Tsar Ivan, realizing the potential threat from…

The Mongol general Kuoduan Hequ had begun in 1235 to attack the region of Sichuan through the Chengdu plain.

The occupation of this region has often been an important step for the conquest of the south.

The important city of Xiangyang, the gateway to the Yangtze plain, which is defended by the Song general Cao Youwen, capitulates in 1236.

Song generals like Meng Gong and Du Guo are able to withstand the pressure of the Mongol armies under Kouwen Buhua because the main Mongol forces are at this time moving towards Europe.

Sichuan's governor Yu Jie adopts the plan of the brothers Ran Jin and Ran Pu to fortify important locations in mountainous areas, like Diaoyucheng (modern Hechuan/Sichuan).

From this point, Yue Jie will be able to hold Sichuan for a further ten years.

Yaroslav, the fourth son of the long-reigning Grand Prince of Vladimir, Vsevolod the Big Nest, and Maria Shvarnovna, had been sent by his father in 1200 to rule the town of Pereyaslav near the Kopchak steppes.

Six years later, he had been summoned by Halychian boyars to rule their city but could not effectively claim the throne.

Thereupon he was sent to take Ryazan, but the stubborn opposition of the inhabitants led to the city being burnt.

Vsevolod had sent Yaroslav to oppose Mstislav the Bold in Novgorod in 1209.

After several battles, the two princes made peace, whereby Yaroslav had married Mstislav's daughter.

Vsevolod, upon his deathbed in 1212, had bequeathed to his son Pereslavl-Zalessky.

In the conflict between his elder brothers Konstantin and Yuri, Yaroslav had supported the latter.

He had accepted the offer of the Novgorodians in 1215 to become their prince but, desiring revenge for their former treachery, had instead captured Torzhok and blocked its supplies of grain to Novgorod.

Several months later, he was defeated by his father-in-law on the Lipitsa River and had to retreat to Pereslavl (a helmet that he lost during the battle will be retrieved by archaeologists in 1808).

Finally enthroned in Novgorod, Yaroslav had in 1222 overrun all of Estonia and besieged its capital, Kolyvan.

He had devastated Finland four years later and forcibly converted Karelia to Christianity.

Yaroslav’s next ambition had been to subjugate Pskov, but the Novgorodians had refused to make war against its neighbor.

Yaroslav had departed in anger and seized the Novgorodian enclave of Volokolamsk.

In 1234, he had returned to Novgorod.

He follows Danylo of Halych's advice and moves from Novgorod to Kiev in 1236, leaving his son Alexander as his representative in the north.

Twenty-one Lithuanian dukes had signed a peace treaty with Galicia–Volhynia, in 1219, an event today widely accepted as the first proof that the Baltic tribes were uniting and consolidating.

Two German religious orders, the Teutonic Knights and the Livonian Brothers of the Sword, have in the early thirteenth century conquered much of the area that is now Estonia and Latvia, in addition to parts of Lithuania.

In response, a number of small Baltic tribal groups unite under the rule of Mindaugas, who is referred to as the ruler of all Lithuania in the Livonian Rhymed Chronicle in 1236.

The Order, under the leadership of Master Volkwin, is by the 1230s coping with strained financial resources, decreasing manpower, and ill repute.

The Sword-Brothers are in conflict with the papacy under Pope Gregory IX and the Holy Roman Emperor, two of its biggest supporters, over Estonia.

However, on February 19, 1236, Pope Gregory IX issues a papal bull declaring a crusade against Lithuania.

He targets Samogitia, planning to conquer the coast of the Baltic Sea and connect with the Teutonic Knights in Prussia.

The Sword-Brothers want to keep expanding along the Daugava River and are somewhat reluctant to march against Samogitia.

In fall of 1236, a party of crusaders arrives from Holstein, demanding to be led into a battle.

Volkwin gathers a large war party, which includes troops from Pskov Republic, Livonians, Latgallians, and Estonians.

The knights march southward into Samogitia, raiding and plundering local settlements, giving the locals only a few days to gather troops for defense.

On the knights' northward return, however, they encounter a determined group of Samogitians at a river crossing.

Unwilling to risk losing their horses in the swampland, the Holsteiners refuses to fight on foot, forcing the knights to camp for the night.

The next morning, on the day of Saint Maurice, the main pagan forces, likely led by Duke Vykintas, arrive at the camp.

The Lithuanian light cavalry fling javelins at short range, which are highly effective against the unwieldy Livonian heavy cavalry.

The swampy terrain is advantageous for the lightly armed pagans.

The slaughter of the Christian troops, including Volkwin, sows seeds of confusion in the Livonian ranks.

The lightly armed native forces under the command of the Brothers soon flee from the battle.

Those crusaders and knights who try to flee to Riga are allegedly killed by the Semigallians.

The early reign of Wenceslaus has been preoccupied by the threat to Bohemia posed by Frederick II, Duke of Austria.

The expansionism of Frederick has caused the concern and protestation of several other rulers.

In 1236, Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II is involved in a war against the Lombard League.

The Emperor demands Wenceslaus and other rulers of the Holy Roman Empire lend him part of their own troops for his war effort.

Wenceslaus leads a group of princes who express their reluctance to divert any troops from the defense of their own territories, citing fear of invasion from the Duchy of Austria.

They request imperial intervention in the situation.

The Emperor imposes an imperial ban on the Duke of Austria in June 1236.

Troops dispatched against the Duke force him to flee Vienna for Wiener Neustadt.

He will continue to rule a rump state for the following year.

The Emperor declares direct imperial rule in both Austria and the Duchy of Styria, also held by the fleeing Duke.

Ekbert von Andechs-Meranien, former Bishop of Bamberg, is installed as governor in the two Duchies.

John of Brienne has helped fend off attacks by the Bulgarians and the Nicaeans, but is finally forced to appeal to the West for help.

Baldwin II, now nineteen, goes to Western Europe to solicit funds and military aid, visiting Rome, France and Flanders.

Both rulers have proved to be as weak and incapable as their Courtenay predecessors.