Manuel Komnenos Raoul ( el, Μανουήλ Κομνηνός Ῥαούλ; ) was a

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

aristocrat and official. A member of the aristocratic Raoul/Rales family, Manuel was a son of the ''

protovestiarios ''Protovestiarios'' ( el, πρωτοβεστιάριος, "first ''vestiarios''") was a high Byzantine court position, originally reserved for eunuchs. In the late Byzantine period (12th–15th centuries), it denoted the Empire's senior-most fina ...

'' Alexios Raoul. His father was a senior military leader under the

Nicaean emperor The Empire of Nicaea or the Nicene Empire is the conventional historiographic name for the largest of the three Byzantine Greek''A Short history of Greece from early times to 1964'' by W. A. Heurtley, H. C. Darby, C. W. Crawley, C. M. Woodhouse ...

John III Vatatzes (r. 1222–1254), but fell out of favour with his successor,

Theodore II Laskaris Theodore II Doukas Laskaris or Ducas Lascaris ( gr, Θεόδωρος Δούκας Λάσκαρις, Theodōros Doukas Laskaris; 1221/1222 – 16 August 1258) was Emperor of Nicaea from 1254 to 1258. He was the only child of Emperor John II ...

(r. 1254–1258), who distrusted the aristocracy and promoted men of humble origin like

George Mouzalon George Mouzalon ( el, Γεώργιος Μουζάλων, Geōrgios Mouzalōn; – 25 August 1258) was a high official of the Empire of Nicaea under Theodore II Laskaris (). Of humble origin, he became Theodore's companion in childhood and was ...

, who became his chief minister. Theodore II's marrying one of Manuel's sisters to George's brother, Andronikos Mouzalon, was regarded as an insult, and the family became opponents of the emperor, who at some point had all of Alexios' sons thrown into prison. As a result, the Raoul family actively supported the murder of the Mouzalon brothers in 1258, following Theodore II's death, and the subsequent usurpation of

Michael VIII Palaiologos Michael VIII Palaiologos or Palaeologus ( el, Μιχαὴλ Δούκας Ἄγγελος Κομνηνὸς Παλαιολόγος, Mikhaēl Doukas Angelos Komnēnos Palaiologos; 1224 – 11 December 1282) reigned as the co-emperor of the Empire ...

(r. 1259–1282). As a reward, Michael VIII appointed Alexios' eldest son,

John Raoul Petraliphas John Komnenos Raoul Doukas Angelos Petraliphas ( gr, Ἱωάννης Κομνηνός Ῥαούλ Δούκας Ἄγγελος Πετραλίφας; died ) was a Byzantine noble and military commander during the reign of Emperor Michael VIII Palaiol ...

, as ''protovestiarios'', while Manuel was made ''

pinkernes ''Pinkernes'' ( grc, πιγκέρνης, pinkernēs), sometimes also ''epinkernes'' (, ''epinkernēs''), was a high Byzantine court position. The term derives from the Greek verb (''epikeránnymi'', "to mix ine), and was used to denote the cup- ...

''. In 1276, Manuel was appointed governor in

Thessaly Thessaly ( el, Θεσσαλία, translit=Thessalía, ; ancient Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic and modern administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, The ...

. Shortly after, however, Manuel and his brother Isaac became opposed to the emperor's efforts to secure the Union of the Churches and supported the anti-unionist Patriarch Arsenios Autoreianos. As a result, Manuel was arrested in 1279, and in 1280 he was blinded and exiled to Kenchreai on the Skamandros River.

References

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* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Raoul, Manuel Komnenos 13th-century Byzantine people Byzantine governors Byzantine prisoners and detainees People of the Empire of Nicaea

Manuel Komnenos Manuel I Komnenos ( el, Μανουήλ Κομνηνός, translit=Manouíl Komnenos, translit-std=ISO; 28 November 1118 – 24 September 1180), Latinized Comnenus, also called Porphyrogennetos (; " born in the purple"), was a Byzantine empero ...

Year of birth unknown Year of death unknown Prisoners and detainees of the Byzantine Empire