Theodore Lascaris (1175 - 1222) was a Byzantine emperor.

Biography

Born in 1175, the son of Lascaris Handbook and Jeanne Karatzas, a former Greek family, was made known by marrying in 1199 Anna Ange (1185-1204-1212), girl of the emperor Alexis III Angel (1195 - 1203).

In 1204 Latin were already with the doors of Constantinople, and the situation was disordered, critical. Theodore Lascaris benefitted from the crisis to be made crown Empereur with the basilica Holy-Sophie a few days before the catch of the city. He then escaped towards the East with some Byzantine troops and installed his general headquarter downtown of Nicée, now known under the name of Iznik in Turkey. There he asserted himself like only Byzantine Emperor working for the re-establishment of this one.

He was indeed regarded by all as a large warrior and a fine strategist, and its actions quickly made provisional Empire of Nicée the resistant bastion of Byzantine civilization. He fought against the empire of Trébizonde and the despotat of Épire, pushed back the crusaders and especially the Turks, of which he killed the Sultan of his hands to preserve his territory.

His wife Anna Ange died in 1212, after him to have given two girls, Irene-Helene Lascaris and Marie Lascaris. The Emperor remaria on December 1st 1214 with Philippa d' Arménie, then left it in 1216, without posterity.

He Maria third once in 1219 with Marie de Courtenay, grand-daughter of the king Louis VI the large, which stabilized a time the relations with the crusaders, but this one died in 1222 without him to give a son.

The Emperor Theodore 1st Lascaris also died this year, without to have been able to take again Constantinople, symbol of the Latin occupation. Not having wire, it is his/her son-in-law Jean III Doukas Vatatzès (husband of Irene) who succeeded to him the head of the Empire of Nicée.

See too

• List of the Byzantine emperors

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