In the 9th and 10th centuries, the Župa of Travunia was held by the Belojević noble family, who were entitled the rule during the reign of Prince Vlastimir (r. 830–850), of the Vlastimirović dynasty.

After Nikola Altomanović, the holder of a large province during the fall of the Serbian Empire, was defeated in 1373, his estates were divided between Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović of Serbia, Đurađ I Balšić of Zeta, and Ban Tvrtko I Kotromanić of Bosnia.

Tribulium was the original name for this settlement and the etymology of it may be analyzed as tri-bulium, or the place of the 'three hills', from the numeral 'three' (*trei-) and an appellative derived from the IE root *b(h)eu- 'to swell, puff'.

[3] Charlemagne, King of the Franks from 768 until his death in 814, expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of western and central Europe.

These small cities in the region (also Dyrrachium) did not stretch into the hinterlands, and had no military capacity, thus Basil I paid a tax of '72 gold coins' to the princes of Zahumlje and Travunia.

In the mid 9th century, Vlastimir marries his daughter to Krajina, the son of Beloje, and gives him the Župa of Trebinje to govern under his suzerainty.

The Belojević noble family is entitled the rule of Travunia; Hvalimir, and his son Čučimir continue the office under the Serbian crown.

From 927 to 960, Časlav Klonimirović, the last of the Vlastimirović dynasty, held supreme rule of Travunia which at the time bordered Zahumlje to the west, the city of Ragusa or Dubrovnik to the southwest, Duklja to the south and Serbia (crownland, see Rascia) to the north.

The Bulgarian army then attacked Croatia in support of the rebel princes Krešimir III and Gojslav and advanced northwest as far as Split, Trogir and Zadar, then northeast through Bosnia and Raška and returned to Bulgaria.

[23] The dawn of the 10th century brought a short-lived Bulgarian occupation after the fall of the Rascian lands, but prince Caslav restored a Principality of Serbia by 931 and ruled Travunia as well.

After inflicting a sound defeat to the Byzantines at Bar, Vojislav dispatched 50 captured Greeks to demoralize Liudevit's army that was awaiting at Klobuk.

Saganek was overthrown in 1055, and it took Radoslav, Mihailo's faithful brother to finally kill Domanec and seize control over Travunia.

[25] Gojislav had received Travunia (Trebinje), and briefly ruled until he was killed by local nobles, who set up Domanek as Prince.

[25] Mihailo offered the office to Radoslav, who declined, afraid of losing Luška župa (future Zeta).

[25] The Byzantine Empire, wanting to take advantage of the death of Stefan Vojislav, prepared an offensive against unstable Duklja.

[25] While in no imminent danger from that side, Mihailo found it favorable to further strengthen ties with Byzantium around 1052, gaining the title of protospatharios, also marrying a niece of Constantine IX Monomachos.

The Area of Trebinje, has produced the House of Mrnjavčević and was at times ruled by members of the Serbian royal family, like Queen Hellen of Anjou in the 13th century.