The Byzantine Empire
Emperor Baldwin
Baldwin spent several years in the West trying to raise money and troops. He encountered nothing but difficulties and disappointments. Pope Gregory IX was a strong ally. He wrote letters. He declared that anyone who had taken the crusader vow could fulfill it by going to fight for Constantinople. He levied a tax on the clergy in Greece. He preached a crusade against John Asen of Bulgaria, granting extensive privileges to King Bela IV of Hungary to get him to make war on the Bulgars, but the Mongols were arriving and the Hungarians had to fight them instead. Baldwin himself went on to Paris, then to his own marquisate of Namur, and then to London. Both the French and the English king thought the young man friendly but not imposing. They gave him fine words and a bit of money, but not much more.
In 1238 Baldwin took what forces he had been able to raise and started back for Constantinople. He was delayed in northern Italy by Frederick II, until the pope demanded Baldwin be given safe passage. The army arrived at Venice, but there the commander died and most of the troops dispersed. Baldwin then mortgaged Namur to King Louis IX and raised 30,000 troops. With these he at last managed to return to Constantinople in 1239.
Pope Gregory IX died in 1241. Two years passed before another pope was elected, so Baldwin was without papal support. Also in 1241 John Asen died, to be succeeded by his young son Coloman I. Sensing an opportunity, Vatatzes made a truce with the Latins so he could have a free hand against the Bulgars. He won some significant victories, but here again the Mongols played a wild card. Their victories against the Seljuks in Asia Minor brought them close to the Nicaean empire, and Vatazes was forced to return to Asia Minor. The Mongols eventually withdrew for reasons of their own, but they had forever destroyed the power of the Seljuks, reducing them to Mongol tributaries.
Baldwin was still suffering from extreme poverty. During these years we find Latin knights by the hundreds fighting either for the Bulgarians or for the Seljuks—anyone, in fact, who could pay them. Baldwin returned to the West early in 1244 and stayed there until October 1248, trying again to raise men and money, with little success. He sat with Pope Innocent IV at the Council of Lyons in June 1245. Despite being treated with great honors and hearing many moving speeches, Baldwin returned to Constantinople as broke as he had ever been. He even mortgaged his own son!
Byzantium's enemies, meantime, had not been idle. Coloman I died in 1246 and Bulgaria was unable to keep Vatatzes from conquering most of Macedonia. He also took Thessalonica through treachery. A new king had arisen in Epirus, Michael II, but for the time being he was more concerned with Vatatzes than with the Latins. In 1247 Vatatzes captured Vizya, then turned his attention to Rhodes, which was under attack from the Duke of the Archipelago.
Baldwin continued to tour about, looking for money. He visited King Louis at Damietta, and visited him again in Palestine in 1251. Innocent IV, meanwhile, seems to have given up on the Latins and rescinded many of the privileges and arrangements made by Gregory IX. Since he also entered into discussions with Vatatzes, it appears that the pope had already written the Latins off and was anticipating Greek rule of Constantinople. If nothing else, the negotiations won a few years' reprieve, for Vatatzes thought he might win Constantinople through diplomacy. For his part, the Nicaean emperor played the old game of hinting that he might accept some sort of union of the churches in exchange.