Theodore I Laskaris
| Theodore I Laskaris Θεόδωρος Α΄ Λάσκαρις |
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Portrait of Theodore I from a 15th-century manuscript
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| Emperor of Nicaea | |
| Reign | 1205–1222 |
| Predecessor | Constantine Laskaris |
| Successor | John III Doukas Vatatzes |
| Born | c. 1174 Constantinople |
| Died | 1222 |
| Wives | |
| Issue | Nicholas Laskaris, John Laskaris, Irene Laskarina, Maria Laskarina, Eudokia Laskarina, Constantine Laskaris |
| Father | Manuel Laskaris |
| Mother | Ioanna Karatzaina |
Theodoros I Komnenos Laskaris (Greek: Θεόδωρος Α' Λάσκαρις, Theodōros I Laskaris; c. 1174/5 – 1221/August 1222) was the first Emperor of Nicaea (reigned 1204/05–1221/22).
Theodore Laskaris was born in ca. 1174, to the Laskaris, a noble but not particularly renowned Byzantine family of Constantinople. He was the son of Manuel Laskaris (b. c. 1140) and wife Ioanna Karatzaina (b. c. 1148). He had four older brothers: Manuel Laskaris (died after 1256), Michael Laskaris (d. 1261/1271), Georgios Laskaris and Constantine Laskaris (died after March 19, 1205), Emperor of Byzantium (1204–1205); and two younger brothers: Alexios Laskaris, Latin military leader against the Bulgars who fought with the French against John III Doukas Vatatzes and was imprisoned and blinded, and Isaakios Laskaris.
William Miller identified the wife of Marco I Sanudo as the sister of Theodore, based on his interpretation of the Italian sources. However, Mihail-Dimitri Sturdza rejected this identification in his Dictionnaire historique et Généalogique des grandes familles de Grèce, d'Albanie et de Constantinople (1983), based on the silence of Byzantine primary sources.
In 1198/9, Theodore married Anna Angelina, daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Alexios III Angelos and Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamatera; she was the widow of her cousin the sebastokratōr Isaac Komnenos. Soon after this, he was raised to the rank of despotēs.
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