House of Lusignan
His family tree, published by Heraclid himself at Corona in 1558, claimed that he descended from Polycrates the Samian and the Branković dynasty, rulers of the Serbian Despotate. In 1562, the French diplomat Antoine de Petronel recorded Heraclid as a claimant "Despot of Serbia". Later in life, Heraclid more explicitly pretended that he was a nephew of Moldavia's Stephen the Great, while adding that he descended from the House of Lusignan. Pippidi identifies some reliable parts in Despot's genealogy, referring to his kinship with the Byzantine nobility of Rhodes and with potentates from the Duchy of Naxos—possibly including Nicholas III dalle Carceri, mistakenly identified by Despot as "Alexios".