We go east again this episode, in the company of a friar who carried a letter to the son of Batu Khan. Was he there on behalf of King Louis IX? Was his mission more personally religious in nature? Why was he so concerned with the noses of Mongol women? All (or most) will be revealed... Thanks for listening!

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Sources:

* Carpini, Giovanni. The Story of the Mongols: Whom we Call the Tartars, translated by Erik Hildinger. Branden Books, 1996.

* The Mission of Friar William of Rubruck, translated by Peter Jackson. The Hakluyt Society, 1990.

* The Mongol Mission: Narratives and Letters of the Franciscan Missionaries in Mongolia and China in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries, edited by Christopher Dawson. Sheed & Ward, 1955.

* Jackson, Peter. The Mongols and the West: 1221-1410. Pearson Longman, 2005.

* Morgan, David. The Mongols. Blackwell, 1986.

* Rachewiltz, Igor de. Papal Envoys to the Great Khans. Faber & Faber, 1971.

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To See the Mongols 4: A William Leaves Town