Golem's troops had occupied the Kostur area trying to prevent the Nicaean forces of John Vatatzes from entering Devoll.

The same year Despot of Epirus Michael II signed a peace treaty with Nicaea acknowledging their authority over west Macedonia and Albania.

He also integrated Albanian nobles into his administration, as was the case with Andrea Vrana who was the general captain and governor of Durrës and the neighboring region of Arbanon.

They gave the same negative response to Charles' envoy, Gazo Chinard in 1267, when following the articles of the Treaty of Viterbo, he asked for them to surrender Manfred's dominions in Albania.

Charles signed a treaty with them and was proclaimed King of Albania "by common consent of the bishops, counts, barons, soldiers and citizens" promising to protect them and to honor the privileges they had from Byzantine Empire.

This alarmed the Byzantine Emperor, Michael VIII Palaiologos, who began sending letters to local Albanian nobles, trying to convince them to stop their support for Charles of Anjou and to switch sides.

Then, Michael VIII's hopes of stopping the advance of Charles were laid on the influence of Pope Gregory X. Gregory had high hopes of reconciling Europe, unifying the Greek and Latin churches, and launching a new crusade: to that end, he announced the Council of Lyon, to be held in 1274, and worked to arrange the election of an Emperor, so he ordered Charles to stop his operations.

This created a general discontent in the country and several Albanian noblemen began contacting Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII who promised them, to acknowledge their old privileges.

Thus Durrës alongside the Krujë and Vlora regions became the only domains in mainland Albania which were still under Charles I's control, but they were landlocked and isolated from each other.

[14][15] Michael VIII also scored another important diplomatic victory on Charles I by agreeing to unite the two churches in the Second Council of Lyon in 1274.

Ambassadors were exchanged in this occasion, but Charles did not wait for the formalities to end; instead he ordered his captain and vicar-general at Corfu to capture not only Butrint, but everything that once belonged to Manfred and now were under the Despotate of Epirus.

[18] On August 1279, Charles of Anjou appointed Hugo de Sully as Captain and Vicar-General of Albania, Durrës, Vlorë, Sopot, Butrint and Corfu.

[17] A lot of materials and men including Saracen archers and siege engineers were sent to de Sully, who had captured Spinarizza from Byzantine forces making it his headquarters.

In fact after the death in 1276 of Pope Gregory X, the main supporter of the union of the churches, his successors maintained the same course and this restricted Charles' movements.

However, in February 1281 Charles of Anjou achieved a diplomatic victory by imposing a French Pope, as the head of the Catholic Church.

The Albanian nobles in the region of Krujë allied themselves with the Byzantine Emperor and he granted them a charter of privileges for their city and bishopric.

These forces would make war against Michael VIII and "other occupiers" of the Latin Empire (presumably the Genoese), and would meet in Corfu by 1 May 1282, paving the way for the next year's invasion.

[25] On Easter Monday 30 March 1282, in Sicily the local people began attacking French forces in an uprising which would become known as the Sicilian Vespers.

The massacre went on for weeks throughout the island and they also destroyed the Angevin fleet gathered in the harbor of Messina which Charles had intended to use in the new expedition against Byzantium.

[29] Although the Albanian territories were lost, the notion and rights of the Kingdom of Albania continued for the Angevins for a long time after Charles of Anjou's death.

[30] His plans of recovering old Angevin domains were paused for a while when in 1299 Philip of Taranto became a prisoner of Frederick III of Sicily in the Battle of Falconaria.

In the summer of 1304, Serbs were expelled from the city of Durrës by its citizens and local nobles, who in September submitted themselves to Angevin rule.

[34] In 1348, Charles, Duke of Durazzo, was decapitated by his cousin Philip II, Prince of Taranto, who also inherited his rights on the Kingdom of Albania.

[42] With the attrition of the territory of the kingdom, the persons appointed as captain-generals began losing their powers, becoming more like governors of Durrës, than representatives of the king.

[48] After the creation of Kingdom of Albania in 1272, a Catholic political structure was a good basis for the papal plans of spreading Catholicism in the Balkans.

[51] A new wave of Catholic dioceses, churches and monasteries were founded, a number of different religious orders began spreading into the country, and papal missionaries also reached the territories of the Kingdom of Albania.

They also began to exercise administrative authorities which replaced the state's, such as the ability to gather workers, guards, soldiers, and sometimes their own judges.

In the 13th century, it was common for pronoiars to arrogate their own right to trial, initially for petty issues and then for serious crimes, taking away central authority from the main prerogatives to the practice of sovereignty.

[60] In an effort to find additional means of finance, especially in times of war, the central authority imposed high taxes on the population.

Along with the farmers came noblemen from the surrounding areas, who either migrated permanently or spent a large amount of time in the cities to look after their economic interests.