Skanderbeg

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Georg Kastriota Skanderbeg. Historicizing profile from the 18th century in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence

Georg Kastriota ( German  for Gjergj Kastrioti [ ˈɟɛɾɟ ˈkasˌtɾiˈɔˌti ]), called Skanderbeg ( Albanian  Skënderbeu , from Ottoman اسکندر بگ İA İskender Beğ ; * May 6, 1405 in the Dibra - Mat region ; † January 17, 1468 in Lezha ), was a prince from the Albanian noble family of the Kastrioti and a military commander who served the Ottoman Empire from 1423 to 1443 , the Republic of Venice from 1443 to 1447 and the Kingdom of Naples from 1451 until his death . He became famous for
his defense of the principality of Kastrioti against the Ottomans and in 1457 received it from Pope Calixtus III. both the titleFidei defensor ("Defender of the Faith") and the honorary title Athleta Christi ("Fighter of Christianity"). Today he iscelebratedby many as the Albanian national hero.

Life

origin

The fortress of Kruja in central Albania was the aristocratic seat of the Kastrioti between 1395 and 1415 and from 1443 to 1478

Georg Kastriota was next to Stanisha, Reposh and Konstandin II. The youngest of four sons of Prince Gjon Kastrioti I and his wife Vojsava Branković or Tripalda , daughter of the Lord of Polog (in Macedonia ). The royal family also had five daughters (Mara, Jelena, Mamica, Angjelina and Vlajka). His family grew up in a mixed ethnic area and belonged to the Christian Orthodox faith.

The coalition of Christian Balkan peoples from 1359 was defeated by the Ottoman Empire in the Battle of the Blackbird Field (1389), in which George's father fought alongside his father Pal . Pal fell in this battle; Gjon survived and became a vassal in the service of Sultan Murad II , which meant that he had to pay tribute to the Sultan and contribute to the Sultan's wars in the Balkans with an army .

Gjon's religion was directly influenced by the international balance of political forces. During his life, Gjon changed religion several times with his princely house. The Albanian historian, politician and Orthodox Bishop Fan Noli wrote in his Skanderbeg biography: “He was not a fanatical follower of any faith, but changed it according to his changing political orientations. He was Catholic as an ally of Venice (1407); he was Orthodox as a partisan Stefan Lazarević of Serbia from 1419 to 1426; he was a Muslim as an ally of Murad II from 1430 to 1438; Roman Catholic he was again from 1438 as an ally and honorary citizen of Venice and Ragusa (Dubrovnik); and he died a good Christian in 1443. “Other Albanian princes of the Middle Ages also pursued this policy .

Map of the Balkans around 1400

According to the Austrian historian and archivist Heinrich Kretschmayr , Gjon was considered to be “reasonably powerful in Albania”, became a citizen of the Republic of Venice and the Republic of Ragusa , ruled as a Turkish vassal and a feared horseman in the area from Durazzo to Dibra .

In order to escape the increasing pressure of the Ottomans, he sought good relations with the only neighboring Catholic country, the Republic of Venice, and became their vassal. In the archives of Venice he is mentioned in 1407 as dominus satis potens in partibus Albaniae ("mighty lord in a part of Albania"). But when there was no interest in armed conflict with the sultan, Gjon returned to Ottoman service in 1410, which was to cost him dearly. As mentioned above, he had to pay tribute to the Sultan and contribute to the Sultan's wars in the Balkans with an army. In addition, he had to leave his eldest son Stanisha as pledge for his loyalty to the sultan, convert to Islam , cede the strategically important region of Dibra, his fortress Svetigrad in northern Albania and the capital Kruja . In return, the Sultan undertook to let the boy grow up in his faith (Catholic) and to let his inheritance take over after the death of his father.

Youth and Turkish soldier

Gjon was able to expand his sphere of influence again, which now, in 1420, reached almost as far as Prizren in the east and as far as Lezha in the west , which made the Sultan suspicious. Therefore, in 1423 he also asked the other three sons of Gjon (Reposh, Konstandin and Georg) as pledge to his court in Adrianople , where, contrary to the sultan's promise, they were circumcised , raised to Islam and to be capable warriors ( Janissaries ).

Georg is described by Barleti as follows: “tall, strong, perfectly formed body with classic facial features of the Illyrian mountain people to which his family belonged.” Georg differed in ability, intelligence and culture. In fact, he spoke perfectly Ottoman , Arabic , Greek , Italian , Bulgarian and Serbian .

Georg, who grew up at the court of Sultan Murad II and learned about historical Muslim military techniques, was raised to be one of the officers of the Ottoman army. Georg had excelled in a number of battles in Anatolia , so that the Sultan entrusted him with the implementation of a small but difficult campaign in which he distinguished himself in particular and received the honorary military title " Bey ", which translates as " the great ”,“ Magno ”means and who corresponds to a“ Sergeant ”.

George was so involved in military operations in the Balkans that various documents and letters from Venetian representatives requested the father Gjon to use his paternal authority to prevent the son from forays into the countries belonging to the Republic of Venice.

Gjon died on May 2, 1437. After his death, Murad II assigned the principality to the renegade Albanian Hasan Bey Versdesa by edict . With this act, the Sultan broke the pact once concluded with Gjon that one of his sons could inherit his inheritance after his death.

Georg, who is the Ottoman form of the Greek first name " Alexander ",اسکندر İskender , in German "Lord / Prince Alexander", was received as an allusion toAlexander the Great, who later with his titleبگ Bey was linkedto İskender Bey (Skanderbey, Skanderbeg) , was in 1438, after the death of his older brothers Reposh and Konstandin, for his services from the Sultan as Bey and Wali (provincial governor) of Misia, Skuria and Jonima (capital Kruja) to his native Albania sent. His full name was Yuvan oğlu İskender bey ("İskender, son of Yuvan ").

The struggle for Albanian independence

Kastrioti coat of arms

In the meantime, Skanderbeg learned his true origins and the fate of his three brothers; Revelations that would change the course of subsequent history. When the Hungarians defeated the Ottomans in Niš in November 1443 , Skanderbeg and his nephew Hamza Kastrioti ( Latin Ameses Castriota ) and 300 Albanian knights subordinate to him left the sultan's army and headed for Albania. Once there, he forged the sultan's edict and received from Hasan Bey Versdesa, Pasha in office, the handover of the fortress of Kruja and the paternal principality without a fight . During the festivities for the handover of the fortress, the small Ottoman contingent were killed, including Versdesa, who was sitting next to George at the banquet and was killed by himself. In the same night the flag with the crescent moon was replaced by the flag of the castriots, a double-headed black eagle on a red field: "Rubea vexilla nigris et bicipitibus distincta aqulis gereba." ( Marin Barleti ). The next morning there were no more Ottomans in town, except for those who had converted to Catholicism . Georg himself and his nephew Hamza converted to Catholicism. On September 28, 1443 he was crowned Prince of Albania in the Cathedral of Kruja. Georg ruled the principality from 1443 to 1444.

Skanderbeg took command of the opposition to the Ottomans. To do this, he looked for allies who would enable him to concentrate his military resources against the invaders. He turned to the Republic of Venice, which still had some control over the eastern Adriatic , and to the Kingdom of Naples, conquered by Alfonso I of Aragon in 1442 . Skanderbeg organized an army to defend the Kruja fortress.

With the help of the Pope, the King of Naples and the Venetians, he should succeed in uniting the Albanian princes in a regional defense alliance against the Ottomans and successfully waging war against them for 25 years.

The "Ottoman Fighter"

The League of Lezha in the Skanderbeg Museum in Kruja
Gross territory of the League of Lezha under Skanderbeg (1444–1479)

On March 1, 1444, Albanian and Montenegrin aristocrats gathered on the initiative of the "Ottoman Fighters" in the St. Nicholas Church in Alessio (Lezha), which was then part of Venice. The representative of Venice was also present. The assembly called the "League of Principalities of Albania" (Lidhja e Principatave të Arbërisë) into being; to this belonged the regions Amselfeld , Metochien , Novi Pazar , Dibra , Ohrid , Kanina and Arta . It was decided to form an 18,000-strong army, whose commander-in-chief Georg was unanimously appointed. The army should be able to be mobilized quickly. Three quarters of their relatives came from the Principality of Kastrioti, and of these, 3500 men formed Georg's bodyguard, who should always be armed. The Albanian princes swore an oath of loyalty to Georg and promised to provide more men if necessary and to pay 200,000 gold ducats a year . Further financial support came through occasional donations from the allies from Naples, Venice and also from the papacy.

Woodcut of a battle between the Albanian troops by Georg Kastriota and the Ottoman troops

Meanwhile, Murad II , furious at the betrayal of his protégé , sent a powerful army under the leadership of an Ali Pasha against the Albanians. The Ottomans were defeated on June 29, 1444 in the Battle of Torvioll . The success of Skanderbeg had a great response beyond the Albanian border and reached Pope Eugene IV , who even proposed a new crusade under the direction of George against Islam.

The outcome of the battle made the sultan even more angry. He commissioned Firuz Pascha , Georg Skanderbeg and the Albanians to destroy. The Ottoman commander set out at the head of 15,000 horsemen. Georg was waiting for him in a ravine near Prizren. On October 10, 1445, at the Battle of Mokra , the Ottomans were defeated again. The deeds of Skanderbeg resounded throughout the West; Delegations from the Pope and Alfonso I of Aragon, King of Naples, came to Albania to celebrate the amazing achievement. Skanderbeg won the titles of "fearless defender of western civilization" and "Athleta Christi" (fighter of Christianity).

But Murad II did not give up and sent two armies with a total of 25,000 men under the leadership of Mustafa Pasha to Albania. The Battle of Otoneta on September 27, 1446 was catastrophic for the Ottomans.

1447 sent Pope Callixtus III. Skanderbeg made money, made him captain of a crusade and promised to try to get the help of other armies including that of Venice.

However, Skanderbeg's company worried the Venetians, who saw their trade with the Ottomans, which had meanwhile been stabilized, in danger. They first allied themselves with the Sultan against Georg Skanderbeg. The battle of July 23, 1448 at the gates of Shkodra marked the defeat of the Venetians, who took revenge by razing the fortress of Balšić to the ground. Skanderbeg defeated the Ottomans again three weeks later, on August 14, 1448, in the Battle of Oranik .

As the Hungarian commander Johann Hunyadi advanced with his army in Kosovo and asked Skanderbeg to take part in the fight against the Sultan. Skanderbeg was unable to take part in this fight because he was prevented from doing so by the King of Serbia, Đurađ Branković , who had allied himself with Sultan Murad II. For this reason, Skanderbeg retaliated and destroyed Serbian villages on his way because the Serbs had betrayed the Christian cause and prevented him from participating in the campaign. When Skanderbeg reached Hunyadi, it had already been defeated by the Ottomans.

The Albanian-Venetian War (1447-48) ended on October 4, 1448 with the Peace Treaty of Lezha. Present were the captain of Shkodra, Paolo Loredano, the governor of Albania and representatives of the Signoria of Venice, Andrea Veniero, and Skanderbeg and Nikollë II. Dukagjini on his own behalf and that of the other lords of Albania. Venice then paid Skanderbeg and his male heirs 1,400 ducats a year. In return, Dagnum and all the surrounding areas went to Venice. ( Venetian Albania ) In addition, Skanderbeg had to send four hunting birds to Shkodra every year as a symbolic recognition of the Venetian sovereignty.

But the Ottomans did not succeed in establishing themselves permanently in central and northern Albania. In June 1450 Murad II personally attacked Albania with 150,000 soldiers and besieged the fortress of Kruja . The Ottomans lost half of their army and the commander Firuz Pasha was killed by Skanderbeg himself.

Even if the exceptional victories of the Albanians inflicted deep wounds on the Ottoman forces, the fighting had also weakened the Albanian armed forces. Skanderbeg, aware of his own limitations, offered Kruja to the Venetians on October 14th. Despite his threat to hand the city over to the Ottomans, the Ottomans turned down the offer because they had no interest in jeopardizing their good trade relations with the Ottoman Empire by supporting the Albanians. On October 26th, the Turks lifted the siege. Kruja would also be attacked later in 1466, 1467 and 1478.

Then Skanderbeg turned to the King of Naples, Alfonso of Aragon, and asked him for help. The latter was worried himself by the Ottoman pressure, acknowledged Kastrioti's hard fight against the Ottomans and declared himself ready to help him. On March 26, 1451 Skanderbeg signed in Gaeta a political agreement between Alfonso V and the League of Lezha . Skanderbeg submitted to the King of Naples as a "high lord", surrendered their belongings in Albania in his and the League's name, declared himself a vassal of the king, was willing to pay him a tribute and accepted the government of his legate. In return he received the promise to support and protect the League of Lezha against the Ottoman Empire with ammunition, troops, money and supplies. The agreement stipulated that Alfonso was obliged to defend any Albanian city under threat if the Albanians needed military aid from the Kingdom of Naples. In return, Skanderbeg should take an oath of allegiance to the crown of Aragon. As soon as Albania was freed from the Ottoman invasion, Skanderbeg would pay him tribute and recognize the crown of Aragon; however, he would retain his autonomy and self-government.

Sultan Mehmed II , successor to Murad, recognized the grave consequences the alliance of the Albanians with the Kingdom of Naples could have. So he decided to send two armies to Albania: one under Hamza Bey, the other under Dalip Pascha. On July 21, 1452, these two armies were destroyed in the Battle of Modrič . While Hamza Bey was captured, Dalip Pasha was killed in battle.

In the battle of Berat , which was fought on the Tomorr Mountains in mid-July 1455 , the Albanian contingent under Gjergj Arianiti Komneni , Karl Muzaka Thopia (fell in the battle), Vrana Konti , Gjin II. Muzaka and Skanderbeg fell under the Ottoman army Isa Bey Evrenoz. When Gjin II. Muzaka died shortly after the battle, his land Tomornizza on Tomorr of Skanderbeg was confiscated without consideration for his children, so that Skanderbeg and his possessions (Kruja, Mat, Dibra, Rotezo, Tomornizza) were in fact despot of Epirus . The Tormonizza came back to the Muzaka only after Skanderbeg's death (1468) .

Other Ottoman attacks turned into defeat for the Ottomans: the Battle of Polog on April 22, 1453 and the Second Battle of Oranik on May 18, 1456.

In the summer of 1457 Hamza marched with 50,000 men under the command of Isak Bey Evrenoz to Albania. After Mount Tumenistos near Kruja and other mountains around Albulena had been besieged by the Ottomans for one night, Georg rushed onto the camp on September 2nd from various points. Nobody tried to resist and the defeat of the Ottoman army was complete. After the battle 15,000 to 30,000 dead and wounded on the part of the Ottomans were mourned. Another 15,000 were taken prisoner, including Hamza, his nephew. Georg had ordered that the family traitor should be captured alive. Hamza was forgiven even when he tried to secretly return to Adrianople to save his family. However, he was poisoned a year later.

The balance of power changed suddenly with the conquest of Constantinople in May 1453 by the new Sultan Mehmed II. Now it was no longer a question of organizing a crusade, but of creating a more defensive coalition to stop the Muslim expansion in Europe. Under these conditions, which affected a large part of the Christian states, Venice could no longer escape either.

The military company in the Kingdom of Naples

The death of Alfonso V of Aragon on June 27, 1458 in Naples, Skanderbeg's friend and protector, marked the end of the Aragonese dream of a Mediterranean empire and the hope of a new crusade in which Skanderbeg would have been assigned a leading role.
Skanderbeg's relationship with the Kingdom of Naples continued even after Alfonso's death. His son and successor, King Ferdinand I , like his father after 1451, sometimes sent supplies, money, ammunition and troops to Skanderbeg. However, the situation had changed.

Ferdinand I was not as capable as his father, so Pope Pius II stepped in and called on Skanderbeg to help the king against a rebellion fueled by the French . Skanderbeg was aware of the benefits he had received from Alfonso of Aragon and it was now his turn to help the king regain and maintain his kingdom.

The military campaign under Gjok Stres Balšić

Skanderbeg, who was involved in battles with the Ottomans, entrusted his nephew Coiro Streso (or Gjok Stres Balšić ) (son of a sister) with a 5000-strong expeditionary force.

On October 1, 1460, the Milanese ambassador Antonio Da Trezzo from Naples wrote: “… people have arrived in Trani and Barletta on horseback and on foot. They were sent by Skanderbeg for the benefit of the king ... "

The base of operations was in Barletta. The troops of the rebel Giovanni Antonio Orsini del Balzo , last Prince of Taranto , were quickly defeated. Then there was a skirmish with the French and with a ruse to conquer the city of Trani.

The military campaign under Ivan Stres Balšić

Neapolitan provinces around 1454
(8th Terra d'Otranto)

In 1460 King Ferdinand had serious problems with another uprising by the Angevin and asked Skanderbeg for help. This request worried the opponents of King Ferdinand and the condottiere Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta , who declared that if Ferdinand Skanderbeg were received, he would defend to the Ottomans. In September 1460 Skanderbeg sent a company of 500 cavalrymen under his nephew Ivan Stres Balšić .

Ferdinand's main opponent, Prince Giovanni Antonio Orsini del Balzo of Taranto, tried to dissuade Skanderbeg from this venture and even offered him an alliance, which had no influence on Skanderbeg, who replied on October 31, 1460 that he was part of the Aragon family, especially in Times of need, owed fiefdom, and that he would like to die for the House of Aragon. Skanderbeg boasted that he had triumphed over the Sultan, even if he only had the city of Kruja, which "today belongs to the House of Aragon and his Majesty". In his reply to Orsini, Skanderbeg mentioned that Albanians would never tell their friends that they were descendants of Pyrrhus of Epirus , thus reminding Orsini of the Pyrrhic victories in southern Italy .

In a letter to the king, Skanderbeg laid out the same concept, his duty to come to his aid, and declared himself ready to come personally. He also agreed to die for a just cause. Skanderbeg signed the letter with "Your vassal".

The military campaign under Skanderbeg

Skanderbeg's military expedition to Italy (1460–1462). The northern route was taken by himself, while the southern route was taken by his subordinates

Skanderbeg concluded a three-year armistice with the Ottomans on April 17, 1461 and in August 1461 he embarked for Ragusa (Dubrovnik), where he was solemnly received by the Senate on the 25th, which even promised him a large subsidy, the amount of which after the Intervention should be decided by the Holy See . On the same day, the majority of his troops (1,000 cavalrymen and 2,000 infantrymen) landed in Barletta in Apulia under the command of his nephew Gjok Stres Balšić, who had already led the first Albanian troops in 1460.
The Milanese ambassador Antonio Da Trezzo of Naples wrote on August 25th to the Duke of Milan, Francesco Sforza : “This morning here in the port, besides the others that have already arrived, five ships full of Skanderbeg's men and horses arrived; his nephew Coyco (Gjok) is also there. It is also reported that Skanderbeg reached Ragusa with the rest of the people and, if nothing comes up, he will be here tomorrow or the day after. ”The exact date of Skanderbeg's arrival with the other troops in Puglia is unknown. According to Marin Barleti , he is said to have arrived on an island in Apulia because of a storm after an eight-day break.

The Italian historian Angelo Di Costanzo (1507–1591) reports: “If in those days Gjergj Kastrioti with the surname Scanderbech, who was very famous at the time for what he did against the Turks, did not suddenly have a good number of ships, 700 horses and 1000 experienced infantrymen would have come from Albania. He was aware that when the Turk came a few years earlier to attack him in Albania, where he ruled, King Alfonso had sent him help for which he could defend himself against the Turks. Having heard that King Ferrante was overburdened by so much war, this was the way he wanted to come to save him, and his coming was so effective that [the general Niccolò] Piccinino and Count Giulio [Antonio d ' Acquaviva] together did not dare to appear to the king in battle ... "

Ferdinand entrusted Skanderbeg with the entire Apulian front and with the defense of the fortress of Barletta, while the king negotiated further north with the city lord of Pesaro , Alessandro Sforza .

Skanderbeg carried out the assigned task with the utmost conscientiousness. From Barletta and Trani he attacked the territories of the rebel barons in Terra d'Otranto , where he spread misery and devastation. The "Casali" (plural of "Casale") in the province of Taranto, whose feudal lords were allied with the rebel Giovanni Antonio Orsini del Balzo, were destroyed.
After three months, the rebels, led by the Prince of Taranto, demanded peace, for which Skanderbeg himself acted as a mediator. Skanderbeg had succeeded in defeating the Italian and Angevin troops of Orsini of Taranto, securing the throne of King Ferdinand and returning to Ragusa (Dubrovnik) in February 1462, only to start the wars against the Ottomans shortly afterwards. King Ferdinand thanked Skanderbeg for the rest of his life.

On August 18, 1462, the decisive victory of the Aragonese in the battle of Orsara in the province of Foggia and, a year later, the reconciliation of the Neapolitan kingdom with John II of Anjou, who was leaving for France . With the death of the Prince of Taranto, Giovanni Antonio Orsini del Balzo, on November 15, 1463, most of the territories of his feudal rule fell to the Kingdom of Naples and thus wiped out Ferdinand I's greatest enemy.

The return to the Balkans

In the meantime the pressure from Mehmed II in Albania did not ease. In 1462 he sent three armies in quick succession, but they only met with failures. In April 1463 there was another armistice in Üsküb .

Skanderbeg returned to southern Italy and Rome in the spring of 1464 . It is known that Skanderbeg personally paid homage to King Ferdinand in Naples. On April 12, 1464, Ferdinand Skanderbeg granted an annual salary of 1200 ducats. Skanderbeg stayed in Rome until February; then he returned to his fight against the "infidels".
Many of the Albanians who had accompanied their prince to Italy asked and were given the right to stay there with their families.

Plans by Pope Pius II, who was feverishly preparing for a new crusade, were thwarted by his death on August 14, 1464. His successor Paul II , who was already very interested in the Ottoman question as a cardinal, did not disappoint his friends' expectations either. In his letters to the Italian princes, Paul II emphasized his intention to continue the war against the Ottomans started by Pius II in the “protection of the Christian faith against the anger of the Turks”. A major obstacle to the great plan was the Pope's constant financial distress.

In July 1466, Paul II called on the princes of Europe to help Skanderbeg, who for years had repelled all attacks by the Ottomans and brought defeat after defeat to the same. Thereupon Sultan Mehmed II decided to move to Albania himself.

The second siege of Kruja (1466–1467)

Depiction of the siege of Kruja in the Skanderbeg Museum
The presumed helmet of the Skanderbeg in the court hunt and armory of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna

In the spring of 1466 a 200,000 strong Ottoman lord (according to other sources the number is given as 300,000) set off for the second siege of the capital Kruja . At the end of May a messenger from Ragusa reported that Skanderbeg had been defeated by treason and that many Christians had been shed. The Italians were terrified and the Florentine Piero de 'Medici promised help. Pope Paul II, who had previously supported Skanderbeg, sent new sums of money and did not fail to make the Christian powers aware of the affliction of Christendom and the incessantly arriving refugees from the East. He also called on the powers that be to defend himself.
“It is not without tears to look at those ships that flee from the Albanian coast to the Italian ports, those naked, wretched families who, driven from their homes, sit on the shores of the sea, stretching their hands to the sky and the air with them Fulfill lamentations in a misunderstood language. ”( Pope Paul II. :) The generosity with which Paul II supported the unfortunate is shown by the accounts of his government.

Fortunately, the terrible news about the fate of Albania was not confirmed. Kruja was invincible by the bravery of his defenders. Skanderbeg limited himself to guerrilla warfare, which had already proven its worth so often: in the forests of Mount Tumenistos near Kruja he took a safe position and from there tired the Turkish army through raids, sham attacks and sham escapes until the sultan, who did not Bribery could still achieve something through honest struggle, had to move to the winter quarters in Constantinople. He left the Ottoman commander of Albanian descent, Ballaban Badera , with 80,000 men in front of Kruja and hoped to be able to conquer Kruja through blockade and starvation.
The fate of Albania depended on the rescue of the Kruja fortress, which Ballaban had enclosed by a military fortification. The Albanians and Venetians, however, were unable to save the capital on their own. So Skanderbeg decided to rush personally to Italy to solicit money and weapons for his Ottoman war in Rome and Naples.

When they returned home, the Ottomans were defeated in April 1467 and Ballaban Badera's brother, Constantine, was captured. Soon after, Skanderbeg won a second victory: Ballaban fell, whereupon the troops fled. But the danger was not over yet. Another Ottoman army appeared in the summer of 1467 , with which Skanderbeg had to fight all year round.

Skanderbeg in Italy

In mid-December 1466, Skanderbeg appeared in Rome, where he was given an honorable welcome. “It's an old man in his sixties; he came with few horses, in poverty; I hear he wants to ask for aids, ”reported an eyewitness.

From the account books of Pope Paul II it emerges that Skanderbeg once received 250 ducats for his maintenance , and another time 200 ducats; on April 19, 1467, Skanderbeg received 2,700 ducats and on September 1 another 1,100 ducats. There is a letter from a participant, Cardinal Francesco Gonzago , about the secret consistory of January 7, 1467, in which the assistance to be granted was discussed . According to him, the Pope immediately agreed to pay 5000 ducats. He justified the fact that he no longer gave with the need to protect his own country. This sum was confirmed in another secret consistory on January 12th.

Skanderbeg also received government aid, supplies and men from Naples. On the grounds that he could no longer do Ferdinand I in “this difficult time”, Skanderbeg received 1,500 ducats, 300 wagons with grain, ammunition, payment for infantrymen and other subsidies.

Representation of the region and historical province of Capitanata

On Skanderbeg's trip to Naples in 1467, Ferdinand I fulfilled his “gratitude, generosity and benevolence” for the help he received in Apulia with a charter on April 10th . Skanderbeg received for himself and his current and future heirs the feudal estates Trani , Monte Sant'Angelo and San Giovanni Rotondo in Capitanata with a number of symbolic and economic advantages: the extension of power to the entire stretch of coast between the two estates, which as a rule reserved for the royal domain, direct access to royal jurisdiction in the event of disputes and, finally, the possibility of importing and exporting goods of any value from the coast of Monte Sant'Angelo and the port of Mattinata without any obligation to pay the fees to the port by Manfredonia . Monte Sant'Angelo was a very prestigious fief at the time, which until then had only been granted to members of the ruling house. Since the charter was only to be valid after three years, the king swore an oath of allegiance to it four days later.

Until his death in 1468, Skanderbeg defended from the fortress Kruja from Albania against the Ottoman Empire. His sister Mamica helped him defend. She later died in battles against the Ottomans, who repeatedly tried to use large armed forces to break the power of Skanderbeg. However, the Albanian troops were too weak to drive out the Ottomans completely, and the hoped-for support from other European rulers did not materialize.

Skanderbeg's death

Albanians at the grave of Skanderbeg
The death of Skanderbeg; Murales in San Costantino Albanese
The remains of the St. Nicholas Church today

Skanderbeg died on January 17, 1468 in Lezha, probably of malaria, and was buried there in the St. Nicholas Church . It was a grave loss for Christianity.

It is said that on hearing the news of the death of his great enemy, Sultan Mehmed II exclaimed: “At last Europe and Asia belong to me. Woe to Christianity, it has lost its sword and its shield! ”
Skanderbeg's twelve-year-old minor son Gjon II succeeded him in the rule.

Lekë Dukagjini took over the leadership of the League of Lezha and continued the resistance against the Turks for several years. The Ottomans flooded the country: “In all of Albania we only saw Ottomans,” says a simultaneous report. 8,000 Albanians were abducted as slaves in just a few weeks. The total conquest of Albania has not yet succeeded; Shkodra and Kruja, whose occupation was reinforced by Venetian troops, initially remained invincible.

Donika , the widow of Skanderbeg, expressed to Ferdinand I's ambassador, Girolamo di Carovigno, who paid her a condolence visit, that he and her son Gjon could settle on her husband's fiefs in the Kingdom of Naples in order to avenge the Ottomans and to escape Islamization, as well as a ship for the journey, which the king accepted with great joy in his letter of February 24, 1468. It was customary for the nobility of the Kingdom of Naples at the time to live in Naples. Donika also settled with her son in Naples and stayed only sporadically on the fiefs in Apulia. Apparently both were guests of Ferdinand I as a token of gratitude to the late Skanderbeg.
The fourth of a total of eight waves of emigration from numerous Christian (Catholics with Byzantine rite ) Albanian nobles and families to Italy, whose descendants still make up the Arbëresh ethnic group to this day , followed.

Skanderbeg bust and symbolic burial site in the Skanderbeg memorial in Lezha

Ten years after Skanderbeg's death, the Ottomans conquered Albania in 1478 and ruled it for more than 400 years. Skanderbeg's grave and church, where his body was buried, were later converted into the Selimiye Mosque of Lezha by the Muslims . Many Ottomans are said to have taken parts of his remains with them as talismans . Only a few remains of the wall of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher can be seen today. The mosque, on the other hand, was destroyed in 1968 during the dictator Enver Hoxha's atheism campaign and a memorial with replicas of the helmet and sword of Skanderbeg was erected above it in the 1970s . The alleged originals are in the possession of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna and are exhibited in the court hunting and armory in the Neue Burg . On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the proclamation of the independence of the Republic of Albania on November 28, 2012, the alleged helmet, sword and other personal artefacts were exhibited for a few days in the National History Museum in Tirana .

progeny

Engraving of Donikas (wife) by Johann Theodor de Bry , 1596

In 1451 Skanderbeg married Donika Arianiti , daughter of the prince of Kanina, Gjergj Arianiti, in the monastery Ardenica in southern Albania . In 1456 his only son and descendant Gjon Kastrioti II was born from this marriage. Hamza, who had hoped to inherit the principality of Kastrioti, went with his family on the same day (1456) to Adrianople, where he again converted to Islam.

Gjon, who had inherited the titles of Lord of Monte San Angelo, Trani and San Giovanni Rotondo from his father, became 1st Duke of Galatina and 1st Count of Soleto in the province of Lecce in exchange for Monte San Angelo and San Giovanni Rotondo in 1485 .

Gjon married Irena Branković Paleologo , descendant of the imperial family of Byzantium. The couple had five children:

  1. Costantino (1477–1500) (Bishop of Isernia )
  2. Ferrante (? –1561), 2nd Duke of San Pietro in Galatina and of Soleto, Venetian patrician, married Adriana Acquaviva d'Aragona of the Dukes of Nardò . The first daughter Erina (? –1565), 3rd Duchess of San Pietro in Galatina and of Soleto, married Prince Pierantonio Sanseverino of Bisignano , liege of the mountain community of Civita founded by Arbëresh .
  3. Giorgio (? - 1540)
  4. Federico (? -?)
  5. Maria (? - 1560)

Post fame

House Skanderbeg in Rome, Vicolo Scanderbeg 117
Heroes' memory: The equestrian statue created by Odhise Paskali in 1968 on Skanderbeg Square in the Albanian capital Tirana is the most famous monument in honor of the prince

Skanderbeg became famous all over Europe during his lifetime . Pope Calixt III. appointed Georg Kastriota a day before Christmas Eve of the year 1457 as captain-general of the Roman Curia and captain-general of the Holy See for his special services in the defense of Christianity against the Ottomans. His successful fight against the Ottomans not only earned him the status of the national hero of Albania, but also made him the subject of numerous books and dramas; many of them were written several hundred years after his death. So Skanderbeg is also the title character of the opera “Scanderbeg” by Antonio Vivaldi . Skanderbeg is even mentioned in Icelandic sources. The only entry in the Skarðsárannáll for the year 1469 is: '“The praiseworthy lord and hero Skanderbeg (whose real name was Georgius Castriota) died. He had ruled for 24 years and he has achieved many wonderful victories. "

In 1466 Skanderbeg had a four-storey house built in the center of Rome in Vicolo Scanderbeg 117 for his trip to Rome in 1466. He had a portrait of himself placed above the portal, which is still well preserved today. Skanderbeg bequeathed the house with the legal obligation to have the picture restored if necessary. The inscription above the portal reads: Geor Castriota a Scanderbeg Princeps Epiri. / Ad fidem. Iconis rest. on. Cathedral MDCCCXLIII.

The mountains around Kruja are called the Skanderbeg Mountains . The Skanderbeg Museum in Kruja Castle collects all works related to him. The ruins of St. Nicholas' Church in Lezha, where he was buried, have been turned into a memorial that opened in 1981.

There are no pictorial representations that show Skanderbeg's real appearance during his lifetime. All pictures of the Albanian prince are based on oral descriptions and were only painted after his death. In Tirana (see Skanderbeg Square ) and Pristina the central squares are named after Skanderbeg and are decorated by equestrian statues. There are also equestrian statues of him in Skopje ( Skanderbeg Square ), Rome , Geneva , Debar and Rochester Hills ( Michigan ).

From 1944 to 1945, an SS division made up primarily of Albanians was called Skanderbeg.

In 1953, the Albanian- Soviet co-production of the film Великий воин Албании Скандербег ( The great warrior of Albania Skanderbeg ) was shot about the national hero; the production from the cinema studio "Shqipëria e Re" was the first feature film to be produced in Albania. In 2007 the film was released on DVD with German DEFA synchronization under the name Skanderbeg - Knights of the Mountains . Ismail Kadare made Skanderbeg's struggle for freedom the subject of his novel The Fortress (in the original Kështjella , 1970).

The Roman Palazzo Skanderbeg was named after the Albanian national hero.

literature

Remarks

  1. According to Marin Barleti , he is said to have been born in 1412; "In 1430 Gjergj was only 18 years old."
  2. Other sources give May 2, 1437 as the date of death.
  3. According to other sources in 1442.
  4. According to Barleti, they died of food poisoning ( see here ).
  5. Hamza took the name of his great-grandfather Branilo (prešavši u hrišćanstvo Hamza će uzeti ime Branilo, po svom čukundedi) ... Dialogos, Volume 5, Edizioni 17-20 . 1996, p. 123 (Bosnian).
  6. ^ "Ad Trani et Barletta sonno arrivate gente da cavallo et da pede che ha mandate Scanderbech in favore del Re ..." (Gennaro Maria Monti, p. 130)
  7. "... Questa matina sonno arrivati ​​qua in porto cinque navilii carichi de gente et cavali de Scanderbech, oltra li altri che già erano venuti, come per le alligate scrivo, et è venuto uno suo nipote chiamato Coyco, et dicono che la persona del prefato Scanderbech era giunta ad Ragusa cum el resto de la gente, et credese, non havendo tempo contrario, domane o l'altro serà qua… ”(Gennaro Maria Monti, p. 139)
  8. Italian name for a house or a group of houses in the country
  9. "Ferdinandus etc. ... et magnanimo Viro Georgio Castrioti dicto Scandaribech Albanie Domino ... annuam provisionem ducatorum mille ducentorum pecunie et ponderis generalis huius Regni, ..." (Gennaro Maria Monti, p. 169)
  10. "El S. Scanderbeg gionse qui venerdi [= December 12] et Incontra li forono mandates le famiglie de 'cardinali. È homo molto de tempo, passa li 60 anni; Cum puochi cavalli è venuto e da povero homo. Sento vorrà subsidio. " (Letter from JP Arrivabenus, dated Rome, December 14, 1466, archives of Cardinal Francesco Gonzago in Mantua)
  11. Cardinal Gonzaga to his father, the Margrave Luigi III. Gonzaga of Mantua: Rome, 7th Jan 1467 “… Questa matina in consistorio secreto fossemo sopra la materia del soccorso che dimanda el Scanderbec et in summa el papa disse che li daria cinque milia ducati ne piu voleva dargene allegando che anche lui bisognava prvedere a li fatti suoi,… “(original in the Gonzaga archive in Mantua); Ludwig von Pastor, p. 763
  12. “… gratitudo liberalitas ac benignitas in illis [scil. regibus] maxime necessarie inesse videntur per has enim a subditis et ser vientibus amantur principes, quo nihil altius nihilque securius ad eorum vite statusque conser vationem habere possunt,… “[… gratitude, generosity and benevolence seem to be indispensable virtues for a king: in in fact, thanks to them, the princes are popular with their subjects and cannot expect anything more valuable that gives them security for the defense of their own life and property ...], (Gennaro Maria Monti, p. 161)
  13. "Ferdinandus etc. ... Tenentes et possidentes in nostra fidelitate et demanio ac aliter quocumque terram Sancti Angeli de lo Monte et terram Sancti Ioannis Rotundi pertinentiarum provincie Apulee cum castris, fortellitiis, vaxallis, iuribus ac pertinentiis scientia de la nostroostium" motu proprio ac cum nostri consilii deliberatione matura nostreque regie potestatis plenitudine, proque bono Reipublice pacis ac status nostri conservatione tuitioneque prefato illustri Georgio dicto Scandarebech pro se ac suis heredibus, de suo corporeenn legitime natis et nascituris 162, p )
  14. "Ferdinandus etc. ... Tenentes et possidentes in nostra fidelitate et demanio ac aliter quocumque terram Sancti Angeli de lo Monte et terram Sancti Ioannis Rotundi pertinentiarum provincie Apulee cum castris, fortellitiis, vaxallis, iuribus ac pertinentiis scientia de la nostroostium" motu proprio ac cum nostri consilii deliberatione matura nostreque regie potestatis plenitudine, proque bono Reipublice pacis ac status nostri conservatione tuitioneque prefato illustri Georgio dicto Scandarebech pro se ac suis heredibus, de suo corporeenn legitime natis et nascituris.… "(p )
  15. "... Item perche ad nui per loro misso proprio haveno notificato che vorriano venire in quisto nostro regno pregandoce li volesscmo provedcie de alcuno navilio per possere passare: pertanto da nostra parte li esponente che loro venuta ad nui seravera multo piacere, et da n source carize et honori che figlio deve fare ad matre et patre ad figliolo et non solamente li lassaremo quello ce havemo donato, ma quando bisognio fosse li donaremo de li altri nostri boni
    Dat. in civitate capue the xxiv mensis februarii Anno Domini Mcccclxviii Rex ferdinandus ... "

Web links

Commons : Skanderbeg  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

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  6. Irvin Faniko, p. 29
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  41. a b Gennaro Maria Monti, p. 132
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  53. Quoted from Ludwig von Pastor, p. 361
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