7/28/2019 The Wild Albanian by Wadham Peacock
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kaleidoscope, but the hold of all the Empires was too ephemeral
to allow of a costly conquest ofthe barren mountains. When either
the Emperor or the Slavs gained decidedly the upper hand,the plains
and towns of Shkyperi fell under the conqueror, but in the feeble
intervals the plains,and at all times the mountains, were in the
hands of that unsubdued remnant of the ancientinhabitants - the
Shkypetars. John Asen died in A.D. 1241, and the leadership of the
BalkanSlavs began to pass to the Serbs under the Nemanja dynasty,
who first called themselves Kingsand afterwards Czars of Serbia.
The Stefans of Serbia fought with the Palologi Emperors andwith the
Bulgarians, the Bulgarian army being crushed at the battle of
Velbuzhd on June 28th,
1330.The North Albanians remained more or less independent while
all these quarrels were going onaround them, but in the time of the
Czar Dushan, the Strangler, A.D. 1336, they were included inhis
Empire. After the break-up of Dushan's kingdom, North Albania was
ruled from Scodra by thePrinces of the Balsha family of Provence,
who had taken service with the Serbian Czars. In 1368the Prince
became a Roman Catholic, and the North Albanian mountaineers have
remained ofthat religion ever since.The Balshas greatly increased
their dominions, but, in 1383, George Balsha I. was defeated
andkilled by the Turks near Berat, and George Balsha II. gave
Scodra and Durazzo to the Venetiansin return for their assistance
against the Turks. But the Venetians did not afford Balsha help
ofany value, so the family retired to Montenegro, and were
succeeded in North Albania by the
Castriot family of Croja, who were pure-blooded Shkypetars and
extended their rule over thewhole of the country except the places
held by Venice.South and Middle Albania were independent under the
rule of the Despot of Epirus, Michael
Angelus, who, though illegitimate, claimed to be the heir of the
Emperors Isaac and AlexiusAngelus. He raised the Albanian tribes,
discomfited the Frankish Dukes of Thessalonica andAthens, and after
his death his nephew, John Angelus, fought with John Dukas for the
Empire ofByzantium, but was defeated in A.D. 1241. The heir of the
Angeli then retired to the Albanianmountains, and as Despots of
Epirus the family ruled the country in spite of the Emperor
forseveral years.Meanwhile, the last of the conquerors of the
Balkans was over-running the peninsula. In 1354 theTurks were
invited over to Thrace by John Cantacuzenus to help him against the
Palologi.They seized and settled at Gallipoli, and in 1361 Sultan
Murad I. took Adrianople. Servia wasinvaded, and crushed at
Kossovo-Polje in 1389, where some Albanians under their
PrinceBalsha fought in the army of the Czar Lazar. The Sultan Murad
II. advanced against Albania in1423, and took, among others, the
four sons of John Castriot of Croja as hostages. The youngestof
these sons was George Castriot, the famous Scanderbeg, who was
educated atConstantinople by the Sultan. In 1443 he rose against
the Turks and seized Croja, and thougharmy after army was sent
against him he defeated many Viziers and generals and the
SultanMurad himself.
