Matthew Kantakouzenos or Cantacuzenus was Byzantine Emperor from 1353 to 1357.
Background
Matthew Asanes Kantakouzenos was the son of Emperor John VI Kantakouzenos and Irene Asanina. In return for the support he gave to his father during his struggle with John V Palaiologos, he was given part of Thrace as an appanage in 1347, and was proclaimed joint emperor in 1353, when open civil war broke out again with John V.
Career
From his Thracian domain, centred on Gratzianous, he led several wars against the Serbs. An attack, which he prepared in 1350, was frustrated by the defection of his Turkish auxiliaries. However, with five thousand Turks he tried to re-establish his former appanage along the Serbian-Byzantine border by attacking this region but failed to take Serres and soon was defeated in battle in late 1356 or early 1357 by a Serb army under Vojvoda Vojihna, the holder of Drama, a major fortress in the vicinity.
The Serbs captured Matthew with the intention of releasing him when he had raised the large ransom they demanded.
However John V, who had rapidly moved in to occupy Matthew"s lands, offered Vojihna an even larger sum to turn Matthew over to him. After his brother"s death in 1380, Matthew Asanes Kantakouzenos governed the Morea until the appointment of the new governor Theodore I Palaiologos, in 1381, and his arrival in 1382.
John Kantakouzenos, despotēs
Demetrios Kantakouzenos, sebastokratōr
Theodora Kantakouzene
Helena Kantakouzene, who married Louis Fadrique, Count of Salona
Maria Kantakouzene, who married John Laskaris Kalopheros.