The Myth of Prester John

For over 500 years medieval people, from all powerful kings down to the lowly peasant, repeated the story of a Christian king somewhere in the world that would eventually summon his armies to save Christendom from the onslaught of pagans, heretics, and other religions. This king, known as Prester John, had a different location depending on the individuals telling the story, with versions placing him in India, China, Africa, and others. However, Prester John never summoned his armies to help the crusades or rescue besieged Christian cities because he didn’t exist. This article will explore how the myth of Prester John spread, its origin, and its eventual transition from supposed truth to myth.

The story of Prester John begins in the 12th century but is rooted in biblical and early Church history. The New Testament records that the Apostle Thomas traveled to “India” to spread Christianity and is credited with starting numerous churches along the way in places like the Roman province of Assyria, Mesopotamia, and Kerala (South India). Europeans held the belief that these communities converted by Thomas were still out there somewhere in Asia or India but where exactly was unknown, as “India” was a vague concept to the Western Europeans and could mean what we call India today or even could mean modern China, Africa, or southeast Asia.

In 1145, a Bishop named Hugh of Jabala gives us the first recorded telling of Prester John. A chronicler, Otto of Fresing, records that Hugh, in his role as emissary to Raymond of Antioch, described to a papal court in Italy that a dual king and priest of Nestorian Christianity took control of the city Ecbatana from Persian monarchs. This “presbyter” king, or priest king, then set out with his army to help reclaim Jerusalem from the Muslims but was stopped at the River Tigris due to high waters, returning to his own kingdom. Hugh stated that this king is descended from one of the three (or all of them) Magi of the biblical Three Magi fame. This tale spread to the various European courts for one main reason, it gave hope to beleaguered Christians losing ground in their fight to conquer the Levant. Those fighting in the crusading kingdoms were buoyed by the belief that if they held on long enough, Prester John would come with his massive army and save them from the onslaught. In reality, the story that Hugh of Jabala was telling was more likely the distorted retelling of a battle between the Western Lao people (also known as the Kara/Qara Khitai) against the Seljuk Turks who ruled Persia. In 1141 a battle was fought at Samarkand (modern day Uzbekistan), which the Seljuk Turks lost and suffered massive casualties. The Western Lao people were Buddhist, not Nestorian Christian, but many of the vassals serving the Lao were Nestorian, even having a tradition of using Christian names. When Prester John did not arrive to save the besieged Crusader States, that did not deter the belief that a great Christian king or kingdom was still out there in the unknown eastern world.

In 1165, a letter arrived addressed to the Byzantine Emperor, Manuel I Komnenos, claiming to be from King John of a Christian kingdom in Asia. John described himself as wealthy, powerful, a king with 72 other kings in fealty to him, and that he ruled the “three Indias.” The author of the letter further claimed to be bordering the literal garden of Eden, home to the most beautiful women, and a land full of wild fantasies, like a river of moving stones. The author also claimed that he will retake the Church of the Holy Sepulcher and that he guarded the '“Shrine of St. Thomas.” The letter is almost certainly a forgery, probably concocted by a monk but their motivations are unknown. This letter was said to be written originally in Arabic, translated into Greek, then translated in Latin. However now scholars believe the letter was originally written in Latin and the tale exaggerated by claiming to be written in different languages, to make it feel more mystical as the news spread around medieval Europe. To add further muddling, gaps in the story were filled in by the merchants and emissaries retelling the story to the various courts and towns. These differing details did not stop the letter from being taken literally and translated in the various European languages, eventually even being translated into Hebrew. The land that the letter described immediately grabbed the attention of Europeans and the hunt to find this kingdom and its king began. The details described in the letter fed into the biblical and fantastical tales that India was a land of wonders, mystery, and riches. Later travel novels by Marco Polo, the mythical John Mandeville, and others further enforced the idea that the world beyond Europe and the Near East was magical, strange, and dangerous but teeming with riches and wealth.

In 1221, the Bishop of Acre, Jacques de Vitry, claimed he brought good news to Europe out of the woeful Fifth Crusade, that a king named David of India, a descendent of Prester John, finally had arrived from the east to defeat the Saracens or Muslim forces, conquering Persia and attacking Baghdad. This greatly bolstered the hope that all was not lost as thought in the Holy Land and that soon Jerusalem would fall to this David of India. While Jacques de Vitry was correct in describing recent Saracen losses to an unknown force, this force was not Christian or a King from India, but was in fact Genghis Khan and his army. Although it quickly became apparent that King David of India was not the monarch arriving from the east, Christian emissaries were sent far east to find this King now that the Mongols were in control of areas that were previously off limits to Christians. As the 13th century went on, the legend morphed into that Prester John or his kingdom was real and on the far eastern border of the Mongols but had been defeated and vassalized by the Mongols. Marco Polo in his Travels records that Prester John did exist at one point but had been vanquished by Genghis after a devastating war caused by the refusal of Prester John to marry his daughter to Genghis himself. Polo was probably confusing a real historical early vassal of the Mongols that was defeated after a dispute with Genghis. When Prester John or evidence of him in the Far East could not be found, Europeans instead began searching elsewhere rather than disbelieving the legend.

By the 15th century, the hunt for Prester John turned from Asia to Africa. While India was placed as the location for his kingdom from the start, India was a vague location at this time to Europe and meant everything from South East Asia to parts of Africa. Ethiopia became the new likely land that the King existed in, discarding the previous supposed “facts” that a monarch had been stopped at the River Tigris in 1145. Polo again in his Travels described Ethiopia as a great Christian land and that Orthodox Christians told stories that Ethiopia would one day conquer Arabia. in 1306, Ethiopian envoys arrived in Europe and Prester John was listed as a bishop or Patriarch there by European chronicles for some strange reason, kickstarting the hunt for him in Africa.

In the very early years of the Age of Exploration, finding Prester John and his rich lands described in the 1165 letter became a motivating factor to explore the world. In 1487, two Portuguese ambassadors were sent to travel through Africa to find a new trade route to India but to also find Prester John. Although they were obviously not successful, other early explorers claimed that the Emperor of Ethiopia was called Prester John, despite the people of Ethiopia never calling the title holder that. Ethiopia became one of the favored locations of John’s kingdom (or the origin of the myth) even up to the 18th century, with various explorers searching Ethiopia and Africa for the fabled Prester’s kingdom. Eventually as the world became more well known to Europeans and the Americas were discovered, the legend shifted to the New World with various Spaniards claiming that Prester John could exist in North America.

It was not until the 17th century that academics began to point out the flaws in the Prester John story, and coupled with the lack of evidence found through world exploration and colonization, the myth of Prester John became just that, a myth.