[[Image:ChristianStatesInTheLevant.jpg|thumb|André de Longjumeau was sent from the island Cyprus to the Mongol realm in Persia.]]
'''André de Longjumeau''', also known as '''Andrew of Longjumeau''' (also Longumeau, Lonjumel, etc.), was a [[13th century]] [[France|French]] [[Dominican Order|Dominican]], [[exploration|explorer]], and [[diplomacy|diplomat]].

He accompanied the mission that was sent by [[Pope Innocent IV]] to the [[Mongols]] in [[1247]] under Friar [[Ascelin]] or Anselm, which was chronicled by [[Simon of St Quentin]]. At the [[Tatars]]' camp near [[Kars]] he met a certain David, who next year ([[1248]]) appeared at the court of King [[Louis IX of France]] in [[Cyprus]]. Andrew, who was now with Saint Louis, interpreted David's message to the King, a real or pretended offer of alliance from the Mongol general [[Ilchikdai]] ([[Eljigidei]]), and a proposal of a joint attack upon the [[Islam]]ic powers for the conquest of [[Syria]].

In reply to this the French sovereign dispatched Andrew as his ambassador to the great [[Güyük Khan|Kuyuk Khan]]; with Longjumeau went his brother (a [[monk]]) 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]].

The party set out about [[February 16]], [[1249]], with letters from King Louis and the [[papal legate]], and rich 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 travelled for a year to the Khan's court, going ten leagues (55.56 kilometers) per day. Their route led them through [[Iran|Persia]], along the southern and eastern shores of the [[Caspian Sea|Caspian]] (whose inland character, unconnected with the outer ocean, their journey helped to demonstrate), and probably through [[Talas, Kyrgyzstan|Talas]], north-east of [[Tashkent]].

On arrival at the supreme Mongol court — either that on the [[Imyl river]] (near [[Lake Ala-kul]] and the present Russo-Chinese frontier in the [[Altay Mountains|Altay]]), or more probably at or near [[Karakorum]] itself, south-west of [[Lake Baikal]] — Andrew found Kuyuk Khan dead, poisoned, as the envoy supposed, by [[Batu Khan]]'s agents. The regent-mother [[Ogul Gaimish]] (the "Camus" of [[William of Rubruck]]) seems to have received and dismissed him with presents and a letter for Louis IX, the latter a fine specimen of Mongol insolence. But it is certain that before the friar had quitted "Tartary" [[Mangu Khan]], Kuyuk's successor, had been elected.

Andrew's report to his sovereign, whom he rejoined in [[1251]] at [[Caesarea Palaestina|Caesarea]] in the [[Holy Land]], 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, evidently [[Genghis Khan]], with [[Prester John]]; it is still more evident in the position assigned to the [[Tatars]] homeland, close to the prison of [[Gog and Magog]]. On the other hand, the envoy's account of Tatar manners is fairly accurate, and his statements about [[Mongolia|Mongol]] Christianity and its prosperity, though perhaps exaggerated (e.g. as to the 800 chapels on wheels in the nomadic host), are based on fact.

Mounds of bones marked his road, witnesses of devastations which other historians record in detail. He found [[Christianity|Christian]] prisoners, from [[Germany]] in the heart of "Tartary" (at Talas), and was compelled to observe the ceremony of passing between two fires, as a bringer of gifts to a dead Khan, gifts which were of course treated by the Mongols as evidence of submission. This insulting behaviour, and the language of the letter with which Andrew reappeared, marked the mission a failure: King Louis, says [[Jean de Joinville|Joinville]], "''se repenti fort''" ("felt very sorry").

Andrew died some time after 1253, for that year he was active as missionary in Palestine. The [[Franciscan]], [[Rubruquis]], in his work on Oriental customs, declares that everything he had heard from Andrew on the subject was fully borne out by his own personal observations.

We only know of Andrew through references in other writers: see especially [[William of Rubruck]]'s in ''Recueil de voyages'', iv. (Paris, 1839), pp. 261, 265, 279, 296, 310, 353, 363, 370; Joinville, ed. Francisque Michel (1858, etc.), pp. 142, etc.; Jean Pierre Sarrasin, in same vol., pp. 254–235; [[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. 52.

==See also==
*[[Giovanni da Pian del Carpine]]
*[[Exploration of Asia]]
*[[Franco-Mongol alliance]]

==References==
*{{1911}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Longjumeau, Andrew of}}

[[Category:Dominicans]]
[[Category:French diplomats]]
[[Category:French explorers]]
[[Category:Explorers of Asia]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:Year of death unknown]]

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