Amadeo VI

   Count of Savoy (1343-1383) and cousin of John V Palaiologos (q.v.) who seized Gallipoli from the Ottomans (qq.v.). He was planning to join Pope (q.v.) Urban V's Crusade against Egypt (q.v.) in 1365, but sailed instead the following year to aid John V by forcing the Ottomans to withdraw from Gallipoli. When he learned that John V was being refused passage through Bulgaria, he attacked Varna, then seized Sozopolis and Mesembria (qq.v.), forcing the Bulgarians to relent. Amadeo tried to convince his cousin that conversion to the Roman faith would result in further military assistance from the West. When John V refused, Amadeo threatened to restore Gallipoli to the Turks. Nevertheless, in 1369 John V journeyed to Rome (q.v.) where he professed his personal allegiance to the pope. However, the hope of significant military help from the West proved as much an illusion as the pope's hope that the entire Byzantine church would follow John V's example.