Theodore Vatatzes

[1] The family rose to the first rank of the Byzantine aristocracy, and to prominence in the politics of the empire, in the person of Theodore himself.

Theodore was one of a group of able men promoted to positions of authority by John II as an alternative to reliance on members of the imperial family, whom he distrusted.

In 1131 Theodore married the porphyrogenita princess Eudokia Komnene, daughter of John II and his empress, Eirene of Hungary, and was raised to the court dignity of sebastohypertatos.

However, in the reign of Manuel I Komnenos, John's successor and Theodore's brother-in-law, he enters contemporary sources as a notable military commander during the 1150s.

Thinking that the emperor had arrived with his entire army the defenders panicked, and the city fell immediately to the Byzantine force.