John Kantakouzenos (despot)

Last updated April 12, 2019

John Kantakouzenos (Greek : Ἱωάννης Καντακουζηνός; ca. 1342 – after 1380) was a Byzantine prince.

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages, native to Greece, Cyprus and other parts of the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea. It has the longest documented history of any living Indo-European language, spanning more than 3000 years of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the major part of its history; other systems, such as Linear B and the Cypriot syllabary, were used previously. The alphabet arose from the Phoenician script and was in turn the basis of the Latin, Cyrillic, Armenian, Coptic, Gothic, and many other writing systems.

The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinople. It survived the fragmentation and fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD and continued to exist for an additional thousand years until it fell to the Ottoman Turks in 1453. During most of its existence, the empire was the most powerful economic, cultural, and military force in Europe. Both the terms "Byzantine Empire" and "Eastern Roman Empire" are historiographical terms created after the end of the realm; its citizens continued to refer to their empire simply as the Roman Empire, or Romania (Ῥωμανία), and to themselves as "Romans".

John is an obscure figure. Born ca. 1342, he was the eldest son of Matthew Kantakouzenos, co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire in 1353–1357, and Irene Palaiologina. On Matthew's abdication from the throne in December 1357, John V Palaiologos, now sole emperor, raised John to the supreme court rank of Despot.^[1]^[2]

Matthew Asen Kantakouzenos or Cantacuzenus was Byzantine Emperor from 1353 to 1357.

Irene Palaiologina, was the Empress consort of Matthew Kantakouzenos.

John V Palaiologos or Palaeologus was a Byzantine emperor, who succeeded his father in 1341 at the age of eight.

Little is known of John Kantakouzenos thereafter: in 1361 he went to the Morea, where he is again recorded ca. 1380 as the donor of an icon of the Theotokos, now in the church of San Samuele in Venice.^[1]^[2]

The Morea was the name of the Peloponnese peninsula in southern Greece during the Middle Ages and the early modern period. The name was used for the Byzantine province known as the Despotate of the Morea, by the Ottoman Empire for the Morea Eyalet, and by the Republic of Venice for the short-lived Kingdom of the Morea.

An icon is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox Church, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Roman Catholic, and certain Eastern Catholic churches. The most common subjects include Christ, Mary, saints and angels. Although especially associated with "portrait" style images concentrating on one or two main figures, the term also covers most religious images in a variety of artistic media produced by Eastern Christianity, including narrative scenes. Icons can represent various scenes in the Bible.

Theotokos is a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, used especially in Eastern Christianity. The usual Latin translations, Dei Genetrix or Deipara, are "Mother of God" or "God-bearer".

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John VI Kantakouzenos, Cantacuzenus, or Cantacuzene was a Greek nobleman, statesman, and general. He served as Grand Domestic under Andronikos III Palaiologos and regent for John V Palaiologos before reigning as Byzantine emperor in his own right from 1347 to 1354. Usurped by his former ward, he retired to a monastery under the name Joasaph Christodoulos and spent the remainder of his life as a monk and historian.

The house of Kantakouzenos, Latinized as Cantacuzenus and Anglicized as Cantacuzene, was one of the most prominent noble families of the Byzantine Empire in the last centuries of its existence. The family was one of the Empire's wealthiest and provided several prominent governors and generals, as well as two Byzantine emperors. The Kantakouzenoi intermarried extensively with other Byzantine noble families such as the Palaiologoi, the Philanthropenoi, the Asen, and the Tarchaneiotes. The feminine form of the name is Kantakouzene, Latinized as Cantacuzena.

The megas doux was one of the highest positions in the hierarchy of the later Byzantine Empire, denoting the commander-in-chief of the Byzantine navy. It is sometimes also given in English by the half-Latinizations megaduke or megadux. The Greek word δούξ is the Hellenized form of the Latin term dux, meaning leader or commander.

Despot or despotes was a senior Byzantine court title that was bestowed on the sons or sons-in-law of reigning emperors, and initially denoted the heir-apparent of the Byzantine emperor.

Manuel Kantakouzenos, . Despotēs in the Despotate of Morea or the Peloponnese from 25 October 1349 to his death and a contender to the Principality of Achaia.

Demetrios I Kantakouzenos was a governor of the Morea and the grandson of Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos. Demetrios was the son of Matthew Kantakouzenos, governor of the Morea, and Irene Palaiologina. Demetrios was given the title of sebastokrator by Emperor John V Palaiologos in December 1357 and went to the Peloponnese with his father and grandfather in 1361.

Alexios Apokaukos, also Latinized as Alexius Apocaucus, was a leading Byzantine statesman and high-ranking military officer during the reigns of emperors Andronikos III Palaiologos and John V Palaiologos. Although he owed his rise to high state offices to the patronage of John VI Kantakouzenos, he became, together with Patriarch John XIV Kalekas, one of the leaders of the faction supporting Emperor John V in the civil war of 1341–1347 against his one-time benefactor. Apokaukos died when he was lynched by political prisoners during an inspection of a new prison.

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The title of Grand Domestic was given in the 11th–15th centuries to the commander-in-chief of the Byzantine army, directly below the Byzantine Emperor. It evolved from the earlier office of the Domestic of the Schools, and came to rank as one of the senior dignities in the Byzantine state during the last centuries of its existence. From Byzantium, it was also adopted by the breakaway Empire of Trebizond, as well as by the 14th-century Serbian Empire.

John Angelos was a Byzantine aristocrat, general, and governor. He first distinguished himself in the suppression of a revolt in Epirus in 1339–1340, where he was subsequently appointed as governor. A relative of the statesman and emperor John VI Kantakouzenos, he took the latter's side in the Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347 and in late 1342 received the governorship of Thessaly, which he held until his death in 1348.

John Vatatzes or Batatzes was a Byzantine official and magnate active in the second quarter of the 14th century, playing a prominent role in the Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347.

Theodore Komnenos Doukas Palaiologos Synadenos, usually simply Theodore Synadenos, was a Byzantine magnate, senior official and military leader of the early 14th century, who played an important role in the civil wars of the period. The scion of a noble lineage, he became one of the first and most prominent supporters of Andronikos III Palaiologos in his struggle against his grandfather Andronikos II. Synadenos held various provincial governorships during Andronikos III's reign, including Epirus and Thessalonica. After the outbreak of the civil war of 1341–1347, he tried to surrender Thessalonica to his old friend John Kantakouzenos, but was driven from the city by the Zealots of Thessalonica. Forced to join Kantakouzenos's enemies, he was initially honoured with the high rank of protovestiarios but soon placed under house arrest in Constantinople, where he died impoverished in 1345 or 1346.

George Choumnos was a Byzantine statesman.

Michael Palaiologos was the second son of Byzantine emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos.

John Kantakouzenos was a military commander and an early member of the Kantakouzenos family.

John Kantakouzenos, Cantacuzene or Cantacuzenus can refer to:

John Kantakouzenos was a governor of the Thracesian Theme between 1244 and 1249, with the titles of doux and pinkernes. In 1249 he commanded an expedition sent by Emperor John III Vatatzes against the Genoese who had invaded and taken control of Rhodes during the absence of its governor John Gabalas.

George Palaiologos Kantakouzenos was a Byzantine aristocrat, a member of the Kantakouzenos family, and adventurer. He is also known by the Turkish nickname Sachatai, which he earned in the service of the Despot Constantine early in his military career.

References

1 2 Guilland (1959), p. 63
1 2 PLP 10972

Sources

Guilland, Rodolphe (1959). "Recherches sur l'histoire administrative de l'Empire byzantin: Le despote, δεσπότης". Revue des études byzantines (in French). 17: 52–89. doi:10.3406/rebyz.1959.1199 . Retrieved 28 May 2011.
Trapp, Erich; Walther, Rainer; Beyer, Hans-Veit; Sturm-Schnabl, Katja (1981). "10972. Καντακουζηνός Ἱωάννης". Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit (in German). 5. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.

Rodolphe Joseph Guilland was a French Byzantinist.

In computing, a Digital Object Identifier or DOI is a persistent identifier or handle used to identify objects uniquely, standardized by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). An implementation of the Handle System, DOIs are in wide use mainly to identify academic, professional, and government information, such as journal articles, research reports and data sets, and official publications though they also have been used to identify other types of information resources, such as commercial videos.

The Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit, abbreviated PLP, is a German-language reference work on the people of the last two centuries of the Byzantine Empire, from 1261 until the Fall of Constantinople in 1453, when the Empire was governed by the Palaiologos dynasty.

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[Guilland-1] 1 2 Guilland (1959), p. 63

[PLP-2] 1 2 PLP 10972