Editing André de Longjumeau

{{short description|13th-century friar and diplomat}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2025}}
[[File:Vitrail Cathédrale de Moulins 160609 19.jpg|thumb|{{clarify|reason=Not clear why this image is here or what any possible connnection with Longjumeau may be in this case|date=August 2023}}]]
'''André de Longjumeau''' (also known as '''Andrew of Longjumeau''' in English) was a French diplomat and [[Dominican Order|Dominican]] missionary and one of the most active Occidental diplomats in the East in the 13th century. He led two embassies to the [[Mongol Empire|Mongols]]: the first carried letters from [[Pope Innocent IV]] and the second bore gifts and letters from [[Louis IX of France]] to [[Güyük Khan]]. Well acquainted with the [[Middle East]], he spoke [[Arabic]] and "Chaldean" (thought to be either [[Syriac language|Syriac]] or [[Persian language|Persian]]).<ref name = "mxpvnk">{{harvnb|Roux|1985|p=96}}</ref>

==Mission for the holy Crown of Thorns==
[[Image:HolyCrown.JPG|thumb|André went to Constantinople to obtain the [[crown of thorns]] bought by [[Louis IX of France|Louis IX]] from [[Baldwin II, Latin Emperor]]. It is preserved today in a 19th-century reliquary, in [[Notre-Dame de Paris]].]]
André's first mission to the East was when he was asked by the French king [[Louis IX of France|Louis IX]] to go to [[Constantinople]] to obtain the [[crown of thorns]] that had been sold to him by the [[Baldwin II, Latin Emperor|Latin emperor Baldwin II]] in 1238, who was anxious to obtain support for his empire.<ref name = "mxpvnk"/> André was accompanied on this mission by a [[Dominican Order|Dominican friar]], brother Jacques.

==Papal mission to the Mongols (1245–1247)==
André of Longjumeau led one of four missions dispatched to the Mongols by [[Pope Innocent IV]]. He left [[Lyon]] in the spring of 1245 for the [[Levant]].<ref>{{cite journal |first=Gregory G. |last=Guzman |title=Simon of Saint-Quentin and the Dominican Mission to the Mongol Baiju: A Reappraisal |journal=Speculum |volume=46 |issue=2 |year=1971 |page=235 |doi=10.2307/2854853 |jstor=2854853 }}</ref> 
He visited Muslim principalities in [[Syria]] and representatives of the [[Church of the East]] and [[Syriac Orthodox Church]] in [[Seljuk Empire|Seljuk Persia]], finally delivering the papal correspondence to a Mongol general near [[Tabriz]].<ref>{{cite book |authorlink=Igor de Rachewiltz |first=Igor |last=de Rachewiltz |title=Papal Envoys to the Great Khans |publisher=Stanford University Press |year=1971 |page=113 |isbn=0-8047-0770-7 }}</ref> In Tabriz, André de Longjumeau met with a monk from the [[Far East]] named [[Simeon Rabban Ata]], who had been put in charge by the [[Khan (title)|Khan]] of protecting [[Christianity in the Middle East|Christians in the Middle East]].{{sfn|Richard|1996|p=376}}

==Second mission to the Mongols (1249–1251)==
{{further information|Franco-Mongol alliance|Europeans in Medieval China|}}
At the Mongol camp near [[Kars]], André had met a certain [[David and Mark|David]], who in December 1248 appeared at the court of King [[Louis IX of France]], who was preparing his armies in the allied [[Kingdom 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 general [[Eljigidei]], and a proposal of a joint attack on [[Ayyubid dynasty|Ayyubid 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 "Le [[Sommelier]]", Gerbert of Sens, Robert (a clerk), a certain William, and an unnamed clerk of [[Poissy]].{{sfn|Beazley|1911|p=972}}

The party set out on 16 February 1249, with letters from King Louis and the [[papal legate]], and lavish presents, including a chapel tent lined with scarlet cloth and embroidered with sacred pictures. From [[Cyprus]] they went to the port of [[Antioch]] 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 the [[Caspian Sea]], and certainly through [[Taraz]], north-east of [[Tashkent]].{{sfn|Beazley|1911|p=972}}

Upon arrival at the supreme Mongol court – either that on the [[Emil River]] (near [[Lake Alakol]] and the present Russo-Chinese frontier in the [[Altai Mountains]]), or more probably at or near [[Karakorum]] itself, southwest of [[Lake Baikal]] – André found Güyük Khan dead, poisoned, as the envoy supposed, by [[Batu Khan]]'s agents. The [[regent]] [[Oghul Qaimish]], Güyük Khan's widow (the "Camus" of [[William 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 Khan|Möngke]], Güyük's successor, had been elected khagan.{{sfn|Beazley|1911|pp=972–973}}

André's report to his sovereign, whom he rejoined in 1251 at [[Caesarea 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 leader [[Genghis Khan]] with the mythical [[Prester John]], and in the supposed location of the [[Mongols]]' homeland, close to the prison of [[Gog and Magog]]. On the other hand, the envoy's account of Mongol customs is fairly accurate, and his statements about [[Christianity among the Mongols|Mongol Christianity]] and its prosperity, though perhaps exaggerated (e.g. as to the 800 chapels on wheels in the nomadic host) are likely factual.{{sfn|Beazley|1911|p=973}}

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 dead [[Genghis 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, says [[Jean de Joinville]], "se repenti fort" ("felt very sorry").{{sfn|Beazley|1911|p=973}}

==Death==
The date and location of André's death is unknown.<ref name="Dorcy1990">{{cite book|last=Dorcy|first=Sr. Mary Jean|title=St. Dominic's Family: Over 300 Famous Dominicans|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iL-cCwAAQBAJ&pg=PT62|accessdate=15 February 2018|date=24 November 1990|publisher=TAN Books|isbn=9781505103465|page=62}}</ref>

We only know of André through references in other writers: see especially [[William of Rubruck]]'s in ''Recueil de voyages'', iv. (Paris, 1839), pp.&nbsp;261, 265, 279, 296, 310, 353, 363, 370; Joinville, ed. Francisque Michel (1858, etc.), pp.&nbsp;142, etc.; Jean Pierre Sarrasin, in same vol., pp.&nbsp;254–235; [[Guillaume de Nangis|William of Nangis]] in ''Recueil des historiens des Gaules'', xx. 359–367; [[Charles de Rémusat|Rémusat]], ''Mémoires sur les relations politiques des princes chrétiens… avec les… Mongols'' (1822, etc.), p.&nbsp;52.{{sfn|Beazley|1911|p=973}}

==See also==
*[[Giovanni da Pian del Carpine]]
*[[Lawrence of Portugal]]
*[[Ascelin of Lombardy]]
*[[Simon of Saint-Quentin]]
*[[Chronology of European exploration of Asia]]
*[[Franco-Mongol alliance]]

==Notes==
{{reflist|30em}}

==References==
* {{EB1911|wstitle=Andrew of Longjumeau|volume=1|pages=972–973|first=Charles Raymond|last=Beazley|authorlink=Raymond Beazley}}
* {{cite book |author-link=Jean Richard (historian) |last=Richard |first=Jean |title=Histoire des Croisades |year=1996 |publisher=Fayard |isbn=2-213-59787-1}}
* {{cite book |author-link=Jean-Paul Roux |last=Roux |first=Jean-Paul |title=Les explorateurs au Moyen-Age |publisher=Fayard |date=1985 |isbn=2-01-279339-8}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Longjumeau, André de}}
[[Category:13th-century explorers]]
[[Category:French Dominicans]]
[[Category:Roman Catholic missionaries in Mongolia]]
[[Category:Diplomats of the Holy See]]
[[Category:Holy See–Mongolia relations]]
[[Category:Medieval French diplomats]]
[[Category:France–Mongolia relations]]
[[Category:French explorers]]
[[Category:Explorers of Asia]]
[[Category:13th-century births]]
[[Category:13th-century deaths]]
[[Category:Ambassadors to the Mongol Empire]]
[[Category:French Roman Catholic missionaries]]
[[Category:Dominican missionaries]]
[[Category:French expatriates in Mongolia]]
[[Category:13th-century diplomats]]
[[Category:Christians of the Sixth Crusade]]