FUQIZIMII MBRETËRISË SË ARBËRISË NGA SELIA E SHENJTË
EMPOWERING THE REGNUM ALBANIAE BY THE HOLY SEE

Summary/Abstract: Although Regnum Albaniae was officially declared exactly 750 years ago, on February 21, 1272, its real significance started to be displayed in the second decade of the fourteenth century, long after the physical body of its king that had perished. The other body, according to Kantorowitz, the political body of the Regnum Albaniae, was used by the Holy See to create a union of all the Catholic-interested parties in the Western Balkans, in order to empower a political and religious stronghold in the Balkans, which would not allow the Eastern Rite of the “schismatics” take hold of the whole Balkans. This union was even more organic and long-lasting, when the Albanians understood it as an expression of their own identity and by combining their desire to be free from the Serbian kings with their desire to be recognised as an independent political power, they embraced the idea of being the representatives of the Regnum Albaniae in the international political and religious arena of the time. This led to long-lasting identity of the Albanians as the Catholics of the Balkans.

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