William of rubruck biography of christopher

WILLIAM OF RUBRUCK, Friar (fl. ), a Flemish Franciscan missionary who traveled through the lands that the Mongols had conquered in the Crimea, the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Asia Minor between and Apart from references in the Opus Maius of his fellow-Franciscan Roger Bacon (see below), his report to the French king Louis IX, entitled simply the Itinerarium by scholars for the sake of reference, is our only source for his travels.

We do not know his age, although the hardships of the journey he undertook render it unlikely that he was born before

His travels. From Palestine, where he was among Louis’ entourage following the French king’s disastrous invasion of Egypt (/) during the Seventh Crusade, Rubruck secured the king’s support to travel into Mongol territory in order to bring spiritual comfort to some German slaves who had been carried off into Asia from Hungary by the Mongol invaders in His aims also included spreading the Gospel