The Thopia were one of the most powerful Albanian feudal families in the Late Middle Ages, part of the nobility of the Angevin Kingdom of Albania.

The first attestation of the Thopia can be found in an Angevin document from 1274 proclaiming an agreement reached between a number of Albanian nobles and Charles I of Anjou.

[3] According to Anamali & Prifti, Tanusio had a brother, Dominik, who was a high cleric and served as a counsel of Robert of Anjou.

[4][verification needed] According to Karl Hopf, Tanusio's son or brother Andrea, as told by Gjon Muzaka (fl.

1510), had fallen in love with the daughter of Robert of Naples when her ship, on route to the Principality of the Morea to be wed with the bailli, had stopped at Durazzo where they met.

After the death of Emperor Stefan Dušan (1355), Karl managed to capture much of central Albania which was part of the Serbian Empire until then.

In 1376 Louis of Évreux, Duke of Durazzo who had gained the rights on the Albanian Kingdom from his second wife, attacked and conquered the city.

He himself fell prisoner and with the intervention of Ragusan Republic he was released, but only after giving some territories around Shkumbin river to Muzaka family.