Conflict11 April 1241

Battle of Mohi

Also called: Battle of the Sajó River

Batu and Subutai surrounded and annihilated the army of King Béla IV of Hungary at Mohi on the Sajó River. Hungary was ravaged until the Mongols withdrew the next year.

Béla IV fleeing from the Mongols — from the 14th-century Illuminated Chronicle of Hungary
Original uploader was User:Mazarin07 at hu.wikipedia · Public domain · Source

At dawn on 11 April 1241 Batu assaulted the bridge over the Sajó to hold the Hungarians’ attention while Subutai crossed downstream and came round behind them. Trapped in their wagon fort, the Hungarians were broken by catapults and arrows, and most were cut down fleeing through a gap the Mongols deliberately left open. Béla IV escaped towards the Adriatic. The Mongols ravaged Hungary until the following spring; having lost a large part of its population, Hungary afterwards prepared by building stone castles.

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States and rulers at the time: Mongol Empire · victor — Ögedei Khan
Kingdom of Hungary · defeated
Places: Mohi

People

Batu Khan1207 – 1255
commander · Grandson of Genghis Khan who led the European campaign of 1236–1242 and founded the Golden Horde with its capital at Sarai on the Volga
Subutai1175 – 1248
commander · General of Genghis Khan and Ögedei, who with Jebe defeated the Rus at the Kalka and was the operational commander of Batu’s European campaign
Béla IV of Hungary1206 – 1270
monarch · King of Hungary, routed by the Mongols at Mohi in 1241, who after their withdrawal rebuilt the kingdom with a programme of castle building

Before and after

Earlier: 1241 Battle of Legnica

Themes that include this event

The Mongol Conquests1206 – 1294
From the rise of Genghis Khan to the Yuan conquest of the Song — eighty years in which the Mongols swept Eurasia from Goryeo to Hungary