Irene Lascarina (Greek

Greek language

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...

: Ειρήνη Λασκαρίνα, Eirēnē Laskarina) was a daughter of Theodore I Laskaris

Theodore I Laskaris

Theodoros I Komnenos Laskaris was emperor of Nicaea .-Family:Theodore Laskaris was born to the Laskaris, a noble but not particularly renowned Byzantine family of Constantinople. He was the son of Manuel Laskaris and wife Ioanna Karatzaina . He had four older brothers: Manuel Laskaris Theodoros...

, emperor of Nicaea

Empire of Nicaea

The Empire of Nicaea was the largest of the three Byzantine Greek successor states founded by the aristocracy of the Byzantine Empire that fled after Constantinople was occupied by Western European and Venetian forces during the Fourth Crusade...

 and Anna Angelina

Anna Angelina

Anna Komnene Angelina or Comnena Angelina was a daughter of the Byzantine Emperor Alexios III Angelos and of Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamatera....

. Her maternal grandparents were Emperor Alexios III Angelos

Alexios III Angelos

Alexios III Angelos was Byzantine Emperor from 1195 to 1203.- Early life:Alexios III Angelos was the second son of Andronikos Angelos and Euphrosyne Kastamonitissa. Andronicus was himself a son of Theodora Komnene, the youngest daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos and Irene Doukaina. Thus...

 and Euphrosyne Doukaina Kamaterina. Her sister Maria Laskarina

Maria Laskarina

Maria Laskarina was a daughter of Theodore I Laskaris and his first wife Anna Angelina.-Life:She was a younger sister of Irene Lascarina, first Empress consort of John III Doukas Vatatzes. Theodore married his eldest daughter to his designated heir in 1212...

 married King Béla IV of Hungary

Béla IV of Hungary

Béla IV , King of Hungary and of Croatia , duke of Styria 1254–58. One of the most famous kings of Hungary, he distinguished himself through his policy of strengthening of the royal power following the example of his grandfather Bela III, and by the rebuilding Hungary after the catastrophe of the...

.

Eirene first married the general Andronikos Palaiologos, and after his death became the wife of Theodore's designated successor, the future John III Doukas Vatatzes in 1212. With John III she had a son, the future Theodore II Doukas Laskaris

Theodore II Laskaris

Theodore II Doukas Laskaris or Ducas Lascaris was emperor of Nicaea, 1254–1258.-Life:Theodore II Doukas Laskaris was the only son of Emperor John III Doukas Vatatzes and Eirene Laskarina, the daughter of Emperor Theodore I Laskaris and Anna Angelina, a daughter of Emperor Alexios III Angelos and...

. After the latter's birth, she fell from a horse and was so badly injured that she was unable to have any more children. She retired to a convent, taking the monastic name Eugenia, and died there in 1239, some fifteen years before her husband.

Eirene is much praised by historians for her modesty and prudence, and is said to have brought about by her example a considerable improvement in the morals of her nation.