Gjin Bua Shpata
Karl Hopf's genealogy of the Shpata family is "altogether inaccurate";[4] according to it, his father was Pietro, the lord of Angelokastron and Delvina (1354)[5] during the reign of Serbian emperor Stefan Dušan (r. 1331–55).
In 1358, some Albanian commanders overran Epirus, Acarnania and Aetolia, and subsequently established two principalities under their leaders, Shpata and Pjetër Losha.
[8] In 1360, Simeon Uroš, the titular Serbian Emperor, in an attempt to avoid conflict with the Albanians and as an acknowledgement of their military strength decided to leave the areas of Arta and Aetolia to Shpata and Losha.
At this time he was not bound by agreement to Thomas, and so he laid siege to Ioannina and ravaged the countryside by defeating the forces of Preljubović.
[13] The Achaean Knights Hospitallers of Juan Fernández de Heredia began their invasion of Epirus, moving onto Shpata, capturing Nafpaktos, and then Vonitsa in Acarnania (April 1378).
[1] Gjin Bua Shpata attacked Ioannina but was unsuccessful in cracking the defense set up by Esau de' Buondelmonti.
[16] Esau then allied himself with the caesar of Thessaly (either Alexios Angelos or Manuel), who defeated the Albanians, presumably the Malakasioi, later that year, but not Shpata.
The Albanian academic Gjergji Shuka distinguished the origin of some South Slavic (Jovan i divski starešina, Marko Kraljević i Đemo Brđanin, Jana i Detelin voyvoda) Albanian and legends and epic songs, such as Zuku Bajraktar, Dedalia dhe Katallani, Çika e plakut Emin agë vret në duel Baloze Delinë, and in the poem regarding Shpata and the battle of Arta in 1378.
The two enemies of Gjon, Juan Fernández de Heredia and queen Joanna I of Naples, are remembered in Balkan collective memory.
It was first outlined by Karl Hopf in his Chroniques Greco-Romanes (p. 531) and by K. Sathas in the 19th century but a newer study finds that those works have many mistakes and gaps.
[24] His daughter, Irene was married (before April 1381 ) to a Marchesano of Naples, Morean baron, baillie of Achaea[25] and Esau de' Buondelmonti in 1396.
