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GJERGJ
KASTRIOTI
SCHOLARSHIP FUND
PO BOX 1384
Birmingham, MI 48012-1384
USA
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Gjergj Kastrioti
– Skėnderbeu
1405 - 1468
Gjergj (Albanian: George) Kastrioti was born in Kruja, Albania
in the year 1405. His father, lord of
Middle Albania, Gjon Kastrioti,
was obliged by the Ottomans to pay tribute to its Empire. To assure the
fidelity of local rulers, the Sultan would take the lords’ sons as
hostage and raise them in his court. Gjergj Kastrioti attended military school in the Ottoman
Empire and was named “Iskander Bey”, Turkish for “Lord Alexandre.”
He was distinguished as one of the best officers in several
Ottoman campaigns both in Asia Minor and in Europe.
The Sultan appointed him General for his efforts. He even fought against
Greeks, Serbs and Hungarians, and some sources says that he used to maintain
secret links with Raguse, Venice, Vladislas
of Hungary and Alphonse V of Naples. Sultan Murat II
gave him the title “Vali” which made him
the General Governor of some provinces in central Albania. Although he was respected
everywhere, he missed his country.
In 1443, during the battle against the Hungarians of Hunyadi in Nish (in present day Serbia), he abandoned the Ottoman Army and
captured Kruja, his father's seat in middle Albania. Above
the castle he rose the Albanian flag, a red flag with
the black double‑headed eagle, the present‑day Albanian flag, and
pronounced to his countrymen the famous words: "I have not brought you
liberty, I found it here, among you". He managed to unite all Albanian
princes at the town of Lezha (League of Lezha, 1444) and united them under his command to fight
against the Turks.
During the next 25 years he fought, with forces rarely
exceeding 20,000 against the most powerful army of the time and defeated it
consistently. In 1450 Sultan Murad II himself led the
Turkish army against Skėnderbeu. He died on the way back to his empire after
his defeat. On two other occasions, in 1466 and 1467, Mehmed
II, the conqueror of Constantinople, led the
Turkish army against Skėnderbeu and he too failed.
The Ottoman Empire attempted to conquer Kruja 24 times and failed all 24 of them.
Skėnderbeu's military successes
evoked a good deal of interest and admiration of the Papal state, Venice and Naples,
themselves threatened by the growing Ottoman power across the Adriatic.
The Albanian warrior played his hand with a good deal of political and
diplomatic skill in his dealings with the three Italian states. Hoping to
strengthen and expand the last Christian bridgehead in the Balkans, they
provided Skėnderbeu with money, supplies and
occasionally with troops. One of his most powerful and consistent supporters
was Alfonso the Magnanimous (1416‑1458), the Aragone
king of Naples, who decided to take Skėnderbeu under
his protection as vassal in 1451, shortly after the latter had scored his
second victory against Murad II. In addition to
financial assistance, the King of Naples undertook to supply the Albanian
leader with troops, military equipment as well as with sanctuary for himself
and his family if such a need should arise. As an active defender of the
Christian cause in the Balkans, Skėnderbeu was also
closely involved with the politics of four Popes, one of them being Pius II
(1458‑1464) or Aeneas Sylvius Piccolomini, 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; consequently he did
his best to come to Skėnderbeu's aid, as two of his
predecessors Nicholas V and Calixtus III, had done
before him. This policy was continued by his successor, Paul II,(1464‑1473).
They gave him the title “Athleta
Christi.”
For a quarter of a century he and his country prevented
Turks from invading Catholic Western Europe. After his death from natural
causes in 1468 in Lezha, 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 Skėnderbeu in Saint
Nicholas church
of Lezha,
they opened it and held his bones like talismans for luck. In 1480 the Turks
invaded Italy and conquered
the City of Otranto.
Skėnderbeu's posthumous renown was
by no means 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 and so did the nineteenth‑century American poet
Longfellow. Antonio Vivaldi, too, composed an opera
entitled Scanderbeg.
Skėnderbeu today is the National
Hero of Albania. Many museums and monuments are raised in his honor around Albania, and among them the Museum of Skėnderbeu in his famous
castle in Kruja.
Bibliography:
Noli, Fan S.: George Castrioti Scanderbeg, New York,
1947
Logoreci, Anton: The Albanians, London, 1977.
As printed at http://www.albanian.com/main/culture/famous/Skėnderbeu.html
