WI Charles d'Anjou revives Latin Empire in 1271?

Charles d'Anjou having made secure his position in the East, began to prepare a crusade to recover the Latin Empire. Emperor Michael VIII was alarmed and notified King Louis VIII. However Charles mustered an army and went to meet his brother Alphonse de Poitou and his army in Savona. But the death of Alphonse in August, the plague that struck his armies and a sudden storm which tore apart his fleet made Charles to postpone his plans against Michael VIII and eventualy to abandon them giving time to the Byzantine Emperor to incite the Sicelian Vespers and completely neutralise the threat against his throne...
WI Charles launched his attack against the newly revived Byzantine Empire? Was Michael VIII able to deal with him? Is a restoration of Latin Empire plausible with Charles as Emperor?
 
Charles d'Anjou

Michael VIII certainly had much to fear from the Angevins. But the Byzantine empire in 1271 was in a much stronger position than it was at the first Latin conquest in 1204. I don't see Charles actually taking Constantinople.
 
Whilst I think it unlikely that Charles would conquer the Byzantine Roman Empire he may be able to bring Achaia and the other former Latin Empire vassals as his vassals.
I think the key thing is whether he'd be recognized as Latin Emperor (if it buys it from Baldwin/Philip of Courtenay), given a new Imperial title, or remain "merely" King of Sicily and the Aegean.
 
Whilst I think it unlikely that Charles would conquer the Byzantine Roman Empire he may be able to bring Achaia and the other former Latin Empire vassals as his vassals.
I think the key thing is whether he'd be recognized as Latin Emperor (if it buys it from Baldwin/Philip of Courtenay), given a new Imperial title, or remain "merely" King of Sicily and the Aegean.

Michael VIII was an excellent diplomat... If Charles d'Anjou managed to take Achaea and other former principates in Greece under his crown could Michael VIII lure him through diplomacy (and a potential marriage) and vassalize him as a "client king"? Is this possible?
 
Charles d'Anjou

If Charles manages to take some of the empire's European provinces and seriously threatens the others, perhaps this may force Michael VIII to pay more attention to Asia Minor. By the early 1270s the situation there was deteriorating rapidly and the nomads making serious inroads.
 
If Charles manages to take some of the empire's European provinces and seriously threatens the others, perhaps this may force Michael VIII to pay more attention to Asia Minor. By the early 1270s the situation there was deteriorating rapidly and the nomads making serious inroads.


Being an excellent diplomat Michael VIII could force Charles to become a client King of the Empire... Remember that Sicilian Vespers were the last brilliant sample of Byzantine diplomacy...
 
Top