Blasius Mataranga ( al, Vlash Matranga) was an Albanian prince of the Matranga noble family.

Life

Blasius came from the noble family

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 e ...

, 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 The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

Emperors An emperor (from la, imperator, via fro, empereor) is a monarch, and usually the sovereign ruler of an empire or another type of imperial realm. Empress, the female equivalent, may indicate an emperor's wife ( empress consort), mother (empr ...

, 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 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, Gre ...

. After Dušan's death on December 20, 1355, Blasius Matarango established himself as a semi-autonomous prince north of Valona in the region

Myzeqe The Myzeqe (; sq-definite, Myzeqeja; rup, Muzachia) is a plain in the Western Lowlands of Albania. The Myzeqe is the largest and widest plain, measured by area, in the Lowlands. Location The Myzeqe plain is a large alluvial plain traversed by ...

(

Karavasta Remas is a village and a former municipality in Fier County, western Albania. At the 2015 local government reform it to became a subdivision of the municipality Divjakë Divjakë (; sq-definite, Divjaka) is a municipality and town in Fier Count ...

) between the lower reaches of the rivers

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 La ...

and Seman. He recognized the suzerainty of the Simeon Uroš Palaiologos, who in 1358 served him the high court dignity of a for his loyal

vassal A vassal or liege subject is a person regarded as having a mutual obligation to a lord or monarch, in the context of the feudal system in medieval Europe. While the subordinate party is called a vassal, the dominant party is called a suzerain ...

Sebastokrator ''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 wh ...

'', with which at the same time the legitimacy of his rule over the Albanian population was further enhanced.John Van Antwerp Fine: ''The Late Medieval Balkans ...'' S. 357 ;
Oliver Jens Schmitt: ''The Venetian Albania (1392–1479)''. S. 188. Blasius Matarango died in 1367; his territories fell to the "princeps Albaniae"

Karl Thopia Karl Thopia ( sq, Karl Topia) was an Albanian feudal prince and warlord who ruled Albania from the middle of the 14th century until the first Ottoman conquest of Albania. Thopia usually maintained good relations with the Roman Curia. Family ...

Literature

* Dimiter Angelov: "Imperial Ideology and Political Thought in Byzantium, 1204-1330." Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2007, . * John Van Antwerp Fine: '' The Late Medieval Balkans: A critical Survey from the late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest. '' University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor MI 1994, . * Constantin Jireček: “History of the Serbs.” Volume 1: “Until 1371.” Perthes, Gotha 1911 (reprinted by Adolf M. Hakkert, Amsterdam 1967), p. 415. * Oliver Jens Schmitt: '' The Venetian Albania (1392–1479) '' (= '' Southeast European Works. '' Volume 110). Oldenbourg, Munich 2001, .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blasius Matarango Albanian nobility Year of birth missing 1367 deaths 14th-century Albanian people