Constantine Laskaris

Constantine (XI ) Laskaris ( Κωνσταντῖνος Λάσκαρης, * 1170, † March 19, 1205 ) was from 1204 to 1205 for a few months emperor of the Byzantine Empire. He was the eldest son of the Byzantine nobleman Manuel Laskaris and Johanna Karatzaina.

1204 Constantine Laskaris was a key leader of the defense of Constantinople against the siege by the Crusaders. When Emperor Alexios V. left the city after the Crusaders on April 12th, 1204 stormed several towers from the sea wall, and had to fix the waterfront just behind the wall, Constantine Laskaris was on the night of April 13, 1204, before the final conquest and sack of Constantinople in the Hagia Sophia explained to the Emperor of Byzantium.

Since his attempt to organize resistance against the conqueror of Constantinople Opel failed, Constantine Lascaris fled with his brother Theodore I. Laskaris after Nicaea. They gathered there some Byzantine nobles emigrated around and founded the largest of the three Byzantine empires exile, the Empire of Nicaea.

Constantine Laskaris began on March 19, 1205 in the fight against Baldwin I, the first emperor of the Latin Empire of Constantinople Opel. His brother Theodore was proclaimed in the same year the emperor and crowned in the spring of 1208 in Nikaia by the new Ecumenical Patriarch Michael IV Autoreianos.

Since Constantine Laskaris was not officially crowned, he is not recognized by many historians as the Byzantine emperor. Constantine XI. Palaiologos counts, however, especially in older sources, also known as Constantine XII. .