Principality of Arbanon Principata e Arbërit (Albanian) | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1190–1215/16[1][2][3] (annexed ca. 1256/57)[4] | |||||||||
.png) Arbanon/Arbëria, ca. 1208 | |||||||||
| Status | Principality[5][6] | ||||||||
| Capital | Krujë | ||||||||
| Common languages | Albanian | ||||||||
| Religion | Roman Catholicism Eastern Orthodoxy[7] | ||||||||
| Prince | |||||||||
• 1190–1198 | Progon (first) | ||||||||
• 1198–1208 | Gjin Progoni | ||||||||
• 1208–1216 | Dhimitër Progoni | ||||||||
• 1216–1236 | Grigor Kamona | ||||||||
• 1252–1256 | Golem (last) | ||||||||
| Historical era | Medieval | ||||||||
• Established | 1190 | ||||||||
• Disestablished | 1215/16[1][2][3] (annexed ca. 1256/57)[4] | ||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | Albania | ||||||||
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Arbanon (Old Albanian: Arbën in Old Gheg, Arbër in Old Tosk; Latin: Arbanum) was a medieval principality in present-day Albania, ruled by the native Progoni family,[8] and the first Albanian state to emerge in recorded history.[2] The principality was established in 1190 by the Albanian archon Progon in the region surrounding Kruja, to the east and northeast of Venetian territories.[9] Progon was succeeded by his sons Gjin and then Demetrius (Dhimitër), who managed to retain a considerable degree of autonomy from the Byzantine Empire.[8] In 1204, Arbanon attained full, though temporary, political independence, taking advantage of the weakening of Constantinople following its pillage during the Fourth Crusade.[10] 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.[11] From this year, after the death of Demetrius, the last ruler of the Progoni family, Arbanon was successively controlled by the Despotate of Epirus, then by the Bulgarian Empire and, from 1235, by the Empire of Nicaea.[12]
During this period, the area was ruled by the Greco-Albanian lord Gregorios Kamonas, the new spouse of Demetrius' Serbian former wife Komnena Nemanjić, and by Golem (Gulam), a local magnate who had married Kamonas' and Komnena's daughter.[3][13] Arbanon was eventually annexed in the winter of 1256–57 by the Byzantine statesman George Akropolites. Golem subsequently disappeared from historical records.[14] Akropolites' historical writings are the main primary source for late Arbanon and its history.
- ^ Winnifrith 1992, p. 54: "From about 1190 to 1216 there was the principality of Arbanon, which initially included most of the mountainous zones of Albania. After 1216 Arbanon was controlled successively by the Despotate of Epirus, by the Bulgarians, and from 1235 by the Byzantines in Nicaea."
- ^ a b Elsie 2010, p. iv: "To the east and northeast of Venetian territory in Albania arose the first Albanian state recorded in historical documents under Prince Progon, Arbanon, which lasted from 1190 to 1216."
- ^ a b Cite error: The named reference
Abulafia786was invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ Macrides 2007, p. 305
- ^ Clements 1992, p. 31: "By 1190, Byzantium's power had so receded that the archon Progon succeeded in establishing the first Albanian state of the Middle Ages, a principality".
- ^ The history of Albania: a brief survey Author Kristo Frashëri Publisher s.n., 1964 p.42"The territories of this principality extended over the present- day districts of central Albania. Its capital was at Kruja. The first ruler of the Principality of Arberia was Archon Progon (1190-1198) about whose life and doings we know.."
- ^ Anamali & Prifti 2002, p. 215.
- ^ a b Ducellier 1999, p. 780: "As for Albania, its separate identity was real enough, even though it had not truly broken with Constantinople; all the same, the rulers of Arbanon around ἄρχον, Progon and his sons Dhimitër and Gjin, based at Kruja, retained a considerable degree of autonomy, even though Progon bore no title grander than ἄρχων (archon); and the title of πανὑπερσεβαστός (panhypersebastos), borne by Dhimitër at the start of the thirteenth century, can only be seen as a sign of his dependence on the Byzantines."
- ^ Elsie 2010, pp. iv, xxviii.
- ^ Elsie 2010, p. xxviii.
- ^ Varzos 1984, pp. 555–556.
- ^ Fine 1994, p. 68.
- ^ Angelidi, Christine (2016). ΕΥΨΥΧΙΑ. Mélanges offerts à Hélène Ahrweiler (in French). Publications de la Sorbonne. ISBN 978-2-85944-830-1.
- ^ Ducellier 1999, p. 791: "In the winter of 1256–1257, George Akropolites, exercising authority over the newly acquired provinces, felt free to travel around the region, after bringing together at Durazzo the ‘notables’ of Arbanon, among them, no doubt, Prince Gulam (of whom subsequently no more would be heard); he thus annexed without a murmur the statelet in which he was able to install a civil, military and fiscal administration which was thoroughly Byzantine."