Following the collapse of the Byzantine Empire in the Fourth Crusade, he managed to further secure the independence of Arbanon and extended its influence to its maximum height.

Under increasing pressure from the Despotate of Epiros, his death around 1216 marks the end of Arbanon as a state and the beginning of a period of autonomy until its final ruler Golem of Kruja joined the Nicaean Empire.

[2] In historical record, Dhimitër Progoni is the first ruler to call himself Prince of the Albanians and the first to identify his domain as Principatum Albaniae (Principality of Albania/Arbanon).

[5] The Krujë castle and other territories remained in the possession of the Progoni family, and Progon was succeeded by his sons Gjin, and later Demetrio.

[10] Since the beginning of his rule, 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.

He had defeated Đorđe Nemanjić, the Grand prince of Zeta and a Venetian vassal whom he bordered to the north and thus felt less threatened by Venice.

[11] Nemanjić had previously promised military support to Venice if Progoni attacked Venetian territory, in a treaty signed on 3 July 1208.

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).

[11] In search for allies, he also signed a treaty with the Republic of Ragusa which allowed for free passage of Ragusan merchants in Albanian territory.

In 1212, Venice also allowed for the possession of the coastal duchy of Durrës to pass to Michael and abandoned its direct control of central Albania.

[12] 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.

Evidence for this period has been provided by the foundational inscription of the Catholic church of Gëziq in the Ndërfandë near modern Rreshen in Mirdita.

[12] Komnena had a daughter with Kamonas that married Golem, who 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.

The dispute was solved with mediation by the Papacy, which transferred it to the Diocese of Lezhë which had been formed in the 15th century and was de jure part of the Dukagjini lands.