Ilario Doria

Hilario Doria (, Latin: Illarius Doria; died ) was a Byzantine court official, diplomat and translator of Genoese descent. Doria became influential in the reign of Emperor Manuel II Palaiologos through marrying the emperor's half-sister Zampia Palaiologina and was appointed as mesazon, one of the highest positions in the imperial administration. Doria had a distinguished career as a Byzantine diplomat in Western Europe; he worked with Pope Boniface IX on (ultimately unsuccessful) plans for organising a crusade and visited Richard II of England, who might have conferred a knighthood on him. Doria's career came to an end in 1423 when he was caught conspiring with Manuel's son Demetrios Palaiologos; Doria, Demetrios and their associates soon thereafter fled to Hungary, where Doria shortly thereafter died. Early life Hilario Doria was originally from Genoa, part of the noble Doria family. He lived in the Genoese colony of Caffa in Crimea for most of his early life. Doria first travelled to the Byzantine Empire in 1386 as part of a diplomatic mission to request aid against the Golden Horde. He converted from Catholicism to Orthodoxy in April 1392, presumably in conjunction with his marriage to Princess Zampia Palaiologina, an illegitimate daughter of Emperor John V Palaiologos. The marriage to Zampia made Doria into the brother-in-law of the incumbent emperor, Manuel II Palaiologos. Doria rapidly rose through the ranks of Byzantine society and attained the court title of mesazon under Manuel, one of the highest positions in the imperial administration. In the late 1390s and early 1400s, Doria served as mesazon together with Demetrios Palaiologos Goudeles. Career