To someone living in the Holy Roman Empire in medieval europe with an understanding of the Byzantine empire and the Roman Empire what would they see the Byzantine empire as and when did people start seeing it that way.

by atgmailcom

I always see people saying that the Byzantine empire saw themselves as the Roman Empire which implies that other places did not. The Holy Roman Empire was obviously seeing itself as the successor to the Roman Empire (at least by the people who named it) but there was still a Roman emperor. So what did they see the Byzantine emperor as? Was it seen as different because of the split between the west and eastern empires or because of the great schism or because of something else?

corruptrevolutionary

While not from the common peoples' perspective, u/Welfontheshelf commented on an older thread about the conflict between Holy Roman Emperor Frederick Barbarossa and Byzantine Emperor Isaac II

In a short sum up to the link, Frederick and Isaac saw each other as Kings of the Germans, or the Greeks, respectively.

And after some arguing agreed to recognize the titles of Emperor for each other.... Emperor of the Germans, or Emperor of the Greeks. Both continued to reserve the title of Emperor of the Romans for themselves.