The Petraliphas or Petraleiphas (Greek, Modern (1453-);: Πετραλ[ε]ίφας), feminine form Petraliphaina (Πετραλίφαινα), were a Byzantine aristocratic family of Italian descent.
The family's ancestor was Peter, a Norman possibly from Alifa, who first came to the Byzantine Empire during the Norman invasion of Robert Guiscard, but later entered the service of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118).[1] [2] The earliest member of the family recorded was Alexios Petraliphas, according to John Kinnamos a general in charge of a military force sent by Emperor Manuel I Komnenos (r. 1143–80) to his ally Kilij Arslan II, Sultan of Rûm. According to The Byzantine Family of Raoul-Ral(l)es (1973) by Sterios Fassoulakis, Alexios Petraliphas married Anna Raoul, a daughter of John Roger Dalassenos (Raoul) and Maria Komnene. However, Kinnamos records that Anna was a daughter of John II Komnenos (r. 1118–43) and Piroska of Hungary. A son of Alexios Petraliphas and Anna Raoul reportedly married Helena of Bohemia. Helena was a daughter of Frederick of Bohemia and Elizabeth of Hungary; Elizabeth was a daughter of Géza II of Hungary and Euphrosyne of Kiev.
During the reign of Manuel I Komnenos, alongside Alexios, a Nikephoros Petraliphas is recorded as a distinguished general. Although the relation between them is unknown, perhaps they were among the four Petraliphas brothers from Didymoteichon recorded by Niketas Choniates.[1] A Theodora Antiochitissa Petraliphaina is mentioned on a seal dated to c. 1200. Antiochitissa means "woman from Antioch".
The family became prominent in the late 12th and the first half of the 13th century: the sebastokrator John Petraliphas was governor of Thessaly and Macedonia, and played a leading role in the deposition of Isaac II Angelos (r. 1185–1195 and 1203–1204) in 1195. Another sebastokrator Nikephoros Komnenos Petraliphas is also attested circa 1200.[1] [3] The sebastokrator John's sister Maria Petraliphaina married the ruler of Epirus and Thessalonica Theodore Komnenos Doukas (r. 1215–1230), while John's daughter Theodora Petraliphaina married Michael II Komnenos Doukas (r. 1231–1266/1268).[1] John's son Theodore was married to a daughter of Demetrios Tornikes, one of the leading ministers of John III Vatatzes (r. 1221–1254), and played a prominent role in the Nicaean-Epirote conflicts of the 1250s, first defecting to Nicaea and then back to his brother-in-law.[4] A marriage to Alexios the Slav, a vassal of the Latin emperor Henry of Flanders (r. 1206–1216) by an unidentified Petraliphaina, possibly John's other daughter Maria, is also reported by George Akropolites.[5] A different branch of the family is attested in the Empire of Nicaea, where another John was megas chartoularios and military commander in the late 1230s.[1] [6]