Loukas Notaras

Loukas Notaras (Greek: Λουκᾶς Νοταρᾶς) (5 April 1402 - 3 June 1453) was the last Megas Doux of the Byzantine Empire. This position (literally Grand Duke, but more appropriately Lord High Admiral) had been expanded under the late Palaiologid emperors and functioned as an unofficial Prime Minister, overseeing the in place of the Megas Logothetes who had previously exercised this function.

Loukas Notaras was descended from a Greek family originally from Monemvasia; his earliest ancestor whom we can identify in the surviving sources was one sebastos Paul, who captured the island of Kythera from the Venetians for the Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos in 1270. Other members of the Notarades can be identified over the following decades. In the middle of the 14th century one branch relocated to Constantinople, where they rose to political and social prominence by supporting Andronikos IV Palaiologos, who was rebelling against his father John V Palaiologos, and then, after Andronikos's death, by supporting his son John VII Palaiologos.

Loukas Notaras' father was Nicholas Notaras, who served as interpreter to emperor Manuel II Palaiologos; his mother's name is not recorded. Loukas had at least one brother, who was captured in a skirmish during the 1411 siege of Constantinople and decapitated. Nicholas ransomed his son's head and buried it with the rest of his remains in a public funeral.

In 1424, Notaras was one of three emissaries—along with Manuel Melachrenos and George Sphrantzes—who negotiated a treaty of friendship between Emperor John VII Palaiologos and Sultan Murad II of the Ottoman Turks at the end of the Ottoman Interregnum. His continued importance as an imperial official is attested by his presence at the marriage of the future Emperor Constantine Palaiologos to Caterina Gattilusio 27 July 1441.

...
Wikipedia