Isaac Doukas Vatatzes (; c. 1188–1261) was the brother of the Nicaean emperor

John III Doukas Vatatzes John III Doukas Vatatzes, Latinized as Ducas Vatatzes (; 1192 – 3 November 1254), was Emperor of Nicaea from 1221 to 1254. He was succeeded by his son, known as Theodore II Doukas Laskaris. Life John Doukas Vatatzes, born in about 1192 i ...

().

Life

His exact origin is obscure: probably born , he was the oldest of three brothers, alongside John III (the youngest) and an anonymous middle brother. Their parents are unknown, but are considered by modern scholars likely to have been the general

Basil Vatatzes Basil Vatatzes (, ) was a Byzantine military commander, and likely the father of the Nicaean emperor John III Doukas Vatatzes. Biography Origin and early life Vatatzes was of low birth, hailing from the region around Adrianople and Didymoteichon. ...

and his unknown wife, who was a cousin to the

Byzantine emperors The foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, which Fall of Constantinople, fell to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as legitimate rulers and exercised s ...

Isaac II Angelos Isaac II Angelos or Angelus (; September 1156 – 28 January 1204) was Byzantine Emperor from 1185 to 1195, and co-Emperor with his son Alexios IV Angelos from 1203 to 1204. In a 1185 revolt against the Emperor Andronikos Komnenos, Isaac ...

and

Alexios III Angelos Alexios III Angelos (; 1211), Latinized as Alexius III Angelus, was Byzantine Emperor from March 1195 to 17/18 July 1203. He reigned under the name Alexios Komnenos (; Aléxios Komnēnós) associating himself with the Komnenos dynasty (from whi ...

. Like his brother John III, Isaac appears to have dropped the surname "Vatatzes" and was known only as "Isaac Doukas". Very little is known about his life. He held the rank of ''

sebastokrator ''Sebastokrator'' (, ; ; ), was a senior court title in the late Byzantine Empire. It was also used by other rulers whose states bordered the Empire or were within its sphere of influence (Bulgarian Empire, Serbian Empire). The word is a compound ...

'' in 1253, and in 1261, he was present at the signing of the Treaty of Nymphaeum with the

Republic of Genoa The Republic of Genoa ( ; ; ) was a medieval and early modern Maritime republics, maritime republic from the years 1099 to 1797 in Liguria on the northwestern Italy, Italian coast. During the Late Middle Ages, it was a major commercial power in ...

, holding the rank of '' pansebastos sebastos'' and the position of ''

parakoimomenos The ''parakoimōmenos'' (, literally "the one who sleeps beside he emperor's chamber) was a Byzantine Empire, Byzantine Byzantine aristocracy and bureaucracy, court position, usually reserved for eunuch (court official), eunuchs. The position' ...

'' of the great seal (''sphendone''). He was then sent on an embassy to

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

to ratify the treaty, along with Theodore Krivitziotes and Leo, archdeacon of the

Hagia Sophia Hagia Sophia (; ; ; ; ), officially the Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque (; ), is a mosque and former Church (building), church serving as a major cultural and historical site in Istanbul, Turkey. The last of three church buildings to be successively ...

. Isaac died during the negotiations, and was buried in the Genoa Cathedral.

Family

He had at least two children: a son named John, who died young, and an anonymous daughter who married Constantine Strategopoulos. John married Eudokia Angelina and was the father of Empress Theodora Palaiologina, wife of

Michael VIII Palaiologos Michael VIII Palaiologos or Palaeologus (; 1224 – 11 December 1282) reigned as Byzantine emperor from 1261 until his death in 1282, and previously as the co-emperor of the Empire of Nicaea from 1259 to 1261. Michael VIII was the founder of th ...

(), founder of the

Palaiologos dynasty The House of Palaiologos ( Palaiologoi; , ; female version Palaiologina; ), also found in English-language literature as Palaeologus or Palaeologue, was a Byzantine Greek noble family that rose to power and produced the last and longest-ruling dy ...

References

Sources

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vatatzes, Isaac Doukas 1180s births 1261 deaths 13th-century Byzantine people Ambassadors of the Byzantine Empire to the Republic of Genoa Parakoimomenoi Sebastokrators Sebastoi

Isaac Isaac ( ; ; ; ; ; ) is one of the three patriarchs (Bible), patriarchs of the Israelites and an important figure in the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and the Baháʼí Faith. Isaac first appears in the Torah, in wh ...