Members of the family claim that the
genealogical links between the original
House of Kantakouzinos and the subsequent House of Cantacuzino have been extensively researched.[5] The family first appears among the
Phanariotes in the late 16th century, with
Michael "Şeytanoğlu" Kantakouzenos, after a gap of over a century from the
Fall of Constantinople.[6] Whether the family is indeed linked to the Byzantine imperial house of Kantakouzenos is disputed, as 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.[6] The first member of the family to publicly stress his imperial descent on an international level was the adventurer and pretender
Radu Cantacuzino (1699–1761), who produced a genealogy linking himself to Emperor
John VI Kantakouzenos, though it contained several invented figures. Radu also changed his coat of arms from the earlier arms depicting an eagle holding a cross, to a new rendition with more shields representing various families and regions, a version still in use by the family today.[7][8][9]
The eminent Byzantinist
Steven Runciman considered the latter-day Kantakouzenoi "perhaps the only family whose claim to be in the direct line from Byzantine Emperors, as authentic",[10] but according to the historian
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."[11]
The origin of the Byzantine family can be traced to
Smyrna. The Greek scholar
Konstantinos Amantos suggested that "Kantakouzenos" derives from κατὰ-κουζηνᾶν or κατὰ-κουζηνόν, ultimately from the locality of Kouzenas, a name for the southern part of
Mount Sipylon near Smyrna. Donald Nicol agrees with this theory, and lists some connections the Kantakouzenoi had with the locale in the 11th and 13th centuries.[12]
Origin of the Romanian branch
The Greek Kantakouzenos family had been active in Constantinople and Greece during the
Greek War of Independence,[13] but several branches of the original Greek family were created via the migrations and establishment of Kantakouzenos family members to different parts of Europe. Two of those new branches were the Romanian (
Wallachian and
Moldavian) Cantacuzino branch as well as the
Russian branch (which is an offshoot of the Wallachian-Moldavian one). As a consequence of the
Russian Revolution and the
Soviet occupation of Romania after
World War II, (between 1944 and 1947) the last two branches now mostly live in
Western Europe and
North America.[5][14]
According to Jean-Michel Cantacuzène and
Mihail Sturdza, the origin of the Cantacuzino family in Romania is traced to
Andronikos Kantakouzenos (1553–1601; also known as Andronik),[3] a Greek financier from Constantinople, son of the "Prince of the Greeks"
Michael "Şeytanoğlu" Kantakouzenos.[5] Andronikos had among his several sons two who became "boyars" in what today is Romania and founded the yet-surviving new branches of Cantacuzino:
"boyar" Georgios 'Iordaki' Kantakouzenos became forefather of the Moldavian branch, which soon branched to Cantacuzino-Deleanu and Cantacuzino-Pasceanu.
"boyar" Konstantinos 'Kostaki' Kantakouzenos married an heiress (daughter) of the late reigning prince
Radu Șerban, onetime ruler of Wallachia, and they founded the Wallachian branches which soon clashed against the
Ghica family over power.
^Cantacuzène, Jean Michel (December 1992). Mille ans dans les Balkans: Chronique des Cantacuzène dans la tourmente des siècles (French ed.). Editions Christian. p. 6.
ISBN9782864960546.
Families that have been included in Kalender öfver i Sverige lefvande ointroducerad adel (1886–1899), Sveriges ointroducerade adels kalender (1912–1944) and/or Kalender över Ointroducerad adels förening (1935–)