The League of Lezhë (), also commonly referred to as the Albanian League (), was a military and diplomatic alliance of the Albanian aristocracy, created in the city of Lezhë on 2 March 1444. The League of Lezhë is considered as the first unified independent Albanian country in the Medieval age, with Skanderbeg as leader of the regional Albanian chieftains and nobles united against the Ottoman Empire. Skanderbeg was proclaimed "Chief of the League of the Albanian people" while Skanderbeg always signed himself as "Dominus Albaniae" (Albanian: Zot i Arbërisë, English: Lord of Albania). At the assembly of Lezha, members from the families: Kastrioti, Arianiti, Zaharia, Muzaka, Spani, Thopia and members of the Balsha and Crnojević which were linked matrilineally or via marriage to the Kastrioti were present. The members contributed to the League with men and money, while maintaining control of the internal affairs of their domains. Soon after its creation the pro-Venetian Balšići and Crnojevići left the league in the events that led to the Albanian–Venetian War (1447-48). The peace treaty of the Albanian-Venetian war signed on October 4, 1448 is the first diplomatic document on which the league appears as an independent entity. Barleti referred to the meeting as the generalis concilium or universum concilium ("general council" or "whole council"); the term "League of Lezhë" was coined by subsequent historians. Background After the death of Serbian Emperor Stefan Dušan in 1355, the magnates in Albania established their own dominions. When Ottoman forces entered Albania, they were faced with small principalities that were engaged in vicious fights among themselves. The first battle against the Ottoman forces in Albania was that of Balša II, the Lord of Zeta, when Karl Thopia, invited Ottomans who defeated and killed Balša II in the battle of Savra which happened on 18 September 1385. In the 15th century, the Ottoman Empire established itself in the Balkans with no significant resistance offered by local Christian nobles. Many of them were still fighting amongst themselves and didn't see the Ottoman advance as a threat to their power. Although a civil war broke out between Bayezid I's sons in 1402–13, none of the Christian noblemen in the Balkans at the time seized the opportunity to repel the Ottomans; on the contrary, Bulgarians, Serbs and Hungarians even helped the future Sultan Mehmed I seize power, by participating as his allies in the final battle against his brother.