1. Short biography

Constantine Doranites, a scion of the Doranitai’ noble house of Trebizond, was brother of Theodore Doranites, a megas stratopedarches, during the reign of Alexios III Grand Komenos (1349-1390) and father to John Doranites, a pinkernes during the reign of Michael Grand Komnenos (1344-1349). His activity, and that of his family in general, took place in the middle of the 14^th century, during the civil strife that outbroke after the death of Emperor Basil Grand Komnenos (1332-1340) and troubled the Empire of Trebizond in the course of that period. Constantine himself organized an unsuccessful uprising against Alexios III in 1352.

2. Political actions

2.1. Historical framework of the civil strife, middle of the 14th century

During the first half of the 14^th century, the aristocracy of Trebizond was represented mainly by two houses, that of Scholarios family, who followed the Constantinopolitan tradition, and that of the native Amytzantarios family. They both defended their interests quite fiercely. After the death of Basil Grand Komnenos, his widow Eirene Palaiologina (1340-1341) did not succeed in assuming power herself, deprived as she was of any descendants and heirs, and the noble houses of Trebizond tried to etablish a new social and political balance.¹ The Doranites family, with Constantine as a protagonist, sided with the Scholarioi and closely cooperated with them.

2.2. Taking part in the uprising against Eirene Palaiologina

When the Scholarioi in 1340 turned against Eirene Palaiologina and entrenched themselves inside the monastery of St Eugenios, which became their operation center, Constantine Doranites with other members of the notable lineages of Trebizond supported the effort to overthrow the empress. Nevertheless, the exact nature of his intervention is not known, neither to what degree did his intervention reach in this uprising that ended ingloriously with the arrival of megas doukas John at Trebizond from Constantinople, for the reinforcement of Eirene. Neither is it known if he was among the persons that were arrested and were driven to the castle of Limnia when the monastery of Saint Eugenios was overtaken by the imperial troops and committed to the flames.²

2.3. The activity of Constantine against Anna Anachoutlou

The traces of Constantine Doranites are lost for one year after the attempt againstEirene Palaiologina, until 1341, when according to the chronographer Michael Panaretos,³ he participated in the attempts made by members of the aristocracy of Trebizond, to dethrone Anna Anachoutlou (1341-1342), the sister of Basil Grand Komnenos. The prevalence of the natives Amytzantarioi, after the accession to the throne of Anna Anachoutlou on the 17^th of July 1341, urged the Scholarioi, the Doranites and the Meizomates to constant efforts against her rule, or so the sources estimate.

Constantine Doranites with his son John, Niketas Scholares, the brothers Gregory and Michael Meizomates and other members of the aristocracy, after their unsuccessful attempt to drive out Anna Anachoutlou and to offer the throne to Michael Grand Komnenos (1344-1349), brother of Alexios II Grand Komnenos (1297-1330), departed with a Genoese ship for Constantinople on August 1340. There they came in contact with the son of Michael, later emperor John III Grand Komnenos (1342-1349), to whom they offered the crown of the Empire of Trebizond. On 17^th of August 1341 Constantine Doranites, John Grand Komnenos and the other members of aristocracy departed for Trebizond with two ships of John and three Genoese ships. They arrived on the 4^th of September 1342, and a few days after (9 September) John was crowned emperor in the church of Panagia Chrysokephalos, right after the overthrow of Anna Anachoutlou.

2.4. Participation of Constantine in the overthrow of John III Grand Komnenos

Afterwards, Constantine appears to have been involved in that group of nobles that recalled Michael Grand Komnenos (1341, 1344-1349), father of John III. John had prolonged his father’s exile,⁴ to which he was driven after the unsuccessful attempt to ascend to the throne of Trebizond, a fact that at the end turned many of the nobles against him:⁵ they ended by overthrowing him. After the accession of Michael to the throne, on the 24^th of May 1344, Constantine received the dignity of protovestiarios, whereas other archontes of Trebizond were honored as well with high-ranking titles and offices for their support in his efforts to take possession of the throne.

2.5. Action of Constantine against Alexios III Grand Komnenos

The emperor Alexios III Grand Komnenos (1349-1390) was not able to impose himself over the mutually torn-to-pieces aristocratic powers that had inflicted to the Empire the dreadful experience of the civil war since the period of the reign of Eirene Palaiologina (1340-1341) and thereafter. He preferred to attach himself, according to the circumstances, sometime to the one sometimes to the other noble house, and at the same time arresting members of the one or the other family. Within the framework of this kind of policy, at the beginnings of June 1350, Constantine Doranites, his brorther and megas stratopedarches Theodore Doranites (the so-called Pileles) and other members of the family, whose names are not known, were arrested and imprisoned for a short period of time, in a prison especially formed for archontes.⁶

Constantine Doranites appears again in the front scene on September of 1352 as a rioter. That period, although he was kephalatikeuon of the castle of Limnia, west of Trebizond, he had probably imposed a state of autonomy in the region. The fact is that, for obscure reasons, the imperial troops attacked him; in charge of the attack was the mother of the emperor, Eirene of Trebizond.⁷

On his carreer after these events, and his further activity, we have no evidence.