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
Reign	16 August 1258 – 25 December 1261
Predecessor	Theodore II Laskaris
Successor	Michael VIII Palaiologos
Born	25 December 1250
Died	c. 1305
Names John Doukas Laskaris Ἰωάννης Δούκας Λάσκαρις
House	Laskaris/Vatatzes
Father	Theodore II Laskaris
Mother	Elena of Bulgaria
Religion	Eastern 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.