André de Longjumeau (also known asAndrew of Longjumeau in English) was a French diplomat andDominican missionary and one of the most active Occidental diplomats in the East in the 13th century. He led two embassies to theMongols: the first carried letters fromPope Innocent IV and the second bore gifts and letters fromLouis IX of France toGüyük Khan. Well acquainted with theMiddle East, he spokeArabic and "Chaldean" (thought to be eitherSyriac orPersian).[1]
André's first mission to the East was when he was asked by the French kingLouis IX to go toConstantinople to obtain thecrown of thorns that had been sold to him by theLatin emperor Baldwin II in 1238, who was anxious to obtain support for his empire.[1] André was accompanied on this mission by aDominican friar, brother Jacques.
André of Longjumeau led one of four missions dispatched to the Mongols byPope Innocent IV. He leftLyon in the spring of 1245 for theLevant.[2] He visited Muslim principalities inSyria and representatives of theChurch of the East andSyriac Orthodox Church inSeljuk Persia, finally delivering the papal correspondence to a Mongol general nearTabriz.[3] In Tabriz, André de Longjumeau met with a monk from theFar East namedSimeon Rabban Ata, who had been put in charge by theKhan of protectingChristians in the Middle East.[4]
At the Mongol camp nearKars, André had met a certainDavid, who in December 1248 appeared at the court of KingLouis IX of France, who was preparing his armies in the alliedKingdom of Cyprus. André, who was now with the French King, interpreted David's words as a real or pretended offer of alliance from the Mongol generalEljigidei, and a proposal of a joint attack onAyyubid Syria. In reply to this, the French sovereign dispatched André as his ambassador to Güyük Khan. Longjumeau went with his brother Jacques (also a Dominican) and several others – John Goderiche, John of Carcassonne, Herbert "LeSommelier", Gerbert of Sens, Robert (a clerk), a certain William, and an unnamed clerk ofPoissy.[5]
The party set out on 16 February 1249, with letters from King Louis and thepapal legate, and lavish presents, including a chapel tent lined with scarlet cloth and embroidered with sacred pictures. FromCyprus they went to the port ofAntioch in Syria, and thence traveled for a year to the Khan's court, going ten leagues (55.56 kilometers) per day. Their route led them through Persia, along the southern and eastern shores of theCaspian Sea, and certainly throughTaraz, north-east ofTashkent.[5]
Upon arrival at the supreme Mongol court – either that on theEmil River (nearLake Alakol and the present Russo-Chinese frontier in theAltai Mountains), or more probably at or nearKarakorum itself, southwest ofLake Baikal – André found Güyük Khan dead, poisoned, as the envoy supposed, byBatu Khan's agents. TheregentOghul Qaimish, Güyük Khan's widow (the "Camus" ofWilliam of Rubruck), seems to have received him with presents and a dismissive letter for Louis IX. It is certain that before the friar had left "Tartary",Möngke, Güyük's successor, had been elected khagan.[6]
André's report to his sovereign, whom he rejoined in 1251 atCaesarea Palaestina, appears to have been a mixture of history and fable; the latter affects his narrative of the Mongols' rise to greatness, and the struggles of their leaderGenghis Khan with the mythicalPrester John, and in the supposed location of theMongols' homeland, close to the prison ofGog and Magog. On the other hand, the envoy's account of Mongol customs is fairly accurate, and his statements aboutMongol Christianity and its prosperity, though perhaps exaggerated (e.g. as to the 800 chapels on wheels in the nomadic host) are likely factual.[7]
Mounds of bones marked his road, witnesses of devastations that other historians record in detail. He found Christian prisoners from Germany in the heart of "Tartary" at Taraz and was compelled to observe the ceremony of passing between two fires, as a bringer of gifts to a deadGenghis Khan, gifts which were treated by the Mongols as evidence of submission. This insulting behavior, and the language of the letter with which André reappeared, marked the mission a failure: King Louis, saysJean de Joinville, "se repenti fort" ("felt very sorry").[7]
The date and location of André's death is unknown.[8]
We only know of André through references in other writers: see especiallyWilliam of Rubruck's inRecueil de voyages, iv. (Paris, 1839), pp. 261, 265, 279, 296, 310, 353, 363, 370; Joinville, ed. Francisque Michel (1858, etc.), pp. 142, etc.; Jean Pierre Sarrasin, in same vol., pp. 254–235;William of Nangis inRecueil des historiens des Gaules, xx. 359–367;Rémusat,Mémoires sur les relations politiques des princes chrétiens… avec les… Mongols (1822, etc.), p. 52.[7]
This article incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Beazley, Charles Raymond (1911). "Andrew of Longjumeau". InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 972–973.| International | |
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