Following the defeat of Byzantine by the Normans in 1081 at Dyrrachium, Bodin of Duklja attacked Byzantine territories deeper in the Balkans, conquering Raška and the old Vlastimirović country. Bodin installed his courtiers and nephews, Vukan and Marko, as the local governors, "župans", in c. 1082. Marko was never mentioned again in the records, and historians later named this dynasty after Vukan, though technically it was Marko who was a progenitor of the new dynasty, as his son succeeded Vukan. During the wars with John Doukas, after Byzantine's recapture of Dyrrachium in 1085, Vukan initially lost several fortified cities fighting on the side of his paramount ruler, Bodin. However, he later severed vassal connections to Duklja by 1090 during Bodin's captivity by the Byzantines and took the title of grand župan, thereby emerging as the most powerful ruler in ancient Dalmatia (central-west Balkans).