titular Byzantine emperor, 1204–05. While the Latin crusaders were besieging Constantinople in April 1204, the emperor Alexius V slipped away into exile, and Constantine, one of the city's leading defenders, was proclaimed emperor in the Cathedral of St. Sophia. Quickly, however, the city fell, and Constantine and other refugees fled to Nicaea, where they set up a rival empire. After his death he was succeeded by his brother, Theodore I Lascaris.