[3] By the early 1340s the Aydinids and other Turkish beyliks had forced several Aegean islands to pay tributes and had devastated the surrounding coastal regions.

He commissioned Henry of Asti, the Catholic patriarch of Constantinople, to organise a league against the Turks, who had increased their piracy in the Aegean in recent years.

[6] On 13 May next year, the united forces defeated a substantially larger Turkish fleet in the Battle of Pallene, the western prong of Chalcidice peninsula.

On 17 January 1345, having returned from what was likely a foray to secure supplies, patriarch Henry of Asti decided against the advice of the other leaders to celebrate mass in the former cathedral of Smyrna, which lay outside of the suburb.

The next five years were occupied by Clement VI with attempts to negotiate a truce with the Turks, who kept Smyrna in a constant state of siege by land and direct financial and military aid to the city.