Another mini section on aristocrats!
HOUSE OF KANTAKOUZENOS
Like the Nafpliotis family, the Kantakouzenoi are minor Anatolian dynasts, coming to attention under Isaac I, when one Michael Kantakouzenos distinguished himself in battle at Claudiopolis. Thereafter, the family’s ascendancy was relatively rapid, although three of Michael’s four sons perished before their father, leaving only the youngest, George Kantakouzenos, to inherit the family’s large estates in Lydia in 1096. George was a noted opponent of Alexios Komnenos, and went so far in 1115 as to marry the daughter of the disgraced rebel Theodosios Melissenos and name his son after the rebel, in doing so anticipating a similar move by Michael Doukas a generation later.
The marriage of George’s youngest daughter Maria to Leo Nafpliotis, brother of the Italian Katepánō Constantine, in 1147 allowed the Kantakouzenoi a strong lock on power as Nafpliotis influence increased in the decades that followed. Maria Kantakouzene provided Leo Nafpliotis with five sons, who went out to become among the staunchest supporters of the Empress Eirene.
Young Theodosios, meanwhile, enjoyed an impressive career in civilian politics in Constantinople itself, initially under the tutelage of the elderly
Parakoimomenos Basilios, which his sons George, John and Eutychios (a eunuch) would follow as the years went on. Theodosios into a mercantile family, spurning the offers of rival aristocratic clans, a shrewd move that greatly increased the wealth and influence open to the Kantakouzenoi; by the end of the 1170s they were by far the greatest of the Constantinople-based aristocratic families, with estates across the empire. Unlike their peers, the Kantakouzenoi felt very little attachment to their ancestral lands, with both George and John happily selling off their Lydian homelands for plots elsewhere.
By 1212, the family is headed by John Kantakouzenos, who holds a number of archaic offices in the Senate as well as a vast degree of influence across the city. John is supported by two nephews and a son of his own, plus his cousins Joseph and Athemios Nafpliotis. To an extent, the Kantakouzenoi can be seen as an extension of the Nafpliotidai, although they have links to other families, notably the Palaiologoi. Rich, forward-looking, and powerful, the future for the Kantakouzenoi is full of opportunity.
HOUSE OF NAFPLIOTIS
The Nafpliotidai rocketed to prominence in the middle of the twelfth century thanks to the efforts of the father of their dynasty, Constantine Nafpliotis, who established close links with a number of leading figures in the regime of Manuel Komnenos thanks to his genial and personable nature. This perceived closeness to the Government aided Constantine further with a prestigious wife, Pulcheria, daughter of the great Norman general Jordan of Aversa. Jordan had hoped by the marriage he would save his crumbling political career in the early part of the reign of John II. The gambit failed, but Pulcheria gained her inheritance intact, and it passed on to the family, with Constantine taking care to provide for his younger brother Leo and Leo’s five sons.
As the Nafpliotis-led regime of Eirene settled into power over the 1180s, these five young men became amongst the most powerful in the Empire, bringing with it a degree of legitimacy. The trouble for the Nafpliotidai was a relative dearth of genuine talent: certainly the eldest of the brothers, Nikēphoros, proved himself militarily to be a disaster with his humiliating defeat in 1197. The second son, Leo, meanwhile made many enemies in Constantinople, to the extent that upon his natural death in 1211 rumours spread that he had been poisoned by an ally of Eirene, eager to rid the Empress of the embarrassing weight of her cousin. In Italy, meanwhile, the
Katepánō Christopher was killed by mutinying soldiers early in 1212.
This leaves only two surviving Nafpliotidai left for the incoming George of Genoa to deal with: but the new regime must tread carefully, for Joseph Nafpliotis, the fourth brother, now controls the vast majority of the extensive family estates, and is a rather more balanced and capable character than his older brothers to boot. Joseph can also boast two legitimate sons, Leo and George, as well as a castrated bastard named Rōmanos. His younger brother Anthemios meanwhile holds the coveted office of
Parakoimomenos, and is thus crucial in the court hierarchy of Constantinople. The Nafpliotidai may have lost a lot of their old swagger with the death of “their” Empress, but it would be a brave man who declared them to be written off entirely.