Demetrios Tzamplakon

Demetrios Tzamplakon (Greek: Δημήτριος Τζαμπλάκων, fl. 1345–1366/67) was a Byzantine aristocrat and senior military leader.

The Tzamplakones were an important and wealthy aristocratic family attested since the mid-13th century, when one of its members achieved the high military rank of Domestic of the Schools. Alexios Tzamplakon, Demetrios' father, was this man's son.[1][2] His brothers, Asomatianos and Arsenios, also achieved high offices during the same period.[3] Demetrios was married to Eudokia Palaiologina and had several children, whose names are unknown. One of his daughters married a certain Nikephoros Laskaris, attested at Christoupolis (modern Kavala) in 1366/67.[4]

Demetrios is first attested in 1345, already holding the senior military rank of megas stratopedarches, during the siege of Serres by the forces of the Serbian ruler Stephen Dushan. A large part of the city's population, under Manuel Asen, wanted to surrender the city to the Serbs, while Tzamplakon led the loyalist faction.[2][5] After the city's fall, he withdrew to Christoupolis, and is still attested in the 1360s.[2] He donated his extensive lands in Macedonia to the Vatopedi Monastery of Mount Athos.[2]