page_title: Wenceslaus I of Bohemia
section_title: Mongol invasion
hierarchical_section_title: Wenceslaus I of Bohemia / Mongol invasion
caption_attribution_description: English: Wenceslaus I. of Bohemia Čeština: Václav I.
context_page_description: Wenceslaus I, called One-Eyed, was King of Bohemia from 1230 to 1253.
  Wenceslaus was a son of Ottokar I of Bohemia and his second wife Constance of Hungary.
context_section_description: In 1241 Wenceslaus successfully repelled a raid on Bohemia by forces serving under Batu Khan and Subutai of the Mongol Empire as part of the Mongol invasion of Europe. The Mongols raided the Kingdom of Poland, Silesia and Moravia, led by Baidar, Kadan and Orda Khan with a force of around 20,000 Mongols, causing much destruction.
  During the Mongol invasion of Poland, Duke Henry II the Pious of Silesia, Wenceslaus' brother in law, initially asked his help in fighting off the Mongols. However as Wenceslaus was coming to his aid in Legnica with a force of 50,000 soldiers, impatience forced Henry II to attack the Mongols without Bohemia's help which resulted in the devastating Battle of Legnica. Following the Mongol victory, Wenceslaus fell back to protect Bohemia. He gathered reinforcements from Thuringia and Saxony along the way, before taking refuge in Bohemia's mountainous countries whose terrain would reduce the mobility of the Mongolian cavalry. When a Mongol vanguard assaulted Kłodzko, the Bohemian cavalry easily defeated them in the mountain passes. After their failure against Wenceslaus' army, the Mongols led by Baidar and Kadan turned away from Bohemia and Poland and went southward to reunite with Batu and Subutai in Hungary, who had crushed the Hungarians at the Battle of Mohi.
  When Subutai heard in 1242 that Grand Khan Ögedei had died the previous year, the Mongol army retreated eastward, because Subutai had three princes of the blood in his command and Genghis Khan had made clear that all descendants of the Khagan (Grand Khan) should return to the Mongol capital of Karakorum for the kurultai which would elect the next Khagan. Such was Wenceslaus' success against the invaders that chroniclers sent messages to Emperor Frederick II of his "victorious defense".
caption: Portrait of Wenceslaus in the Codex Gelnhausen (early 15th century)
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