Theodore II Laskaris

Theodore II Doukas Laskaris, also rendered Ducas Lascaris, was emperor of Nicaea from 1254 to 1258, the only child of Emperor John III Doukas Vatatzes and Empress Irene Laskarina. His mother was the eldest daughter of Theodore I Laskaris, who had founded the Empire of Nicaea as a successor state in Asia Minor after crusaders captured the Byzantine capital of Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade in 1204. Theodore received an excellent education from two renowned scholars, Nikephoros Blemmydes and George Akropolites, and formed a close friendship with a young intellectual of low birth, George Mouzalon. He began writing treatises on theological, historical and philosophical themes already in his youth.