Despotate of Epirus

State · 1206–1481 CE · at its largest around 1227 CE

Byzantine successor state in north-western Greece founded by Michael Komnenos Doukas after the Fourth Crusade, ruled from Arta and eventually absorbed by the Ottomans.

On its lands while it lasted

Arta (c. 1206 CE): Capital of Despotate of Epirus (1206–1479).
Stefan Dusan (c. 1308 CE – 1355 CE): Serbian ruler crowned emperor at Skopje in 1346, who expanded Serbia to its greatest extent and issued a law code.
Prizren (c. 1352 CE): Capital of Serbian Empire (1352–1371).
Ioannina (c. 1356 CE): Capital of Despotate of Epirus (1356–1430).
Janissaries (c. 1363–1826 CE): Sultan Murad I created the Janissaries around 1363 as an elite Ottoman infantry corps, later filled through the devshirme levy of Christian boys. They grew into a powerful political force until Mahmud II abolished the corps in 1826.
Skanderbeg (1405 CE – 1468 CE): Albanian nobleman who led a revolt against the Ottoman Empire for a quarter of a century from the fortress of Krujë.
Mehmed II (1432 CE – 1481 CE): Ottoman sultan, born in Edirne, who conquered Constantinople in 1453 and expanded the empire across the Balkans and Anatolia.
Vonitsa (c. 1460 CE): Capital of Despotate of Epirus (1460–1479).