Maria Comnena

[el t]

Maria Comnena, daughter of the Byzantine emperor Manuel I, becomes empress after his death. His first wife survives, so there is no second marriage to Marie of Antioch. She was married to the western prince Renier of Montferrat. Would the Greeks have accepted him as emperor? Could an emperor from the west have prevented the 4th Crusade?

 

[Midgard]

Maria Comnena, daughter of the Byzantine emperor Manuel I, becomes empress after his death. His first wife survives, so there is no second marriage to Marie of Antioch. She was married to the western prince Renier of Montferrat. Would the Greeks have accepted him as emperor? Could an emperor from the west have prevented the 4th Crusade?

Hmm... probably no Emperor Rainier, unless a very specific scenario occurs (see below). Consider how much backlash there was against Maria of Antioch, who was perceived as having Latin sympathies, and who was not even the sole power holder! The most the Byzantines would be willing to tolerate would be a Western Empress, unless Manuel specifically arranged for Rainier's succession and worked hard for it to happen. THAT is the only way it could occur, and even then he would have had to accept the Eastern Rite, and probably changed his name to something more Byzantine-sounding. The only way it can possibly work is if Manuel gets really involved, and manages to use all of his influence to allow for such succession (he almost did OTL for Bela Alexios, who was a husband of another of his daughters - with Rainier, it would be harder, but not impossible).

 

[Matthais Corvinus]

Maria Comnena, daughter of the Byzantine emperor Manuel I, becomes empress after his death. His first wife survives, so there is no second marriage to Marie of Antioch. She was married to the western prince Renier of Montferrat. Would the Greeks have accepted him as emperor? Could an emperor from the west have prevented the 4th Crusade?

Actually, if the first wife hadn't died, then Maria probably would have married her first finance, who Manuel was grooming for the Imperial throne when Marie of Antioch had a son. Manuel was going to designate the man who became Bela III of Hungary as the next Byzantine Emperor, going so far as to have the man renamed Alexius, and grant him the second place in the Empire.

So in about 1166 or 67 Alexius and Maria are married. When Manuel I dies in 1180 there is not the chaos and disorder of OTL, since there are two adults now ruling as Emperor and Empress. Alexius is able to take advantage of the Third Crusade in 1187, sending Byzantine troops to occupy Iconium following its fall to Barborossa's German Crusaders. The fall of Iconium marked the breaking of Turkish control of Anatolia, and would mark the greatest accomplishment of the Comneni Dynasty.

 

[Don_Giorgio]

I think that in such a scenario Renier de Montferrat would have decline the Imperial Crown if he wanted to stay alive...
He would be kicked out in a coup d'etat by Greek officials and would be replaced by someone else... Not because of his ethnicity (not the major cause after all) but because of his faith...