Laskaris - History

History

The first occurrence of the name is in 1059, in a will by Eustathios Boilas, but the people mentioned there were simple peasants. Another family surnamed Laskaris appears in Thessalonica from ca. 1180 on, but the relation with the imperial dynasty, if any, is unclear.

The first Laskaris of note were Constantine and Theodore, the sons of Manuel "Manolis" Laskaris and Ioanna Phokaina Karatzaina (Ἰωάννα Φώκαινα Καράτζαινα), who became prominent in Constantinople during the latter years of the Angeloi dynasty, when Theodore had married Anna Komnene Angelina, a daughter of Alexios III Angelos. According to Niketas Choniates, immediately prior to the sack of the city by the Fourth Crusade, Constantine was elected emperor by the people, but had to flee before the Latins. Together with Theodore, he led the anti-Latin resistance of the native Byzantine Greek population in Asia Minor, but it was Theodore who established a new empire in exile, the Empire of Nicaea. There were also three older brothers, Manuel, Michael and George, and two younger ones, Alexios and Isaac.

Constantine died probably ca. 1211. Theodore I, whose children Nikolaos and John died ca. 1212, was succeeded in 1222 by his son-in-law, John III Doukas Vatatzes, who had married Irene Laskarina. Vatatzes had to fight off a rival claim by Isaac and Alexios, the brothers of Theodore I, who fled to the Latin Empire and sought aid. Vatatzes' victory at Poemanenum in 1224 however was decisive: it strengthened his own position and heralded a long and successful Nicaean offensive against the Latin holdings. Vatatzes died in 1254, leaving his son, Theodore II Laskaris on the throne. He died in 1258, leaving his infant son John IV Laskaris on the throne. The aristocratic faction around Michael Palaiologos then took control from the Laskarid loyalist George Mouzalon in a coup d'état, and installed Palaiologos as regent and, eventually, as co-emperor. Following the recapture of Constantinople in 1261, Palaiologos was crowned alone as emperor, while John IV was ignored. Soon after, he was blinded and lived imprisoned until his death in 1305.

Under the new Palaiologan dynasty, the Laskarids retained a certain prominence: several members of the family were local governors and courtiers. Among the most notable members are Manuel Laskaris, Domestic of the Schools ca. 1320, and Alexios, a megas hetaireiarches ca. 1370. John Pegonites Laskaris was a composer who lived in Venetian-held Crete in the first half of the 15th century, while the scholars Constantine Lascaris and John Ryndakenos Laskaris were among the many who fled the fall of the Byzantine Empire to the Ottomans and found refuge in Italy, where they helped spark the Renaissance.