This paper proposes an analysis of the reasons and circumstances that led Charles I of Anjou, after the conquest of the Kingdom of Sicily, to also acquire lands beyond the Adriatic, in Epirus and Albania, and how these territories were managed under the Angevin rule. The initiative in the Balkans aimed to ensure greater security and stability in the Kingdom of Sicily and to recover the legacy of the predecessors of the new King. The study of archival sources, produced by the administration of the Kingdom, offers a distinctly different point of view from literary sources and allows such an interpretation of the facts.