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DUCAS

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Originally appearing in Volume V08, Page 628 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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DUCAS , Duxes or Domcas, the name of a See also:

Byzantine See also:family which supplied several rulers to the Eastern See also:Empire. The family first came into prominence during the 9th See also:century, but was ruined when See also:Constantine Ducas, a son of the generalAndronicus Ducas, lost his See also:life in his effort to obtain the imperial See also:crown in 913. Towards the end of the loth century there appeared another family of Ducas, which was perhaps connected with the earlier family through the See also:female See also:line and was destined to attain to greater See also:fortune. A member of this family became See also:emperor as Constantine X. in 1059, and Constantine's son See also:Michael VII. ruled, nominally in See also:conjunction with his younger See also:brothers, Andronicus and Constantine, from 1071 to 1078. Michael See also:left a son, Constantine, and, says See also:Gibbon, " a daughter of the See also:house of Ducas illustrated the See also:blood, and confirmed the See also:succession, of the Comnenian See also:dynasty." The family was also allied by See also:marriage with other See also:great Byzantine houses, and after losing the imperial dignity its members continued to take an active See also:part in public affairs. In 1204 Alexius Ducas, called Mourzoufle, deposed the emperor See also:Isaac See also:Angelus and his son Alexius, and vainly tried to defend Constp.ntinople against the attacks of the Latin crusaders. Nearly a century and a See also:half later one Michael Ducas took a leading part in the See also:civil See also:war between the emperors See also:John V. See also:Palaeologus and John VI. Cantacuzenus, and Michael'sgrandson was the historian Ducas (see below). Many of the See also:petty sovereigns who arose after the destruction of the Eastern Empire sought to gain See also:prestige by adding the famous name of Ducas to their own.

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DUCAS (15th cent.)

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