Eugenio Lascorz

Eugenio Láscaris
Undated photograph of Eugenio Láscaris from the archive of his family
Born	Eugenio Lascorz y Labastida (1886-03-26)26 March 1886 Zaragoza, Spain
Died	1 June 1962(1962-06-01) (aged 76) Madrid, Spain
Nationality	Spanish
Occupation(s)	Lawyer, attorney and pretender
Years active	c. 1906–1962
Spouse	Nicasia Justa Micoláu Traver
Children	6, including Teodoro Láscaris

Eugenio Lascorz y Labastida (26 March 1886 – 1 June 1962) was a Spanish lawyer who claimed to be a descendant of the medieval Laskaris family, which had ruled the Byzantine Empire in Nicaea from 1204 to 1261. In 1917 he legally changed his paternal surname from Lascorz to Láscaris, alleging that the former was a Hispanicization of the latter. Later he began styling himself as Príncipe Eugenio Láscaris Comneno (Prince Eugene Laskaris Komnenos). As the supposed titular Emperor of Constantinople,^[1] Eugenio used the regnal name Eugene II Lascaris Comnenus.^[a] In addition to his royal and imperial claims, which he supported with fabricated and contradictory genealogies, Lascorz also claimed the titles "Prince Porphyrogenitus", Duke of Athens and Grand Master of the self-proclaimed "Sovereign and Imperial Order of Constantine the Great" (not to be confused with the Constantinian Order of Saint George) and the "Order of Saint Eugene of Trebizond".^[2]

In the 1920s, Lascorz established himself as a successful attorney in private practice in Zaragoza. He combined that legal career with historical and literary studies focused on Ancient and Byzantine Greece, publishing works of both fiction and non-fiction that explored what he regarded as the history of his ancestors. In 1923 he proclaimed himself to the Greek people as the legitimate heir to the throne of the historical Byzantine Empire and as claimant to the crown of the modern Kingdom of Greece.

After the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, Lascorz served as a military judge in the Nationalist forces led by General Francisco Franco. Between 1939 and 1943, he served the new Francoist state as a judge under the terms of the Law of Political Responsibilities. In 1943, Lascorz resigned his judgeship and moved to Madrid, where he dedicated himself full time to his dynastic claims and to the government of his orders of chivalry. The exposure of his Byzantine genealogy as fraudulent caused a minor scandal within the high society of Madrid in 1953 and 1954, but Lascorz persisted in his claims until his death in 1962. His son Teodoro (1921–2006) and grandson Eugenio (born 1975) have continued those claims as "Theodore IX" and "Eugene III", respectively.

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