Surrounding the Ottomans through Byzantine Marital Diplomacy: The Marriage of John VIII and Maria Komnene

The third marriage of Byzantine Emperor John VIII Palaiologos, with the Trapezuntine princess Maria Komnene, has been interpreted in historiography as the result of a personal motive of the emperor, from which Byzantium gained nothing from Trebizond aside from the bride’s beauty. However, a detailed analysis of political developments in Europe and Asia Minor, as well as an examination of diplomatic relations among neighboring rulers, leads us to conclude that this theory is unfounded. The marriage between John and Maria, much like the emperor’s first two marriages, was a calculated political move aimed at expanding a network of allies against the Turks. In addition to Trebizond’s long tradition of intermarrying with neighboring Muslim rulers, it is important to highlight that one of Maria’s sisters was already married to Qara Yuluk Osman Beg, ruler of the Turkmen principality of Aq Qoyunlu. Alongside the Karamanids, Aq Qoyunlu was one of the enemies of the Ottomans in Asia Minor, being a state in constant territorial expansion during the 1420s and 1430s. Furthermore, the decentralized nature of this emirate was seen by neighboring rulers as a viable alternative to the Ottomans. Sources record a case in which the ruler of the Menteshe, after being defeated by Murad II, sought refuge and support from none other than Qara Osman. The most significant evidence supporting this theory is the 1430 correspondence between the ruler of Aq Qoyunlu and the Hungarian King Sigismund, revealing a plan by Qara Osman and his ally Shahrukh for a possible campaign against the Ottomans. Based on this connection between European and Anatolian enemies of the Ottomans, this paper proposes a theory of Byzantium as the hub of an alliance that, through familial and diplomatic networks, gathered potential allies in the effort to confront the threat of the Ottoman Empire.