lonica, Athens, Achaea
and elsewhere. Greek rule, however, survived in the despotate of Epirus
under princes of the imperial house of the Angeli. The Latin tenure of
Constantinople lasted only 57 years; the imperial city was recaptured in
1261 by Michael VIII. Palaeologus, but most of the feudal Latin states
continued to exist till the Turkish conquest; the Venetians retained their
possessions for several centuries later and waged continual wars with the
Turks. In 1230 Theodore of Epirus, who had conquered Albania, Great
Walachia and Macedonia, was overthrown at Klokotnitza by Ivan Asen II., the
greatest of Bulgarian monarchs (1218-1241), who defeated Baldwin at
Adrianople and extended his sway over most of the Peninsula. The Bulgarian
power declined after [v.03 p.0261] his death and was extinguished at the
battle of Velbuzhd (1330) by the Servians under Stephen Urosh III. A short
period of Servian predominance followed under Stephen Dushan (1331-1355)
whose realm included Albania, Macedonia, Epirus, Thessaly and northern
Greece. The Servian incursion was followed by a great Albanian emigration
to the southern regions of the Peninsula. After Dushan's death his empire
disappeared, and Servia fell a prey to anarchy. For a short time the
Bosnians, under their king Stephen Tvrtko (1353-1391), became the principal
power in the west of the Peninsula. The disorganization and internecine
feuds of the various states prepared the way for the Ottoman invasion. In
1356 the Turks seized Gallipoli; in 1361 the sultan Murad I. established
his capital at Adrianople; in 1389 the fate of the Slavonic states was
decided by the rout of the Servians and their allies at Kossovo. The last
remnant of Bulgarian national existence disappeared with the fall of Trnovo
in 1393, and Great Walachia was conquered in the same year. Under Mahommed
II. (1451-1481) the Turks completed the conquest of the Peninsula. The
despotate of Epirus succumbed in 1449, the duchy of Athens in 1456; in 1453
Constantinople was taken and the decrepit Byzantine empire perished; the
greater part of Bosnia submitted in 1463; the heroic resistance of the
Albanians under Scanderbeg collapsed with the fall of Croia (1466), and
Venetian supremacy in Upper Albania ended with the capture of Scutari
(1478). Only the mountain stronghold of Montenegro and the Italian
city-states on the Adriatic coast escaped subjection. In the 16th century
under Solyman the Magnificent (1520-1566) the