 When Yolande's brother, John I of Montferrat, died without children in 1305, Montferrat legitimately passed to Yolande and her children.The Byzantine aristocracy were less than eager of sending one of Andronikos II's sons to claim Montferrat.That a Byzantine prince, born in the purple, would be sent to live among, and rule over, Latin barbarians, was bad enough but there were also fears that he and his descendants might become 'Latinized' and that the Italians, as a result of the Montferrat inheritance, could launch an invasion in the future in hopes of placing a Catholic Palaiologos on the Byzantine throne.