The unstoppable Mongol hordes led by Subutai had completely smashed European armies in Hungary and Poland and were poised to launch an all-out invasion of Western Europe. At that exact critical juncture, news arrived all the way from Karakorum, Mongolia, that the Great Khan Ögedei had suddenly died after a heavy drinking bout. Bound by strict tribal law, all Mongol princes immediately halted their military advance and raced back to the capital to elect a new leader, completely abandoning their European campaign and never returning.

This incredible political coincidence preserved Western European culture from total physical annihilation and cultural erasure. It allowed the nascent university systems, monastic libraries, and early vernacular poetic traditions of Italy, France, and England to develop continuously into the Renaissance.