Constantine Arianiti
Constantine Cominato Arianiti (Italian: Constantino Cominato Arianiti, Albanian: Kostandin Komneni Arianiti; 1456/1457 – 8 May 1530) also known as Constantine Komnenos Arianites, was a 15th and 16th-century Albanian nobleman, military leader, diplomat and pretender who lived most of his life in exile in Italy due to the conquest of his homeland by the Ottoman Empire. Constantine sought to establish himself as a leader among the Christian Balkan refugees in Italy and claimed lordship over various former Christian lands in Greece, using the titles Prince of Macedonia, Duke of Achaea and Despot of the Morea. The son of Gjergj Arianiti, an Albanian lord who had fought alongside the Albanian national hero Skanderbeg against the Ottomans, Constantine was taken to Italy for his safety in 1469, after the death of his father. In Italy, Constantine was noticed by Pope Sixtus IV, who provided him with a pension, and he quickly made a successful career for himself. In 1489, he married into the Palaeologus-Montferrat family, a branch of the Byzantine imperial Palaiologos dynasty, through marriage to Francesca of Montferrat, a probably illegitimate daughter of Boniface III, Marquis of Montferrat. The marriage resulted in Constantine's wealth and status increasing, and also paved the way