Andronikos Palaiologos (Greek: Ἀνδρόνικος Παλαιολόγος; died c. 1216) was the son-in-law and heir-apparent of Theodore I Laskaris, Emperor of Nicaea, in the 1210s.
[1] Nothing is known of his origin and early life, and even his name is uncertain, as the metropolitan of Ephesus, Nicholas Mesarites, who officiated at his marriage, calls him "Constantine Doukas Palaiologos" in a sermon of his.
All Byzantine chroniclers on the other hand, beginning with George Akropolites who is the main source on his life, call him Andronikos, and it is usually supposed that the different name in Mesarites' account is a transcription error by a later copyist.
[3][4] Due to the chronological order of Akropolites' narrative, the marriage of Andronikos with Irene Laskarina, the eldest daughter of the Nicaean emperor Theodore I, was earlier regarded as contemporary with the 1211 events,[5] but is now placed in February 1216.
He died soon after, however, from an unidentified "sexual condition" according to Akropolites, and Irene was remarried to John Doukas Vatatzes, who eventually succeeded Theodore I as emperor.