as Kipchak. The army led by Batu was one of three dispatched to Russia in 1235 by Ögödei Khan, the successor of Genghis. The Mongols crossed the Ural River in 1237 and penetrated to the center of Russia, pillaging, burning, and killing. Moscow, Kyiv in Ukraine, and other cities were taken and razed, and their inhabitants put to the sword. From Russia, the Mongols passed into Poland, Silesia, and Hungary. Lublin and Kraków were laid waste in 1240, and Breslau (now Wrocław) was burned the following year. Near Legnica, on the field known as the Legnickie Pole, Batu defeated an army of Silesians, Poles, and Teutonic Knights in April 1241. Unsuccessful in the siege of Neustadt, however, the Horde turned eastward, and Batu pitched his gorgeously embroidered silk tent (which gave rise to the appellation golden) on the banks of the Volga River. From there, he summoned the Russian princes to his presence to do him homage. Batu's settlement was called Sir Orda (“Golden Camp”). The empire he established over the Russians was maintained until the power of the khans was broken by Ivan III Vasilyevich, grand prince of Muscovy, in the late 15th century.