page_title: Principality of Arbanon
hierarchical_section_title: Principality of Arbanon
caption_attribution_description: English: The region of Arbanon in 1210, as part of the Despotate of Epirus
context_page_description: Arbanon, or Albanon, was a principality ruled by the native Progoni family, and the first Albanian state to emerge in recorded history.
  The principality of Arbanon was established in 1190 by the native archon Progon in the region surrounding Kruja, to the east and northeast of Venetian territories. Progon was succeeded by his sons Gjin and then Demetrius, who managed to retain a considerable degree of autonomy from the Byzantine Empire. In 1204, Arbanon attained full, though temporary, political independence, taking advantage of the weakening of Constantinople following its pillage during the Fourth Crusade. However, Arbanon lost its large autonomy ca. 1216, when the ruler of Epirus, Michael I Komnenos Doukas, started an invasion northward into Albania and Macedonia, taking Kruja and ending the independence of the principality. After the death of Demetrius, the last ruler of the Progon family, the same year, Arbanon was successively controlled subsequently by the Despotate of Epirus, the Bulgarian Empire and, from 1235, by the Empire of Nicaea.
context_section_description: Arbanon (Albanian: Arbër or Arbëria, Greek: Ἄρβανον, Árvanon; Latin: Arbanum), or Albanon, was a principality ruled by the native  Progoni family, and the first Albanian state to emerge in recorded history.
  The principality of Arbanon was established in 1190 by the native archon Progon in the region surrounding Kruja, to the east and northeast of Venetian territories. Progon was succeeded by his sons Gjin and then Demetrius (Dhimitër), who managed to retain a considerable degree of autonomy from the Byzantine Empire. In 1204, Arbanon attained full, though temporary, political independence, taking advantage of the weakening of Constantinople following its pillage during the Fourth Crusade. However, Arbanon lost its large autonomy ca. 1216, when the ruler of Epirus, Michael I Komnenos Doukas, started an invasion northward into Albania and Macedonia, taking Kruja and ending the independence of the principality. After the death of Demetrius, the last ruler of the Progon family, the same year, Arbanon was successively controlled subsequently by the Despotate of Epirus, the Bulgarian Empire and, from 1235, by the Empire of Nicaea.
  During this period, the area was ruled by the Greco-Albanian lord Gregorios Kamonas, the new spouse of Demetrius' former Serbian wife Komnena Nemanjić, and by Golem (Gulam), a local magnate who had married Kamonas' and Komnena's daughter. Arbanon was eventually annexed in the winter of 1256–57 by the Byzantine statesman George Akropolites. Golem subsequently disappeared from historical records. The main primary source for late Arbanon and its history is the work of 13th century Byzantine historian George Akropolites.
caption: The region of Arbanon, 1216, after the occupation of Kruje by the Despotate of Epirus[6]
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