The Petraliphas or Petraleiphas (Greek: Πετραλ[ε]ίφας), feminine form Petraliphaina (Πετραλίφαινα), were a Byzantine aristocratic family of Italian descent.
The family's ancestor was Peter, a Norman from Alifa, who first came to the Empire under Robert Guiscard, but later entered the service of Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118).[1][2] During the reign of Manuel I Komnenos (r. 1148–1180), Alexios and Nikephoros Petraliphas, were distinguished generals. Although the relation between them is unknown, perhaps they were among the four Petraliphas brothers from Didymoteichon recorded by Niketas Choniates.[1]
The family became prominent in the late 12th and the first half of the 13th century: the sebastokrator John Petraliphas 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 ca. 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. 1231–1266/68).[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]