Towards the end of his life Emperor Manuel II (d. 1425) is reported to have remarked, “Today, as troubles accompany us constantly, our empire needs not an emperor (βασιλεύς) but an administrator (οιʾκονóμος).” Manuel uttered these words in reference to his son and co-emperor, John VIII, with whom he was in disagreement over the two interrelated, principal foreign policy issues of the time: first, whether to adopt an aggressive or a peaceful stance towards the Ottomans, and, secondly, whether or not to implement the union of the Byzantine Church with the Church of Rome. With regard to the second matter, Manuel's preference was to sustain negotiations with the papacy so as to intimidate the Ottomans, yet without ever allowing the union to materialize. In relation to the Ottomans, he was in favor of maintaining a façade of peace and friendship with them, rather than pursuing an openly aggressive policy. John VIII's views on both matters differed from those of his father, whose policies he found to be excessively passive and conciliatory. On his part the senior emperor, Manuel II, regarded his son as an ambitious ruler with unrealistic visions and ideals that might have been appropriate in the Byzantine Empire's old days of prosperity, but by no means befitting its current circumstances. The two questions of foreign policy which brought the co-emperors into conflict with each other were crucial issues that in essence dominated the political history of the Byzantine Empire throughout the entire last century of its existence.