Kontostephanos

Responsible to a large degree for Basil's humiliating defeat in the Battle of the Gates of Trajan against the Bulgarians, he was later involved in intrigues and beaten by the emperor.

The pansebastos sebastos Isaac Kontostephanos went on to serve through most of the reign of Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118), until his unsuccessful appointment as admiral (thalassokrator) in 1107/8.

[4] Isaac's son, the panhypersebastos Stephen Kontostephanos, married Anna Komnene, the second daughter of Emperor John II Komnenos (r. 1118–43).

[9] Isaac's other son, Stephen, had three sons, John, who was doux of Thessalonica in 1162,[10] Alexios, a military commander active in the wars of Manuel I Komnenos (r. 1143–80) in Hungary, and governor of Crete in 1167,[11] and Andronikos, likewise an eminent commander who became megas doux,[12] as well as a daughter, Irene, who married Nikephoros Bryennios.

[15] Isaac's brother Stephen may have been the father of Theodore Kontostephanos, a commander under Manuel I Komnenos who fell in a campaign against Armenian Cilicia in 1152.

[16] After the fall of the Byzantine Empire to the Fourth Crusade in 1204, the family declined, although they remained members of the aristocracy and still appear as landholders and occupying posts in the imperial service.