David of Trebizond

David Megas Komnenos
Reign	1459–1461
Born	c. 1408
Died	1 November 1463
Consort	Maria of Gothia Helena Kantakouzene
Father	Alexios IV Megas Komnenos
Mother	Theodora Kantakouzene

David Megas Komnenos (Greek: Δαβίδ Μέγας Κομνηνός, Dabid Megas Komnēnos) (c. 1408 – 1 November 1463) was the last Emperor of Trebizond from 1459 to 1461. He was the third son of Emperor Alexios IV of Trebizond and Theodora Kantakouzene. Following the fall of Trebizond to the Ottoman Empire, he was taken captive with his family to the Ottoman capital, Constantinople, where he and his sons and nephew were executed in 1463.

In July 2013, David and his sons and nephew were canonized by the Holy Synod of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Their feast day was determined as 1 November, the anniversary of their deaths.

David had played an important role throughout the reign of his older brother and predecessor John IV. He had been given the courtly title of despotes, which in Trebizond designated the heir to the throne. David had participated in his brother's expeditions against the Genoese, and also fulfilled various diplomatic tasks. In 1458 he ratified his brother's treaty with the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II in Adrianople, and later the same year he conveyed his niece Theodora to her husband, Uzun Hassan of the Ak Koyunlu.

David ascended the throne on his brother's death, sometime before 22 April 1459. Although John IV had made his nephew Alexios his heir, Alexios was a boy only four years old; according to Laonikos Chalkokondyles David, with the support of the Kabasitanoi archontes, pushed the boy aside and took the throne for himself.

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