Buðli III Buðlisson af Munsö
Lived: 1365-1396
King of Egypt, Mesopotamia, Africa, Arabia and Jerusalem: 1381-1396
Head of House af Munsö: 1381-1396
Buðli III followed on from his father and grandfather of the same name – men whose strength and accomplishments overshadowed him throughout his rule. Whilst not a great conqueror, Buðli did attempt to continue on with the centralisation of power around the monarchy in Egypt, a process begun by his grandfather. Living up to the legacy of his father and grandfather was Buðli’s obsession from his ascension to his tragic demise, he regarded it as a weighty destiny that he often felt scarcely capable of matching.
Buðli III’s fate was inextricably tied to that of his great contemporary – Timur the Lame. Timur was the last of the great Asiatic conquerors of the Steppe who had routinely threatened the civilised world from the Pacific to the Atlantic for thousands of years. Matched only by Genghis himself and perhaps Batu, whose armies tamed Central Europe in the 13th century, Timur would establish an Empire stretching from the Middle East to India within a few short decades. Just as Buðli desired to emulate his ancestors – believing defending the Middle East from Timur was his destiny, the conquering Timur desired to do what Hulegu had failed to accomplish, and crush the Egypto-Norse.
During the late 1370s and early 1380s Timur wrestled control of Central Asia East of Samarkand from the weak remains of the Mongol Chagatai Khanate. In 1382 he began his invasion of the Persian Empire, a realm that only spent a few decades independent of the Mongols. Within two years the Shah’s armies had been obliterated and the Empire surrendered to Timur – yet it took another three before the native Persian nobility could be completely and utterly destroyed, a feat the Ilkhans had never accomplished. Timur followed up his victories in Persia by invading the Byzantine Empire (engaged in a Civil War which had allowed the Egyptians to capture two provinces in Al Jazira), wrestling control over Azerbaijan. Next Timur turned his attention to the remains of the Golden Horde – by the late 14th century the Horde was a loose confederation that held on and off power from the Polish border to the Urals. Timur sought to restore order to parts of the Horde’s realm – capturing their capital at Astrakhan and forcing the submission of the petty chiefs to the East of the Volga. This invasion, vitally, brought large numbers of Steppe warriors into Timur’s armies – it was time to face Egypt.
As Timur declared war in early 1394 Buðli assembled a fearsome defensive line along the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers – assembling an army of immense numbers. His initial plan was to await Timur’s advance and face him on favourable ground. As soon as Timur arrived at Kirkuk with a sizable force the Egyptian King panicked and ordered everything he had into battle, for fear of seeing Timur establish control over the mountains of Luristan – just North-East of Baghdad. After driving the Timurids from the field at Kirkuk, and inflicted substantial losses Buðli made the desperately foolish decision to pursue Timur deep into the mountains in search of a decisive and early victory.
Timur won one of his greatest military victories, of an Egyptian army of almost 100,000 that crossed over from the Egyptian border – around 30,000 would manage to reassemble at Baghdad by the Summer of 1395. Timur had delivered a powerful blow against the grand old Egypto-Norse realm.
Following the defeat in the Western Mountains of Persia Buðli moved quickly to prevent a total collapse of Egyptian power in Mesopotamia. Firstly he called upon his vassals to provide more troops, before moving to higher large numbers of mercenary troops. The arrival of these reinforcements made any immediate Timurid attempt on Baghdad impossible. Instead Timur sought to gradually establish his control over the mountains of Luristan – and attempt to lure the Egyptians into a battle on unfavourable ground.
It wouldn’t be until the Spring of 1396 that Timur successfully lured Buðli into the pitched battle he wanted. But rather than score a great military victory and clear the way for his conquest of the Middle East, it was the Egyptian King who triumphed. The old Egypto-Norse tradition of elite heavy infantry had made Egypto-Norse armies quite distinct from other military forces of the known world for centuries; on the face of things it seemed that the cavalry focus of the Steppe Hordes gave them an advantage. Instead the unbreakable strength of the Egypto-Norse infantry was often able to foil even skilled cavalry commanders – at Daquq the Egypto-Norse infantry scored one of its greatest triumphs in slaughtering Timur’s horsemen and carrying the day.
On the cusp of his greatest victory, with Timur being forced to flee from Luristan, Buðli made the very same mistake he had at the start of the war and assumed Timur was beaten. Chasing the defeated army of Timur once more into the mountains of Western Persia he faced another terrible defeat at the Battle of Lambsar – this time, as the Egyptians filed back towards Baghdad the nobility were not to be so forgiving.
Regrouping in Baghdad and facing the encroachment of Timur once again towards the city, Buðli’s Generals informed the King that they were no longer willing to follow him. The King’s failings had convinced many that under Buðli they were doomed to Timur. Instead the nobles demanded that Buðli abdicate in favour of his brother – Bo. Faced with unwanted division at this crucial time in Egyptian history Buðli decided to take his own life.
Whether the demands of his Generals for his abdication had destroyed the confidence of Buðli, or he believed that his death was the only thing that could hold Egypt together and allow for victory over Timur was what convinced him to take his own life we will never know for sure. The results of his death provided invaluable unity at this moment of crisis for the Empire.
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