There was a legend that had been propagated since the 12th century of a lost kingdom of Christians somewhere in the East, ruled by a mighty and wealthy king called Prester John – supposedly a descendent of one of the three Magi who visited the newborn Christ in Bethlehem a thousand years before. This kingdom was thought originally to be located in India, (what little the West knew of it at the time), based largely on apocryphal stories about the disciple Thomas founding a Christian enclave there. Indeed, as the crusader presence in the holy land began to crumble under the onslaught of Islamic expansion, stories circulated of King Prester John sending word that he was on his way with a mighty army to relieve the besieged crusaders and help once again liberate Jerusalem for the Christians. As we know, this relief force never materialised, yet stories continued to circulate for decades that he had nevertheless liberated Persia and was on his way to take Baghdad. Muslim armies were indeed being crushed by a mighty king, but it was not the Christian Prester John, but rather Genghis Khan who was now the scourge of the Islamic world. In this short excerpt from our documentary "Kingdom of Kongo: Slaver Kings, Amazon Queens and the Brazilian Spartacus" we take a look at the myth of King Prester John, and how it motivated the Mediterranean kingdoms of Southern Europe to search for an ally against Muslim expansion. #presterjohn #crusades #christian #history #documentary #genghiskhan

You can watch the full length documentary here:    • Slaver Kings, Amazon Queens and the B...  

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