page_title: Theodore I Laskaris
section_title: Resistance
hierarchical_section_title: Theodore I Laskaris / Early life / Resistance
caption_attribution_description: English: Empire of Nicaea (1204)
context_page_description: Theodore I Laskaris or Lascaris was the first Emperor of Nicaea—a successor state of the Byzantine Empire—from 1205 to his death. Although he was born to an obscure Byzantine aristocratic family, his mother was related to the imperial Komnenos clan. He married a younger daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Alexios III Angelos in 1200. He received the title of despot before 1203, demonstrating his right to succeed his father-in-law on the throne.
  The Fourth Crusade forced Alexios III to flee from Constantinople in 1203. Theodore was imprisoned by the crusaders, but he escaped. After crossing the Bosporus into Asia Minor, he started to organise the local Greeks' resistance against the Latins in Bithynia in his father-in-law's name. He concluded an alliance with the Seljuq Sultan of Rum, but he could not stop the Latins' expansion. Neither could he prevent a claimant to the imperial throne, Alexios Komnenos, from establishing a Byzantine successor state, the Empire of Trebizond, in northern Asia Minor. Theodore's position consolidated only after Tzar Kaloyan of Bulgaria inflicted a crushing defeat on the Latins in the Battle of Adrianople in 1205.
context_section_description: By the time of Theodore's arrival, Asia Minor had been a centre of uprisings against the imperial government for decades. A rebellious magnate, Theodore Mangaphas, held Philadelphia; another aristocrat, Sabas Asidenos, ruled Sampson; and Nikephoros Kontostephanos controlled the lands on the upper course of the Maeander River. Theodore appeared as his father-in-law's representative and secured the Bithynian towns' loyalty in Alexios III's name until the end of 1204. The local Greeks acknowledged him as the strategos (or military leader) of Bithynia. He established his seat in Prussa, but he made frequent journeys to attend assemblies and dinners, encouraging the local Greeks' resistance against the "Latins", as the crusaders were universally called. He also took control of state revenues, and he could offer money to the Seljuq Sultan of Rum, Rukn al-Din Suleiman II, in return for his assistance against the Latins. Suleiman II died and his underage son, Izz al-Din Kilij Arslan III, succeeded him in June 1204.
  The crusaders set up a commission to distribute the Byzantine territories among them in September. In Asia Minor, the "duchy of Nicaea" was granted to Louis I, Count of Blois, and the "duchy of Philadelphia" to Stephen of Perche, although the Latins had not conquered these lands. The Venetians seized the port of Lampsacus on the Asian side of the Hellespont and a French knight, Peter of Bracieux, captured the nearby Pegai. Emperor Alexios I of Trebizond's brother and co-emperor, David Komnenos, launched a military campaign into Paphlagonia and occupied the towns along the Black Sea coast. His conquest facilitated Bracieux's invasion of Bithynia. He routed Theodore at Poemanenum on 6 December. After his victory, Bracieux seized Bithynian forts.
  The Latins captured and publicly executed Alexios V in Constantinople. They also arrested Alexios IV in Thessaly, forcing him to cede the imperial insignia to them early in 1205. A grandson of Emperor Manuel I Komnenos (r. 1143–1180), Manuel Maurozomes, and Maurozomes's son-in-law, the deposed Sultan of Rum, Ghiyāth al-Dīn Kaykhusraw I, came to Nicaea. Theodore detained them, but he soon concluded an agreement with them. He lent money to Kaykhusraw to regain his throne in return for his promise of military support. Kaykhusraw and Maurozomes hurried to Konya, the capital of Rum. They dethroned the underage Kilij Arslan in Kaykhusraw's favor in March 1205.
  By the end of 1204, the Latins had captured Thrace, Thessaly and northern Greece. Emperor Alexios III's cousin, Michael Doukas, who organised the Greeks' resistance in Epirus, was forced to swear fealty to Pope Innocent III to secure his protection. Emperor Baldwin dispatched his brother, Henry, to conquer Asia Minor early in 1205. Henry defeated Theodore Mangaphas and Theodore Laskaris' brother, Constantine, in the Battle of Adramyttion on 19 March 1205. The Latins could not follow up their victory, because Tzar Kaloyan of Bulgaria stirred up a rebellion in Thrace and invaded the province. Kaloyan's invasion forced Emperor Baldwin to withdraw his knights from Anatolia. Kaloyan inflicted a crushing defeat on the Latin army in the Battle of Adrianople on 14 April 1205. Louis of Blois and Stephen of Perche perished in the battlefield. Baldwin was captured and died in captivity in Bulgaria.
  Theodore emerged as the main beneficiary of Kaloyan's victory. The Latins' defeat revealed the fragility of their rule, and secured Theodore's position. Taking advantage of the moment, he expelled the Latin garrisons from most Anatolian fortresses, and transferred his capital from Prussa to Nicaea. Greeks were swarming to his realm from the European territories under Latin rule. Mangaphas ceded Philadelphia to Theodore, and Asidenos's lands were also absorbed into Theodore's realm. The local aristocrats supported Theodore against the rebellious magnates, and he awarded them with court titles. Theodore extracted an oath of fealty from Michael I of Epirus's brother, Theodore Komnenos Doukas, who had settled in Asia Minor, before allowing him to le
caption: Theodore's realm 1205.
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