William of Rubruck (Dutch: Willem van Ruysbroeck; Latin: Gulielmus de Rubruquis; or Guillaume de Rubrouck) was a Flemish Franciscan missionary and explorer, and a subject and confidant of King Louis IX of France, better known as Saint Louis. William was born likely in the 1210s or 1220s in Rubrouck (County of Flanders, Kingdom of France, today's France), and died, according to sources, in the 1270s or after 1293. He is best known for his travels to various parts of the Middle East and Central Asia in the 13th century, including the Mongol Empire. He traveled to Mongolia in 1253–1254, thus preceding the journeys of Marco Polo and Odoric of Pordenone. He visited Karakorum, the capital of the Empire, and provided some descriptions of it. Upon his return, unable to meet the King of France in person, he wrote him a long letter recounting his journey through the Mongol Empire. His account of his travels is one of the masterpieces of medieval travel literature, comparable to those of Marco Polo and Ibn Battuta, as well as an essential historical source. However, it never attained the popularity of Marco Polo’s book. Source: Wikipedia (en)