…the imperial couple sail for Constantinople, where the enraged Michael VIII refuses to receive them for days for their cowardice.
In 1280 or 1281 Ivan Asen III travels to the Golden Horde, competing with Ivailo in a bid to win support for restoration in Bulgaria.
The Mongol chieftain Nogai Khan eventually has Ivailo murdered, but failed to restore Ivan Asen III in Bulgaria.
The latter returns to his family possessions in the Troad, where he will die in 1303.
The Asen dynasty will be followed by two others, both of Cuman origin, neither of which will succeed in restoring central authority.
Whatever sins Michael VIII may have committed in the eyes of the Orthodox Church, it is true that, by concentrating on the danger from the West, he has neglected, if he has not betrayed, the eastern provinces where he had come to power.
