Nicholas Kanabus or Canabus was elected Byzantine emperor on 25 or 27 January 1204 by an assembly of the Byzantine Senate

Byzantine Senate

The Byzantine Senate or Eastern Roman Senate was the continuation of the Roman Senate, established in the 4th century by Constantine I. It survived for centuries but was increasingly irrelevant until its eventual disappearance in the 13th century....

, priests, and the mob of Constantinople

Constantinople

Constantinople was the capital of the Roman, Eastern Roman, Byzantine, Latin, and Ottoman Empires. Throughout most of the Middle Ages, Constantinople was Europe's largest and wealthiest city.-Names:...

 in opposition against co-emperors Isaac II and Alexius IV. Nicolas was a young noble (probably a relative of Angelid

Angelos

The Angelos family , feminine form Angelina , plural Angeloi , was a noble Byzantine lineage which gave rise to three Byzantine emperors from 1185 to 1204...

 emperors) who was chosen after three days of sorting through numerous unwilling candidates, and he refused to accept the election. Though popularly chosen, he never wielded significant imperial power, and refused to leave the Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia

Hagia Sophia is a former Orthodox patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, and now a museum in Istanbul, Turkey...

. Alexios V "Mourztouphlos", who had deposed Emperors Isaac II

Isaac II Angelos

Isaac II Angelos was Byzantine emperor from 1185 to 1195, and again from 1203 to 1204....

 and Alexios IV

Alexios IV Angelos

Alexios IV Angelos was Byzantine Emperor from August 1203 to January 1204. He was the son of emperor Isaac II Angelus and his first wife Irene. His paternal uncle was Emperor Alexius III Angelus....

, offered him a prominent position in his own administration, but Nicholas refused to accept his terms. On 5 February, Mourztouphlos imprisoned him and had him strangled (or possibly decapitated) on the same day as Alexios IV.

The historian Niketas Choniates described Nicolas as a gentle and intelligent man.