List of Famous people born in Istanbul, Istanbul Province
Theodora Komnene
Theodora Komnene or Comnena was a niece of Byzantine emperor Manuel I Comnenus, and wife of King Baldwin III of Jerusalem.
Anna Diogenissa
Anna Diogenissa was a Byzantine noblewoman of the Diogenes house who became the Grand Princess consort of Serbia as wife of Uroš I Vukanović. She had five children with Uroš I, including the successor, Uroš II.
Alexander Ypsilantis
Alexandros Ypsilantis was a Greek nationalist politician who was member of a prominent Phanariot Greek family, a prince of the Danubian Principalities, a senior officer of the Imperial Russian cavalry during the Napoleonic Wars, and a leader of the Filiki Eteria, a secret organization that coordinated the beginning of the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire.
Konstantinos VIII
Constantine VIII Porphyrogenitus was de jure Byzantine Emperor from 962 until his death. He was the younger son of Emperor Romanos II and Empress Theophano. He was nominal co-emperor for 63 years, successively with his father; stepfather, Nikephoros II Phokas; uncle, John I Tzimiskes; and brother, Basil II.
Dimitrios Ypsilantis
Demetrios Ypsilantis was a member of the prominent Phanariot Greek family Ypsilantis, dragomans of the Ottoman Empire. He served as an officer in the Imperial Russian Army and played an important role in the Greek War of Independence. Ypsilantis was the brother of Alexander Ypsilantis, leader of Filiki Eteria.
Alexios I of Trebizond
Alexios I Megas Komnenos or Alexius I Megas Comnenus was, with his brother David, the founder of the Empire of Trebizond and its ruler from 1204 until his death in 1222. The two brothers were the only male descendants of the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos I, who had been dethroned and killed in 1185, and thus claimed to represent the legitimate government of the Empire following the conquest of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in 1204. Although his rivals governing the Nicaean Empire succeeded in becoming the de facto successors, and rendered his dynastic claims to the imperial throne moot, Alexios' descendants continued to emphasize both their heritage and connection to the Komnenian dynasty by referring to themselves as Megas Komnenos or Grand Komnenos.
Antonia del Balzo
Constantine IV
Constantine IV, called the Younger and sometimes incorrectly Pogonatos out of confusion with his father, was Byzantine Emperor from 668 to 685. His reign saw the first serious check to nearly 50 years of uninterrupted Islamic expansion, while his calling of the Sixth Ecumenical Council saw the end of the monothelitism controversy in the Byzantine Empire.
Irene Kantakouzene
Irene Kantakouzene, known simply as Despotess Jerina, was the wife of Serbian Despot Đurađ Branković. In Serbian folk legends, she is the founder of many fortresses in Serbia.
Theodoros I Palaiologos
Theodore I Palaiologos was despot (despotēs) in the Morea from 1383 until his death on 24 June 1407. A son of Emperor John V Palaiologos, Theodore was the first member of the Palaiologos dynasty appointed as the Despot of the Morea, following the final defeat of the rival Kantakouzenos clan, who under John VI Kantakouzenos had attempted to usurp rule of the Byzantine Empire.