John I Orsini

John I Orsini
Count palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos
Seal of John I Orsini
Reign	1303/4 – 1317
Predecessor	Richard Orsini
Successor	Nicholas Orsini
Spouse	Maria Komnene Doukaina
Issue	Nicholas, John II, Guy, Margaret
Italian	Giovanni Orsini
Dynasty	Orsini
Father	Richard Orsini
Religion	Roman Catholic

John I Orsini (Italian: Giovanni Orsini) was the count palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos from 1303 or 1304 to his death in 1317. Married to an Epirote princess, John spent a decade at the Epirote court before succeeding his father, Richard Orsini, as count palatine. As a vassal of the Principality of Achaea, he was involved in its domestic affairs and especially the dynastic dispute between the infante Ferdinand of Majorca and Princess Matilda of Hainaut in 1315–16, and participated in a number of Latin campaigns against Epirus, which he aspired to rule. A year after his death, his son and heir Nicholas Orsini seized Epirus and brought it under the Orsini family's rule.

John was the only son of Richard Orsini, Count palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos, who in turn was the son of Count Matthew Orsini and a daughter of the sebastokrator John Komnenos Doukas, ruler of Thessalonica.

In 1292, he was wed to Maria, the daughter of Despot Nikephoros I Komnenos Doukas, ruler of Epirus. Maria had been sent as a hostage to Cephalonia to ensure Nikephoros' loyalty to the Latin princes when Richard and forces from the Principality of Achaea campaigned in Epirus to help raise the Byzantine siege of Ioannina. After the Byzantines were repelled, Richard, without consulting Nikephoros, arranged for John's marriage to Maria. This aroused the indignation of Nikephoros, who was not mollified until 1295, when the young couple came to live at his court. There John won his father-in-law's affection, to the extent that he granted him possession of the island of Leucas—Richard had promised to, but probably never did, cede the nearby island of Ithaca to the couple as well. John and Maria remained at the Epirote court until the murder of Richard in 1303 or 1304.