Helena Thopia

These pressures eventually led him to accept Ottoman suzerainty, allowing him to maintain his control over Krujë and his other lands stretching to Durrës.

[15] Kostandin soon married Helen Thopia, the widow of Mark Barbadigo and the holder of Krujë's hereditary rights.

[18] In 1402, while many Albanian vassals of the Ottomans went to support Bayezid I against Timur at the Battle of Ankara, Kostandin Balsha remained in Albania.

[19] In 1403, Niketa Thopia swiftly seized control of the city of Krujë from his sister Helena, acting independently.

[20][21] After Kostandin's death Helena and their son Shtjefën Balsha first went to Venice and then lived with her sister Maria, Baroness of Botrugno.