Skanderbeg

File:Skanderbeg sculpture.jpg

Scanderbeg sculpture from the Museum in Kruje.

Gjergj Kastrioti (George Kastrioti) (1405, Kruja - January 17, 1468, Lezha), better known as Skanderbeg, is the most prominent figure in the history of Albania. He was a descendant of the Kastrioti family, a respected family of princes in Albania.

Obliged by the Ottomans to pay tribute to the Empire, and to ensure the fidelity of local rulers, Gjon Kastrioti's sons were taken by the Sultan to his court. In 1423, Gjergj Kastrioti and his three brothers were thus taken by the Turks. He attended military school and led many battles for the Ottoman Empire to victory. For his military victories, he received the title Iskander Bey Arnauti, (Albanian: Skënderbeu Shqiptari, English: Skanderbeg, the Albanian). In Turkish this title means Lord Alexander, comparing Kastrioti's military brilliance to that of Alexander the Great). Skanderbeg soon switched sides and came back to his native land to successfully defend Albania against the Ottoman Empire until the time of his death.

Success in the Ottoman Army

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. He fought against Serbs and Hungarians, and some sources claim that he maintained secret links with Ragusa, Venice, Ladislaus V of Hungary, and Alfonso I of Naples. Sultan Murad II gave him the title Vali, making him Governor of some provinces in central Albania. He was respected abroad, but he missed his country. After the death of his father, Skanderbeg sought a way to return to Albania and lead his countrymen against the Ottoman armies. It was Skanderbeg's 25 year defiance of the Ottoman Empire which followed that has preserved Christianity in Albania to this day. The Turks were successful in converting almost 70% of Albania to Islam. Even though, Albanians belonged to three religions (four including Shi’a Muslims), they have always acted as one united body and been an example of inter-religious tolerance.

Fighting for the Freedom of Albania

What remains of the castle in Krujë

In 1443, Skanderbeg saw his opportunity to rebel during the battle against the Hungarians led by John Hunyadi in Nis. He switched sides along with other Albanians serving in the Ottoman army, leading an Albanian resistance. He eventually captured Kruje, his father's seat in Middle Albania, and he raised the Albanian flag above the castle and reportedly pronounced: "I have not brought you liberty, I found it here, among you."

Following the capture of Kruje, Skanderbeg managed to bring together all the Albanian princes in the town of Lezhë (see League of Lezhë, 1444) and unite them under his command against the Ottomans. He fought a guerilla war against the opposing armies, using the mountainous terrain to his advantage.

Skanderbeg would continue his resistance against the Ottoman forces, arguably the most powerful army of the time, with a force rarely exceeding 20,000. In June 1450, an Ottoman army numbering approximately 150,000 men led by Sultan Murad II himself laid siege to Kruje. 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 Kruje 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. Grudgingly, Sultan Murad acknowledged that the castle of Kruje would not fall by strength of arms, and he decided to lift his siege and make his way to Edirne. Soon thereafter in the winter of 1450-1451, Murad II 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 in Europe and Asia Minor. The first test between the new Ottoman sultan and Skanderbeg came in 1455 during the Siege of Berat, where the former defeated the latter, decimating the Albanian army and leaving five thousand men dead on the battlefield, some 40-50% of the Albanian mobile forces. This was the worst military defeat that Skanderbeg would ever suffer.

File:Gjergji statue kruja albania 2004-08-07.jpg

Statue of Gjergj Kastrioti, 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, the only commander to have defeated Skanderbeg in battle and Hamza Kastrioti, Skanderbeg’s own nephew. After wreaking much damage to the countryside, the Ottoman army set up camp at the Ujebardha field (literally tranlated as "Whitewater"), halfway between Lezha and Kruje. There, in September, after having evaded the enemy for months, Skanderbeg attacked with a force not exceeding fifteen thousand men, and defeated the Ottomans.

In 1461 Skanderbeg launched a successful campaign against the Angevin noblemen and their allies who sought to destabilize King Ferdinand 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.

Though Ballaban Badera was defeated by Skanderbeg, he was successful in capturing a large number of Albanian army commanders, 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.

In 1466, Sultan Mehmed II personally led an army into Albania and laid siege to Kruje as his father had also attempted sixteen years earlier. Kruje was defended by a garrison of 4,400 men, led by Prince Tanush Thopia. After several months, Mehmed, like Murad II, saw that seizing Kruja by force of arms would not be easily accomplished, and left the siege to return to Istanbul. However, he left a force of forty thousand men under Ballaban Pasha to maintain the seige, even building a castle in central Albania, which he named El-basan (the modern Elbasan), to support the siege. This second siege was no more successful than the first was eventually broken by Skanderbeg, resulting in the death of Ballaban Pasha, who fell victim to the use of firearms.

A few months later, in 1467, Mehmet, frustrated by his inability to subdue Albania, again led an army into Albania, this one the largest of its time. Kruje 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 Lezhe, and died on January 17, 1468, just as the army under the leadership of Leke Dukagjini defeated the Ottoman force in Shkodra.

The Albanian resistance went on after the death of Skanderbeg for an additional ten years under the new leadership of Leke Dukagjini. In 1478, the fourth siege of Kruje 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. A year later, the Ottoman forces captured Shkodra, the last free Albanian castle (although it was under Venetian control at the time), but the Albanian resistance continued sporadically until around 1500.

Papal Relations

Portrait of Skanderbeg

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, one of them being Pope Pius II, the Renaissance humanist, writer, and diplomat.

Profoundly shaken by the fall of Constantinople in 1453, Pius II tried to organize a new crusade against the 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.

Skanderbeg's 25-year resistance against the Ottoman Empire succeeded in helping protect the Italian peninsula from invasion by the Turks.

Gjergj Kastriot's Legacy

During his reign Skanderbeg issued many laws (census of the population, tax collecting etc) based on Roman law and Byzantine law. After his death from natural causes in 1468 in Lezhë, his soldiers resisted the Turks for the next 12 years. In 1480 Albania was finally conquered by the Ottoman Empire. When the Turks found the grave of Skanderbeg in Saint Nicholas church of Lezhe, they opened it and made amulets of his bones, believing that these would confer bravery on the wearer. The same year, they invaded Italy and conquered the city of Otranto.

Skanderbeg Museum

Skanderbeg's posthumous fame was not confined to his own country. Voltaire thought the Byzantine Empire would have survived had it possessed a leader of his quality. A number of poets and composers have also drawn inspiration from his military career. The French sixteenth-century poet Ronsard wrote a poem about him, as did the nineteenth-century American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Antonio Vivaldi composed an opera entitled Scanderbeg.

Skanderbeg today is the National Hero of Albania. Many museums and monuments are raised in his honor around Albania, among them the Skanderbeg Museum next to the castle in Krujë.

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, he also the defender of Christianity. For the Albanians in Albania, a large majority whose muslims, Skanderbeg is a national argument proving Albania's cultral affinity to Europe.

Seal of Skanderbeg

Seal of Skanderbeg

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 the intepretation 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 centimers in length and weighs 280 grams. 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 Bulgars. It naturally follows that the inscription is laterally reversed. It is possible that the seal was made after the fall of Constantinople in 1453, since Scanderbeg is referred to as an Emperor of the Byzantines. The double eagle in the center of the seal is a famous Byzantine Greek symbol, and the origin of the flag of modern Albania. Furthermore, Scanderbeg never was a King of the Serbs or the Bulgars. It is possible that the seal was 'designed' while Scanderbeg was organising a crusade against the Osmans, or that it was manufactured when Scanderbeg served as a vassal to the King of Naples. It's also possible that the seal was commissioned of the family of Scanderbeg some time in the 16th century, or even that it is a fake from the 15th or 16th century.

Descendants

Skanderbeg's family later took refuge to south Italy, as Turkish pressure became too much. They obtained there a feudal fief, Duchy of San Pietro di Galatina. 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.

Sources

Adapted from Fan S. Noli's biography George Castrioti Scanderbeg and the 1911 Encyclopedia.

Name Variants

In English, his names have variously been spelled: Gjergj, George, Giorgio; Kastrioti, Castrioti, Castriot, Kastriot; Skanderbeg, Scanderbeg, Skenderbeg, or Scander-Begh.

See Also

• History of Albania
• Marin Barleti, the first biographer of Skanderbeg

External Links

• Catholic Word Enyclopedia VOL. XXIII., Number 134-MAY 1876
• Scanderbeg's expedition to Italy
• Heraldic Source on Scanderbeg
• The Arbreshe and Contessa Entellina
• A Brief History of Albania
• Guzzardi Source (Italian)

Bibliography

• Historia de vita et gestis Scanderbegi Epirotarum principis, Marin Barleti, 1508
• "Histoire de Georges Castriot Surnomé Scanderbeg, Roy d'Albanie", Jacques de Lavardin, 1576
• "The Rise of Iskander", Benjamin Disraeli, 1833 (pdf at ibiblio.org)
• "Histoire de Scanderbeg, ou Turcs et Chrétiens du XVe siècle", Camille Paganel, 1856 (note: Paganel wrote it inspired from the Crimean War)