Page "Komnenos" Paragraph 8

Several weeks before the occupation of Constantinople by crusaders in 1204, one branch of the Komnenoi fled back to their homelands in Paphlagonia, on the Black Sea, and set up the Empire of Trebizond.

Their first ' emperor ', named Alexios I, was the grandson of Emperor Andronikos I.

These emperors – the " Grand Komnenoi " ( Megaloi Komnenoi or Megalokomnenoi ) as they were known – ruled in Trebizond for over 250 years, until 1461, when David Komnenos was defeated and executed by the Ottoman sultan Mehmed II.

A princess of the Trebizond branch married an Ottoman Sultan and was the mother of prince Yahya ( born 1585 ), who reportedly became a Christian yet spent much of his life attempting to gain the Ottoman throne.