Editing Lefkada (section)

===Middle Ages===
====Byzantine period====
No information survives on the island during the early [[Byzantine Greece|Byzantine period]],{{sfn|Soustal|Koder|1981|p=195}} when the town possibly disappeared in the turmoils of the [[Migration Period]].{{sfn|Kiel|1986|p=725}} Nevertheless, unlike the Epirote mainland, where widespread [[Slavs|Slavic]] settlement is attested from the late 6th until mid-8th centuries,{{sfn|Soustal|Koder|1981|pp=51–52}} only a handful of traces attest to a Slavic settlement in Lefkada.{{sfn|Soustal|Koder|1981|p=195}}

Information continues to be sparse during the middle Byzantine period. The island is attested as a bishopric at the [[Fourth Council of Constantinople (Eastern Orthodox)|Fourth Council of Constantinople]] in 879, and was raised to archbishopric under Emperor [[Leo VI the Wise]] ({{reign|886|912}}).{{sfn|Soustal|Koder|1981|p=195}} Administratively, it was likely part of the [[Theme of Cephallenia]].{{sfn|Soustal|Koder|1981|p=195}} [[Liutprand of Cremona]] visited the island during his 968 embassy to Constantinople. In 1099 it was raided by [[Dagobert of Pisa]], and it is mentioned in [[al-Idrisi]]'s geography in the mid-12th century.{{sfn|Soustal|Koder|1981|p=195}}

====Epirote and Latin rule====
{{further|Latinokratia}}
The [[Republic of Venice]] was accorded privileges in the island in 1198 and possession of the island in the [[Partitio Romaniae|treaty of partition]] of the Byzantine Empire in 1204.{{sfn|Soustal|Koder|1981|p=195}} Lefkada apparently became part of the [[Despotate of Epirus]], although this is not explicitly attested until 1259.{{sfn|Soustal|Koder|1981|p=195}}

The name '''Santa Maura''' is first attested for the island and its capital in 1292, when Genoese ships in Byzantine employ raided it.{{sfn|Soustal|Koder|1981|pp=195, 203}} In 1295, the [[Despot of Epirus]] [[Nikephoros I Komnenos Doukas]] ceded the island to his son-in-law, the [[Count palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos]] [[John I Orsini]].{{sfn|Brooks|2013|p=102}} Orsini soon after received permission from [[Charles II of Naples]] to build a castle there,{{sfn|Soustal|Koder|1981|p=203}} which became the core of the [[Castle of Santa Maura]].{{sfn|Brooks|2013|p=102}}

[[File:Leuchate Sta Maura - Buondelmonti Cristoforo - 1420.jpg|thumb|Map of Lefkada by [[Cristoforo Buondelmonti]], {{circa|1420}}]]
The Orsini family lost Lefkada in 1331 to [[Walter VI of Brienne]], who in 1343 ceded the ''castrum Sancte Maure'' and the island to the Venetian [[Graziano Giorgio]].{{sfn|Brooks|2013|p=287}}{{sfn|Soustal|Koder|1981|pp=195, 203}} In 1360/62, [[Leonardo I Tocco]] seized Lefkada, assuming the title of duke (''dux Lucate''), whence the island is sometimes also referred to as "the Duchy" (''el Ducato'' and variants thereof) in Western sources of the period.{{sfn|Soustal|Koder|1981|p=195}}{{sfn|Brooks|2013|pp=102, 287}} The local Orthodox archbishop was evicted.{{sfn|Soustal|Koder|1981|p=195}} After [[Albanians|Albanian]] clans took over much of Epirus in the 1350s and 1360s,{{sfn|Fine|1994|pp=348–351}}{{sfn|Soustal|Koder|1981|pp=70–71}} they launched frequent attacks on the island between 1375 and 1395.{{sfn|Soustal|Koder|1981|p=195}} [[Carlo I Tocco]] ({{reign|1376|1429}}) made the island the capital of his domains, which apart from the County palatine of Cephalonia and Zakynthos also included much of the Epirote mainland, and enlarged the fortified town.{{sfn|Kiel|1986|p=725}}

In 1413, the [[Prince of Achaea]], [[Centurione II Zaccaria]], launched an attack on Lefkada and its castle with Albanian mercenaries, but were defeated with help from the [[Republic of Venice]].{{sfn|Soustal|Koder|1981|pp=195, 203}} The [[Ottoman Empire|Ottomans]] captured most of Epirus{{sfn|Kiel|1986|p=725}} and raided the island, leading the Tocci to consider ceding it to the Venetians.{{sfn|Soustal|Koder|1981|p=195}}

Faced with expanding Ottoman power in the mainland, the Tocci became vassals of the Ottoman sultans.{{sfn|Kiel|1986|p=725}} The last of them, [[Leonardo III Tocco]] ({{reign|1448|1479}}) was helped to maintain his rule through his marriage to [[Milica Branković]], a niece of [[Mara Branković|the highly esteemed stepmother]] of the Ottoman sultan [[Mehmed the Conqueror]] ({{reign|1444|1446|1451|1481}}); but when she died, he married the Aragonese Francesca Marzano. The couple quickly became hated by their Greek subjects due to their oppressive taxation.{{sfn|Kiel|1986|pp=725–726}} Lefkada, along with Cephalonia and Zakynthos, was captured by the Ottoman admiral [[Gedik Ahmed Pasha]] in 1479. Part of the population was deported to [[Istanbul|Constantinople]] as part of Mehmed's policy to repopulate his capital.{{sfn|Kiel|1986|p=726}}