Constantine II Brâncoveanu

Holy Martyr Constantine II Brâncoveanu (born 1683, died 15/26 August 1714, Constantinople) was the first son of the boyar, and future prince of Wallachia, Constantin Brâncoveanu, and his wife, Marica. He was born at a time when his father was spatharios. He suffered together with his father, his brothers and the counsellor Ianache Văcărescu, and is honoured with them under the name Holy Martyrs Brâncoveanu.

Prince Constantine married on 20 January 1706 Anița, daughter of the great Moldavian boyar Ion Balș, the marriage being part of Constantin Brâncoveanu's marriage policy. From the marriage a child was born, also baptized Constantine. History preserves little information about him. Together with his brother Stephen, he laid on 9 June 1699 (old style) the foundation stone of the great church of the Brâncoveni Monastery. Also together with Stephen Brâncoveanu and a retinue of boyars he went out on 24 April 1704 to meet Lord Paget, the English envoy who was visiting Bucharest. On 20 July 1713 he raised a stone cross in memory of his grandfather, Papa Brâncoveanu. This monument, raised on the very spot where the postelnic Papa Brâncoveanu had died, stands at the foot of the Metropolitan Hill.

He was taken by the Turks in April 1714 and led, with the whole family, to Istanbul, after his father's deposition. All were imprisoned at Edikule; in addition to the torments to which the deposed prince was subjected, the sons were also tortured before both parents. In the end, on 15/26 August 1714, his head was cut off (like the other three brothers, the boyar Ianache Văcărescu and the deposed prince) before Sultan Ahmed III, and their bodies were thrown into the sea.

Prince Constantine was the only one of Brâncoveanu's sons who had passed, at the moment of death, the age of thirty. Through his child the name Brâncoveanu was passed on. On 20 June 1992 he was canonized by the Romanian Orthodox Church, together with his brothers, his father and the boyar Ianache Văcărescu, being honoured under the name Holy Martyrs Brâncoveanu. Portraits of him have been preserved in the votive painting of the church at Mogoșoaia and of the Hurezi Monastery.