Diplomatic moves

he agreement and alliance concluded with the enemy of the pope, Frederick II Hohenstaufen of Germany, may be reckoned among the diplomatic moves of John III Vatatzes, in his attempt to strengthen his position against the Latins. The alliance was sealed by the marriage of John III Vatatzes to the 12-year-old illegitimate daughter of Frederick II, Constance Lancia, which probably took place in 1244. This alliance, however, did not significantly benefit the Empire of Nicaea. Therefore, after the death of Frederick in 1253, negotiations concerning ecclesiastical union with Rome, which had reached a deadlock in 1234, were resumed. Pope Innocent IV (1243-54) now seemed eager to sacrifice the weakened Latin Empire in order to achieve union with the Byzantine Church, while Vatatzes was willing to sacrifice its independence in order to recover Constantinople.

But this time the political conditions for the realisation of the union were not favourable, and the almost simultaneous deaths, in 1254, of John III, following an epileptic attack, and of Innocent IV, as well as that of the Byzantine Patriarch Manuel II in 1255, put an end to the negotiations in 1254-55. The foreign policy of John III Vatatzes proved an effective one: the territory of the Empire was doubled, its foreign enemies were defeated, its Greek rivals were weakened and the ground was thus prepared for the recovery of Constantinople. Although the final triumph fell to another, it may be said that it is to John III Vatatzes that the credit for the restoration of the Byzantine Empire is mainly due.