[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.

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.

The principality was known as Árvanon (Ἄρβανον) in Greek, as Arbanum in Latin, and as Raban in the early 13th-century Serbian document Life of Stefan Nemanja.

[17] Versions of "Arbën" have been observed since the 2nd century BC, the History of the World written by Polybius, mentions a location named Arbona (ancient greek Ἄρβωνα, latin Arbo)[18][19] in which some Illyrian troops, under Queen Teuta, scattered and fled to in order to escape the Romans.

[20] In the 6th century AD, Stephanus of Byzantium, in his important geographical dictionary entitled Ethnica (Ἐθνικά),[21] mentions a city in Illyria called Arbon (Ἀρβών), and gives an ethnic name for its inhabitants, in two singular number forms, i.e. Arbonios (Ἀρβώνιος) and Arbonites (Ἀρβωνίτης), pl.

[24][25][2] Arbanon is generally considered to have retained large autonomy until Demetrius death in 1216, when the principality fell under the vassalage of Epirus or the Laskarids of Nicaea.

[8] In the context of a weakening of Byzantine power in the region following the sack of Constantinople in 1204, Arbanon attained full autonomy for 12 years until the death of Demetrios in 1215 or 1216.

[9][26] The Gëziq inscription mentions the Progoni family as judices, and notes their dependence on Vladin and Đorđe Nemanjić (r. 1208–1216), the princes of Zeta.

[26] In the 11th century AD, the name Arbanon (also Albanon) was applied to a region in the mountainous area to the west of Ohrid Lake and the upper valley of the river Shkumbin.

[29] In 1198, a part of the area north of the Drin was briefly controlled by Stefan Nemanjić who recounts that in that year he captured Pult from Arbanon (ot Rabna).

In 1208, in the correspondence with Pope Innocent III, the territory that Demetrius Progoni claimed as princeps Arbanorum was the area between Shkodra, Prizren, Ohrid and Durrës (regionis montosae inter Scodram, Dyrrachium, Achridam et Prizrenam sitae).

A year later in 1167, Pope Alexander III, in a letter directed to Lazarus, congratulates him for returning his bishopric to Catholic faith and invites him to acknowledge the archbishop of Ragusa as his superior.

[40] Since the beginning of his rule, Dhimitër Progoni sought out to create friendly networks in foreign policy in order to preserve the sovereignty of Arbanon against external threats, the most important of whom were for much of his reign the Republic of Venice and later the Despotate of Epiros.

In the correspondence with Innocent III, the territory he claimed as princeps Arbanorum was the area between Shkodra, Prizren, Ohrid and Durrës (regionis montosae inter Scodram, Dyrrachium, Achridam et Prizrenam sitae).

[3] The agreement had dire consequences for the principality, which surrounded by hostile forces, seems to have been reduced by the end of the life of Dhimitër Progoni to the area north of Shkumbin and south of Drin.

[48] The latter continued to rule as a semi-independent ruler in Arbanon under Theodore Komnenos Doukas of the Despotate of Epiros (until 1230) and then Ivan Asen II of Bulgaria until his death in 1241.

[51][26][52] However, the initial Nicaean conquest where the Emperor Theodore II Laskaris appointed Constantine Chabaron as the ruler of the Principality, proved short-lived, for the events prompted the Rebellion of Arbanon in 1257.