Editing Pope Gregory X (section)

==Diplomatic communications with Mongols==
{{Main|Franco-Mongol alliance}}
[[File:NoccoloAndMaffeoPoloWithGregoryX.JPG|thumb|right|Niccolò and Maffeo [[Marco Polo|Polo]] remitting a letter from [[Kublai Khan]] to Pope Gregory X in 1271.]]
As soon as he was elected in 1271, Pope Gregory X received a letter from the [[Mongol]] [[Great Khan]] [[Kublai]], remitted by [[Niccolò and Maffeo Polo]] following their travels to his court in Mongolia. Kublai was asking for the dispatch of a hundred missionaries, and some oil from the lamp of the [[Holy Sepulcher]]. The new Pope could spare only two friars and some lamp oil. The friars turned back soon after the party left for [[Mongolia]]. The two Polos (this time accompanied by the young [[Marco Polo]], who was then 17 years old) returned to the [[Mongol Empire]] and remitted the oil from the Pope to Kublai in 1275.<ref>J.R.S. Phillips, ''The Medieval Expansion of Europe'' second edition (Oxford: Clarendon 1998), p. 113.</ref>

The Mongol [[Ilkhanate]] leader [[Abaqa]] sent a delegation with over a dozen members to the 1274 Council of Lyon, where plans were made for possible military cooperation between the Mongols and the Europeans.<ref>Peter Jackson, ''The Mongols and the West: 1221-1410'' (New York: Routledge 2014), especially pp. 167-196. B. Roberg, "Die Tartaren auf dem 2. Konzil von Lyon 1274," ''Annuarium historiae conciliarum'' 5 (1973), 241-302.</ref> After the council, Abaqa sent another embassy led by the [[Georgia (country)|Georgian]] Vassali brothers to further notify Western leaders of military preparations. Gregory X answered that his [[Papal legate|legate]]s would accompany the Crusade, and that they would be in charge of coordinating military operations with the Il-Khan.<ref name=richard-465>Jean Richard, ''Histoire des Croisades'' (Paris: Fayard 1996), p.465</ref> However, these projects for a major new Crusade essentially came to a halt with the death of Gregory X on 10 January 1276. The money which had been saved to finance the expedition was instead distributed in Italy.<ref>Jonathan Riley-Smith, "Atlas des Croisades", p.69 (English-language version: ''The Atlas of the Crusades'' (Facts-on-file 1991))</ref>