The Laskaris (; feminine form Laskarina; ), Latinized as Lascaris, was a Byzantine Greek noble family which rose to prominence during the late Byzantine period. The members of the family formed the ruling dynasty of the Empire of Nicaea, a Byzantine rump state that existed from the 1204 sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade until the restoration of the Empire under the Palaeologan dynasty in 1261.
Upon the sack of the Byzantine capital by the Crusaders, Alexios V Doukas was overthrown and the Latin Empire was established in most of his former lands. Byzantine nobility would flee the Latin territories and establish the three independent Greek states that rivaled the Crusaders. After a successful resistance in Asia Minor, Theodore I Laskaris founded the Empire of Nicaea and laid claims to the Byzantine throne, along with the Angelos family of Epirus and the Komnenoi of Trebizond. The Byzantine Greek population of Asia Minor sought refuge to Theodore's empire, which gradually acquired control over much of western Anatolia. The empire was further strengthened after the military victories of Theodore's successor, John III Vatatzes. John's son, Theodore II Laskaris, maintained the empire's strength until the throne was passed to his underage son, John IV Laskaris. In 1259 John fell victim to an aristocratic conspiracy which managed to establish Michael Palaiologos as his regent and co-emperor.
The Nicaeans recaptured Constantinople in 1261 and Michael established the Palaiologos family as the new imperial dynasty. Under the Palaeologan rule, the Lascarids remained among the senior nobility up to the dissolution of the Byzantine Empire, whereupon many of them emigrated to Italy. Advertising their ties to the Komnenoi, early family members used the name 'Komnenos Laskaris', while two were additionally called 'Tzamantouros'.
Name The origin of the name is unclear. In 1928, the Greek scholar Phaedon Koukoules proposed an origin from daskaris (), a Cappadocian variant for "teacher", but the δ>λ shift in Cappadocian is attested only in the late 19th century, so that its application to the mid-11th century or earlier is dubious. A year later, G. Stamnopoulos proposed an alternative etymology from the name Laskas () or Laskos () and the -aris (-) ending borrowed from the Latin -arius, but the Greek linguist K. Menas considered such an etymological evolution as unlikely. The Greek historian D. Theodoridis instead suggested a derivation from the Arabic al-ʿashqar, "ruddy, blond", or also "sorrel". According to the Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, the "most probable" etymology is the one proposed by B. Hemmerdinger in 1969, according to which the name derives from the Persian word Lashkarī (, also , ʿaskarī), meaning "warrior, soldier". However, this interpretation is open to question since "the first known members of the Laskaris family [...] were simple peasants".
Early history Family and ascension
The first occurrence of the name is in 1059, in a will by Eustathios Boilas, but the people mentioned there were simple peasants.; mentions that "[a]lthough the family name is known from the middle of the 11th century", no members are known to have entered the upper tier of Byzantine aristocracy before Theodore I. In 1180, a Michael Laskaris appears to have had significant influence in Thessalonica, while another Michael Laskaris, perhaps his descendant, is mentioned in 1246 conspiring in Thessalonica against Demetrios Angelos Doukas. The relation of these individuals to the imperial dynasty, if any, is unclear.
The first Laskaris of note were the brothers Theodore and Constantine, members of an obscure aristocratic family with ties to the imperial Komnenos clan. Their dynasty made a late appearance on the Byzantine political scene. The names of their parents or any other 12th century member of their family are not recorded. If Theodore followed the Byzantine custom of giving his father's name to his firstborn son, his father was called Nicholas. Their mother belonged to an unidentified branch of the Komnenos family and they proudly adopted her surname.; ; They had no less than five brothers; Manuel, Michael, George, Alexios, and Isaac. George Pachymeres calls Manuel and Michael 'Tzamantouros', possibly a surname indicating that they were born to a different mother, or alternatively a nickname. The family was connected to western Asia Minor and Constantinople. Both Theodore and Constantine had a seal representing Saint George and bearing the inscription 'Diasorites'. The seal expressed their connection to the monastery of Saint George Diasorites, located in Pyrgion in the valley of the river Kaistros. Theodore rose to prominence in Constantinople through his familial ties with the Komnenoi. After Theodore's marriage to Anna Komnene Angelina, daughter of emperor Alexios III Angelos, in 1200, the 'Komnenos Laskaris' family became connected to the ruling Angelos dynasty. Theodore soon acquired the title of despot and was elevated to the first position of the imperial line of succession.
Fourth Crusade Upon the sack of Constantinople on April 1204, the emperor Alexios V Doukas fled the city seeking refuge to Alexios III Angelos, but the latter blinded him and he was eventually taken captive by the Latins. According to Niketas Choniates, as the Crusaders captured Constantinople on April 12, an emergency assembly was gathered in Hagia Sophia with the aim to declare the new Byzantine emperor between Constantine Laskaris and Constantine Doukas. The former was elected emperor by the people, but declined the imperial insignia and instead urged resistance against the crusaders. Given Constantine's apparent subordinate role under Theodore in 1205, some historians such as Sir Steven RuncimanSteven Runciman, 'A History of the Crusades, Vol. 3: The Kingdom of Acre and the Later Crusades', Cambridge, 1954, pg 122 and Donald Queller, held that it could have been Theodore, instead of Constantine, who was nominated as emperor and succeeded Alexios V on the day of the sack. According to other accounts, Theodore had left before the fall of the city, right after he escaped from prison sometime before September 1203; he then moved to Asia Minor with a small group of trusted soldiers and his close family. Whatever the case, Constantine had no option but to quickly flee the capital and on the following day of the sack he sailed to the Asian side of the Bosporus strait. Constantinople fell to the Crusaders and an ill-fated Latin Empire was erected. On May 1204, Count Baldwuin IX of Flanders was officially crowned emperor at the church of Hagia Sophia. Meanwhile, in Asia Minor the Latin rule found resistance by local Greek magnates trying to transform their estates into autonomous units. The most determined of them was proven to be Theodore, Constantine's brother, whose resistance movement succeeded in establishing a new principality in exile.
Empire of Nicaea
In the years after the fall of the Byzantine capital in 1204, Theodore managed to drive out the Latins from the territory he occupied in western Anatolia and create a duplicate of the former Byzantine state. Initially a local lord (acknowledged as strategos "military leader" in Bithynia), he ascended to power by allying with politically powerful refugees and local elites who helped him in the reestablishment of the imperial government. His brother Constantine aided him in his military campaigns, as well as his diplomatic relations. In the Empire of Nicaea the idea of Greek unification and restoration of the Byzantine rule was soon formed and strengthened. As Theodore's state begun to consolidate its rule in northwest Anatolia, more Greeks begun to settle in his realm from the European territories that were now under Latin rule. As a result, the Byzantine successor states largely consisted of a homogenous Greek population. In 1205 Theodore assumed the title of emperor (basileus), but he was officially crowned by the new patriarch in 1208. The coronation took place in the city of Nicaea, an event that turned the city into the center of the empire, as well as of the Orthodox Church. Theodore had to defend his empire not only against the Crusaders but also against David Komnenos, a rival Greek emperor in Trebizond to the east on the Black Sea. During his reign Laskaris undertook the task of expanding the borders of his empire, facing the forces of the Latins and the Seljuks on several occasions, while at the same time he laid the foundations of the internal administration of the newly formed state. Soon the goal of the empire's foreign policy became the recapture of Constantinople, an act that would indisputably legitimize the new state as the rightful successor of the old Empire.
Theodore I, whose sons, Nikolaos and John both died before 1213, was succeeded in 1221 by his son-in-law, John III Doukas Vatatzes, who had married Theodore's daughter Irene Laskarina. Vatatzes had to fight off a rival claim by Theodore's brothers, Isaac and Alexios, who fled to the Latin Empire and sought aid in order to depose him. Nevertheless, Vatatzes' victory at Poemanenum in 1224 was decisive; it strengthened his own position and heralded a long and successful Nicaean offensive against the Latin holdings. Throughout his reign, Vataztes' main rivals were the Bulgarian tsar Ivan Asen II and the Latin rulers of Constantinople to the west, as well as the Sultanate of Rum to the east. The Greek lords of Epirus and Trebizond, including Theodore Komnenos Doukas, were also his adversaries for the Byzantine throne. In a series of successful military campaigns, Vatatzes expanded the Nicaean borders to encompass parts of Macedonia and Thrace. His expansion into the Balkan peninsula culminated in 1246 with the capture of Thessalonica, which was until then controlled by the Komnenodoukas dynasty of Epirus. Vatatzes had previously compelled the dynasty to abandon the imperial title (basileus), allowing them to maintain only the title of 'despot'. Under the reign of Vatatzes, the Greeks regained nearly the whole of western Anatolia from the Turks, while the Latin empire was significantly reduced to Constantinople and its surroundings. Through a series of military victories, successful diplomacy, and beneficial policies, Vatatzes managed to significantly strengthen his empire, while also gaining popularity among the Byzantines, which resulted in his canonization as a saint by the Orthodox Church.