Nikephoros II Orsini

His mother Anna assumed the regency for her young son but failed to allay the enmity of the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos, who invaded and annexed the Epirote part of Thessaly in 1336 and advanced on Ioannina.

Keeping Anna as hostage, Andronikos arranged for the marriage between Nikephoros and Maria Kantakouzene, the daughter of his right-hand man John Kantakouzenos.

However, the anti-Byzantine faction of the nobility smuggled Nikephoros out of the country and sent him to the court of Catherine II of Valois, the titular Empress of Constantinople, at Taranto, hoping to effect his restoration with Angevin help.

He chased out Dušan's brother Simeon Uroš (who had married Nikephoros' sister Thomais) from Arta and asserted his control over the cities of the region.

To strengthen his position and avert a Serbian reaction, Nikephoros set aside his wife Maria Kantakouzene and prepared to marry Theodora of Bulgaria, the sister of Dušan's widow Helena, who governed Serbia for her son.