On the Despotate of the Morea’s Service: The Participation of Albanian Population in the Political Events in the Peloponnesos in the First Half of the Fifteenth Century

Abstract

In the late fourteenth century, Albanian tribes moved from Thessaly and settled in the Peloponnesos getting the permission from the Despotes of the Morea, Theodore I Palaiologos (1383–1407). Although this migration changed the ethnic situation in the despotate, it solved some economic and demographic problems. In particular, the Albanians replenished the army of the despotes. This article analyzes the participation of the Albanian tribes in the political events in the Despotate of Morea in the first half of the fifteenth century. The aim is to reveal whether the Albanian warriors really got a privileged status in the Morea and to determine their significance for the policy of the despotai of the Morea. The source base of this research is the fifteenth-­century Byzantine epistolary and narrative sources, as well as the official documentation of the rulers of the Morea. It has been revealed that the Byzantine despotai actively encouraged the Albanians to military service, thus contributing to their promotion in the despotate. A significant number of Albanians were involved in the defense of the peninsula from the Ottoman Turks. Despite the privileges granted to their leaders, the Albanians remained strangers to the Romaioi: as long as the mid-fifteenth century, they were a particular ethnic group of the population of the Morea; as soon as they got an opportunity, the Albanians rebelled against the Byzantine rulers and declared themselves as an independent political force of the Morea.