id	author	title	date	pages	extension	mime	words	sentences	flesch	summary	cache	txt
en-wikipedia-org-4028		Theodore II Laskaris - Wikipedia			.html	text/html	7701	921	72	Emperor John III arranged for Theodore to marry Elena of Bulgaria in 1235, to forge an alliance with her father, Ivan Asen II, against the Latin Empire of Constantinople. Theodore was born to Emperor John III Doukas Vatatzes and Irene Laskarina in the imperial palace in Nicaea in late 1221 or early 1222.[1] Irene was the eldest daughter of Theodore I Laskaris, the founder of the Empire of Nicaea.[1] Nicaea was a successor state of the Byzantine Empire, established after the West European ("Latin") crusaders captured Constantinople during the Fourth Crusade in 1204.[2][3] Vatatzes was Irene's third husband. The battle weakened Epirus–Thessalonica, Nicaea's western rival for the revival of the Byzantine Empire, and made Bulgaria the dominant power of the Balkan Peninsula.[10] The marriage of Theodore and Elena sealed their fathers' alliance against the Latin Empire of Constantinople in 1235. The restored Byzantine Empire at the beginning of Michael VIII Palaiologos' rule (1263)—most European territories were seized by Theodore's father between 1246 and 1254	./cache/en-wikipedia-org-4028.html	./txt/en-wikipedia-org-4028.txt