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After Michael's conquest of [[Constantinople]] from the [[Latin Empire]] on July 25, 1261, John IV was left behind at [[Nicaea]], and was later [[political mutilation in Byzantine culture|blinded]] on Michael's orders on his eleventh birthday, December 25, 1261.<ref name= "Hackel p. 71">{{harvnb|Hackel|2001|p=71}}</ref> This made him ineligible for the throne, and he was exiled and imprisoned in a fortress in [[Bithynia]]. This action led to the excommunication of Michael VIII Palaiologos by the Patriarch [[Arsenius Autoreianus]], and a later revolt led by a Pseudo-John IV near Nicaea.
After Michael's conquest of [[Constantinople]] from the [[Latin Empire]] on July 25, 1261, John IV was left behind at [[Nicaea]], and was later [[political mutilation in Byzantine culture|blinded]] on Michael's orders on his eleventh birthday, December 25, 1261.<ref name= "Hackel p. 71">{{harvnb|Hackel|2001|p=71}}</ref> This made him ineligible for the throne, and he was exiled and imprisoned in a fortress in [[Bithynia]]. This action led to the excommunication of Michael VIII Palaiologos by the Patriarch [[Arsenius Autoreianus]], and a later revolt led by a Pseudo-John IV near Nicaea.


John IV spent the remainder of his life as monk in [[Gebze|Dacibyza]],<ref>Gharipour Mohammad. [https://books.google.com/books?id=XymeBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA147 "Sacred Precincts: The Religious Architecture of Non-Muslim Communities Across the Islamic World"] BRILL, 14 nov. 2014. {{ISBN|9004280227}} p 147</ref> under the name Joasaph.<ref>Donald M. Nicol, ''The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261–1453'', second edition (Cambridge: University Press, 1993), p. 246</ref> There is a rescript of [[Charles of Anjou]], dated 9 May 1273, which refers to a report that John escaped from his imprisonment and invites him to come to his court. Further documents attest to his arrival and receiving a pension from the Angevin arch-enemy of Michael Palailogos. However, this contradicts the evidence of the historians [[George Pachymeres]] and [[Nikephoros Gregoras]], who record that John remained in Dacbyza until long after Michael's death. In his study of Michael VIII's reign, historian Deno John Geanakoplos discusses the contradictory evidence and comes to the conclusion that the documents of Charles of Anjou were intended to serve as propaganda, "to attract the support of the legitimist, pro-Lascarid Greeks of the Byzantine Empire, as well as to sway the anti-Angevin sentiment of the still surviving Greek population of Charles' own territories of southern Italy and Sicily."<ref>Geanakoplos, ''Emperor Michael Palaeologus and the West'' (Harvard University Press, 1959), pp. 217f</ref>
John IV spent the remainder of his life as monk in [[Gebze|Dacibyza]],<ref>Gharipour Mohammad. [https://books.google.com/books?id=XymeBQAAQBAJ&pg=PA147 "Sacred Precincts: The Religious Architecture of Non-Muslim Communities Across the Islamic World"] BRILL, 14 nov. 2014. {{ISBN|9004280227}} p 147</ref> under the name Joasaph.<ref>Donald M. Nicol, ''The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261–1453'', second edition (Cambridge: University Press, 1993), p. 246</ref> There is a rescript of [[Charles of Anjou]], dated 9 May 1273, which refers to a report that John escaped from his imprisonment and invites him to come to his court. Further documents attest to his arrival and receiving a pension from the Angevin arch-enemy of Michael Palaiologos. However, this contradicts the evidence of the historians [[George Pachymeres]] and [[Nikephoros Gregoras]], who record that John remained in Dacbyza until long after Michael's death. In his study of Michael VIII's reign, historian Deno John Geanakoplos discusses the contradictory evidence and comes to the conclusion that the documents of Charles of Anjou were intended to serve as propaganda, "to attract the support of the legitimist, pro-Lascarid Greeks of the Byzantine Empire, as well as to sway the anti-Angevin sentiment of the still surviving Greek population of Charles' own territories of southern Italy and Sicily."<ref>Geanakoplos, ''Emperor Michael Palaeologus and the West'' (Harvard University Press, 1959), pp. 217f</ref>


In 1290 John was visited by Michael VIII's son and successor [[Andronikos II Palaiologos]], who sought forgiveness for his father's blinding three decades earlier. As [[Donald Nicol]] notes, "The occasion must have been embarrassing for both parties, but especial for Andronikos who, after all, was the beneficiary of his father's crimes against John Laskaris."<ref>Donald M. Nicol, ''The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261–1453'', second edition (Cambridge: University Press, 1993), p. 99</ref> The deposed emperor died about 1305 and was eventually recognized as a saint, whose memory was revered in Constantinople in the 14th century.
In 1290 John was visited by Michael VIII's son and successor [[Andronikos II Palaiologos]], who sought forgiveness for his father's blinding three decades earlier. As [[Donald Nicol]] notes, "The occasion must have been embarrassing for both parties, but especial for Andronikos who, after all, was the beneficiary of his father's crimes against John Laskaris."<ref>Donald M. Nicol, ''The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261–1453'', second edition (Cambridge: University Press, 1993), p. 99</ref> The deposed emperor died about 1305 and was eventually recognized as a saint, whose memory was revered in Constantinople in the 14th century.

Revision as of 04:51, 22 October 2019

John IV Doukas Laskaris
Ἰωάννης Δ΄ Δούκας Λάσκαρις
Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans
(Claimant)
Portrait of John IV from a 15th-century manuscript
Emperor of Nicaea
Claimant Byzantine Emperor
Reign18 August 1258 – 25 December 1261
PredecessorTheodore II Laskaris
SuccessorMichael VIII Palaiologos (Byzantine Empire)
Born25 December 1250
Diedc. 1305
DynastyLaskarid dynasty
FatherTheodore II Laskaris
MotherElena of Bulgaria
ReligionEastern Orthodoxy

John IV Doukas Laskaris (or Ducas Lascaris) (Template:Lang-el) (December 25, 1250 – c. 1305) was emperor of Nicaea from August 18, 1258, to December 25, 1261. This empire was one of the Greek states formed from the remaining fragments of the Byzantine Empire, after the capture of Constantinople by Roman Catholics during the Fourth Crusade in 1204.

Biography

John was a son of Theodore II Doukas Laskaris and Elena of Bulgaria. His maternal grandparents were Emperor Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria and his second wife Anna Maria of Hungary. Anna was originally named Mária and was the eldest daughter of Andrew II of Hungary and Gertrude of Merania.

John IV was only seven years old when he inherited the throne on the death of his father. The young monarch was the last member of the Laskarid dynasty, which had done much to restore the Byzantine Empire. His regent was originally the bureaucrat George Mouzalon, but Mouzalon was murdered by the nobility, and the nobles' leader Michael Palaiologos usurped the post. Soon, on January 1, 1259, Palaiologos made himself co-emperor as Michael VIII. Michael was, in fact, John's second cousin once removed, since they were both descended from Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamatera.

After Michael's conquest of Constantinople from the Latin Empire on July 25, 1261, John IV was left behind at Nicaea, and was later blinded on Michael's orders on his eleventh birthday, December 25, 1261.[1] This made him ineligible for the throne, and he was exiled and imprisoned in a fortress in Bithynia. This action led to the excommunication of Michael VIII Palaiologos by the Patriarch Arsenius Autoreianus, and a later revolt led by a Pseudo-John IV near Nicaea.

John IV spent the remainder of his life as monk in Dacibyza,[2] under the name Joasaph.[3] There is a rescript of Charles of Anjou, dated 9 May 1273, which refers to a report that John escaped from his imprisonment and invites him to come to his court. Further documents attest to his arrival and receiving a pension from the Angevin arch-enemy of Michael Palaiologos. However, this contradicts the evidence of the historians George Pachymeres and Nikephoros Gregoras, who record that John remained in Dacbyza until long after Michael's death. In his study of Michael VIII's reign, historian Deno John Geanakoplos discusses the contradictory evidence and comes to the conclusion that the documents of Charles of Anjou were intended to serve as propaganda, "to attract the support of the legitimist, pro-Lascarid Greeks of the Byzantine Empire, as well as to sway the anti-Angevin sentiment of the still surviving Greek population of Charles' own territories of southern Italy and Sicily."[4]

In 1290 John was visited by Michael VIII's son and successor Andronikos II Palaiologos, who sought forgiveness for his father's blinding three decades earlier. As Donald Nicol notes, "The occasion must have been embarrassing for both parties, but especial for Andronikos who, after all, was the beneficiary of his father's crimes against John Laskaris."[5] The deposed emperor died about 1305 and was eventually recognized as a saint, whose memory was revered in Constantinople in the 14th century.

Ancestry

8. Basileios Vatatzes
4. John III Doukas Vatatzes
18. Isaakios Angelos
9. unknown Angelina
19.
2. Theodore II Laskaris
20. Manuel Laskaris
10. Theodore I Laskaris
21. Joanna Karatzaina
5. Eirene Laskarina
22. Alexios III Angelos
11. Anna Angelina
23. Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamatera
1. John IV Laskaris
12. Ivan Asen I of Bulgaria
6. Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria
13. Elena
3. Elena Asenina
28. Béla III of Hungary
14. Andrew II of Hungary
29. Agnes de Châtillon
7. Anna Maria of Hungary
30. Berthold IV, Duke of Merania
15. Gertrude of Merania
31. Agnes of Rochlitz

See also

References

Citations

  1. ^ Hackel 2001, p. 71
  2. ^ Gharipour Mohammad. "Sacred Precincts: The Religious Architecture of Non-Muslim Communities Across the Islamic World" BRILL, 14 nov. 2014. ISBN 9004280227 p 147
  3. ^ Donald M. Nicol, The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261–1453, second edition (Cambridge: University Press, 1993), p. 246
  4. ^ Geanakoplos, Emperor Michael Palaeologus and the West (Harvard University Press, 1959), pp. 217f
  5. ^ Donald M. Nicol, The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261–1453, second edition (Cambridge: University Press, 1993), p. 99

Sources

Further reading

John IV Laskaris
Laskarid dynasty
Born: 25 December 1250 Died: unknown 1305
Regnal titles
Preceded by Emperor of Nicaea
1258–1261
with Michael VIII Palaiologos (1259–1261) 		Succeeded by
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