League of Lezha

League of Lezhë
Lidhja e Lezhës Participant in Albanian–Venetian War Ottoman–Albanian Wars
Active	1444–50
Ideology	Christianity
Leaders	Skanderbeg
Area of operations	Albania Veneta Sanjak of Albania Sanjak of Dibra
Size	8,000
Allies	Venice
Opponents	Ottoman Empire Venice (Dec. 1447–Oct. 48)
Battles and wars	See list

The League of Lezhë (Albanian: Besëlidhja e Lezhës) was a military alliance of Albanian feudal lords forged in Lezhë on 2 March 1444, initiated and organised under Venetian patronage with Skanderbeg as leader of the regional Albanian and Serbian chieftains united against the Ottoman Empire.

The main members of the league were the Arianiti, Balšić, Zaharia, Muzaka, Spani, Thopia and Crnojevići. All earlier and many modern historians accepted Marin Barleti's news about this meeting in Lezhë (without giving it equal weight), although no contemporary Venetian document mentions it. Barleti referred to the meeting as the generalis concilium or universum concilium [general or whole council]; the term "League of Lezhë" was coined by subsequent historians.

After the death of Serbian Emperor Stefan Dušan in 1355, the magnates in Albania established their own dominions. When Ottoman forces entered Albania, they were faced with small principalities that were engaged in vicious fights among themselves. The first battle against the Ottoman forces in Albania was that of Balša II, the Lord of Zeta, when one of the Albanian rulers, Karlo Thopia, invited Ottomans who defeated and killed Balša II in the battle of Savra which happened on the 18th September 1385.

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