Theodore I Laskaris (1174-1222) was Emperor of Nicaea from 1205 to 1222, succeeding Constantine Laskaris and preceding John III Doukas Vatatzes.
Biography[]
Theodore in 1212
Theodore I Laskaris was born in Constantinople, Byzantine Empire in 1174 to a minor noble family, the brother of Constantine Laskaris nad Isaakios Laskaris. In 1198, he married the daughter of Emperor Alexius III of Byzantium and rose to the rank of despotes, and he distinguished himself during the sieges of Constantinople from 1203 to 1204. He fled to Nicaea after the city's fall to the crusaders in 1204, and, after defeating the rival Byzantine nobles David Komnenos and Manuel Maurozomes, he was proclaimed Emperor in 1205. In 1209, he allied with the Second Bulgarian Empire against the Latin Empire and launched a counteroffensive against the Latins, and he killed Sultan Kaykhusraw I of the Sultanate of Rum in single combat at the Battle of Antioch on the Meander in 1211. In October of 1211, however, Henry of Flanders defeated Theodore at the Rhyndacus. In 1214, Theodore made peace with the Latin Empire at Nymphaion, and he married Henry's niece Marie de Courtenay in 1219. He briefly attacked the Latin Empire in 1220 before peace was restored, and he died in 1220. His son-in-law John III Doukas Vatatzes succeeded him as Emperor.