Abstract

This text examines the political evolution of Albanian territories from the late 13th to the mid-14th century. Following the Byzantine victory over the Angevins at Berat in 1281, imperial authority was restored but confined mainly south of the Shkumbin River, organized as the Despotate of Berat. Northern and central areas faced continuous pressure from the expanding Serbian state under Stefan Uroš II Milutin and later Stefan Dušan. Angevin efforts to reassert control over Durrës and the “Kingdom of Arbanon,” often in alliance with local Albanian nobles (Matrënga, Arianiti, Skurra, Muzaka, Blinishti and others), remained largely formal and ineffective.

By the 1330s–1340s, Albanian aristocratic resistance, combined with Byzantine civil wars and the weakening of central authority, facilitated the progressive detachment of the region from Byzantine rule. Stefan Dušan’s campaigns (especially 1343–1348) incorporated virtually all Albanian lands into the Serbian Empire, imposing heavy feudal, economic and religious pressures, including attempts at cultural assimilation. After Dušan’s death in 1355, local Albanian clans (Balsha, Topia, Muzaka, Zenebishi, Spata and others) reasserted autonomy, laying the foundations for independent Albanian principalities.

The end of the Angevin presence and the expansion of Serbian penetration into Albania

With the final defeat of the Angevin armies at Berat in 1281, the Byzantine Empire once again reestablished its authority in Albania, but its control was now limited to a narrower area than at the end of the 12th century. On the northern flank, the Byzantines took Durrës and Krujë , but failed to extend further. At that time, the Serbian king Stefan Uroshi II Milutin (1282-1321) had launched a broad-front offensive along the entire Mat-Ohrid line.

In 1296, he was even able to temporarily occupy Durrës, while on the eastern flank, the Serbian armies could not approach Ohrid , which was protected by the Albanian nobleman Progon Skurra. An inscription on the wall of the church of Saint Clement in Ohrid, rebuilt by him in 1295, recalls that Progoni held the high Byzantine title of great heterarch and that his wife, Eudokia, was the granddaughter of Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos.

However, the peace reached in 1299 between the Byzantine emperor Andronikos II and the Serbian king Uroshi II recognized the conquered territories north of Durrës and Ohrid to the Serbs. However, they continued to be an area of ​​unrest. On the one hand, Serbian incursions continued south of Mati, but, on the other hand, in the first years of the 14th century, a reactivation of the Angevins of Naples in Albania is noted.

The influx of Serbs into the territory of Durrës and early Arbër also affected the interests of the Angevins and the Papacy, who continued to consider themselves as holders of secular and religious power in those territories. The return of the Angevins to Albania was welcomed even by the Albanian nobility itself, whose hopes of stopping the Serbian invasion now depended on cooperation with the Catholic Western world.

In September 1304, the civic community of Durrës and the Albanian leaders from the Matrënga, Arianiti, Skurra, Blinishti, Zenebishi, Shpata families, etc., recognized Prince Philip of Taranto, son of King Charles II of Anjou, as their overlord. From that moment on, the heir to the throne of Naples also received the titles of Lord of the Kingdom of Arbre and Despot of Romania (Epirus). In the spring of 1305, Prince Philip of Taranto landed with an army in Durrës and, with the help of the locals, took the city.

However, the new Angevin offensive quickly died down. The Prince of Taranto’s relations with the Albanian nobles were broken and that same year he returned to Italy with the intention of coming again the following spring with a larger army.

However, even after this the Angevins were unable to extend their control beyond Durrës. Their Albanian “vassals” did not fail to rebel and break off all ties with the overseas lord whenever he sought to establish real power in Durrës and the “Kingdom of Arbr”. Unable to achieve their goals in Albania, in 1311 the Angevins of Naples briefly considered exchanging their possessions with Sicily. But the titular ruler of the latter, Frederick of Aragon, informed that the Angevins did not possess real power in Durrës and the territory of Arbr, did not accept the offer, although these territories, as he expressed them, “were very rich and generous” (que es molt noble e rich).

In this way, in Durrës and its hinterland, an increasingly formal sovereignty of the Angevins continued to be maintained. For the civic community of Durrës and for the feudal nobility of Arbr, maintaining ties with the Angevins was considered useful, especially now that the Serbs were increasingly pushing south. There continued to be alliances between the Angevins and the Serbs, which the latter were reluctant to break. In fact, the agreement reached in 1308 had reconfirmed the zones of Angevin and Serbian influence in Albania for the years to come.

The Angevins and the Papacy began to respond in earnest to the invitations of the Albanian aristocracy to oppose the Serbian offensive in the second decade of the 14th century, when the Serbian-Angevin disputes over rule in Albania and Dalmatia broke out openly and when all hope in Rome regarding a return of the Serbian kings to the Catholic religion was extinguished.

Around 1318, the Serbs launched a new offensive in Albania, occupying Durrës and Arbri along with Kruja. At that time, an anti-Serbian coalition of Catholic powers was created, coordinated by the papacy, in which the Albanians also played an important role. In the spring of 1319, a number of Albanian nobles from the gates of Blinishti, Jonima, Arianiti, Matrënga, Muzaka, etc., through the bishop of Kruja, Andreas, informed Pope John XXII that they were ready to “rise up and throw off the yoke of the king of Rasa (Serbia)”. They also promised to abandon the Orthodox rite and embrace Catholicism, separating themselves ecclesiastically from the Serbian invaders.

As a result of this organized and coordinated resistance with the Papacy and Catholic powers of Europe, such as Naples, Hungary, Croatia, etc., the Serbs were blocked for several years beyond Durrës and its region, where the Angevins continued to exercise an increasingly lukewarm sovereignty.

“Byzantine” Albania in the first half of the 14th century. Separation from Byzantium

Under Serbian pressure and in the face of the agreement of the Albanian leaders with the Angevins of Naples, as early as the first years of the 14th century, the Byzantine Empire was forced to abandon Durrës, Krujë and their territories, keeping the areas south of the Shkumbin River. Byzantine power was maintained more or less stably in the region that included the areas of Myzeqe, Vlorë, Berat, Tomorrica, Këlcyrë, Skrapar, Ohrid, Korça, Kolonja and Kostur.

The areas below Vlorë and the Vjosa River continued, sometimes more and sometimes less, to be part of the Despotate of Arta (Epirus). The Byzantine Empire organized the newly acquired territories to its north into a separate political-administrative unit, the Despotate of Berat. The city on the banks of the Osumi, in addition to being an important strategic center, now gained a full profile in terms of economic development.

Its role increased significantly after the old Egnatia road was separated from the sphere of Byzantine rule. Berat became the culmination of the new artery connecting the Ohrid basin with the port of Vlora, which became the main Byzantine port on the Adriatic. During the late 13th century and the first half of the 14th century, Vlora experienced an unusual movement of goods.

Kanina continued to play the role of a fortress protecting Vlora. But Kanina was at the same time the preferred residence of the aristocracy of the region and an episcopal center, to which Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos reconfirmed in 1307 the old rights and privileges.

The direct representative of Byzantine power in the Despotate of Berat was the kefali, who was primarily a military functionary. In documents of the time he is referred to as the “kefali of Berat”, but also the “kefali of Vlora”. In fact, even his fixed residence fluctuated between these two centers, which were the most important of the despotate. In order for the kefali to be kept under control as much as possible, the central government placed him under the subordination of a superior functionary, who exercised unlimited power in the despotate.

Such “general governors” in the Despotate of Berat are attested since 1277. They were always elected from the emperor’s family circle and held high titles, such as megas dukas, despot, protovestiar. If these were always elected from the emperor’s closest family circle, the kefali were often representatives of the local aristocracy. Albanians were, for example, the first head of Berat, named Stano (1277), or Gjon Pikerni (1314).

The lower levels of the administration and the army of the despotate were represented in the vast majority by the local element. Nobles from the families Matrënga, Skurra, Muzaka, Gandxha, Frëngu etc. are constantly mentioned in the political life of the Despotate of Berat. But now many of these were using their position and authority to build their independent power.

The Despotate of Berat acquired a specific role within the framework of the Byzantine Empire of the 13th-14th centuries. In addition to representing the only Byzantine “gate” to the West, it also formed the main barrier against the expansion of Serbia to the south. But, on the other hand, the Despotate of Berat was also the fulcrum from which the Byzantine Empire exerted pressure on the neighboring Despotate of Arta (Epirus).

This continued to be, since 1204, an independent formation. Its Byzantine-Italian despots from the Engjëlli and Orsini families, throughout the years 1270-1330 tried to maintain their power against the Byzantine emperors, who insisted on calling the Despotate as “their land”, while its despots as “vassals” of the Byzantine emperors. To secure support against Byzantine pressure, the despot Nicephorus I Angelus agreed, in 1294, to become a vassal of the Angevins of Naples.

In 1320, the next despot, Nicolas Orsini, sought to place his lands under the protection of Venice, recognizing it as the overlord. On the other hand, the weak despots of Epirus were unable to close every gate and seek confrontation with Byzantium. Almost all of them, after Michael II Angelus (1230–1268), had married princesses from the Byzantine court.

However, this game of the despots of Arta, to keep in good terms with both the Angevins of Naples and the emperors of Byzantium, often proved to be dangerous. In 1303 and 1306, the Angevins appeared with an army under the walls of Arta to demand the fulfillment of the obligations arising from the vassalage of Despot Thoma (1296-1318). Likewise, in 1314, the army and fleet of the Despotate of Berat, under the command of the cephalous Gjon Pikerni and the protontine of Vlora, Gjergj Ganxha, carried out an incursion on Arta by land and sea.

A few years later, in 1308, Ioannina, along with most of Vagenetia (Çamëria), was annexed to the Byzantine Despotate of Berat. As governor of this new Byzantine territory, Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos appointed the Albanian commander, Sebastian Skurra.

The last decades of the Byzantine presence in Albania, namely in Lower Albania, are characterized by two phenomena that made its connection with Byzantium increasingly formal. On the one hand, the Byzantine army and administration were increasingly filled with the local element, while, on the other hand, the number of autonomous areas was constantly expanding, where the real power was exercised by the leaders and lords of the country.

Historical reports from the 30s of the 14th century indicate that at that time the Byzantine Empire continued to maintain its control mainly in the cities and castles of the Despotate of Berat. Their surroundings, especially the interior and mountainous areas, were now governed by local nobles. In order to keep the Albanian leaders tied to it, the Byzantine Empire was forced to recognize their power through special agreements (synthekai), even rewarding them with high Byzantine titles.

At that time, Andrea I Muzaka, the powerful lord of the areas between Ohrid, Kolonja and Berat, was awarded the high Byzantine title of “despot”, which was second in the hierarchy of Byzantine titles, after that of emperor. Other Albanian nobles were honored with other high titles, such as sebastokrator, etc.

However, the tension between the Byzantine government and the local Albanian aristocracy came to the fore during the Byzantine civil wars (1321-1328) and erupted openly after the accession to power of Emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos (1328-1341).

Between 1328-1333 Andronikos III had to personally lead several military campaigns to subjugate the Albanians of Ohrid, Devolli, Kolonja, Epirus and Thessaly. According to the Byzantine historian John Kantakouzenos, a participant and commander-in-chief in those operations, the Albanians lived in autonomy and did not recognize the power of the emperor.

But Albanian uprisings erupted in new foci as soon as the Byzantine armies managed to extinguish the previous ones. By the mid-30s they reached the highest level of their participation and organization. At that time, dissatisfied with the new centralizing policy of this empire and determined to break away from Byzantium once and for all, Albanian leaders raised entire provinces. In Vlorë, Berat, Këlcyrë, Skrapar, Kolonjë and in Ohrid, in Epirus and Thessaly, Albanian insurgents attacked Byzantine cities and castles and partially took them.

The Albanian uprising prompted Emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos to undertake a major military campaign in Albania. Accompanied by his great domestic, John Kantakouzenos, the Byzantine emperor entered the lands of the Despotate of Berat in the spring of 1336. The Byzantine army, whose core was made up of selected Ottoman mercenary units, severely suppressed the flames of the uprising.

Entire villages were burned, while the population was robbed of invaluable wealth in money, products and livestock. Kantakouzenos speaks of 300 thousand heads of cattle, 5 thousand horses and 1 million 200 thousand heads of sheep kidnapped from Albanian owners. The suppression of the uprising caused the first major wave of Albanian exodus towards the south. Many noble Albanian families were forced to leave their land and property and settle in the Peloponnese. Others tried to find salvation in Angevin Durrës and take the road to Italy.

The violent suppression of the uprising in the Despotate of Berat determined the decline of the movement in other regions as well. Despina of Epirus, Anna, and the Albanian communities of Thessaly finally agreed to recognize Byzantine rule.

However, the restoration of Byzantine power in the territories of the Despotate of Berat, the Despotate of Epirus and Thessaly did not last long. Anti-Byzantine tension in these areas continued to remain alive, and with the death of Emperor Andronikos III (1341), the uprisings took a new turn.

Now the successors of Andronikos III, engaged in a new war for the throne and faced with a new Serbian offensive towards the South, could not deal with the Albanian uprising. Consequently, the Byzantines were forced to leave their last fortresses in Albania in the hands of the Albanian insurgents.

Albania during the reign of Tsar Stefan Dushan (1331-1355)

The organized resistance of the Albanian nobles, sometimes coordinated with the Angevins and other European powers, had been able to keep the Serbs away from Durrës and the Principality of Arbri for a long time. But the conquest of the latter, as well as of all Albanian lands, experienced a new escalation during the reign of the Serbian king, Stefan Dushan (1331-1355).

As early as the summer of 1336, in agreement with the Byzantine emperor Andronikos III Palaiologos, who at that time was leading the punitive expedition in Lower Albania, the Serbian king organized a major campaign, at the end of which he conquered the central regions between Mat and Shkumbini.

The Serbian invasion became the reason for the reorganization of the Albanian leaders. To give more scope to their resistance, they turned to King Robert of Anjou of Naples for an alliance, who was very interested in Durrës and its hinterland, which the Angevins continued to consider as their fief. In fact, King Robert sent a small army to Albania that year under the command of his son, Louis, which was to cooperate with the main force of the Albanian insurgents.

In December, between Louis, who represented King Robert, and Despot Andre II Muzaca, the representative of the Albanian feudal leaders, alliance pacts were signed in Durrës, which opened with the Angevin promise to offer military assistance to the Albanian nobles.

The pacts in question also included a series of rights and privileges, which the Angevins recognized especially to Despot Andre Muzaca and his family. Such rights and privileges had to do with the movable and immovable properties and assets of the Muzakas, with the titles, honors and offices that had been granted to them since the earliest times by the Byzantine emperors and that would be granted to them in the future by the Angevin kings, etc.

In return for these, despot Andre Muzakas had to confirm his obedience and loyalty to the Angevin court and to guarantee them by sending one of his sons as a hostage to Naples.

The Angevins signed a similar treaty two years later, in 1338, with Count Tanush Topia, to whom they confirmed possession of the lands between Mat and Shkumbini along with granting an annual reward of 1,000 groschen.

The content of the pacts in question, as well as the progress of the relations between the Angevin court and the Albanian leaders up to that point, show that their position towards each other had changed in favor of the latter. The Angevins were not only unable to impose their rule and will by force, but on the contrary, they tried to seduce the powerful Albanian lords with titles and privileges in order to preserve their formal sovereignty over Durrës and its hinterland.

The new mobilization of Albanian nobles could not withstand repeated attacks by the Serbs for a long time. By 1343, Dushan’s superior forces had been able to conquer the territories of early Arbër, with Krujë as its capital. That same year, the city of Berat suffered the first attack by a Serbian army coming from the direction of Ohrid. In the summer of 1346, it was Stefan Dushan himself, who, at the head of a major campaign, conquered the castles of Kostur, Berat and Kanina one after the other.

In the following 2-3 years, Stefan Dushan, who since 1346 began to be called “emperor of Romania, Sclavonia and Arbërija”, annexed Epirus and Thessaly, creating a new Balkan empire, the borders of which began from the Danube and ended at the Gulf of Corinth and the Aegean Sea. A number of foreign peoples, Albanians, Bulgarians, Greeks, and Vlachs, became part of the Serbian Empire.

Stefan Dushan’s empire was the embodiment of the conquering ambitions of the Serbian feudal class. In the conquered lands, the Serbian feudal lords were provided with large land holdings that were taken from the local population. Historical sources testify to the particularly harsh measures that Stefan Dushan implemented to the detriment of the Albanian population.

“The Arbans are badly oppressed by the unbearable and excessively heavy yoke of the hated Slavic rulers… The clergy are humiliated and persecuted, the nobles are dispossessed and imprisoned,” it is written in a report from 1332 by the French archbishop of Tivat, Guglielmi of Ada.

The Serbian invasion brought about major changes in the composition of the ruling elite. In the conquered provinces or cities, a Serbian administration was established, headed by the tsar’s closest people, who held the titles of despot, Caesar, kefali, etc. Thus, the despot Ivan Aseni, the brother-in-law of the Serbian tsar, was placed at the head of the province of Berat, in Epirus his brother Simeon Uroshi was elected, and in Thessaly Caesar Preljubi, who was killed in 1355 during a revolt of the local Albanians.

The Serbian invasion brought new changes through the intensification of the economic and social oppression of the Albanian population. The Code of Stefan Dushan, the main document that sanctioned the economic, political and legal relations of the citizens of the Empire with the power of the Tsar and the Serbian ruling class, included in the system of feudal relations also the free peasant and livestock communities, giving them as feudal property to the monasteries and to the Serbian feudal lords.

Such a measure severely hit the free Albanian peasantry, especially that of the mountainous areas, which had been able to escape feudal exploitation until then and maintain a certain political autonomy from the central government. The Code of Stefan Dushan was based on Serbian legal and doctrinal institutions and as such it in many respects conflicted with the institutions and traditions of other peoples that were included within the framework of the Serbian state.

On many occasions, he announced the ban on traditional local institutions, such as village meetings (assemblies), where various problems were decided and judged, which now fell under the jurisdiction of individual feudal lords and the Serbian Tsar himself.

The Serbian invasion of the northern Albanian regions, especially in Kosovo, had particularly negative consequences, where Serbian rule lasted for almost two centuries. Rich in agricultural lands, with developed mining, craft and trade centers, these territories had been a constant attraction for the Serbian kings. Starting from the 13th century, the Serbian kings from the Nemanja dynasty worked to shift the epicenter of their state from Rasha towards the rich regions of Kosovo and Gent.

The cities of the latter, Shkodra, Prizren, Prishtina and Skopje, became at different times the headquarters of the Serbian court. Another important center of Kosovo, Peja, from the middle of the 13th century became the center of the Serbian autocephalous church.

The shift of the centers of gravity of the Serbian state towards the south was accompanied by other phenomena of a social and ethnic nature, which were more visible in Kosovo. Part of the local aristocracy was expropriated and replaced by the Serbian landed aristocracy, secular and especially religious.

Starting from the second half of the 13th century, the churches and monasteries of Kosovo were serbized and many of them were built, which were provided with large land funds. During the reign of Stefan Dushan, from about the middle of the 14th century, the monasteries, already serbized, of Deçan, Greçanica, Banjska, Kryëngjëllit, the monastery of Hilandar on the Holy Mountain and, in addition to them, the bishoprics of Peja, Prizren, etc., owned a considerable part of the villages of Kosovo and other northern Albanian regions.

The expansion of the Serbian state towards Kosovo was also accompanied by the arrival of new settlers from the territories of Serbia proper (Raša). The newcomers populated abandoned villages (selište) or settled in properties newly acquired by feudal lords or Serbian churches and monasteries.

In addition to colonization, the Serbian kings, and especially Tsar Stefan Dushan, implemented a policy aimed at assimilating the Albanian populations of the conquered territories. Repression and persecution in the religious field were chosen as the most effective in this regard. Entire chapters of Stefan Dushan’s code and special orders of the Serbian Tsar provided for strict measures, such as confiscation of property, branding, expulsion and even the death penalty for Catholic and Orthodox Christians who refused to convert to Serbian Orthodoxy and were not rebaptized by taking Slavic names.

In addition to archival documents, various witnesses of the time, such as the anonymous traveler of 1308, the French archbishop of Tivat, Guillemot of Ada (1332), the Italian cardinal Guido da Padova (1350), underline with particular emphasis this aspect of the policy of the Serbian kings towards the conquered non-Slavic populations, which was sanctioned in the medieval Serbian law, the code of Stefan Dushan (1349).

Such measures primarily affected the Albanian populations of the Catholic and Orthodox-Byzantine faiths of the northern and northeastern regions, where the pressure of the Serbian state was strongest. They determined the spread of the phenomenon of religious-onomastic Slavism in certain strata of the Albanian population. This is the reason that between the 13th century. XIII-XIV, in addition to the numerous Albanians who bore names such as Gjin, Dede, Gjon, Progon, Llesh, other Albanians are also found in these regions, described by the documentation itself as such, who bore Slavic names or who had adapted to Slavic onomastics.

Names such as Pribislav, Radomir, Vladislav or the surnames Vogliç, Kuqeviç, Flokovci, Gjinovci, etc., prove that at this time (the first half of the 14th century) a part of the Albanian population of the northern regions, under the violent pressure of the Serbian invaders, was in a transitional phase of cultural and religious assimilation. In many regions this assimilation process was interrupted in the new conditions that were created with the destruction of the Serbian state and the arrival of the Ottoman Turks (the second half of the 14th century).

It was at this time that a return of the population to the characteristic Albanian onomastics was observed there, alongside the new phenomenon of taking Ottoman names. However, in some of the territories in question, especially in specific areas of Genta (Zeta), the process of Slavization continued even after this, gradually leading to the cultural and ethnic assimilation of other Albanian communities.

The Serbian invasion of Stefan Dushan, burdened with serious economic, social and ethnic consequences, met with fierce resistance from the Albanian population. Already in the first year of Stefan Dushan’s rule, an anti-Serbian uprising broke out in the northwestern territories, led by the generous Dhimitër Suma (1332). Its expansion prompted the Archbishop of Tivat, Guljelmin of Ada, to plan the organization of a Western crusade against the Serbs, which would rely on the decisive contribution of the Albanian rebels of the northern areas.

In the letter he sent to the Duke of Burgundy, Philip VII of Valois, for this purpose, the French prelate claimed that no more suitable place could be found for organizing this anti-Serbian crusade than the rebellious areas in question, “… where the Albanian people could bring to war more than 15,000 knights, healthy men, brave and good warriors, capable of any battle.”

The resistance of the Albanians against the Serbian occupation was not characteristic only of the northern regions, but of all Albanian territories deep into Epirus. It became even more prominent after the death of the Serbian Tsar, Stefan Dushan (1355). The uprisings in the Berat area (1356) and Himara (1358) reduced the power of the Slavic despot Ivan Komnen Asen to only the city of Vlora and its surroundings. In 1356, an attempt to retake Berat with the help of the army of Simeon Uroshi, the Serbian ruler of Epirus, failed.

However, according to a contemporary note in one of the Berat codices, the Serbs on that occasion behaved so cruelly “that they even dragged the dead out of their graves.” A year earlier, in 1355, the Albanians of Thessaly had risen up against the Serbian ruler, Qezar Preljub, and had him killed. Shortly after his expedition against Berat, Simeon Uroshi, Dushan’s brother, was also forced by the Albanians of Epirus to leave his possessions. In this way, from Genta of Kosovo down to Epirus, political formations of the most prominent Albanian clans were born or revived, the Balshes, Gropajs, Topiajs, Matrenges, Muzaks, Zenebishes, Bua-Shpatas, etc.

The independent political development of the Albanian lands was now entering a crucial phase, orienting them increasingly towards the creation of a centralized Albanian state.

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