THE RISE AND FALL OF C:HARI.ES OF ANJOUAlbania, and in 1271 he took advantage of the despot's death
to seize control of Durazzo, the principal port in the lands
he claimed. The next year he appears in a document with the
title 'King of Albania', a totally new title which reflected new
realities in the Balkans: the descent towards Durazzo and the
Adriatic coast of increasing numbers of native Albanian hills-
men, whose chieftains recognised Charles's claim to rule.^15
Control of this region may have been seen as a step towards
creating a cordon sanitaire around southern Italy and Sicily,
comprising a ring of lands in Albania, Tunisia and Sardinia.
Charles pursued an energetic policy of military expansion in
Albania: he garrisoned Durazzo and occupied or built castles
along the main roads into the mountainous interior at Berat,
Kruja and other strategic positions. Durazzo was already
weakened by a recent earthquake; famine and agitation inside
the city broke his hold on Durazzo, but he had a capable
vicar-general there, and administrative orders from Naples
reveal how strenuous were the efforts he made to provision
this key town.^16 The Kingdom of Albania was, certainly, a
shadowy entity whose main signs of existence lay in a series
of Angevin strong-points. It is likely that Charles saw Albania
as a jumping-off point for more ambitious expansion in the
Balkans, towards the heartlands of the Byzantine empire
itself. For another of Manfred's legacies was a plan to use
Sicilian resources to recover Constantinople for the Latins.
Mter its fall to the armies of the Fourth Crusade and to
the navies of Venice in 1204, Constantinople had become
the seat of an impecunious Latin emperor whose lands were
mostly disputed by rival Greek and Latin warlords.^17 The
most successful of these, Michael VIII Palaiologos, recaptured
Constantinople for the Greeks in 1261, with Genoese aid.^18
- Dr Pellumb Xhufi of the Institute of History, University of Tirana,
informs me that in fact this title was only utilised on a single occasion.
SeeP. Xhufi, 'Shqiptaret perballe anzhuineve (1267-1285)', Studime
Historike (1987), pp. 199-222 [with French summary]; D.M. Nicol,
'The relations of Charles of Anjou with Nikephoros of Epiros',
Byzantinische Forschungen, 4 ( 1972), pp. 170-94. - A. Ducellier, La ja(:ade maritime de l'Albanie au Moyen Age. Duraz.zo et
Valona du Xle au XVe siecle (Thessalonika, 1981), pp. 230-320. - ]. Longnon, L 'Empire latin de Constantinffjlle (Paris, 1949).
- DJ. Geanakoplos, Michael VIII Palaeologus and the West, 1258-1282
(Cambridge, MA, 1959), pp. 92-115.