John IV Lascaris
John IV Lascaris was only a boy of 8 years when he was elevated as emperor of the
Nicaean Empire in
1258 on the death of his father
Theodore II Lascaris. He was the last of the Lascaris emperors that had done much to restore the
Byzantine Empire after the capture of
Constantinople by the
Fourth Crusade in
1204. His regent was Michael Palaeologus, who later made himself co-emperor as
Michael VIII. Upon Michael's conquest of Constantinople in
1261, John was ordered blinded, thus making him ineligible to serve as emperor, then imprisoned in a castle on the
Sea of Marmara. He is recorded as having acknowledged
Andronicus II as emperor in
1290.