Saying “no” to the Mongols could be a death sentence – this was intentional as the Mongols encouraged surrender with their brutality in response to resistance. The Mongol conqueror Hulegu wanted the Romans, aka the Byzantine “Empire of Nicaea,” to submit to the Mongols. The Roman Empire was nothing more than small regional power in the eyes of the Mongols. In 1257 Hulegu sent the Romans an embassy to Nicaea requesting they bow to their rightful Mongol masters.
Submitting was not really compatible with the Roman worldview, at least not to do so outright. Roman diplomatic genius was brought straight to work. In the words of Nicholas Morton: “Emperor Theodore II (Laskaris) responded to this deputation’s arrival with a shrewd piece of statecraft. When Hulegu’s representatives reached the border, rather than taking them straight to his court, Theodore ordered that they be brought to him by a long and meandering route in order to give a false impression of the size of the Empire of Nicaea. He also arranged for well-armed squadrons of soldiers to be stations along the road to give the impression that his empire could deploy huge numbers of troops.” Brilliant, I must say – when the Mongol ambassadors returned they would be under the impression that this was a large Empire with large armies.
The Emperor Theodore II then found an amicable solution to the Mongol issue, they were to become basically a nominal Mongol client-state, although the Romans probably presented this more as an alliance of equals in their telling of it. They were treated better than some other than some other client states, in part because they cooperated and in part due to their diplomatic skills. In 1260, a treaty was finally ratified which secured the Roman lands from any Mongol threat. Theodore Laskaris, followed by Michael Palaiologos, was able to secure from this alliance the restoration of an Orthodox Patriarch in Antioch. Already the Principality of Antioch had submitted to Mongol overlordship, and had no choice but to obey.
That demonstrated that the Mongols valued and respected their Roman allies more than Antioch – imposing imperial demands on them. The Byzantines were using this alliance and nominal submission to great effect. Securing some concessions like that likely allowed them to feel like it was more of an alliance than submission, regardless of how the Mongols may have interpreted it. The Emperor could go to his court and say how it was a mutually beneficial relationship, and both sides could take what they needed from it and present it favorably to their people.
The Empire of Nicaea had truly impressive leadership and statecraft – I can only imagine what those Emperors could have done in earlier eras with a greater Empire to work with! They punched above their weight. After the liberation of Constantinople the Mongols were to pose a problem for Michael VIII Palaiologos to deal with, as there were not one but two Mongol factions – and staying neutral was not an easy matter.
Source:
The Mongol Storm: Making and Breaking in the Medieval Near East by Nicholas Morton
shadowsofconstantinople.com 