314 Henry Skene, Esq., on the Albanians. 



in the end of the twelfth century, the Norman kings of 

 Sicily, with their relatives the princes of Taranto, formed 

 permanent settlements in Albania, under the Byzantine em- 

 perors, Andronicus Comnenus and Isaac Angelus. The 

 Albanians were thus early connected with the natives of the 

 west. The Crusades next left a sensible impression on this 

 people, as their ports were constantly resorted to by the 

 Frank chiefs, during at least a century and a half ; and Du- 

 razzo, in particular, was the depot of the crusaders. In the 

 beginning of the thirteenth century, when the oriental em- 

 pire fell to pieces, on account of the occupation of Constan- 

 tinople by the Franks, a principality of Albania was founded 

 by an illegitimate son of one of the Comneni, named Michael 

 Angelus,* and it existed for more than two centuries, under the 

 title of the Despotate. Jannina was the capital of this state, 

 and Albanopolis also became one of its principal towns. 

 Theodore Lascaris the Second, emperor of Nicea, sent a 

 Praetor to the latter place, in the year 1257, hoping to reco- 

 ver it ; but the Albanians preferred the protection of the 

 despot to that of the emperor, and the praetor, who was the 

 historian Acropolita, was obliged to abandon it. In the same 

 century, they plundered the city of Durazzo, which had been 

 destroyed by a violent earthquake ; but they afterwards re- 

 built it themselves. Pachymer, who records this in his his- 

 tory of the reign of Michael Palaeologus,! calls them Alba- 

 nians and Illyrians indiscriminately ; and he says that they 

 enjoyed acknowledged independence of the Greek emperor, 

 and were allies of Charles king of Sicily, who then occupied 

 the island of Corfu and the town of Kanina, anciently BuUis, 

 near Anion. In the year 1294, Philip, duke of Taranto, the 

 son of Charles the Second, king of the Sicilies, having mar- 

 ried the daughter of the despot Nicephorus, received posses- 

 sion of some territory in this country, and called himself 

 Lord of Albania. J This title descended to his brother and 

 nephew, but these Latin princes never enjoined much autho- 

 rity on this side of the Adriatic. The Albanians are next 



* Nicetas. Annal. Baldwin, c. ix., p. 410. f Lib. vi., c. 32. 



X Ducangp, Hist, de Constantinople, lib. vi., c. 16 ; lib. vii., c. 1 ; lib. viii., c. 34. 



