Theodore's brother Manuel, who managed to escape from Klokotnitsa, now took over the throne in Thessalonica. His domain was reduced to the environs of the city and his family's core territories in Epirus and Thessaly, as well as Dyrrhachium and Corfu, while his brother Constantine in Aetolia and Acarnania recognized his suzerainty. As a son-in-law of John Asen II, Manuel was allowed to maintain internal autonomy, but to all intents and purposes he was a client of the Bulgarian Tsar. At about the same time, Michael I's bastard son Michael II returned from exile and quickly succeeded, apparently with the support of the local population, in taking over control of Epirus. Manuel was forced to recognize the "fait accompli" under the pretense that Michael recognized his suzerainty, in token of which Manuel conferred him the title of Despot. In reality Michael was fully independent, and very quickly ceased to acknowledge Manuel's suzerainty; by 1236, he had seized Corfu. In order to preserve some freedom of manoeuvre and counter Asen's attempts to subordinate the Epirote Church to the Bulgarian Church of Tarnovo, Manuel turned to his brother's erstwhile rivals in Nicaea and brought an end to the ecclesiastical schism by acknowledging the legitimacy and superiority of the Nicaea-based Patriarch.