Eugenio Lascorz

Eugenio Lascorz y Labastida (26 March 1886 – 1 June 1962) was a Spanish attorney and lawyer who claimed to be a descendant of the medieval Laskaris family (believing his last name Lascorz to be a corruption of Laskaris), which had ruled the Byzantine Empire in Nicaea from 1204 to 1261. In 1917, he legally changed his name to Eugenio Láscaris-Comneno (typically shortened to Eugenio Láscaris). As the supposed titular Byzantine emperor, Eugenio used the regnal name Eugene II Lascaris Comnenus.[n 1] In addition to his royal and imperial claims, Lascorz also claimed the titles "Prince Porphyrogenitus", Duke of Athens and Grand Master of the Constantinian Order of Saint George and a self-proclaimed order, the "Order of Saint Eugene of Trebizond".[2]

Eugenio Láscaris
Born
Eugenio Lascorz y Labastida

(1886-03-26)March 26, 1886
Zaragoza, Spain
DiedJune 1, 1962(1962-06-01) (aged 76)
Madrid, Spain
NationalitySpanish
OccupationLawyer, attorney and pretender
Years activec. 1906–1962
Parents
  • Manuel Lascorz y Serveto (father)
  • Carmen Labastida y Paschal (mother)

Though he practised law, Lascorz was also interested in history, especially that of Ancient Greece and Byzantium, and published several books, both fiction and non-fiction, exploring what he perceived to be the history of his ancestors. His life's work was his attempt to get his claims recognized and his desire to claim the throne of the Kingdom of Greece and restore the Byzantine Empire.

Biography

Ancestry and early life

Eugenio Lascorz y Labastida was born in Zaragoza about 21:15 on 26 March 1886[3] and as per Spanish naming customs, took the surnames of both his parents, Manuel Lascorz y Serveto (born in 1849) and Carmen Labastida y Paschal (born in 1857).[4] He was baptized two days after his birth in the parish church of Nuestra Señora del Pilar (meaning "Our Lady of the Pillar"). His paternal grandparents were the laborer Victorián Lascorz y Abad and Raimunda Serveto and his maternal grandparents were Manuel Labastida and Ramona Paschal.[3] His great-grandfather (the father of Victorián) was a man by the name Alonso Lascorz y Cerdan.[2] The Lascorz family, and Eugenio's other ancestors, was of Basque (and not Greek) origin[2] and were likely part of a barrage of migrants who had arrived in Zaragoza in the third quarter of the 19th century.[3]

The Lascorz family was wealthy and Eugenio's father Manuel had studied law and the Latin language and he was an important man in Zaragoza, working as the secretary of the local provincial deputation.[5] Manuel and Carmen had three children, Eugenio being the youngest. His older siblings were Lorenzo (1877–1900) and Josefina (1881–1956). Both Eugenio and Lorenzo studied at the University of Zaragoza.[6] Lorenzo studied medicine while Eugenio studied law. Tragically, Lorenzo died in 1900 at the age of just 22, and Eugenio became the "heir" to Manuel.[7] Eugenio began his professional career as an attorney in 1917.[4] When exactly Lascorz began his Byzantine claims is unclear, later family tradition claims that his father "revealed" their family history on his deathbed on 5 August 1906, proclaiming to Eugenio and Josefina that he was not just Manuel Lascorz y Serveto, but Prince Alexios Manuel Lascáris-Comneno, who had arrived with his father Prince Andronikos in Spain after fleeing from Ottoman persecution.[8] Manuel's obituaries stated that he was a "descendant and heir of the ancient Greek imperial family of the same surname, fleeing from the ruins of his homeland".[9]

Byzantine claims and aspirations

Lascorz, possibly inspired by his father, believed that his last name was a corruption of Laskaris, the name of a medieval Greek dynasty which had ruled the Byzantine Empire in Nicaea from 1204 to 1261.[2] Explicitly proclaiming to restore the ancient glory of the Byzantine Empire, Lascorz was a proponent of the Greek Megali Idea (the Greek aspirations of conquering former Byzantine territory, including Constantinople, and restoring the borders of Byzantium).[10] He embarked on a campaign of attempting to secure recognition of this descent through changing his legal identity by substituting "Lascorz" for "Láscaris" and seeking approval in Spanish courts. Lascorz also believed descent from the Laskarids could grant him a claim to the throne of the newly proclaimed Kingdom of Greece, an idea he dedicated the rest of his life to.[4] Instead of Eugenio Lascorz, his new legal name was Eugenio Láscaris-Comneno (often shortened to Eugenio Láscaris).[11] At the time, Greece was embroiled in somewhat of a succession crisis; social tension and the abdication of King Constantine I put the future of the ruling House of Glücksburg in doubt.[12]

In 1923, Lascorz issued a manifesto to the Greek people, proclaiming himself "Prince Eugene Lascaris Comnenus, heir to the Emperors of Byzantium and Pretender to the Throne of Greece". In 1935 he created an elaborate and invented genealogy, which notably altered his own familial history. His grandfather Victoriano was substituted for the "Prince Andronikos Theodore Laskaris" supposedly described by his father on his deathbed. Eugenio's great-grandgather Alonso was substituted for a "Prince Theodore Laskaris, Porphyrogenitus".[2] In the 1940s and 1950s, Lascorz undertook a series of efforts in an attempt to strengthen his imperial claim. In 1946, he attempted to expand his "Sovereign and Imperial Order of Constantine the Great" and his own order of Saint Helena into international organizations. In 1948, Lascorz began publishing his own magazine, Parthenon, with the Asociación Cultural Greco-Española (the Greco-Spanish Cultural Association, an organization based in Madrid) and on 15 September 1950 he founded the "International Philo Byzantine Academy and University" (IPHBAU), a "cultural extension" of his self-proclaimed chivalric orders, which also had its own magazine.[13]

His first genealogy was contradicted by later genealogies in 1947 and 1952, which again changed the names of Eugenio's ancestors, added more supposed "princes" and altered their relationships. The 1952 version of the genealogy, the first to refer to Eugenio's father as "Alexios Manuel", explicitly contradicts Eugenio's earlier versions, which he had attempted to get approved by Spanish courts. Lascorz obtained "recognition" by several courts in Italy, though these courts did not investigate Eugenio's claims, nor did they have the competence or authority to proclaim someone as a claimant to the throne of the Byzantine Empire or the Kingdom of Greece. Lascorz married a woman by the name Nicasia Justa Micolau y Traver Blasco y Margell and had several children, all of which received names of ancient Byzantine royalty, such as Teodoro, Constantino, Alejandro and Juan Arcadio.[2]

Though Lascorz made no intellectual contributions to the legal world during his years as an attorney and lawyer (instead spending his working years doing practical tasks and working), he was devoted to studying Ancient Greece and Byzantium, writing several books on Greek history. Lascorz's "Byzantine" publications were not limited to historical works. As soon as he had moved to Madrid in 1943, Lascorz published the work Calígrafia grieca y byzantina ("Greek and Byzantine Calligraphy"), a collection of calligraphy exercises, beginning with tracing and then moving on to reproductions of real ancient Greek and Byzantine initials, manuscripts and signatures.[14] In 1956, Lascorz published Caliniki: Evocación histórica, a short story centering on a fictional Lacaedaemonian girl called Cali Cabasileas from the time of the emperor "Manuel Cantacuzeno" who falls in love with Andrónico, a courtier of the emperor.[15]

The Hidalguía controversy

There were many who supported Lascorz's dynastic claims. Among his most notable supporters was Norberto de Castro y Tosi, a Costa Rican professor and personal friend of Eugenio who in 1989 published a biography on him, titled Eugenio II, un príncipe de Byzancio ("Eugene II, a prince of Byzantium").[16] Castro's biography was very favorable to Lascorz, leaving out many episodes which might have caused controversy, such as the role Lascorz played during the regime of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco (as a military judge). In 1952, Lascorz had granted Castro the title of Marquess of Barzala.[17]

In 1953 and 1954, Lascorz and his family were the focus of the "Hidalguía controversy", a series of articles in Spanish magazines, including one called Hidalguía, which saw him publicly identified as a forger and, as a result, becoming socially stigmatized.[17] The controversy had its roots in a campaign begun by the Holy See in Rome in 1952 against what the Papacy saw as false religious orders. This campaign had become highly publicized in the Spanish media by 1953, during the time when negotiations between the Papacy and the Spanish government were approaching an end.[13] Since Lascorz was at the head of several orders and organizations which could easily be included in what the Vatican perceived as false, he repeatedly aroused misgivings from the Spanish government and authorities.[13] On 23 April 1953, an article in the ABC newspaper called "Falsas órdenes de caballería y falsos títulos nobiliarios" ("False chivalric orders and false titles of nobility") identified Lascorz as a forger and his orders and institutions as fake, stating that Lascorz violated "not only the principles of Church law, but also the sovereignty of the Spanish state". In later issues the newspaper also published and rebuked Lascorz's responses to the article, pointing out that his orders had not been approved by the Spanish government.[18]

More damaging than the ABC articles were articles published early in 1954 in Hidalguía which denounced and debunked Lascorz's claims, sometimes in a somewhat humorous tone. The author of these articles, José María Palacio, wrote that Lascorz had used his knowledge of the legal system and the complicity or ignorance of certain key people to carry out legal deceptions and falsifications in order to transform his identity and insert himself as a descendant of the Laskaris dynasty. Palacio furthermore (correctly) suggested that the end goal of this plan was to gain the throne of Greece.[19] On 13 March that same year, the Lascorz family responded through an interview with Teodoro (Eugenio's oldest son and then the speaker of the family due to Eugenio's advanced age) in the daily newspaper in Madrid, in which it was claimed that Palacio was an "old enemy" of their family and was actively attempting to "persecute" them.[20]

As a result of the controversy, any texts discussing Eugenio Lascorz and his family in the 1950s were either completely in their favor, or completely against them, the latter being more common.[13]

Death and legacy

Lascorz died in Madrid[4] on 1 June 1962.[21] Eugenio's children continued to maintain his claims and his self-proclaimed chivalric orders[21] and his descendants, the Láscaris[22] or Láscaris-Comneno[22] family, survive to this day. Many of his children chose to leave Spain due to being exhausted by the controversies the family became embroiled in.[4] His heir as "titular emperor" was his oldest son, Teodoro Láscaris-Comneno (27 October 1921 – 20 September 2006), who moved across the Atlantic. Though Teodoro maintained the legitimacy of his father's (and his own) claims, he was more concerned with researching law, history and philosophy and maintaining the orders of Constantine the Great and Saint Helene than he was in pressing the invented claim to the throne of the Kingdom of Greece.[21]

Teodoro took the "regnal" name Theodore IX Lascaris Comnenus (Theodore III–VIII being invented ancestors throughout Eugenio's genealogy), lived in Venezuela and propagated the idea that the Americas represent "New Byzantium"; where Christian faith, Western thought and Greek civilization will continue to survive.[23] Teodoro's son Eugenio (born on 10 October 1975), or Eugene III Theodore Emmanuel Lascaris Comnenus, maintains his family's claims.[1]

See also

Notes
  1. There was no Byzantine emperor by the name Eugene. Lascorz's regnal number "II" derives from one of his invented ancestors – a supposed "Eugenios Lascaris" said to have lived in the 16th century.[1]

References

Citations
  1. New Byzantium.
  2. Pseudo Lascaris Princes.
  3. Domingo 2017, p. 41.
  4. Domingo 2017, p. 17.
  5. Domingo 2017, p. 42.
  6. Domingo 2017, p. 43.
  7. Domingo 2017, p. 44.
  8. Domingo 2017, p. 45.
  9. Domingo 2017, p. 49.
  10. Domingo 2017, p. 51.
  11. Domingo 2017, p. 53.
  12. Domingo 2017, p. 54.
  13. Domingo 2017, p. 26.
  14. Domingo 2017, p. 22.
  15. Domingo 2017, p. 23.
  16. Domingo 2017, p. 24.
  17. Domingo 2017, p. 25.
  18. Domingo 2017, p. 27.
  19. Domingo 2017, p. 28.
  20. Domingo 2017, p. 29.
  21. Domingo 2017, p. 30.
  22. Domingo 2017, p. 15.
  23. Feldman 2008, p. 135.

Bibliography
  • Domingo, Carlos Sancho (2017). Eugenio Láscaris-Comneno: el aragonés que pretendió el trono de Grecia (PDF) (in Spanish). Institución "Fernando el Católico". ISBN 978-8499114651.
  • Feldman, Ruth Tenzer (2008). The Fall of Constantinople. Twenty-First Century Books. ISBN 978-0761340263.

Web sources
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