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Mataranga Family
The Matranga ( sq, Matrënga) was an Albanian noble family during 13th and 15th centuries. Members of this family include local rulers, Byzantine officials and writers. After the occupation of Albania by the Ottoman Empire, part of the family emigrated to Italy and settled in the Arbëresh villages of Piana degli Albanesi and Santa Cristina Gela in Southern Italy, where they have continued to maintain the Arbëresh language. History Before 1284, the Matranga family was either a vassal of Charles of Anjou, in the period when he created Kingdom of Albania, or of his nephew Philip of Taranto.Angelov 2007, p. 319 They were first documented in 1297 in a Ragusian document. Members of the Matranga family were attacking Ragusian merchants in the region of Karavasta Lagoon. Rulers of the territory between the cities of Durrës and Vlorë, they were described as subjects to the Byzantine Emperor at the time. The Matranga family might have become vassal of the Byzantine Emperor in ...
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Durrës
Durrës ( , ; sq-definite, Durrësi) is the second most populous city of the Republic of Albania and seat of Durrës County and Durrës Municipality. It is located on a flat plain along the Albanian Adriatic Sea Coast between the mouths of the Erzen and Ishëm at the southeastern corner of the Adriatic Sea. Durrës' climate is profoundly influenced by a seasonal Mediterranean climate. Durrës was founded by Ancient Greek colonists from Corinth and Corcyra under the name of Epidamnos around the 7th century BC in cooperation with the local Illyrian Taulantii. Also known as Dyrrachium, Durrës essentially developed as it became an integral part of the Roman Empire and its successor the Byzantine Empire. The Via Egnatia, the continuation of the Via Appia, started in the city and led across the interior of the Balkan Peninsula to Constantinople in the east. In the Middle Ages, Durrës was contested between Bulgarian, Venetian and Ottoman dominions. The Ottomans ultimatel ...
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Capetian House Of Anjou
The Capetian House of Anjou or House of Anjou-Sicily, was a royal house and cadet branch of the direct French House of Capet, part of the Capetian dynasty. It is one of three separate royal houses referred to as ''Angevin'', meaning "from Anjou" in France. Founded by Charles I of Anjou, the youngest son of Louis VIII of France, the Capetian king first ruled the Kingdom of Sicily during the 13th century. Later the War of the Sicilian Vespers forced him out of the island of Sicily, leaving him with the southern half of the Italian Peninsula — the Kingdom of Naples. The house and its various branches would go on to influence much of the history of Southern and Central Europe during the Middle Ages, until becoming defunct in 1435. Historically, the House ruled the counties of Anjou, Maine, Touraine, Provence and Forcalquier, the principalities of Achaea and Taranto, and the kingdoms of Sicily, Naples, Hungary, Croatia, Albania, and Poland. Rise of Charles I and his sons ...
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1360
Year 1360 ( MCCCLX) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events January–December * October 24 – The Treaty of Brétigny is ratified at Calais, marking the end of the first phase of the Hundred Years' War. Under its terms, Edward III gives up his claim to the French throne, and releases King John II of France, in return for French land, including Calais and Gascony. Date unknown * King Valdemar Atterdag of Denmark reconquers Scania, which has been in Swedish possession since 1332. * Shah Shuja regains rule of the Muzaffarid tribe in Persia after the death of his brother, Shah Mahmud. * Nawruz Beg overthrows his brother Qulpa as Khan of the Blue Horde. * Muhammed VI overthrows his brother-in-law, Ismail II, as King of Granada (in modern-day Spain); he is in turn overthrown this same year by the former king, Muhammed V. * Dmitri Konstantinovich is installed as ruler of Vladimir (in modern-day wes ...
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Simeon Uroš
Simeon Uroš ( sr-cyr, Симеон Урош, gr, Συμεών Ούρεσης; 1326–1370), nicknamed Siniša (Синиша), was a self-proclaimed Emperor of Serbs and Greeks, from 1356 to 1370. He was son of Serbian King Stephen Uroš III and Byzantine Princess Maria Palaiologina. Initially, he was awarded the title of despot in 1346, and appointed governor of southern Epirus and Acarnania in 1347 by his half-brother, Serbian Emperor Stephen Dušan. After Dušan's death in 1355, the Serbian throne passed to Dušan's son Stephen Uroš V, but despot Simeon decided to seize the opportunity in order to impose himself as co-ruler and lord of all southern provinces of the Serbian Empire. That led him to conflict with his nephew in 1356, when Simeon started to expand his control in southern regions of the Empire, trying to take Thessaly and Macedonia. He proclaimed himself ''Emperor of the Serbs and Greeks'', creating a separate state, centered in regions of Thessaly and Epirus, w ...
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Sevastokrator
''Sebastokrator'' ( grc-byz, Σεβαστοκράτωρ, Sevastokrátor, August Ruler, ; bg, севастократор, sevastokrator; sh, sebastokrator), was a senior court title in the late Byzantine Empire. It was also used by other rulers whose states bordered the Empire or were within its sphere of influence ( Bulgarian Empire, Serbian Empire). The word is a compound of '' sebastós'' (, the Greek equivalent of the Latin ''Augustus'') and ''krátōr'' ('ruler', the same element as is found in '' autokrator'', 'emperor'). The wife of a ''Sebastokrator'' was named ''sebastokratorissa'' (, ''sevastokratórissa'') in Greek, ''sevastokratitsa'' () in Bulgarian and ''sebastokratorica'' in Serbian. Eastern Roman Empire The title was created by Emperor Alexios I Komnenos () to honour his elder brother Isaac Komnenos.. According to Anna Komnene, Alexios did this to raise Isaac above the rank of ''Caesar'', which he had already promised to his brother-in-law, Nikephoros Melissenos. ...
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Seman River
The Seman is a major river in western Albania. It is formed by the confluence of the rivers Devoll and Osum, a few km west of Kuçovë. It is long ( with its longest source river Devoll) and its drainage basin is . Its average discharge is . It meanders generally westwards through a flat lowland. Near Fier it receives Gjanica from the left. It flows into the Adriatic Sea at the southern margin of the Divjakë-Karavasta National Park. Name In classical antiquity, the Seman River was known as the ''Apsus'', which is a derivative of the Indo-European root ''*ăp-'' "water, river". The Illyrian hydronym ''Apsus'', corresponds to ''Apsias'', a river name in southern Italy brought by Illyrian migrations (Iapygians) in the region. The contemporary Albanian name ''Seman/Semen'' ( definite form: ''Semani/Semeni''), which is used to indicate the lower course of the river, evolved from ''*Apson-'' through Albanian phonetic changes. Also the contemporary Albanian name ''Osum The Osum i ...
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Shkumbin
The Shkumbin (; ; la, Genusus, also la, Genessus, label=none or la, Scampis, label=none), also commonly Shkembi, is a river in Southern Europe. It is long and its drainage basin is . Its average discharge is . Etymology It derives from Latin ''Scampinus'' which replaced Illyrian ''Genusus'', as recorded in Latin and ancient Greek literature. A Slavic intermediation has been rejected. Its inclusion in Latin loanwords into Proto-Albanian and phonetic evolution coincides with the historical existence of a large Roman town (near present-day Elbasan) which gave the river its new name. Overview The river originates in the eastern Valamara Mountains between ''Maja e Valamarës'' () and ''Gur i Topit'' () in Southeastern Albania. After descending from the Valamaras, it flows northwards through Proptisht and Qukës with many deep gorges and canyons and passes the Gora Mountains. A significant inflow comes from ''Gur i Kamjës'' () southwest of Pogradec. Over the course, it flo ...
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Blasius Matarango
Blasius Mataranga ( al, Vlash Matranga) was an Albanian prince of the Matranga noble family. Life Blasius came from the noble family Mataranga family, who were wealthy in the southern Albania coastal region between Durazzo and Valona, whose first known members were recorded in a document from the Republic of Ragusa as rulers of the territory. Temporary vassals of the Byzantine Emperors, at the beginning of the 14th century they accepted the supremacy of Philip of Taranto, who recaptured Durazzo in 1304 for the House of Anjou of the Kingdom of Naples. Between 1336 and 1343, their territory was incorporated into the expanding kingdom of Serbs under Stefan Dušan. After Dušan's death on December 20, 1355, Blasius Matarango established himself as a semi-autonomous prince north of Valona in the region Myzeqe (Karavasta) between the lower reaches of the rivers Shkumbin and Seman. He recognized the suzerainty of the Simeon Uroš Palaiologos, who in 1358 served him the hi ...
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Stefan Dušan
Stefan Uroš IV Dušan ( sr-Cyrl, Стефан Урош IV Душан, ), known as Dušan the Mighty ( sr, / ; circa 1308 – 20 December 1355), was the King of Serbia from 8 September 1331 and Tsar (or Emperor) and autocrat of the Serbs, Greeks (or Romans), Albanians and Bulgarians from 16 April 1346 until his death in 1355. Dušan conquered a large part of southeast Europe, becoming one of the most powerful monarchs of the era. Under Dušan's rule, Serbia was the major power in the Balkans, and an Eastern Orthodox multi-ethnic and multi-lingual empire that stretched from the Danube in the north to the Gulf of Corinth in the south, with its capital in Skopje. He enacted the constitution of the Serbian Empire, known as Dušan's Code, perhaps the most important literary work of medieval Serbia. Dušan promoted the Serbian Church from an archbishopric to a patriarchate, finished the construction of the Visoki Dečani Monastery (now a UNESCO site), and founded the monaste ...
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Stefan Milutin
Stefan Uroš II Milutin ( sr-cyr, Стефан Урош II Милутин, Stefan Uroš II Milutin; 1253 – 29 October 1321), known as Stefan Milutin ( sr-cyr, Стефан Милутин, Stefan Milutin), was the King of Serbia between 1282–1321, a member of the Nemanjić dynasty. He was one of the most powerful rulers of Serbia in the Middle Ages. Milutin is credited with strongly resisting the efforts of Byzantine Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos to impose Roman Catholicism on the Balkans after the Union of Lyons in 1274. During his reign, Serbian economic power grew rapidly, mostly due to the development of mining. He founded Novo Brdo, which became an internationally important silver mining site. As most of the Nemanjić monarchs, he was proclaimed a saint by the Serbian Orthodox Church with a feast day on October 30. Milutin appears in the Dante Alighieri's narrative poem ''Divine Comedy''. Early life He was the youngest son of King Stefan Uroš I and his wife, ...
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Kingdom Of Serbia (medieval)
The Kingdom of Serbia ( sr, / ), or the Serbian Kingdom ( sr, / ), was a medieval Serbian state that existed from 1217 to 1346 and was ruled by the Nemanjić dynasty. The Grand Principality of Serbia was elevated with the regal coronation of Stefan Nemanjić as king, after the reunification of Serbian lands. In 1219, Serbian Orthodox Church was reorganized as an autocephalous archbishopric, headed by Saint Sava. The kingdom was proclaimed an empire in 1346, but kingship was not abolished as an institution, since the title of a king was used as an official designation for a co-ruler of the emperor. Background The regal coronation of Stefan Nemanjić in 1217 was not a novelty in Serbian history, since there had already been a long tradition of kingship among previous Serbian rulers, centered in Duklja (11th century). During the Nemanjić era, the previous Serbian kingdom in Duklja was referred to as the "Old Kingdom of our forefathers" and such views were also refle ...
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Byzantine Civil War Of 1341–1347
The Byzantine civil war of 1341–1347, sometimes referred to as the Second Palaiologan Civil War, was a conflict that broke out in the Byzantine Empire after the death of Andronikos III Palaiologos over the guardianship of his nine-year-old son and heir, John V Palaiologos. It pitted on the one hand Andronikos III's chief minister, John VI Kantakouzenos, and on the other a regency headed by the Empress-Dowager Anna of Savoy, the Patriarch of Constantinople John XIV Kalekas, and the Alexios Apokaukos. The war polarized Byzantine society along class lines, with the aristocracy backing Kantakouzenos and the lower and middle classes supporting the regency. To a lesser extent, the conflict acquired religious overtones; Byzantium was embroiled in the Hesychast controversy, and adherence to the mystical doctrine of Hesychasm was often equated with support for Kantakouzenos. As the chief aide and closest friend of Emperor Andronikos III, Kantakouzenos became regent for the underage ...
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