The Tzamplakones were an important and wealthy aristocratic family attested since the mid-13th century, when one of its members achieved the high military rank of Domestic of the Schools.
[3] Demetrios was married to Eudokia Palaiologina and had several children, whose names are unknown.
One of his daughters married a certain Nikephoros Laskaris, attested at Christoupolis (modern Kavala) in 1366/67.
[4] Demetrios is first attested in 1345, already holding the senior military rank of megas stratopedarches, during the siege of Serres by the forces of the Serbian ruler Stephen Dushan.
[2] He donated his extensive lands in Macedonia to the Vatopedi Monastery of Mount Athos.