Theodore I Lascaris

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Lascaris (born about 1174 and died November 1222) is a Byzantine emperor of the Empire of Nicaea who reigned from 1205 to 1222.

He was the son of Manuel Lascaris and Jeanne Karatzine. A parent of the imperial family of the Comnenas, he was one of the emperor's close friends until the latter was overthrown by , in the period of the Fourth Crusade.

Taking advantage of the power vacuum caused by the bag of Constantinople in 1204 and the collapse of the Byzantine Empire, he established himself among the various local lords of Western Asia Minor to rebuild an exiled Empire, the Empire of Nicaea. He immediately fought for his survival against the new Latin Empire of Constantinople, which controlled the imperial city and attempted to watch the Byzantine resistance, embodied by Nicaea but also by the despotate of Epirus on the coast of the Adriatic Sea and the Empire of Trebizonde along the Black Sea, which were all rivals to the imperial pretension of . Thanks to his direct proximity to Constantinople, he can assert himself as the defender of the Byzantines and, without always being victorious, nevertheless manages to stabilize his border with the Sultanate of Rum and prevent the expansionism of the Latins, who eventually recognize him as an actor in the local political game.

In order to maintain a certain continuity with the Byzantine Empire, he restored a patriarchate in exile and was crowned as Basileus. He also restored an administration very close to that of before 1204 but adapted to the peculiarities of a small Empire. He did not hesitate to exercise pragmatism and relied on Latin mercenaries to consolidate his military apparatus, as he negotiated a trade agreement with the Venetians in 1219. He even went so far as to marry a daughter of the Latin Emperor of Constantinople in the third wedding. Diplomatic skill, both internally and with his neighbours, he did not hesitate to take the lead of his troops and managed to make the Nicaea Empire a political construction with sufficiently solid foundations that it quickly took the lead in the Byzantine reconquest against the Latin Empire of Constantinople.

Sources

Speaking at a time of great upheaval in the Byzantine world, the sources relating to the reign of are diverse and emanate from both Byzantine and Latin writings. Among the Greek chroniclers, Nicétas Choniatès concluded his History by evoking the beginnings of the establishment of the Empire of Nicaea, until about 1206-1207. He then exalts the spirit of resistance that animates Theodore Lascaris. Subsequently, several historians who had lived were precious sources, including Georges Acropolite, whose Chronicle was conceived as a continuation of that of Choniatès and allowed to embrace the entire history of the Empire of Nicaea, from its creation to the resumption of Constantinople in 1261. Less exploited but recently highlighted, Nicola's work