Following
Charles of Anjou's successful campaign in 1266, the
Hohenstaufen tower of Copertino was held first by the de Pratis family and then by
Walter VI of Brienne,
Duke of Athens,
Count of Lecce and
Grand Constable of France. Copertino became the centre of a County under the Enghiens, who were sovereigns of the land of Galatone, Leverano and Veglie. With the marriage of
Mary of Enghien, Countess of Lecce and Copertino (later Queen of Naples and titular Queen of Sicily, Jerusalem, and Hungary) to
Raimondo del Balzo Orsini, the county became part of the
principality of Taranto. The French knight
Tristan Chiaromonte (de Clermont-Lodeve) led the development of the county capital, having assumed power over the territory on his marriage to
Caterina, daughter of
Mary of Enghien. Tristan's daughter
Isabella of Clermont, heiress to the Brienne claim to the Kingdom of Jerusalem, married
Ferdinand I of Naples. With the conquest of the
Salento peninsula by the Aragonese dynasty, effected jointly by the Spanish army and knights from
Albania, the county was gifted in 1498 to Alfonso Castriota Scanderbeg, in gratitude for military support. The
Princes of Belmonte gained the Castle through the Squarciafico Counts of Copertino, to whom the fief passed from 1557. ==Copertino DOC==