User:Ichthyovenator/Kantakouzenos

The Kantakouzenos (pl. Kantakouzenoi; Καντακουζηνός, pl. Καντακουζηνοί, female version Kantakouzene; Καντακουζηνή), Latinised as Cantacuzenus (masculine) and Cantacuzena (feminine) and modernised as Cantacuzene or Cantacuzino, is a noble family of Byzantine Greek origin first attested in the early 12th century. During the last centuries of the Byzantine Empire's existence, the Kantakouzenoi rose to become one of the empire's most wealthiest, influential and powerful families, and produced two emperors, John VI Kantakouzenos ((r. undefined – undefined)1347–1354) and Matthew Kantakouzenos ((r. undefined – undefined)1353–1357).

WIP
http://genealogy.euweb.cz/byzant/byzant5.html

Need better source for genealogy

from Byz pretenders
 * obscure beginnings
 * first attested in the early 12th century
 * rose to prominence under the Komnenoi emperors - married into the Komnenos, Angelos and Palaiologos families, securing their position in Byzantine bureaucracy, military life and politics

The actual origin of the Romanian Palaiologoi can be traced to members of the Orthodox Phanariote community in Constantinople being entrusted to governing positions in the Danubian Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia by the Ottomans in the 18th century. The aristocrats sent to Moldavia and Wallachia included people with the last name Palaiologos, though any imperial descent is dubious and can not be proven with certainty. Also sent to Romania were aristocrats with the last name Kantakouzenos, purporting to be descendants of Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos. Though their genealogy is somewhat unclear in the mid-15th to 16th centuries, these Kantakouzenoi, who survive to this day as the Cantacuzino family, are, according to the 20th-century Byzantinist Steven Runciman "perhaps the only family whose claim to be in the direct line from Byzantine Emperors is authentic".

Genealogy:

http://www.ghyka.com/Familles/Cantacuzino/Cantacuzino.htm

http://www.ghyka.com/Familles/Cantacuzino/Canta_03.pdf