George Palaiologos (megas hetaireiarches)

George Palaiologos Doukas Komnenos (Greek: Γεώργιος Παλαιολόγος Δούκας Κομνηνός; c. 1125–1167/68) was a high-ranking Byzantine aristocrat and diplomat of the 12th century.

His mother, likely also named Anna, was the granddaughter of Adrianos Komnenos, a younger brother of Alexios I, and the "purple-born" princess Zoe Doukaina, the third daughter of Emperor Constantine X Doukas (r. 1059–1067).

[4][11] He was named sebastos, a honorific title reserved for senior members of the imperial court, and held the office of megas hetaireiarches.

[13] In 1162 he led a diplomatic mission to Hungary to negotiate the marriage of Manuel I's daughter and heiress, Maria, to the Hungarian prince Béla, and to escort him back to Byzantium.

[13] He also founded a monastery dedicated to the Theotokos, known for its lavish decorations: it included portraits of the emperors whose kinship he claimed, as well as a series of paintings celebrating Manuel I's military victories over the Hungarians.

[28] They had numerous children, the most prominent of whom was Michael VIII Palaiologos,[29] who became emperor of Nicaea in 1259 and restored the Byzantine Empire in 1261, founding the Palaiologan dynasty.

[30] The Greek scholar Konstantinos Varzos suggests that George's second son may have been the protosebastohypertatos Andronikos Palaiologos Doukas Komnenos, a relative of Isaac II Angelos.

The marriage of Amalric I of Jerusalem and Maria Komnene at Tyre in 1167 (from a manuscript of William of Tyre 's Historia , c. 1300 )