The family's ancestor was
Peter, a
Norman possibly from
Alifa, who first came to the
Byzantine Empire during the
Norman invasion of
Robert Guiscard, but later entered the service of Emperor
Alexios I Komnenos (r. 1081–1118). The earliest member of the family recorded was Alexios Petraliphas, according to
John Kinnamos a general in charge of a military force sent by Emperor
Manuel I Komnenos (r. 1143–80) to his ally
Kilij Arslan II,
Sultan of Rûm. According to
The Byzantine Family of Raoul-Ral(l)es (1973) by Sterios Fassoulakis, Alexios Petraliphas married Anna Raoul, a daughter of
John Roger Dalassenos (Raoul) and Maria Komnene. However, Kinnamos records that Anna was a daughter of
John II Komnenos (r. 1118–43) and
Piroska of Hungary. A son of Alexios Petraliphas and Anna Raoul reportedly married Helena of Bohemia. Helena was a daughter of
Frederick of Bohemia and Elizabeth of
Hungary; Elizabeth was a daughter of
Géza II of Hungary and his wife,
Euphrosyne of Kiev. During the reign of Manuel I Komnenos, alongside Alexios, a Nikephoros Petraliphas is recorded as a distinguished general. Although the relation between them is unknown, perhaps they were among the four Petraliphas brothers from
Didymoteichon recorded by
Niketas Choniates. 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. 1231–1266/1268). 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. 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. ==References==