divided the captured lands among his followers: Platamon went to Rolando Piscia, Larissa and Halmyros to the Lombard Guglielmo, and Velestino to Berthold of Katzenellenbogen, while further south in Central Greece Bodonitza went to Guido Pallavicini, Gravia to Jacques de Saint Omer, Salona to Thomas d'Autremencourt, Thebes to the brothers Albertino and Rolando Canossa, Athens to Othon de la Roche, and Euboea (Negroponte) to Jacques d'Avesnes. The boundaries of the actual Kingdom of Thessalonica seem to have extended only up to Domokos, Pharsalus, and Velestino: the Spercheios valley in southern Thessaly, with the towns of Zetounion and Ravennika, was under governors appointed by the Latin Emperor. In 1212, however, Michael I Komnenos Doukas (), ruler of the independent Greek state of Epirus, led his troops into Thessaly, overrunning the resistance of the local Lombard nobles. Larissa and much of central Thessaly came under Epirote rule, thereby separating Thessalonica from the Crusader principalities in southern Greece. Michael's work was completed by his half-brother and successor, Theodore Komnenos Doukas (), who by completed the recovery of the entire region except for Halmyros, which remained in Latin hands until 1246. Eventually, in December 1224, Theodore conquered Thessalonica as well. Soon thereafter he declared himself emperor, founding the Empire of Thessalonica. The region remained attached to Thessalonica until 1239, when the deposed ruler of Thessalonica Manuel Komnenos Doukas captured it from his nephew John Komnenos Doukas and secured its status as a separate section of the family holdings. Upon his death in 1241, the area quickly, and apparently without resistance, came under the control of the ruler of Epirus, Michael II Komnenos Doukas (). Following the Battle of Pelagonia in 1259, Thessaly was occupied by the Empire of Nicaea, but an Epirote counter-offensive in spring 1260 under Nikephoros I Komnenos Doukas defeated the Nicaean general Alexios Strategopoulos and recovered most of the province, except perhaps for part of the Aegean coast around Volos, which possibly remained in Nicaean hands for several years thereafter. Thessaly as an autonomous principality On the death of Michael II in 1267/8, his dominions were divided between Nikephoros, who received Epirus proper, and Michael's illegitimate son John Doukas (), who was married to a Thessalian Vlach princess, received Thessaly. Although separated politically, Thessaly continued to share many similarities with the parent state of Epirus: both were reluctant to acknowledge the revived Palaiologos-led Byzantine Empire and its imperial pretensions, both established