Byzantine Idea

[Pappy]

What if Alexios I Kommenos betrothed his son John II to Helena of Apulia (Robert Guiscard's daughter) instead of Irene of Hungary. How would this help the crumbling empire and how would it hurt it?

If this is just horribly ASB then I will delete it.

 

[Basileus Giorgios]

You probably get a Norman on the throne of the ERE in fairly short order, knowing the ability and ambition of the Norman people.

Also, the 12th century Empire was not crumbling. By contrast, it was experiencing a sustained economic boom, and a major social and political renaissance.