Mongol incursions in the Holy Roman Empire
Mongol incursions in the Holy Roman Empire took place in the spring of 1241 and again in the winter of 1241–42. They were part of the first Mongol invasion of Europe. The Mongols did not advance far into the Holy Roman Empire and there was no major clash of arms on its territory. Rather, the army that had invaded Poland, after harassing eastern Germany, crossed the March of Moravia in April–May 1241 to rejoin the army that had invaded Hungary. During their transit, they laid waste the Moravian countryside but avoided strongholds. King Wenceslaus I of Bohemia was joined by some German princes, but he monitored the Mongols in Moravia without seeking battle. There were more significant skirmishes in the north of the Duchy of Austria a month later that left several hundred dead, but there was no cooperation between the Austrians and Hungarians. In response to the Mongol threat, the imperial church and the imperial princes held assemblies to organize a military response. Pope Gregory IX ordered the preaching of a crusade and from Italy Emperor Frederick II issued an encyclical to that end. A crusading army under the command of King Conrad IV of Germany mustered on 1