Daily Medieval

Tenedos (now a Turkish possession called Bozcaada) is an island in the northeast of the Aegean Sea. It was mentioned in the Iliad  and the O...

After the final phase of the decades-long war between Genoa and Venice , the man brought in to mediate a permanent truce between the two mar...

The final phase of the decades-long conflict between Genoa and Venice came in 1378 to 1381 when Genoa decided to directly attack Venice inst...

After the most recent events , the pope attempted to stop the conflict between the two, but they would not be dissuaded from their decades-l...

After the Battle of Curzola in 1299, in which Venice lost dozens of ships and thousands of men against Genoa, Venice was subdued for decade...

After the War of Saint Sabas between Genoa and Venice, a generation went by without outright war. In 1291, the Fall of Acre lost the Crusa...

Four times between 1258 and 1381, the rivalry between the maritime republics of Genoa and Venice reached a tipping point that turned into m...

After the Crusades gave it the opportunity to start creating trading posts in the Eastern Mediterranean, the maritime republic of Genoa beg...

We've touched on Genoa and the possible origin of its name  before . Genoa is on the far northwestern coast of Italy, and archaeological...

Yesterday's post mentioned Buscarello de Ghizolfi, a man from Genoa who served a few Mongol leaders as their ambassador to Europe, spea...

There was a surprising amount of connection between the Mongol Empire and culture and the people of Western Europe. Part of this was because...

Ghazan Khan (1271 - 1304) was not the first Mongol leader to communicate with Christians, but he set about to firm up an alliance to deal wi...

A direct descendant of Genghis Khan, Ghazan Khan ruled the Mongol Empire's Ilkhanate (southwestern part of the empire, what now is Iran)...

Arghun Khan (1258 - 1291) was the son of Abaqa Khan and ruler of the Ilkhanate, in the southwestern part of the Mongol Empire. Arghun (shown...

After spending time at the court of Kublai Khan , Niccolò and Maffeo Polo tried to get home to Venice and to deliver a letter from Kublai t...

Marco Polo didn't get to China on his own; he was taken there as a young man by his father and uncle, who had been there before. Why? B...

When Marco Polo returned to Venice after two decades of traveling in the East, he signed up to join the war between Venice and Genoa. Incarc...

Marco Polo was not the first European to visit China—far from it—but he was the first to write a detailed account of his time there. And he ...

Now we approach the part that everyone knows about Kublai Khan even if they don't know anything about Kublai Khan. Kublai was emperor o...

With the Toluid Civil War concluded, Kublai Khan still had troubles dealing with the other khanates descended from Genghis, but I'm go...

In the lead up to the Toluid Civil War , Kublai Khan had the upper hand. He controlled most of the supply lines that would have helped his ...

When Kublai found out that his younger brother Ariq Böke was making plans to become Grand Khan while Kublai was off subduing the Song Dynas...

Probably the best-known Khan to modern audiences after Genghis Khan is Kublai Khan, the one we hear about because of Marco Polo. Kublai was ...

Güyük Khan was making plans to conquer Europe. He had been part of the invasion of Eastern and Central Europe, and wished to continue. The M...

Genghis Khan had many, many children. There were four sons (Jochi, Chagatai, Ögedei, and Tolui) from whom the future rulers of the Mongol Em...

When Güyük Khan died, Batu Khan started making decisions toward the election of the next Grand Khan. He didn't want the position himse...

After the death of Güyük Khan,  Batu Khan saw an opportunity to take the overlordship away from the Ögedei clan and bring it to his own lin...

Batu Khan's military successes inspired Ögedei Khan to have him invade Europe. He had already conquered the Crimean Peninsula. Spies we...