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Йоан III Дука Ватаци Йоан III Дука Ватаци е император на Никейската империя от династията Ласкариди, управлявал в периода 1222 - 1254 г.. Йоан III е наследник на бележитите византийски фамилии Дука и Ватаци. След завладяването на Константинопол от латините, той служи като главен стратег на никейския император Теодор I Ласкарис и бива избран от него за негов зет и наследник. Йоан се жени за Ирина Ласкарина, дъщеря на Теодор I Ласкарис, императора-основател на Никейската империя, който го избира за свой наследник на трона благодарение на войнските му заслуги. По време на управлението си Йоан III се заема да възстанови разрушената при Четвъртия кръстоносен поход Византийска империя и разширява владенията си за сметка на Венецианската република. Постига значително териториално разширение на никейската държава в Мала Азия и на Балканите, но неговите амбиции да възвърне Константинопол отново в ромеиска власт остават неосъществени. Йоан III Дука Ватаци е обявен за съвладетел през 1221 г., а след смъртта на Теодор I Ласкарис в 1222 г. става никейски император, но властта му е оспорена от роднините на Ласкарис, които са подпомогнати военно от Латинската империя. След победата над тях, Йоан III нахлува в Тракия и отнема Адрианопол от латините през 1225 г., въпреки че през 1227 г. града е завладян от неговия съперник Теодор Комнин, владетел на Солунското Епирско деспотство. През 1230 г., след елиминирането на ефимерната Епирска империя от българският цар Иван Асен II, Дука Ватаци сключва съюз с България, насочен срещу Латинската империя. Като жест на добри намерения, никейският патриарх признава правото на българите за независима църква и собствена патриаршия през 1235 година. Никея воюва през 1235-1236 г. в съюз с цар Иван Асен II срещу латинците, обсаждайки безуспешно Константинопол. Поради различни причини и, може би, обезпокоен от засилването на Никейската държава, Иван Асен се въздържа от по-нататъшни активни действия в подкрепа на Дука Ватаци. В последствие българския цар възприема политиката на неутралитет и отношенията с Никейската империя се влошават. Йоан III се възползва от слабостта на Българското царство след смъртта на Иван Асен II, анексира Солун в 1242 г., а през 1246 г. превзема и голяма част от българска Тракия. Ватаци побеждава цар Михаил II Асен, но териториалните му придобивки са затвърдени едва след неговата смърт чрез сключения Регинския мир. Така Никейската империя присъединява голяма част от Родопите и една трета от територията на Средновековна България. Йоан III Ватаци е способен и успешен владетел, който не само доказва качествата на военен лидер и политик, но и обръща голямо внимание на стопанското развитие в държавата. По негово време Никейската империя се намира в икономически подем, а самият император е известен с личната си скромност, пестеливост и умереност, проявава справедливост и милосърдие, поради което е уважаван от поданиците си и е възхваляван в летописите. В края на живота си Йоан III заболява и умира от епилепсия. След смъртта му на престола го наследява синът му Теодор II Ласкарис.
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John III Doukas Vatatzes John III Doukas (or Dukas) Vatatzes, Latinized as Ducas Vatatzes (Greek: Iwάvvnς Γ΄ Aoύkaς BatάtZnς, Iōannēs III Doukas Vatatzēs, c. 1193, Didymoteicho – 3 November 1254, Nymphaion), was Emperor of Nicaea 1222–1254. Life[edit] John Doukas Vatatzes was probably the son of the general Basileios Vatatzes, Duke of Thrace, who died in 1193, and his wife, an unnamed daughter of Isaakios Angelos and cousin of the Emperors Isaac II Angelos and Alexios III Angelos. The Vatatzes family had first become prominent in Byzantine society during the Komnenian period and had forged early imperial connections when Theodore Vatatzes married the porphyrogennete princess Eudokia Komnene, daughter of Emperor John II Komnenos.[1] John Doukas Vatatzes had two older brothers. The eldest was Isaac Doukas Vatatzes (died 1261), who married and had two children: John Vatatzes (born 1215), who married to Eudokia Angelina and had two daughters Theodora Doukaina Vatatzaina, wife of Michael VIII Palaiologos, and Maria Vatatzaina, married to Michael Doukas Glabas Tarchaneiotes, military governor of Thrace; and a daughter, married to Konstantinos Strategopoulos. His other older brother was the father in law of Alexios Raul (died 1258).[1] A successful soldier from a military family, John was chosen in about 1216 by Emperor Theodore I Laskaris as the second husband for his daughter Irene Laskarina and as heir to the throne, following the death of her first husband, Andronikos Palaiologos. This arrangement excluded members of the Laskarid family from the succession, and when John III Doukas Vatatzes became emperor in mid-December 1221,[2] he had to suppress opposition to his rule. The struggle ended with the Battle of Poimanenos in 1224, in which his opponents were defeated in spite of support from the Latin Empire of Constantinople. John III's victory led to territorial concessions by the Latin Empire in 1225, followed by John's incursion into Europe, where he seized Adrianople.[3] John III's possession of Adrianople was terminated by Theodore Komnenos Doukas of Epirus and Thessalonica, who drove the Nicaean garrison out of Adrianople and annexed much of Thrace in 1227. The elimination of Theodore by Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria in 1230 put an end to the danger posed by Thessalonica, and John III made an alliance with Bulgaria against the Latin Empire.[4] In 1235 this alliance resulted in the restoration of the Bulgarian patriarchate and the marriage between Elena of Bulgaria and Theodore II, respectively Ivan Asen II's daughter and John III's son. In that same year, the Bulgarians and Nicaeans campaigned against the Latin Empire, and in 1236 they attempted a siege of Constantinople.[4] Subsequently, Ivan Asen II adopted an ambivalent policy, effectively becoming neutral, and leaving John III to his own devices. In spite of some reverses against the Latin Empire in 1240, John III was able to take advantage of Ivan Asen II's death in 1241 to impose his own suzerainty over Thessalonica (in 1242), and later to annex this city, as well as much of Bulgarian Thrace in 1246.[5] Immediately afterwards, John III was able to establish an effective stranglehold on Constantinople in 1247. In the last years of his reign Nicaean authority extended far to the west, where John III attempted to contain the expansion of Epirus. John III Doukas Vatatzes was a successful ruler who laid the groundwork for Nicaea's recovery of Constantinople. He was successful in maintaining generally peaceful relations with his most powerful neighbors, Bulgaria and the Sultanate of Rüm, and his network of diplomatic relations extended to the Holy Roman Empire and the Papacy, while his armed forces included Frankish mercenaries. John III effected Nicaean expansion into Europe, where by the end of his reign he had annexed his former rival Thessalonica and had expanded at the expense of Bulgaria and Epirus. He also expanded Nicaean control over much of the Aegean and annexed the important island of Rhodes,[6] while he supported initiatives to free Crete from Venetian occupation aiming toward its re-unification with the Byzantine empire of Nicaea.[7] Moreover, John III is credited with carefully developing the internal prosperity and economy of his realm, encouraging justice and charity. In spite of his epilepsy, John III had provided active leadership in both peace and war. A half-century after his death, John III was canonized as a saint, under the name John the Merciful, and is commemorated annually on November 4 in the Orthodox calendar.[8][9] Alice Gardiner remarked on the contrast she witnessed where "the clergy and people of Magnesia and the neighbourhood revere his memory every fourth of November. But those who ramble and play about his ruined palace seldom connect it even with his name."[10] Family[edit] John III Doukas Vatatzes married first Irene Lascarina, the daughter of his predecessor Theodore I Laskaris in 1212. They had one son, the future Theodore II Doukas Laskaris. Irene fell from a horse and was so badly injured that she was unable to have any more children. Irene retired to a convent, taking the monastic name Eugenia, and died there in 1239. John III married as his second wife Constance II of Hohenstaufen, an illegitimate daughter of Emperor Frederick II by his mistress Bianca Lancia. They had no children. Notes[edit] - ^ a b Marek, Miroslav. "The Batatzes family". Genealogy.EU.[self-published source][better source needed]. Emperors of Byzantium. 1 October 2002. - ^ George Akropolites. The History. Trans. Ruth Macrides. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007, p. 160. - ^ Treadgold, Warren (1997). A History of the Byzantine State and Society. Stanford: University of Stanford Press. - ^ a b See Treadgold. History of the Byzantine State and Society, pp. 722–724. - ^ Treadgold. History of the Byzantine State and Society, p. 728. - ^ Treadgold. History of the Byzantine State and Society, pp. 729–730. - ^ Agelarakis, P. A. (2012), "Cretans in Byzantine foreign policy and military affairs following the Fourth Crusade", Cretika Chronika, 32, 41-78. - ^ Great Synaxaristes: (Greek) Ὁ ἍYιoς Ἰwάvvnς ὁ BatatZὴς ὁ ἐλeήuovaς Baσιλιὰς. 4 NoeuBpίou. MEΓAE EYNAEAPIETHE. - ^ Ostrogorsky, George. History of the Byzantine State. New Brunswick, N. J: Rutgers University Press, 1969, p. 444. - ^ Gardiner, The Lascarids of Nicaea: The Story of an Empire in Exile, 1912, (Amsterdam: Adolf M. Hakkert, 1964), p. 196 Further reading[edit] - This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. - "John Vatatzes" entry in The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. Alexander Kazhdan (ed.) Oxford University Press, 1991. - John V.A. Fine Jr., The Late Medieval Balkans. Ann Arbor, 1987. - Jonathan Harris, Byzantium and the Crusades, London: Bloomsbury, 2nd ed., 2014. - John S. Langdon. Byzantium’s Last Imperial Offensive in Asia Minor: The Documentary Evidence for and Hagiographical Lore About John III Ducas Vatatzes’ Crusade Against the Turks, 1222 or 1225 to 1231. New Rochelle, N.Y.: A.D. Caratzas, 1992. - George Ostrogorsky. History of the Byzantine State. New Brunswick, N. J: Rutgers University Press, 1969. External links[edit] - Media related to John III Doukas Vatatzes at Wikimedia Commons - Marek, Miroslav. "The Batatzes family". Genealogy.EU., Retrieved 17 January 2009.