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Attempts to recover Constantinople
ohn III Vatatzes
initially tried to recover Constantinople by diplomatic means. In 1234, he promoted negotiations aiming towards the union of the Eastern and Western churches, in exchange for which he hoped the Pope, who supported the Latins, would return Constantinople to the Byzantines of Nicaea.
The negotiations, however, were not successful, and John III decided to undertake military operations against Constantinople. In order to strengthen his army, Vatatzes accepted the alliance proposed to him by
John II Asen
of Bulgaria, to jointly attack Constantinople. The treaty of alliance (1235) was confirmed by the marriage of Vatatzes' successor,
Theodore Laskaris,
to Asen's daughter, Helen. Concomitantly, the Bulgarian Church was accorded autocephalous status and its patriarch was recognised by the ecclesiastical and the political authorities of Nicaea. The Latins were able to withstand both the sieges of Constantinople, that of 1235 thanks to the assistance of the
Italian maritime republics,
and that of 1236 thanks to the help of the Frankish prince of Achaia. The dissolution of the alliance between Bulgaria and Byzantium, following the death of John Asen in 1241, offered the Latins a welcome respite.
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