[1] When it became known in France that Peter of Courtenay was dead, his eldest son, Philip, Marquis of Namur, renounced the succession to the Latin empire of Constantinople in favor of his brother Robert, who set out to take possession of his distracted inheritance.
[3] Worried about the situation of the Catholic Latin Empire, pope Honorius III called for a crusade for the defense of Thessalonica,[3] but the response was ineffective.
[4] Following this defeat Robert was compelled to make peace with his chief foe, John III Ducas Vatatzes, emperor of Nicaea, who was confirmed in all his conquests.
Robert promised to marry Eudokia, daughter of the late emperor of Nicaea, Theodore I Lascaris[5] and Anna Angelina.
He had been betrothed to Eudokia on a former occasion; the circumstances surrounding the failed negotiations are unclear, but George Akropolites states that the arrangement was blocked on religious grounds by the Orthodox Patriarch Manuel Sarantenos: Robert's sister Marie de Courtenay was married to Emperor Theodore I Laskaris.