Theodore I Laskaris

1175 – 1222 · Generation XXXII · Emperor (r. 1204–1222) · Laskaris (Nicaea)

Theodore (AD 1175 – 1222). Emperor (r. 1204–1222). Married Anna around AD 1199. Founder of the Empire of Nicaea. Born into an aristocratic family of no great fame, he escaped from crusader captivity in the chaos of the Fourth Crusade and crossed into Asia Minor to organise Greek resistance against the Latins in Bithynia. Refugees from the Latin Empire streamed to his lands; he routed the combined forces of the Latins and Trebizond, took the traditional imperial titles in 1205, and convoked a Church council whose new patriarch crowned him at Nicaea. When his exiled father-in-law Alexios III set the Seljuqs on him, he defeated them in 1211, and his peace treaty with the Latin emperor Henry of Flanders implicitly acknowledged his state's existence. The power he built within sight of Constantinople gave his successors the base from which the city was retaken in 1261.

One of 3 people of Laskaris (Nicaea) (1175–1258) in this archive. The emperors in exile at Nicaea, who kept the empire alive while Latins held Constantinople.

Partners

Married Anna Angelina (1176 – 1212) in 1199 — 2 children together

Children

Irene Laskarina (1190 – 1239)
Nicholas Laskaris (1173 – 1210)

Life

1175 — Born
1199 — Married Anna
1222 — Died