Family
George Acropolites notes that Maria had a brother, John Petraliphas, who was a ranking noble in the court of Isaac II Angelos, and was appointed as governor of Thessaly and Macedonia. His daughter Theodora Petraliphaina married Michael II Komnenos Doukas.
Niketas Choniates reports that the Petraliphas family descended from "Franks" (Western Europeans). Morris Bierbrier, a modern genealogist, traces their descent to Peter of Alife, a Norman. In that case their last name would partly derive from the town of Alife in Campania. The earliest member of the family recorded was Alexios Petraliphas. According to John Kinnamos, Alexios was in charge of a military force sent by Manuel I Komnenos, Byzantine Emperor, to his ally Kilij Arslan II, Sultan of Rûm. According to The Byzantine Family of Raoul-Ral(l)es (1973) by Sterios Fassoulakis, Alexios Petraliphas married Anna Raoul, a daughter of John Roger Dalassenos (Raoul) and Maria Komnene. However, Kinnamos records that Anna was a daughter of John II Komnenos and Piroska of Hungary. A son of Alexios Petraliphas and Anna Raoul reportedly married Helena of Bohemia. Helena was a daughter of Frederick of Bohemia and Elizabeth of Hungary; Elizabeth was a daughter of Géza II of Hungary and Euphrosyne of Kiev.
Kinnamos also mentions a certain Nikephoros Petraliphas. He and Andronikos Lampardas co-led a Byzantine campaign in the Kingdom of Hungary. Kinnamos does not mention his relation to other members of the family. An hagiography of Saint Panteleimon preserved in the archives of Mount Athos names Nikephoros as a grandson of Maria with the title of sebastokratōr. If said Maria was Maria Komnene, Nikephoros could be a son of Alexios and Anna Raoul. A Theodora Antiochitissa Petraliphaina is mentioned on a seal dated to c. 1200. Antiochitissa means "woman from Antioch".
Read more about this topic: Maria Petraliphaina
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