Switzerland

The road to Avignon
leads through Switzerland

The wandering Popes were only later called such when their destination was apparent. But for now we have the Latin Empire of Byzantium only approaching the boarders of France and Germany. 


For the Hohenstaufen Emperor Frederick II the appearance of Batu Khan was a terrible loss of opportunity. Although the emperors in the West were  bearing the title they didn't have the sovereignty, which was suggested by it. Not hard to establish this fact. They never coined gold! 


With the fall of the Byzantine Romans and the establishment of the Latin empire of Byzantium he would have had the opportunity to establish such sovereignty, but Batu Khan's appearance on the scene made this impossible. 


He was diplomatic enough to swiftly submit himself as did all the western monarchs. Yet they did this in such a way that they could maintain the state of affairs as much as possible.

The conversion of a possibly nestorian (arian) Batu Khan to a western form of Christianity was brought about by an encounter with St. Francis of Assisi, which brought about a whole new order in the West.

For the western monarchs this was a dual power structure. Church and State. King and Emperor. 


Of course for Batu Khan's usurped Papacy this wasn't about separation of powers. For which reason the Pope and the catholic Emperor clashed frequently. 


A novus ordo had to be carved out and this extended the boundaries of the Great Empire further to include Germany and left Europe with only France, England and Portugal to be incorporated..


A new order needed a new financial basis and the popes continued to wander until such was established. And it was established in Switzerland. 


Once that was a fact a new dynasty of western Emperors was needed to support that order of things. 


This dynasty was the Habsburgs. Emperor Rudolf was the first in line to be crowned King of the Romans. Do note that he was not even crowned Emperor, he was King under the Great lordship of the Papacy. 


And the Latin empire still was that of Byzantium. Frederick, though excommunicated, was still alive and the old Emperor of Byzantium still was Emperor in Nicea. 

Rudolf I

To mark the newly acquired boundaries Aachen was chosen as the coronation site and especially for this purpose a Cathedral was built. Not by coincidence does Aachen mean the city of the Chan or Khan. 


Only when in Europe the memory of a Great Khan in the East waded a substitute had to be created by historians and the idea of  the great monarch = the great Khan - was transferred to 'Charlemagne', meaning just that: great Monarch. And of course this had to be in Aachen also!


With a new financial, religious en governmental order the golden Horde now had established itself firmly in almost the whole of Europe. 


It will still take a few years to establish this order and then France could be taken on.


There were several obstructions for that. The Knights Templar were powerful in France and they represented the old financial order of Constantinople (a.k.a. Rome at the time). 


Moreover France was a deeply religious country with many roots to the original Greek churches and deeply attached to a lively form of Christianity, believing that Jesus really was one of theirs. 


With a new financial order under the Habsburgs the Templar really had to go. But King Philip was only prepared to do that if the Papacy made a firm statement in the direction of France.


That is Philip was only prepared accept the new order if the Pope would live on its soil. If only to keep an eye on him. 


And the papacy was tired of wandering. And so the Papacy moved in to Avignon. 


Bingo! The King France must have thought! With catastrophic consequences for the Knight Templar and those in France who had other religious ideas as those of the Pope.


If it weren't for England and Portugal that is. About the only two places in Europe which still had not entirely become dependent on the golden Horde.


England would be a harder nut to crack, because it had taken over the functions of the Byzantine Empire and many Byzantine high officials had fled there and became part of the nobility. England in so doing preserved the rich history and cultural achievements of Byzantium. And would remain in opposition to the Pope and the grand oriental order it represented for a long time.

Horde of the 12th/13th century..

Achievements of the Horde
in 12th/13th century Europe

Traditional history likes the idea that the Mongol conquerors lived in tents and Europe - under 1000 year guidance of the Papacy - had a flourishing civilisation. 


The contrary seems quite true. Immediately after the Batu Khan had taken over the eastern part of Europe, trade cities sprang up all over Europe. Those trade cities form concentric circles, if you take Novgorod as its centre:


There were no cities, no defence obstacles in Europe at the time and therefore Europe fell more or less into Batu Khan's hand. Until that time houses were built from wood, not bricks. The invading 'barbarians' brought with them the  building expertise and the math, just as the Vikings had done before them. But... the Vikings were just a first manifestation of the White Russian Horde.  Universities sprang up at the same time. Paris and Oxford, both given statutes - hence given order - by Innocent III, whatever they would have done before, they were no Universities. 


The Roman curia in its present form was established also by Innocent III and not by coincidence is that a Russian word: kuren meaning the same.  The same with the word order, which is the Russian word Horde. And order extended as we saw to cities, universities and under Ivan Chan III = i.e. Innocent III, also to religious communities. Hence it was this man who more or less ordered all religious orders, except for the already existing Benedictine communities. No wonder all of European monarchs payed tribute to this great prince. 


Except England - with the establishment of the Magna Charta - tried to keep its own order. Innocent III responds with fury and does not tolerate the blatant copy - but amendment and inclusion of lower ranks of nobility - of his order. But then England came to see itself as refuge for the fallen Byzantine law and order. 


For the great Khan, the curia, was a family affair and not something for the common man. It is good to see the nepotism of the papacy in those days from this angle. 


There is an interesting list of popes, which really only came into circulation around 1590. Its list only started around 1150 and gave 112 popes until the end. In 1590 an Irish monk with the name Malachy was attached to it.  


But what if the list was in fact historical and only gave the real list of popes for the west? Because before that date the popes did reside in the east? or even Alexandria, where the real st. Peter had died? 


Is there any coincidence with the fact the list starts with the establishment of the Latin Empire of Byzantium? And when Batu Khan started his conquest of Europe he has some sudden change of heart and selects a totally different course to establish his order in Europe. 


He creates an entire new vehicle. Or one thing just led to the other. Claiming the authority to appoint bishops and laying down orders on any religious community and calling for crusades against communities that would not comply. There was no place in that vision for a head of the Church in the East. From now on it was he.  


This was Western Papacy in the making. 


A power struggle of 100s of years started from there, which with the reformation was won by the European princes, but the Horde could survive this under the wings of the Papacy. 

Golden & White
Horde of the Vatican

For now though, the popes of the times wandered about. They were not in Italian Rome! Until finally the French princes gave them refuge in Avignon in exchange for doing away with the Knights Templar. But where ever the popes of those days held their courts, they were called 'the House of Batu Khan', i.e. the Vatican...

Road to Avignon

Batu's road to Avignon

So, Batu Khan did not die in Rome? Big deal! But neither did any of the Popes between this Innocent III and Innocent IV. They were called the wandering Popes and seemed to have wandered from castle to castle, being welcomed by the locals as an incentive to trade, but not overstaying their welcome, because of the negative side effects of having the Lord of the World within your city walls. 


That is Honorius III, Gregory IX, Celestine IV and Innocent IV followed by a whole list of no. 4s! That seems as suspicious as the list of no. 3s before Innocent III. In total 18 Popes, who did not live in Rome, nor did they die there and nor were they elected there!


From Innocent IV a letter is known to the Great Khan in far East Asia:

Kuyuk Khan in China. So much
for the tale of Marco Polo
'discovering' China!

Pope Innocent IV (1245) to Kuyuk Khan:
"For good reasons are we driven to express in strong terms our amazement that you according to what we have heard, that you have invaded many countries belonging to Christians and to others and are laying them waste in a dreadful ruin and with unabated fury you continue, sparing neither sex nor age, raging against any and all with the sword of punishment..."

After which Innocent IV asks Kuyuk to submit to his authority. Kuyuk replies:


Kuyuk Khan (1247) to Pope Innocent IV:
"How do you know God approves of the words you speak? From the East where the sun rises to the West where it sets, I have made all the lands subject to me. Who could do this against the will of God?"

 and 

"Therefore to show us you accept peace and are willing to surrender your strongholds to us, You pope and christian princes, in no way delay in coming to us to make peace. Then we will know that you desire peace with us. But if you do not believe our words and God's command,  nor heed our advice, then we will know for certain that you desire war. "

Apparently the great Schism between East and West was that between family factions of the family of the great Khan. We may assume that the great Khan very well knew what the name Innocent stood for...


There seem to be some ambiguity with regard to the exact dates, but in 'China and Christianity' by Stephen Uhalley and Xiaoxin Wu we found following quote:


"Pope Innocent IV (1243-1254) understood that as soon as the succession dispute amongst the Mongols was settled, the christian West had to prepare for an onslaught. To prevent such a threat he sent a Franciscan (Giovanni da Pian del Carpine 1190-1252) to the great Khan Guyuk (1240-1248)"


There are some 30 years between the reigns of Innocent IV and Innocent III as well as between the great Khan Kuyuk and Batu Khan!


This sets the activities of Batu Khan well back in the early 1200s and that is exactly the time frame for Innocent III.


Then accordingly there was no Pope in Rome from early 1200s to 1378! 

Francis preaching (converting) the Pope...

But more importantly this is also the time frame for someone, who probably became the most important figure for the Catholic Church. St. Francis of Assisi!


Again, we have a person without a real name. Being associated with two locations France and Assisi in Italy. But his name might as well translate to: (the follower of) Jesus from France!


As we saw Batu Khan's conquest of the West stop at the borders of France we have to conclude that there were two forces, which held Batu Khan back from proceeding. It was the Knight Templar, who still were attached to the old order, namely Byzantium and a deeply pious population who would have regarded Batu Khan's claims as those of the anti-Christ. 


Only two figures represented an outcome for Batu Khan. Emperor Frederick II, who probably was the person to inspire Batu Khan to a new direction, safeguarding his own position. But most of all, it was Francis of Assisi. 

The relationship is uniquely described in Francis' relationship with Innocent III. It was Francis who prevented the Catholic Church in the West to tumble, but also preventing this collapse to crush Innocent (Batu Khan). As a matter of fact Francis 'converted' Batu Khan to become the leader and protector of Christianity! The situation is again more accurately described in the tale of Francis taming the 'wolves'. And so Francis became: 

PATRIARCHA SERAPHICUS

Troubadour of the Great King

FRIAR MINOR,
FOUNDER OF THE ORDER OF FRIARS MINOR,
CO-FOUNDER OF THE ORDER OF ST. CLARE,
FOUNDER OF THE THIRD ORDER OF ST. FRANCIS,
PATRON OF ITALY & THE ENVIRONMENT

The troops of Batu Khan were the wolves or 'guelphes', the later nickname of the factions supporting the Papacy. 

Batu Khan's scheme

The Lord of the West
Batu Khan

To call Batu Khan a Mongol ruler is - even to the standards of our accepted history - somewhat misplaced. Even in respect of territories ruled by the Horde, he was assigned the most Western territories and around 1241 pushed westward well into the Balkans.

Batu means 'firm' and amongst his brothers, the sons of Jochi, he was well adapted to become Great Khan.


But in the end of the day, because Jochi was not recognised as a full blood relative by his brothers, he was very well aware that this would unlikely become a reality. 


The 'golden' Horde was named after the colour of his Tent and spread almost towards the boundaries of France. Since Batu found it difficult to reign the western territories from the banks of the Volga, it is almost certain he would have founded a court in the West and I assume that this was Sarajevo, in the Balkans. 

Byzantine Eagle

From there he bullied and freighted the western Monarchs and even the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II into submission. The latter remarked, with good humour, that he would become a good falconer for Batu Khan. And indeed before the establishment of the Latin Empire of Byzantium, the western Roman Emperor was subject to the Emperor of Byzantium. 


The last remark is not without meaning. The Eagle as symbol of the Byzantine Eagle also became that of the Russian Horde and Roman Empire and is symbol over kingship. It may very well be that Frederick II inspired Batu Khan towards a whole new vision with regard to the place of Europe in the Great Horde, which may very well be one of the reasons Batu Khan did not proceed further than the Balkans. 

Tartar map of Golden Horde

The common theory is that he returned to the East upon the death of Ogedei, the Great Khan, to elect - and become himself - the next Great Khan. 


But, we have already seen, that there was little hope of a son of Jochi becoming the Great Khan. Even when he is almost given the opportunity by some of the sons of Genghis Khan - merely because of his merits - he at the last moment declines and favours Mongke to become Great Khan. 


After that, the common theory is the Batu stayed in service of the expansion of the Mongol Empire in the East, but that seems rather out of character. Batu had installed Mongke as first to remain himself the stronger second. It is much more likely that - inspired by Frederik II - Batu Khan started to work on a whole new vision for the West, which he regarded as his legitimate domains. Here his already established place as 'king maker' would take an entirely new direction. 


Batu Khan, would take the in the meantime Latin Empire of Byzantium, more westwards and would become the Pope of the West, not yet even from the Italian Rome, but from the Balkans. From there he would proclaim an entirely new vision. He would conquer Europe spiritually and use for its purpose its own established form of Catholicism. He would do that, so in the long run he would by himself outflank the ranks of the Great Khanate, the Russian Horde. 

Innocent III Lord of the World

It is for a reason that the colour of the Vatican (BatuKhan) is yellow or golden. In the long run the Vatican would become the treasurer and guardian of the Golden Horde, but as such would up to this date, remain a part of the Great Russian Horde, until time would be ripe for a new order. The Novus Ordo.


But for now the western Papacy of Innocent III would remain in the Balkans and only through the period of Avignon become established in the Italian Rome. 


Batu Khan was the third in line from Genghis Khan, the Lord of the World, and as Pope Innocent III he became his replacement for the West. This would make the western Papacy Batu Khan's scheme to get even with the Great Khanate and the humiliation of Jochi by the hands of his brothers.