Skanderbeg
 |
Scanderbeg and the people, sculpture by Janaq Paço and Genc Hajdari in the National Museum, Krujë, Albania |
George Kastrioti (Gjergj Kastrioti) (
1405 -
January 17 1468), better known as
Skanderbeg, is the most prominent figure in the history of
Albania. He is also known as the Dragon of Albania
and is the national hero of the Albanians. He is remembered for his struggle against the
Ottoman Empire, through the work of his first biographer,
Marin Barleti[Marin Barleti, 1508, Historia de vita et gestis Scanderbegi Epirotarum principis, theeuropeanlibrary.org].
George Kastrioti (Gjergj Kastrioti) (
1405 -
January 17 1468), better known as
Skanderbeg, is the most prominent figure in the history of
Albania. He is also known as the Dragon of Albania
and is the national hero of Albanians. He is remembered for his struggle against the
Ottoman Empire, through the work of his first biographer,
Marin Barleti[Marin Barleti, 1508, Historia de vita et gestis Scanderbegi Epirotarum principis, theeuropeanlibrary.org].
In English, his names have variously been spelled: George, Gjergj, Giorgio; Castriota, Kastrioti, Castrioti, Castriottis
[James Emerson Tennent, 1845, The History of Modern Greece, from Its Conquest by the Romans B.C.146, to the Present Time], Kastriotes, Castriot
[Catholic World Encyclopedia VOL. XXIII, Number 134, 1876, Scanderbeg entry], Kastriot; Skanderbeg, Scanderbeg, Skenderbeg, Skanderbeu, or Scander-Begh.
His father was an
Albanian lord of the Kastrioti family. Gjon Kastrioti
[Camille Paganel, 1855, "Histoire de Scanderbeg, ou Turcs et Chrétiens du XVe siècle"], descended from an ancient family from
Mat, and controlled a principality including Mat,
Krujë,
Mirditë and
Dibër.
[Edwin E. Jacques, The Albanians: An Ethnic History, 1994, p. 179]. Voisava, Skanderbeg's mother, was from the Tribalda family
, a princess
[M. Barleti, ibid.] from Polog valley
[located today in the north-western part of the Republic of Macedonia]. Although he fought in the service of the Ottoman Empire, Skanderbeg soon switched sides and fought against the Ottoman Empire until the time of his death.
Service in the Ottoman Army
Born in
Krujë, Skanderbeg was a descendant of the Kastriotis, who were one of the principal families in what was called then, Arberia (today Albania).
According to Gibbon
[Edward Gibbon, 1788, History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, Volume 6, Scanderbeg section], Skanderbeg's father, Gjon Kastrioti was a hereditary prince of a small district of Epirus or Albania. Gjon Kastrioti was among those who opposed
the early incursion of Bajazet II, however his resistance was ineffectual; and the Sultan, having accepted his submissions, obliged him to pay tribute and to ensure the fidelity of local rulers, George Kastrioti and his three brothers were taken by the Sultan to his court as hostages. He attended military school and led many battles for the Ottoman Empire to victory. For his military victories, he received the title
Arnavutlu İskender Bey, (
Albanian:
Skënderbeu Shqiptari,
English:
Skanderbeg, the Albanian). In
Turkish and Albanian this title means
Lord Alexander the Albanian, comparing Kastrioti's military brilliance to that of
Alexander the Great).
He earned distinction as an officer in several Ottoman campaigns both in
Asia Minor and in
Europe, and the Sultan appointed him to the rank of General by giving him a cavalry force of 5,000 men. Some sources claim that he maintained secret links with
Ragusa,
Venice,
Ladislaus V of
Hungary, and
Alfonso I of
Naples.
Fighting for freedom
 |
What remains of the castle in Krujë |
In November 28th,
1443, Skanderbeg saw his opportunity to rebel during a battle against the Hungarians led by
John Hunyadi in
Niš. He switched sides along with 300 other Albanians serving in the Ottoman army. After a long trek to Albania he eventually captured Krujë by forging a letter
from the Sultan to the Governor of Krujë, which granted him control of the territory. After capturing the castle, Skanderbeg
abjured the prophet and the sultan, and proclaimed himself the avenger of his family and country. He raised his standard (that later became the
Albanian flag) above the castle and reportedly pronounced:
"I have not brought you freedom, I found it here, among you." Skanderbeg allied with George Arianite
[John V Fine, 1994, The Late Medieval Balkans: A Critical Survey from the Late Twelfth Century to the Ottoman Conquest, ISBN 0472082604] and married his daughter Andronike.
Following the capture of Krujë, Skanderbeg managed to bring together all the Albanian princes in the town of
Lezhë[Minna Skafte Jensen, 2006, A Heroic Tale: Marin Barleti's Scanderbeg between orality and literacy] (see
League of Lezhë,
1444). Gibbon
reports that
"Albanians, a martial race, were unanimous to live and die with their hereditary prince" and that
"in the assembly of the states of Epirus, Scanderbeg was elected general of the Turkish war and each of the allies engaged to furnish his respective proportion of men and money". With this support, Skanderbeg built fortresses and organized a mobile defense force that forced the Ottomans to disperse their troops, leaving them vulnerable to the hit-and-run tactics of the Albanians
[L.S. Stavrianos, 2000, The Balkans Since 1453, ISBN 1850655510].Skanderbeg fought a
guerrilla war against the opposing armies by using the mountainous terrain to his advantage. Skanderbeg continued his resistance against the Ottoman forces until his death, with a force rarely exceeding 20,000.
Although it is commonly believed that Skanderbeg took part in the
Second Battle of Kosovo in
1448, he actually never arrived. He and his army were en route to reinforce the mainly
Hungarian army of
John Hunyadi, but the Albanians were intercepted and were not allowed passage by
Đurađ Branković of
Serbia as he had agreed that while he would aid Skanderbeg against the Venetians, he would not against the Turks. About the time of the battle, Mehmed II also launched an invasion into Albania in order to keep Skanderbeg busy. Although Hunyadi was defeated in the campaign, Hungary successfully resisted and defeated the Ottoman campaigns during Hunyadi's lifetime.
|
The drawing of Skanderbeg battle |
In June
1450, an Ottoman army numbering approximately 150,000 men led by Sultan Murad II himself laid siege to Krujë. Leaving a protective garrison of 1,500 men under one of his most trusted lieutenants,
Vrana Konti (also know as
Kont Urani), Skanderbeg harassed the Ottoman camps around Krujë and attacked the supply caravans of the sultan's army. By September the Ottoman camp was in disarray as morale sank and disease ran rampant. Murad II acknowledged the castle of Krujë would not fall by strength of arms, and he lifted the siege and made his way to
Edirne. Soon thereafter in the winter of
1450-
51, Murad died in Edirne and was succeeded by his son
Mehmed II.
For the next five years Albania was allowed some respite as the new sultan set out to conquer the last vestiges of the
Byzantine Empire. The first real test between the armies of the new sultan and Skanderbeg came in
1455 during the
Siege of Berat, and would end in the most disastrous defeat Skanderbeg would suffer. Skanderbeg had sieged the town's castle for months, causing the demoralized Turkish officer in charge of the castle to promise his surrender. At that point Skanderbeg relaxed the grip, split his forces and left the siege location. He left behind one of his generals and half of his cavalry at the bank of the river
Osam to finalize the surrender. It would be a costly error.
The Ottomans saw this moment as an opportunity for attack. They sent a large cavalry force from
Fushe in
Kosovo to
Berat as reinforcements. The Albanian forces had become overconfident and had been lulled into a false sense of security. The Ottomans caught the Albanian cavalry by surprise while they were resting in the shores of the Osam. Almost all the 5,000 Albanian cavalry laying siege to Berat were massacred. When Skanderbeg made it to the battlefield, everything was over; the Ottoman cavalry had already left for
Anatolia. A reason of this defeat of Scanderbeg's army, was the betrayal of his nephew, Hamza Kastrioti who was an officer of Scanderbeg's cavalry that passed on the Ottoman side with other Albanian forces and gave the Ottomans important information about the locatin and the organization of the Albanian troops. Later Hamza Kastrioti was captured in the battlefield by Scanderbeg himself, and imprisoned in the castle of Krujë.
 |
Statue of Skanderbeg, in Krujë, Albania |
In
1457, an Ottoman army numbering approximately 80,000 men invaded Albania with the hope of destroying Albanian resistance once and for all; this army was led by
Isa beg Evrenoz, one of the the only commanders to have defeated Skanderbeg in battle, and
Hamza Kastrioti, Skanderbeg's nephew. After wreaking much damage to the countryside, the Ottoman army set up camp at the
Ujebardha field (literally translated as "Whitewater"), halfway between Lezhë and Krujë. After having evaded the enemy for months, Skanderbeg attacked there and defeated the Ottomans in September.
In
1461 the Sultan proposed
terms of accommodation with Skanderbeg and a peace was concluded between them on June 22. In the same year, Skanderbeg launched a successful campaign
against the
Angevin noblemen and their allies who sought to destabilize King
Ferdinand I of Naples. For his services
he gained the title
Duke of San Pietro in the kingdom of Naples. After securing the Neapolitan kingdom, a crucial ally in his struggle, he returned home. In
1464 Skanderbeg fought and defeated
Ballaban Badera, an Albanian renegade who had captured a large number of Albanian army commanders
[John Musachi, 1515, Brief Chronicle on the Descendants of our Musachi Dynasty], including
Moisi Arianit Golemi, a cavalry commander;
Vladan Giurica, the chief army economist;
Muzaka of Angelina, a nephew of Skanderbeg, and 18 other noblemen and army captains. These men, after they were captured, were sent immediately to
Istanbul and tortured for fifteen days
. Skanderbeg's pleas to have these men back, by either ransom or prisoner exchange, failed.
|
A statue in the little mountain city of Krujë, portraying Albania's national hero Skanderbeg. |
In
1466 Sultan Mehmed II personally led an army into Albania and laid siege to Krujë as his father had attempted sixteen years earlier. The town was defended by a garrison of 4,400 men, led by Prince
Tanush Topia. After several months, Mehmed, like Murad II, saw that seizing Krujë by force of arms was impossible for him to accomplish. Shamed, he left the siege to return to Istanbul. However, he left a force of 40,000 men under
Ballaban Pasha to maintain the siege, even building a castle in central Albania, which he named
El-basan (the modern
Elbasan), to support the siege. Durrës would be the next target of the sultan, in order to be used as a strong base opposite the Italian coast
[Franz Babinger, 1992, Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time, ISBN 0691010781]. The second siege of Kruja was eventually broken by Skanderbeg, resulting in the death of Ballaban Pasha from
firearms.
A few months later in
1467, Mehmed, frustrated by his inability to subdue Albania, again led the largest army of its time into Albania. Krujë was besieged for a third time, but on a much grander scale. While a contingent kept the city and its forces pinned down, Ottoman armies came pouring in from
Bosnia,
Serbia,
Macedonia, and
Greece with the aim of keeping the whole country surrounded, thereby strangling Skanderbeg's supply routes and limiting his mobility. During this conflict, Skanderbeg fell ill with
malaria in the Venetian-controlled city of Lezhë, and died on
January 17 1468, just as the army under the leadership of
Leke Dukagjini defeated the Ottoman force in
Shkodër.
Papal relations
Skanderbeg's military successes evoked a good deal of interest and admiration from the
Papal States, Venice, and Naples, themselves threatened by the growing Ottoman power across the
Adriatic Sea. Skanderbeg managed to arrange for support in the form of money, supplies, and occasionally troops from all three states through his diplomatic skill. One of his most powerful and consistent supporters was
Alfonso the Magnanimous, the king of Aragon and Naples, who decided to take Skanderbeg under his protection as a vassal in
1451, shortly after the latter had scored his second victory against Murad II. In addition to financial assistance, the King of Naples supplied the Albanian leader with troops, military equipment, and sanctuary for himself and his family if such a need should arise. As an active defender of the Christian cause in the Balkans, Skanderbeg was also closely involved with the politics of four Popes, including
Pope Pius II, who hailed him as the Christian
Gideon.
Profoundly shaken by the fall of
Constantinople in
1453, Pius II tried to organize a new crusade against the Ottoman Turks, and to that end he did his best to come to Skanderbeg's aid, as his predecessors
Pope Nicholas V and
Pope Calixtus III had done before him. This policy was continued by his successor,
Pope Paul II. They gave him the title
Athleta Christi, or
Champion of Christ.
After death
|
A horseman statue portraying the Albanian folk hero, George Castriota Scanderbeg, in the square Piazza Albania in Rome, Italy. |
The Albanian resistance went on after the death of Skanderbeg for an additional ten years under the leadership of Dukagjini, though with only moderate success and no great victories. In
1478, the fourth siege of Krujë finally proved successful for the Ottomans; demoralized and severely weakened by hunger and lack of supplies from the year-long siege, the defenders surrendered to Mehmed, who had promised them to leave unharmed in exchange. As the Albanians were walking away with their families, however, the Ottomans reneged on this promise, killing the men and enslaving the women and children
.
In
1479, the Ottoman forces captured the Venetian-controlled Shkodër after a fifteen-month siege
. Shkodër was the last Albanian castle to fall to the Ottomans and Venetians evacuated Durrës in 1501. Albanian resistance continued sporadically until around
1500.
The union
which Skanderbeg had maintained in Albania did not survive him. Without Skanderbeg at their lead, their allegiances faltered and splintered until they were forced into submission. The defeats triggered a great Albanian exodus
to southern Italy, especially to the kingdom of Naples, as well as to Sicily, Greece, Romania, and Egypt. Following this, most of its population converted to
Islam. Albania remained a part of the
Ottoman Empire until the early
1900s, never again posing a serious threat to the Ottomans.
Effects on the Ottoman expansion
The Ottoman Empire's expansion was ground to a halt during the timeframe in which Skanderbeg and his Albanian forces resisted. He has been credited with being the main reason for delaying Ottoman expansion into
western Europe, giving
Vienna time to better prepare for the Ottoman arrival. This is not entirely true. While the Albanian resistance certainly played a vital role in this, it was one piece of numerous events that played out in the mid-
15th century. Much credit must also go to the successful resistance mounted by
Vlad III Dracula in
Wallachia, as well as the defeats inflicted upon the Ottomans by Hunyadi and his Hungarian forces.
Skanderbeg's family, the Castriots
were invested with a Neapolitan dukedom, as the Turkish pressure became too strong. They obtained a feudal fiefdom, the Duchy of San Pietro di Galatina. John, Skanderbeg's son, married
[Steven Runciman, 1990, The Fall of Constantinople 1453, ISBN 0521398320] Irene Palaeologus of the
Byzantine royal family, the
Palaeologus.
An illegitimate branch of that family lives onwards in south Italy, having used the name
Castriota Scanderbeg for centuries. They have been part of
Italian lower
nobility. The legitimate line of George Castriota went extinct as to males within a few generations, but apparently the family continues through a Sanseverino branch. There is also a
Spanish nobleman by the name of
Juan Alandro Castriota who contributed a great deal towards Albania's struggle for independence .
A seal, that is assumed to be a seal of Skanderbeg, has been kept in
Denmark since it was discovered in
1634. It was bought by the National Museum in
1839. According to the interpretation of the symbols and inscriptions on the seal as they have been studied and analysed by Danish scholars, the seal is made of brass, is 6 cm in length and weighs 280 g. The inscription is in
Greek and reads
Alexander (Skender) is an Emperor and a King. Emperor of the Romaic nation (Greeks) and King of the Turks, the Albanians, the Serbs and the Bulgarians. It naturally follows the inscription is laterally reversed. It is possible that the seal was made after the fall of Constantinople in
1453, since Skanderbeg is referred to as an Emperor of the
Byzantines. The double eagle in the center of the seal is derived from the eagle of the Byzantine emperor, and this fact is also the most agreed upon among educated Albanians. Some claim it is a famous ancient Illyrian symbol. This seal is the origin of the flag of modern
Albania. Furthermore, Skanderbeg never was a King of the Serbs or the Bulgars. It is possible the seal was 'designed' while Skanderbeg was organizing a crusade against the Ottomans or that it was manufactured when Skanderbeg served as a vassal to the King of Naples. It is also possible the seal was commissioned by the family of Skanderbeg some time in the 16th century, or even that it is a fake from the 15th or 16th century.
During his reign Skanderbeg issued many laws (census of the population, tax collecting etc) based on
Roman and
Byzantine law.
When the Ottomans found the grave of Skanderbeg in
Saint Nicholas church of Lezhë, they opened it and made
amulets of his bones
, believing that these would confer bravery on the wearer.
Skanderbeg today is the national hero of
Albania. Many museums and monuments, such as the
Skanderbeg Museum next to the castle in Krujë, are raised in his honor around Albania and in the predominantly Albanian-populated
Kosovo. Skanderbeg's struggle against the Ottoman Empire became highly significant to the Albanian people, as it strengthened their solidarity, made them more conscious of their national identity, and served later as a great source of inspiration in their struggle for national unity, freedom, and independence.
In
Arbëresh poems he is not only the defender of their home country, but also the defender of
Christianity. For the Albanians in Albania, a large majority of whom are
Muslims, Skanderbeg is a national argument proving Albania's cultural affinity to Europe. Many have argued he was
Muslim himself, although he was not. He had converted while held captive in Anatolia, but later reverted back to Christianity upon his escape.
|
A page from Historia de vita et gestis Scanderbegi Epirotarum principis |
Skanderbeg gathered quite a posthumous reputation in Western Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries. With virtually all of the Balkans under Ottoman rule and with the Turks at the gates of Vienna in 1683, nothing could have captivated readers in the West more than an action-packed tale of heroic Christian resistance to the "Moslem hordes".
Books on the Albanian prince began to appear in Western Europe in the early 16th century. One of the earliest of these histories to have circulated in Western Europe about the heroic deeds of Skanderbeg was the
Historia de vita et gestis Scanderbegi, Epirotarum Princeps (Rome ca. 1508-1510), published a mere four decades after Skanderbeg's death. This:
History of the life and deeds of Scanderbeg, Prince of the Epirotes was written by the Albanian historian Marinus Barletius Scodrensis (ca. 1450 - ca. 1512), known in Albanian as
Marin Barleti, who after experiencing the Turkish occupation of his native Shkodër at first hand, settled in
Padua where he became rector of the parish church of
St. Stephan.Barleti dedicates
his work to Donferrante Kastrioti, Scanderbeg's grandchild and to the next generations.The first time this book was published in Italy in Latin language and since then it was translated in many languages.
The work was widely read in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries and was translated and/or adapted into a number of foreign language versions:
German by
Johann Pincianus (Augsburg, 1533),
Italian by
Pietro Rocca (
Venice, 1554, 1560), Portuguese by Francisco D'Andrade (Lisbon, 1567), Polish by Ciprian Bazylik (Brest-Litovsk, 1569),
French by
Jaques De Lavardin, also known as Jacques de Lavardin, Seigneur du Plessis-Bourrot (
"Histoire de Georges Castriot Surnomé Scanderbeg, Roy d'Albanie", Paris, 1576), and Spanish by
Juan Ochoa de la Salde (Seville, 1582). The English version, translated from the French of Jaques De Lavardin by one Zachary Jones Gentleman, was published at the end of the 16th century under the title,
Historie of George Castriot, surnamed Scanderbeg, King of Albinie; containing his Famous Actes, his Noble Deedes of Armes and Memorable Victories against the Turkes for the Faith of Christ. Gibbon was not the first one
[see also Chalcondyles, l vii. p. 185, l. viii. p. 229] who noticed that Barleti is sometimes inaccurate in favour of his hero - for example Barleti claims that the Sultan was killed by disease under the walls of Kruje.
[Gibbon, ibid, note 42]Skanderbeg's posthumous fame was not confined to his own country.
Voltaire, starts his chapter
The Taking of Constantinople[Voltaire, 1762, Works, Vol 3, translated from the French by T. Smollet, T. Francklin and others] with the phrase
"Had the Greek Emperors acted like Scanderbeg, the empire of the East might still have been preserved". A number of poets and composers have also drawn inspiration from his military career. The French 16th century poet
Ronsard wrote a poem about him, as did
[Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1863, Scanderbeg] the 19th century
American poet
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
Antonio Vivaldi composed an opera entitled
Scanderbeg. For Gibbon, "John Huniades and Scanderbeg... are both entitled to our notice, since their occupation of the
Ottoman arms delayed the ruin of the
Greek empire."
In 1855, Camille Paganel, wrote
"Histoire de Scanderbeg" inspired from the
Crimean War.
Skanderbeg fought many battles and many of them ended with victory.
*The
Battle of Ujebardha*The
Battle of Torviolli*The
Battle of Drin*The
Siege of Berat*The
First Siege of Krujë*The
Second Siege of Krujë*The
Third Siege of Krujë*The
Fourth Siege of Krujë*The
Fall of Krujë*The
Siege of Shkodra*
History of AlbaniaBibliography
Additional sources
Adapted from Fan S. Noli's biography George Castrioti Scanderbeg''
External links
*
Scanderbeg's expedition to Italy*
Heraldic Source on Scanderbeg*
The Arbreshe and Contessa Entellina*
A Brief History of Albania*
Benjamin Disraeli, 1833,
The Rise of Iskander, (Note this is historical fiction)
*
Analysis of literature on Scanderbeg*
Scanderbeg: Warrior-King of Albania - trailer of a documentary
