The exit of Giro de Italia This Friday will be from Durres, Antigua Durazzoa coastal city of Albania With a story as rich as forgotten. Few imagine that, almost seven centuries ago, it was besieged by Navarrese soldiers.
In 1366, one Real wedding changed the geopolitical map of Europe. Luis de Evreux, Brother of King Navarro Carlos II “The bad”, married Juana de Sicilia, Duquesa de Durazzo. Thus, a distant and swampy city of Adriatic entered the sphere of influence of the small Navarrese kingdom, which did not have access to the Mediterranean Sea, but ambitions.
Luis de Evreux He soon ran into the local resistance in Durazzo. The Albanians, opposite to be governed by a foreigner, rebelled. In 1368, Durazzo fell into the hands of rebel leaders Carlos Topia and Jorge Balsic. But Luis did not resign. With economic help from the king of France and an army of Gascon mercenaries, he organized an offensive to reconquer the Kingdom of Albania.
The Navarra Company and the Toma de Durazzo
Between 1375 and 1376, Navarra organized a second armed contingent, financed by its own Merindades. It was born like this The Navarra companya host that embarked on Tolosa to Albania and that, after hard fighting, He managed to recover the strategic city of Durazzo. However, Luis de Evreux died in combat And, shortly after, his widow married a French nobleman again, again separating Navarra from Adriatic. The company, betrayed, was trapped on a hostile land.
-From Adriatic to Thebes: Navarros to the assault of Greece
Abandoned, Navarre captains offered their services as mercenaries. It was then when Juan de Urtubiaone of its leaders, accepted the proposal of the Lord of Corinthan ambitious Florentine, to attack the Catalan domains in Greece.
Thus, in 1379, a hundred Navarros crossed the Peloponnese and besieged Thebesso Athens Duchy Capital. What seemed like a suicidal mission became a real revolution: the Greek discontent and other local gentlemen joined the offensive. Thebes fell After internal betrayals and a brutal looting. Subsequently, the Navarros also occupied Lividia And they put against the ropes to Athens.
Urtubia dreamed of founding a principality in Greek lands. But the arrival of Catalan reinforcements and the pressures of Venice They truncated their plans. In 1382, he signed La Paz and retired. Even so, the action of The Navarra company Irreversibly weakened Catalan dominance in Greece, which would disappear shortly after.
Hoy, Durazzo it Dirral. A place that will be the focus of international cycling, without almost anyone reminding that Navarros fought and died. Soldiers of a small kingdom that, for years, fought in Albania and Greece, leaving a mark as extraordinary as forgotten.
