John IV Laskaris

John IV Doukas Laskaris
Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans
15th-century portrait of John IV (from a 15th-century codex containing a copy of the Extracts of History by Joannes Zonaras)
Emperor of Nicaea
Claimant Byzantine Emperor
Reign16 August 1258 – 25 December 1261
PredecessorTheodore II Laskaris
SuccessorMichael VIII Palaiologos
Born25 December 1250
Diedc. 1305
Names
John Doukas Laskaris
Ἰωάννης Δούκας Λάσκαρις
HouseLaskaris/Vatatzes
FatherTheodore II Laskaris
MotherElena of Bulgaria
ReligionEastern Orthodoxy

John IV Doukas Laskaris (or Ducas Lascaris) (Greek: Ἰωάννης Δούκας Λάσκαρις, Iōannēs Doukas Laskaris; December 25, 1250 – c. 1305) was the fourth emperor of the Nicaean Empire from August 16, 1258 to December 25, 1261, one of the Greek successor states formed after the Sack of Constantinople by the Roman Catholics during the Fourth Crusade. He was the last emperor from the prominent Laskarid dynasty and the last to only rule Nicaea before the Reconquest of Constantinople by his successor in 1261.