Амерчки истричар Џон Фајн даје доста простора Блажу, са врло интересантним анализама и коментарима.
"North of Valona, holding Myzeqeja, the region between the Shkumbi and
Devolli rivers, an Albanian named Blasius (or Blaz) II Matarango (1358- 67) asserted his independence and set up a short-lived principality; he bore the title of
sevastocrator which Symeon, who recognized his rule over this territory, granted him."
"Blaz Matarango, as noted earlier, had extensive lands within the square between the coast (including the port of Karavasta), the Shkumbi River to the north, the Seman (Semeni) River to the south, and the Devolli River to the east.
These borders are extremely approximate; tribal movements were constant. Surely
part of this territory included the pasture lands of various other tribes, some
of which might have been Matarango clients, and very likely the Matarangos spilled out beyond this region at times. To the Matarangos' south lay Berat, which belonged to Alexander, John Comnenus Asen's heir. And to their north lay the lands of our third family, the Thopias. The Thopias became prominent in the second quarter of the fourteenth century when the pope granted Tanush Thopia the title of count and recognized him as the holder of the lands between the Mati and Shkumbi rivers. Thus the border between the Matarangos and Thopias lay roughly alongthe Shkumbi River."
"War broke out between the Thopias and the Balsidi in 1363 and lasted into 1364. Since the Balsici had been expanding at the expense of the Dukagjins, who were based along the Drin, we may suspect that the Balsici had penetrated into the region beyond the Drin toward the Mati, while the Thopias, in their turn, were pressing beyond the Mati toward the Drin, and that they had clashed as a result. The issue may well have been more complicated, since in these lands lived various other tribes who were being forced into clientship and who presumably were regularly trying to break away from such relationships. Furthermore the recent collective history of Montenegro suggests that the Matarangos also had somehow come into possession of some lands tothe north between the Bojana and Durazzo. This description is too vague and thelands included in this region overlap with those of too many other tribes and noblemen to make much sense. That same work then claims that the Matarangos seem to have accepted the suzerainty of the Serbian tsar for these northern lands, but it adds that in fact they were independent. In the 1363-64 Balsic-Thopia war the Matarangos were allied to the 372 Late Medieval Balkans Balsici. One would expect the Balsici to be opposed to the Matarangos if, in fact, the Matarangos were trying to establish themselves in this northern region. Thus, if the Matarangos did indeed have both northern lands and an alliance with the Balsici, one might conclude they were clients or vassals of the Balsici for these lands. However, it makes more sense to see Matarango involvement in the war as resulting from a Matarango-Thopia quarrel to the south. This view is confirmed by the fact that the citizens of Durazzo supported the Thopias. Possibly Blaz Matarango had attempted to take that town and Karlo Thopia had gone to the defense of the Angevin city with which he was allied. In the spring of 1364 in the course of a skirmish Karlo Thopia took George Balsi<5 prisoner and held him captive until 1366 when Dubrovnik mediated peace and procured his release. In 1367 Blaz Matarango died, and Karlo Thopia was able to occupy the bulk of his lands; one presumes this refers to the southern lands beyond the Shkumbi; a small portion of his lands seems to have been left to his son John. After Blaz's death the Matarangos ceased to play a major role in the affairs of Albania. By the early 1370s the Matarango family has disappeared from the sources. Some historians have claimed that the Balsici acquired most of the Matarango lands. This view is based on Orbini, who reports that the Matarangos' southern lands were seized by the BalSici after the Balsici had violated a safe-conduct given to Blaz and his son John and jailed them the father dying in jail and the son being released only after seventeen years. However, the places Orbini claims the Balsici obtained in this way (Berat and Kan
ina) were not so acquired. Balsa Balsic obtained these cities for his family as
a dowry when he married John Comnenus Asen's daughter in 1372. And though the Matarangos had been active in the lands between Berat and Kanina, these cities se
em never to have been theirs but had remained in the possession of John Comnenus
Asen and his heirs. Orbini was obviously confused about these events; in fact he calls Balsa's wife Kanina, which is the name of the fort. Thus he may well have attributed the acquisition of lands actually acquired by dowry to the seizure of the Matarangos. If there is any truth to Orbini's report that the Balsici seized the Matarangos, and if any land fell to them as a result, then we may assume the lands involved were the Matarangos' secondary, and presumably fairly small, holdings in the vicinity of the Bojana instead."