Manoel's War on the Danube

Manoel's priority was to prevent another overland campaign to jerusalem. He correctly identified their presence outside the gates of constantinople as the most likely source of the empire's downfall. The major threat seemed to come from the german emperor frederick barbarossa, a fearsome individual who rejected byzantine peace overtures in favour of enforcing his office. Hungary also boarded two other powers who were relevant to the romans, the r and the serbians. They were no longer united under one ruler, which made them less of a threat to constantinople but they could still lend military support to the hungarians if it suited their interests.