Note: An independent principality of the fragmented Byzantine Empire, founded in 1204 by Theodore I Lascaris (1208-1222) after the Latin crusaders' conquest of Constantinople. The empire of Nicaea served as a political and cultural center from which a restored Byzantium developed in the mid-13th century under Michael VIII Palaeologus. Theodore was crowned emperor in 1208 and he gradually gained control over much of western Anatolia. He and his successors sponsored a revival of Greek studies at Nicaea. In 1261 Michael Palaeologus, a Nicaean general, retook Constantinople and, as Michael VIII, founded the last dynasty of the Byzantine emperors.
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