The Spata family (Albanian: Shpata) was an Albanian noble family which rose to prominence in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, initially as Venetian vassals and later as Ottoman vassals.

[1] In the first half of the 14th century, mercenaries, raiders and migrants known in Greek as Άλβανοί (Albanoi or "Albanians") flooded into Greece (specifically raiding Thessaly in 1325 and 1334).

[2] In 1358, Albanians got regions of Epirus, Acarnania and Aetolia under their rule and established two principalities under their leaders, Gjin Bua Shpata and Pjetër Losha.

[1] The Shpata family frequently collaborated with the Ottomans and saw them as protectors.

[3] Although German historian Karl Hopf provided a genealogy of the Shpata family, it is deemed by modern scholarship as "altogether inaccurate".