Constantine Angelos was a Byzantine aristocrat who married into the Komnenian Dynasty and served as a military commander under Manuel I Komnenos, serving in the western and northern Balkans and as an admiral against the Normans. He was the founder of the Angelos dynasty, which went on to rule the Byzantine Empire in 1185–1204 and found and rule the Despotate of Epirus (1205–1318) and the Empire of Thessalonica (1224–1242/46). Constantine's marriage lifted him out of obscurity, and gave him the title of Sebastokrator.