Theodore Komnenos Doukas (1180–1230)
Born 1180 CE, died 1230 CE.
Theodore Komnenos Doukas (Greek: Θεόδωρος Κομνηνὸς Δούκας, Theodōros Komnēnos Doukas; Latinized as Theodore Comnenus Ducas; died c. 1253) or Theodore Angelos Komnenos was the ruler of Epirus and Thessaly from 1215 to 1230 and of Thessalonica and most of Macedonia and western Thrace from 1224 to 1230. He was also the power behind the rule of his sons John and Demetrios over Thessalonica in 1237–1246. Theodore was the scion of a distinguished Byzantine aristocratic family related to the imperial Komnenos, Doukas, and Angelos dynasties. Nevertheless, nothing is known about Theodore's life before the conquest of Constantinople and dissolution of the Byzantine Empire by the Fourth Crusade in 1204. Following the fall of Constantinople, he served Theodore I Laskaris, founder of the Empire of Nicaea, for a few years before being called to Epirus, where his half-brother Michael I Komnenos Doukas had founded an independent principality. When Michael died in 1215, Theodore sidelined his brother's underage and illegitimate son Michael II and assumed the governance of the Epirote state. Theodore continued his brother's policy of territorial expansion.
Text from the Wikipedia article Theodore_Komnenos_Doukas, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.