The Serbian King Stefan Uroš IV Dušan…

The Serbian King Stefan Uroš IV Dušan has grand intentions: the capture and holding of Hum, Belgrade, Macva, Durrës, Phillipopolis, Adrianople, hessalonika, and Constantinople and placing himself at the head of a great crusading army to drive the Muslim Turks from Europe.

The imperial Greeks faced with Dušan's aggression, shad ought allies in the Ottoman Turks whom they had brought into Europe for the first time.

The first conflict between the Serbs and the Turks on Balkan soil, at Stephaniana in 1344, had ended unfavorably for the Serbs.

The partitio Romaniae had assigned Epirus to Venice when Constantinople fell in 1204 to the Fourth Crusade, but the Venetians had been largely unable to effectively establish their authority except over Dyrrhachium.

The Greek noble Michael Komnenos Doukas, who had married the daughter of a local magnate, took advantage of this, and within a few years consolidated his control, first as a Venetian vassal and eventually as an independent ruler.

Michael, by the time of his death in 1214/5, had established a strong state, the Despotate of Epirus, with the former theme of Nicopolis at its core and Arta as its capital.

Epirus, and the city of Ioannina in particular, became a haven for Greek refugees from Constantinople for most of the century.

The Despotate of Epirus ruled over Epirus and western Greece as far south as Nafpaktos and the Gulf of Corinth, much of Albania (including Dyrrhachium), Thessaly, and the western portion of Greek Macedonia, extending its rule briefly over central Macedonia and most of Thrace following the aggressive expansionism of Theodore Komnenos Doukas who in 1224 established the Empire of Thessalonica.

The definition of Epirus during this time has come to encompass the entire coastal region from the Ambracian Gulf to Dyrrhachium and the hinterland to the west up to the highest peaks of the Pindus mountain range.

Some of the most important cities in Epirus, such as Gjirokastër (Argyrokastron), had been founded during this period.

Epirus in 1337 had once again been brought under imperial rule by Constantinople.

Dušan, taking advantage of the civil war between John V Palaiologos and John VI Kantakouzenos, conquers Epirus in 1348, with a number of Albanian mercenaries assisting him.

It is during this time that an Albanian presence in Epirus is first mentioned.

He appoints Simeon Uroš as despotes of Epirus and Thessaly, and installs Vojihna as caesar of Drama.