Glabas

The Glabas were a small Byzantine aristocratic family whose standing came almost entirely from Michael Doukas Glabas Tarchaneiotes, born around 1235. A soldier under Michael VIII and Andronikos II, he campaigned against Bulgaria and in 1279 captured Tarnovo to install the exile Ivan Asen III on the throne.

He later fought the Serbs in Macedonia and recovered Dyrrhachion, Kruja and Kanina from the Angevins of Naples between 1284 and 1291. He and his wife Maria restored the Pammakaristos Church in Constantinople, where he was buried after his death around 1305 to 1308.

Their daughters married into the Branas and Angelos houses, and one line became maternal ancestors of Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos. A later kinsman, Isidore Glabas, served as metropolitan of Thessalonica from 1380 and negotiated with the Ottomans after they took the city in 1387, dying in 1396.