إمبراطورية نيقية
John Doukas Palaiologos was born sometime after 1225 and before 1230, the son of Andronikos Palaiologos, the "megas domestikos" of the Empire of Nicaea, and his first wife Theodora Palaiologina. John was their second son, after the future emperor Michael Palaiologos, and the fourth child overall.