Forced to honor his father's outstanding debt, and briefly imprisoned as a galley slave, he rebuilt the fortune through commerce and political intrigues.

In the 1590s, he was continuing his father's involvement as kingmaker for both Wallachia and Moldavia, acting as patron for a succession of Hospodars: Stephen the Deaf, Petru Cercel, Aaron the Tyrant and Peter the Lame all benefited from his financing.

This market speculator, mine owner, and tax farmer also pioneered the family's kingmaking practices in the Danubian Principalities—historian Neagu Djuvara argues that the Princes of Wallachia and of Moldavia were effectively clients of this "immeasurably wealthy" entrepreneur.

A number of records mention that Şeytanoğlu was closely related with a Muslim Kantakouzenos, the scribe Ahmed, who succeeded İbrahim Peçevi as defterdar of the Danube.

[11] According to various readings, the Greek man known as "Iane", "Iani" or "Ianiu", probably involved in Wallachian politics from as early as the 1550s, under Prince Pătrașcu the Good,[12] may have also been a Kantakouzenos.

[16] The writer Constantine Dapontes apparently suggests that Iane was Andronikos' older brother, but this descriptor is viewed as inaccurate by scholar Nicolae Iorga.

[22] The recipient of a classical education at his father's palace in Anhialo, Andronikos learned to speak and write in Greek, Italian, German, Neo-Latin, and Ottoman Turkish.

[23] During his son's early years, Şeytanoğlu pursued a political alliance with the Rhali merchants, marrying Andronikos' elder sister to one member of that family, setting her a dowry at 40,000 ducats.

[26] The lavish wedding itself may have played a part in Şeytanoğlu's downfall, contributing to his arrest for tax evasion, during which he was shown to be involved in an anti-Ottoman intrigue.

[27] One theory, advanced by scholar Matei Cazacu, is that Sultan Murad III had discovered Kantakouzenos' sponsorship of Ioan Potcoavă, who wanted to take Moldavia out of the Ottomans' orbit.

[30] He escaped more serious punishment by taking flight across the Black Sea to Istanbul, where he asked and obtained protection from Şeytanoğlu's friend Sokollu Mehmed Pasha, the Grand Vizier.

[31] He was detained as a galley slave for the Ottoman Navy, but Sokollu released him after some weeks of servitude, with Andronikos promising to liquidate his father's debts.

[43] One of Andronikos' letters to a Moldavian favorite, Peter the Lame, states that the Kantakouzenos viewed Michael as the only viable candidate "of all those other sinners [and] cunning beys".

1592 refer to Andronikos as Mihaloğlu Derviş ("The Dervish Son of Michael"), which may indicate that he was a widower, or had separated from Irene and had withdrawn into contemplative life.

It served to administer the local estate, including mills donated by Michael and villages pushed into serfdom in "dubious circumstances, tolerated by the prince.

[62] Among Andronikos' in-laws, Dionysus Rallis, the Bishop of Tarnovo, coordinated the Bulgarian Uprising of 1598, then escaped to Wallachia and also joined Michael's court.

[74] That war further divided Kantakouzenos' clan: the "Palaiologoi" branch, represented by Dumitrache Chiriță, remained allies and in-laws with Prince Ieremia, following him in exile.

[76] An Andronic vistier, generally identified with Kantakouzenos, is mentioned as one of the co-regents, alongside Ban Udrea Băleanu, Spatharios Negrea, and Armaș Sava.

The situation prompted Wallachian attempts to sign a separate peace with the Ottomans: Andonikos, who voted in favor of the armistice,[79] was dispatched for this purpose to Giurgiu.

During the subsequent confusion, imperial envoys sought to reconnect with their Wallachian partisans; in September 1601, German diplomatic records still discuss attempts to approach Andonikos, apparently unaware of his capture.

[85] One other record, dated July 24, 1601, refers to a "Greek man who was the heart and soul of Prince Michael" being captured by pro-Ottoman Transylvanians in Beszterce (Bistrița).

[87] A Spanish chronicle apparently corroborates these accounts, noting that Simion dispatched the head of "a certain Andronic the Greek" to Istanbul, where it was received by the Sublime Porte on November 4, 1601.

[94] Wallachia's main Cantacuzino branches reached prominence under Leon's enemy and successor, Matei Basarab, and maintained it for decades: all of Constantin's sons, including Drăghici and Șerban, had terms as high dignitaries.

[98] From December 1663, when Grigore I Ghica ordered Constantin I's execution at Snagov Monastery, the Wallachian Cantacuzinos were also at the center of a latent civil war, opposing them to the descendants of Andonikos' co-regent, Udrea Băleanu.

However, Cantemir and other early historians claim that he was killed by his own brothers, who resented his attempts to realign Wallachia with the Holy Roman Empire.

[101] The family returned to favor under Brâncoveanu's reign, which ended with a reassertion of Ottoman control, and the Prince's execution, following the Pruth River Campaign.

The attempt to create a Cantacuzino dynasty with Habsburg assistance ended abruptly during the war of 1716, when Șerban's son Gheorghe was only made Ban of occupied Oltenia.

[103] Brâncoveanu and the Cantacuzinos' downfall created the background for the consolidation of a Phanariote regime, with more direct control over the principalities, exercised by the Porte through mainly Greek princes.

[104] This was also partly argued by cultural historian Virgil Cândea, who suggests that, following a political line drawn by Constantin II, the Cantacuzinos merged Byzantine, Phanariote and Romanian nationalist ideologies into a single format.

[105] In the 1730s, at the height of his family's conflict with the Phanariotes, Ștefan's son, Radu Cantacuzino, fled to Western Europe and tried to enlist help for obtaining the Wallachian throne.