Reign of Theodore II Laskaris (1 janv. 1254 – 31 déc. 1258)

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Theodore II Doukas Laskaris or Ducas Lascaris (1221/1222 – August 18, 1258) was Emperor of Nicaea from 1254 to 1258. He was the only child of Emperor John III Doukas Vatatzes and Irene Lascarina. His mother was the eldest daughter of Theodore I Laskaris who had established the Empire of Nicaea, a successor state of the Byzantine Empire in Asia Minor, after the Byzantine capital, Constantinople, was captured by the crusaders of the Fourth Crusade in 1204. Theodore received excellent education from two renowned scholars, Nicephorus Blemmydes and George Akropolites. He made friends with young intelectuals, especially with a page of low birth, George Mouzalon. Theodore started to write treatises on theological, historical and philosophical themes in his youth.

Emperor John III arranged Theodore's marriage with Elena of Bulgaria to forge an alliance with her father, Ivan Asen II, against the Latin Empire of Constantinople in 1235. Their marriage was happy and they had five or six children. Theodore acted as his father's lieutenant in Asia Minor during his father's frequent military campaigns in the Balkan Peninsula from 1241. He became his father's co-ruler around 1242, but he was not crowned co-emperor. His relationship with Theodore Philes, Michael Palaiologos and other aristocrats became tense during this period.

Theodore succeeded his father on 4 November 1254. He dismissed many high officials and army commanders of aristocratic origin, replacing them with his confidants, including his low-born friends. He made a defensive alliance with Kaykaus II, the Seljuk Sultan of Rum, against the Mongol Empire. He repelled a Bulgarian invasion of Thrace and Macedonia and forced Michael II Komnenos Doukas, the ruler of Epirus to cede Dyrrachium on the coast of the Adriatic Sea to Nicaea. He introduced a military reform, recruiting more soldiers from among the native peasantry of Asia Minor. Michael II of Epiros forged an alliance with Stefan Uroš I, King of Serbia, and Manfred of Sicily against Nicaea. Theodore's newly appointed generals could not resist their joint invasion in 1257. Theodore fell seriously ill and could rarely take part in state administration during the last months of his life. He appointed George Mouzalon regent for his underage son, John IV before he died of chronic epilepsy or cancer. In ten days, Mouzalon fell victim to an aristocratic plot and Michael Palaiologos assumed regency.

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