Mihail Cantacuzene (1515-1587)
Descended from a leading Byzantine family, Mihail Cantacuzene (dubbed "Zeytanoglu" - son of the devil - by the Turks) was typical of the noble-born Greeks who maintained their wealth and prestige by serving the Ottoman regime. He was a leading spokesman for the Empire's Orthodox Christian subjects, and cultivated influential friends at court - notably the Grand Vizier, Mehmed Pasha Sokolovic, himself a Balkan Christian who had converted to Islam as a teenager. Appointed governor of the Black Sea salt pans by Sultan Suleiman the Magnificent, Cantacuzene built a palace in Anhialo (modern-day Pomorie ) and ruled in the style of an independent prince, surrounded by a legion of former slaves whose freedom had been bought with his own money. After the defeat of the Ottoman navy at Lepanto in 1571, Cantacuzene won favour with Suleiman's successor Selim II by re-equipping the fleet with new ships. The accession of Murad III in 1574 spelt the beginning of the end for Cantacuzene, however. The new sultan was jealous of the power concentrated in Sokolovic's hands, and was determined to do away with the Grand Vizier's coterie of rich friends. In 1576, Murad had Cantacuzene imprisoned in Constantinople's Yedikule fortress, and he was only released on payment of a huge ransom. Cantacuzene then began trading furs with the Russians, hoping that his growing contacts with the court of Ivan the Terrible would give him protection against Murad's emnity. The latter, however, saw a potential Russian-Cantacuzene alliance as a danger to the security of his northern borders, and had Cantacuzene hanged from the portals of his palace in Anhialo in 1576. It took two galleys to transport the contents of Cantacuzene's palace to Constantinople, where they were auctioned on the quayside. Cantacuzene's sons managed to escape, and their descendants went on to pursue illustrious, and often outrageously corrupt, careers at the courts of Moldavia and Wallachia
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