High Middle Age: Rulers From All Directions

High Middle Age: Rulers From All Directions

Middle Age Albania had to struggle against its domination by powers from almost all directions.

In 1071, the Byzantine Empire lost Sicily and Southern Italy to the Normans. After that, the Normans invaded several times Albania with the objective of attacking Byzantium. They fought especially for the seaport of Durrës, which at that time belonged to Venice. When the Normans were definitely expelled from Albania in 1185, Byzantine rule in this country was considerably weakened.

At the turning of the century, Albania, situated exactly at the border between Catholic and Orthodox Christianity, was the bone of contention between the Catholic Pope in Rome and the Orthodox Patriarch in Constantinople. Although it belonged to the rule of the Patriarch, the Catholic belief was gaining ground again in Northern Albania and especially in Kosovo. The result was the religious division of the country which is still to be found today: a Catholic zone in the North and an Orthodox zone in the South. As the situation in Central Albania was more unclear, it should become islamized more easily unter Ottoman rule.

The spreading of Catholicism in Kosovo was largely a reaction against the expansion of the Serbian state of Rasha and its politics. This first Serbian state was founded in the XII^th century and under Stefan Nemanja came to conquer a considerable part of Northern Albania. In 1250 the seat of the Serbian patriarchy was transferred to Peja in Kosovo. The Serbs, especially under Stefan Dushani, tried to convert the Albanian inhabitants of the conquered regions and to assimilate or to discriminate all non-Slav peoples – a behavior to be repeated some centuries later.

Two important feudal principalities in Albania with many privileges and a high degree of autonomy were Arbanon or Arbër between the rivers Drin and Shkumbin and the Despotate of Arta in the South. The biggest threat to the Arbër principality came from Venice. In order to get support from the West, prince Dhimiter concluded an alliance with the Pope and made Catholicism the official religion in his territories. The Orthodox Despotate of Arta belonged to the tsar of Bulgaria from 1230 to 1241 as a result of struggles between Byzantium and Bulgaria.

In 1257, the German king Manfred von Hohenstaufen from the Kingdom of Sicily conquered some Albanian fortresses. By marrying the daughter of Mihali II from Arta, he got Corfu and the Southern Albanian regions of Himara and Butrint and tried to gain the support of the Albanians for his struggles against the Pope.

After his death in 1266, he was replaced by Charles of Anjou as king of Sicily and Arbër. In 1272 he founded the Kingdom of Arbër, which was also called Regnum Albaniae. As he did not keep his promises to give the Albanian princes a high degree of autonomy, the Albanians revolted aganinst his reign, supported by Byzantium, which wanted thus to regain control over Albania. In 1285 the Anjouins were expelled from all Albanian fortresses with the exception of Butrint.

At the beginning of the XIV^th century, Albania was ruled by the king of Serbia, the king of Anjou, the Byzantine emperor and the despot of Arta. Albanians conducted rebellions against the Serbs, the Anjouins and the Byzantines. In 1341 the Albanians finally defeated the Byzantines and drove them out of the country.