Venetian Albania

Christian unity in the Balkans disintegrates as Albania is divided between Venice and the Ottomans, Constantinople’s emperor forges marriage ties with the Ottoman dynasty, and Bulgarian tsar Ivan Shishman breaks with the alliance of Slavic powers and accepts Ottoman suzerainty.

The Serbian state disintegrates as a result of the Battle of Kosovo Polje in 1389, in which a combined army of Serbs, Albanians, and Hungarians, led by the Serb knez, or prince, Lazar Hrebeljanovic, and including a large Bosnian contingent, is crushingly defeated by the Ottomans; Lazar dies by execution; Ottoman Sultan Murad by assassination.

Montenegro achieves independence from Serbia.

The Serbian states in the north and south come under the control of petty despots who rule as Ottoman vassals.

To the north, Hungary alone is in a position to resist further Muslim advances; Moldavia falls to Polish control.

South of the Danube, after Wallachia accepts Ottoman vassalage, only Bosnia, Venetian Albania, Greece, and the Serbian fort of Belgrade remain outside Ottoman rule.

Serb despots, forced to accept the position of vassals to the Turks, continue to rule a diminished state of Raska, at first from Belgrade.

Andronikos IV predeceases his father, and his own son seizes Constantinople and the throne, as John VII, but the Turks again help Manuel and John regain it.

Manuel has been forced to live at the court of Bayezid as a submissive vassal, remaining there until his escape to Constantinople after learning of his father's death on February 16, 1391.

The forty-one-year-old Manuel has inherited an impoverished empire greatly reduced in size and strength, a Turkish overlord, and a frightened populace.

Ottoman forces have conducted campaigns that have succeeded in controlling vast Balkan territories, but Venetian advances in Greece, Albania, and imperial lands, together with the extension of Hungarian influence in Wallachia and Danubian Bulgaria, compel Bayezid to blockade Constantinople from 1391.

The Ottoman Turks invade Albania between 1385 and 1395, creating a power vacuum in the region and enabling Venice to acquire coastal territory.

The city of Durrazzo had passed into the hands of the Albanian family of Thopias in 1355 when the Serbian King (Tsar) Dušan died.

Louis of Évreux, Duke of Durazzo, who had gained the rights on the Kingdom of Albania from his second wife, had attacked and conquered the city in 1376 with the help of the Navarrese Company, but Karl Topia in 1383 had reasserted mastery of the city.

The Republic of Venice regains control in 1392 and retains the city, known as Durazzo in these years, as part of the Albania Veneta (Venetian Albania).

Albanian resistance to the Ottoman Empire, with support from Naples and the Vatican, continues mostly in Albania's highlands, where the chieftains even oppose the construction of roads out of fear that they will bring Ottoman soldiers and tax collectors.

The Albanians' fractured leadership, however, fails to halt the Ottoman onslaught.

Krujë falls to the Ottoman Turks in 1478; Shkoder succumbs in 1479 after a fifteen-month siege; and the Venetians evacuate Durres in 1501.

The defeats trigger a great Albanian exodus to southern Italy, especially to the kingdom of Naples, as well as to Sicily, Greece, Romania, and Egypt.

Most of the Albanian refugees belong to the Orthodox Church.

Some of the emigres to Italy convert to Roman Catholicism, and the rest establish a Uniate Church.

The Albanians of Italy will significantly influence the Albanian national movement in future centuries, and Albanian Franciscan priests, most of whom are descended from emigres to Italy, will play a significant role in the preservation of Catholicism in Albania's northern regions.

Djurdje II Stracimirović of the House of Balšić, a family alliance dominant in the still officially undissolved Serbian Empire, has ruled from 1385 to 1395 as an Ottoman vassal over several Serbian and Albanian lands, most notably Zeta.

Having broken his contract with the Ottomans in the previous year, and relying upon the rivalry between Turkey and Venice to keep his cities safe, Djurdje hands over the cities into Venetian administration.

When Ottoman advances obviously come to a halt, the Venetians decide to negotiate the deal, and sign a contract in April, under which Djurdje hands over to Venetian administration Skadar (Shkodër), the Skadar Lake with all its islands, and Saint Serge.

He also agrees to channel the income from tolls in Danj in exchange for one thousand ducats every year, and promises to give the cities support in case of a Turkish attack.

In return, Djurdje gains acceptance into the Venetian nobility.

The Venetians, having established and maintained a strong present in the eastern Mediterranean basin, begin in the early fifteenth century to expand in Italy, as well as along the Dalmatian coast from Istria to Albania, in response to the threatening expansion of Gian Galeazzo Visconti, Duke of Milan.

Control over the northeast main land routes is also a necessity for the safety of the trades.

Venice, unlike much of Europe, has tolerated the presence of Jews from the late fourteenth century; throughout the fifteenth century, this will usually be the case.

Restrictions on their movement and permitted trades will vary, but money lending, running pawnshops, dealing in second hand goods, tailoring, and medicine are to be common occupations for the Jews of Venice.

Turkish warships launched in 1425 by Ottoman sultan Murad II destroy Venetian outposts along the Albanian coast and …

…at Epirus in western Greece.

The Serbian King Stefan Uroš IV Dušan, taking advantage of the civil war between John V Palaiologos and John VI Kantakouzenos, had conquered Epirus in 1348, with a number of Albanian mercenaries assisting him.It is during this time that an Albanian presence in Epirus is first mentioned.

The imperial authorities in Constantinople had soon reestablished a measure of control by making the Despotate of Epirus a vassal state, but meanwhile Albanian clans had invaded, seized most of the region, and founded two local, short-lived entities, centered in Arta (1358–1416) and Gjirokastër (1386–1411) by the Losha and Zenebishi clans, respectively.

Only the city of Ioannina had remained under Greek control during this time.

Although Albanian clans had gained control of most of the region of Epirus by 1366-7, they had not succeeded any Greek or Serbian central authority in the region but have remained divided in clans.

Ioannina had become a center of Greek resistance, and the Greeks of Ioannina had offered power to three foreign rulers during this time, beginning with Thomas II Preljubović (1367–1384), followed by Esau de' Buondelmonti (1385–1411), and finally Carlo I Tocco (1411–1429).

The latter finally succeeds in ending the rule of the Albanian clans and unifying Epirus.