RUBRUQUIS (WILLIAM OF RUBRUCK). - Franciscan, itinerant missionary of the 13th century. Born at Rubruck near Cassel, Flanders, now northern France (not to be confused with Rubroek, Brabant), between 1215 and 1220, died ca. 1270.
As a young man he entered the Order and studied in Paris. In 1248, perhaps with the expedition of Louis IX, he set out for the Holy Land, remaining at Acre until 1252, when he wished to set out as a missionary toward the land of the Mongols.
Many authors maintained in the past that his journey to the Tartars was a diplomatic mission on behalf of Louis IX, to invite them to his aid against the Saracens, but it has been demonstrated that the purpose of R. was entirely missionary: Louis IX nevertheless supported him and gave him a letter of recommendation for the Great Khan. He set out on 7 May from Constantinople and reached the court of the latter on 27 Dec. of the following year (1253), after having passed through the courts of many subordinate princes and having overcome many dangers. He obtained permission to stay at the court for some time, but at the beginning of July 1254 he had to take the road back, by an itinerary different from that of the outward journey, and he arrived the following year, in summer, in the Holy Land, where his superiors assigned him once again to Acre, as a lector. Having failed to obtain permission to go to Louis IX, in Paris, to recount to him orally the results of his expedition, he addressed to him his Itinerarium, which is one of the most precious accounts that the Middle Ages has left us on the Tartars, for its minute descriptions of usages and customs, the important geographical information, the exactness of the information, to which contributed the vast cultural preparation that R. displays in it. Having obtained through the King of France permission to go to Paris, he is found shortly afterward at the court; then every trace of him is completely lost.