"Kantakouzeno family who later became the voyvodes of Wallachia and Moldavia"

"The evil spirit of the time was John Cantacuzenus, the prime minister of the deceased emperor. He was a clever, shifty, intriguing courtier, with a turn for literature, but had the abilities neither of a general nor of a statesman."
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/37756/37756-h/37756-h.html#Pg321

"was a Greek nobleman, statesman, and general. He served as grand domestic under Andronikos III Palaiologos and regent for John V Palaiologos before reigning as Byzantine emperor in his own right from 1347 to 1354. Deposed by his former ward, he was made to retire to a monastery under the name Joasaph Christodoulos and spent the remainder of his life as a monk and historian. At age 90 or 91 at his death, he was the longest living of both the Roman and Byzantine Emperers"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_VI_Kantakouzenos
https://books.google.fi/books?id=hrNDBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA198&lpg=PA198&dq=kantakouzenos+family&source=bl&ots=Lpw16hhcUL&sig=ACfU3U3kOAesJxjnwrEqkGLviSQpmCGJKQ&hl=fi&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjumOiQprDqAhVHUZoKHe5XCVAQ6AEwAnoECBMQAQ#v=onepage&q=kantakouzenos%20family&f=false

"By his wife Irene Asanina, a daughter of Andronikos Asan (son of Ivan Asen III of Bulgaria by Irene Palaiologina, Empress of Bulgaria, herself daughter of Michael VIII Palaiologos), John VI Kantakouzenos had several children, including:

-Matthew Kantakouzenos, co-emperor 1353–1357, later Despot of the Morea
-Manuel Kantakouzenos, Despot of the Morea
-Andronikos Kantakouzenos (died 1347)
-Maria Kantakouzene, who married Nikephoros II Orsini of Epirus
-Theodora Kantakouzene, who married Sultan Orhan of the Ottoman Empire
-Helena Kantakouzene, who married John V Palaiologos