Michael Kantakouzenos Şeytanoğlu

Michael Kantakouzenos or Cantacuzenus (Greek: Μιχαήλ Καντακουζηνός, died 3 March 1578), nicknamed Şeytanoğlu (Turkish for "son of the Devil"), was an Ottoman Greek magnate, noted for his immense wealth and political influence. Until his fall from favour and execution in 1578, he dominated the affairs of the Greek Orthodox community (millet) of the Ottoman Empire, being responsible for the rise and fall of bishops and patriarchs.

Nothing is known of Michael Kantakouzenos' origins and early life. Although he bears the name of one of the most distinguished dynasties of the late Byzantine Empire, it was usual among wealthy Greeks of the time to assume Byzantine surnames and claim descent from the famous noble houses of their Byzantine past. On Kantakouzenos himself, the German chaplain Stephan Gerlach, who lived in Constantinople at the time, reported his view that he was actually the son of the English ambassador, but this is mostly dismissed by modern scholars. The eminent Byzantinist Steven Runciman at any rate considered the latter-day Kantakouzenoi "perhaps the only family whose claim to be in the direct line from Byzantine Emperors was authentic". On the other hand, according to Donald Nicol, "Patriotic Rumanian historians have indeed labored to show that ... of all the Byzantine imperial families that of the Kantakouzenos is the only one which can truthfully be said to have survived to this day; but the line of succession after the middle of the fifteenth century is, to say the least, uncertain."

Kantakouzenos made his wealth through successful mercantine speculations, which allowed him to engage in the lucrative tax farming of the Ottoman Empire's provinces. In this he so distinguished himself for his rapacity and severity towards his fellow Christians that he earned the epithet "Son of the Devil" (Turkish Şeytanoğlu, often rendered Shaytanoglu). He also secured the profitable monopoly on the salt works of Anchialos and the customs of Constantinople, as well as fisheries and the monopoly of the fur trade with Muscovy, which alone was said to bring him an annual revenue of 60,000 ducats. His wealth was such that after the destruction of the Ottoman fleet in the Battle of Lepanto in 1571, he was able to build and equip 60 galleys from his own resources. His power was backed and secured by his close relationship with the powerful Grand Vizier, Sokollu Mehmed Pasha, and other important figures at the Ottoman court, who received a share of his profits.

...
Wikipedia