256 chapter four
along with his qualities as a commander, Noghai’s actions show that he
had a coherent strategic vision for dealing with his Northern and Western
neighbours: pivotal to this conception were the knyazate of halych-Volyn’
and the Severin Banate.
according to one well-placed source, Noghai was principally respon-
sible for making ruthenia into a spear-point aimed at Lithuania, poland
and hungary, armed with alan auxiliaries.454
Given that its border was enclosed by the arc of the carpathians, the
hungarian state was extremely vulnerable to incursions from across
the mountains. on one of these raids in 1285, doubtless via the pass at
the carpathian bend, Noghai attacked Braşov.455 his actions around the
Iron Gates were by the very nature of things much more systematic and
more far-reaching, since the area is just as geopolitically and strategically
important as ruthenia. from 1291 onwards, the bans of Severin are no
longer present in the hierarchy of arpadian royal offices, marking the
moment when hungarian suzerainty over the Banate ended and it passed
into the Danubian khan’s overlordship.456
this annexation was presumably to consolidate tartar power at the
head of the Lower Danube in response to the assassination the previous
year of Ladislas IV, ‘the cuman’ (1272–1290), Noghai’s puppet king in hun-
gary, who had fallen entirely under Isaccea’s sway after the campaign of
1285, despite the papacy’s energetic attempts to prevent this political més-
alliance between the crown of St Stephen and the pagans.457
454 this is the halych-Volyn’ chronicle, the most important internal source for the
ruthenian knyazate, which concludes in 1292. Ždan, “Dependence,” pp. 509–510, sum-
marises the most important entries here: “[the chronicle], mentioning Danylo’s son Lev’s
request for aid against the poles, which he submitted to the khan Mönke timur (1274),
adds ‘because all the princes were then under the tartars.’ the dependence of halych-
Volyn’ rus on the Mongols is confirmed by the apparently friendly message of Nogay to the
halych-Volyn’ princes, about which there is a notice in the chronicle under the year 1277.
In this message Nogay expresses himself in this way: ‘You always complained of Lithuania;
see, now I myself give you my army and the general Mamshiy with it, so go with them
against your enemies.’ When, to continue our argument, Lev contemplated extending the
boundaries of his realm with the help of the same Nogay, after the death of Bolesław of
cracow, all other princes had, ‘under tartar pressure,’ to assist him in his campaign against
poland. the expression ‘all princes being tartar underlings’ is repeated once again in the
chronicle under the year 1285, on the occasion of the Mongol invasion of hungary, and
also in the account of the advance of the Mongol army against poland in 1286 with halych-
Volyn’ regiments as auxiliaries;” on the role of the alan defensive works around Sniatyn,
cf. ciocîltan, “alanii,” p. 946.
455 cf. Veselovskiy, Khan, p. 30, Spinei, Moldova, p. 170.
456 cf. papacostea, Românii, p. 168.
457 cf. Brătianu, Vicina, pp. 234 ff., Soranzo, Papato, pp. 409–421, Spuler, Horde, pp.
67–68, papacostea, Românii, p. 124.