Social policy

ohn III Vatatzes appears to have been particularly interested in the welfare of the lower classes. With the help of his wife, Irene, he took effective measures to alleviate the burden of the poorer sections of the population. It was perhaps this social policy of his and the fact that he appointed to high offices persons who were not of noble birth that brought him into conflict with the aristocracy. However, by conceding to the aristocrats hereditary rights to land, he managed to keep them under his control. Continuing the work of his predecessor, he occupied himself with the reconstruction of cities, such as Smyrna, of churches and monasteries, such as the monastery of Sosandra in Magnesia and that of the Lembiotissa near Smyrna, and made donations to the monasteries and the Church of Nicaea. Moreover, he promoted education and the sciences by founding libraries and offering his patronage to intellectuals. For all these beneficial acts, after his death in 1254, the people of the eastern provinces of the Empire honoured John III as a saint.