Apostolico Orsini

This branch of the Roman Orsini family built its fortunes on the Ionian Islands and in Epirus. Around 1195 Matthew Orsini succeeded the Sicilian admiral Margaritus of Brindisi as count of Cephalonia and Zakynthos; his descendant John I married an Epirote princess and gained Leukas as her dowry.

In 1318 Nicholas Orsini murdered his uncle Thomas Komnenos Doukas, seized southern Epirus, adopted Orthodoxy and received the Byzantine title of despot. His brother John II killed him in 1323 and lost Cephalonia in 1324, but ruled Epirus until his death, probably by poison, in 1335.

John II's son Nikephoros II inherited amid a regency, but Emperor Andronikos III ended Epirote independence in 1337 and 1338. Nikephoros briefly recovered his inheritance between 1356 and 1359, when he fell fighting the Albanians at Achelous. The island county passed to the Tocco family in 1357.