Skanderbeg (1443): Albania's Revolt Against the Ottomans

Skanderbeg, born George Kastrioti, was an Albanian nobleman who abandoned the Ottoman army in November 1443, seized the fortress of Krujë and led a revolt that resisted the Ottoman Empire for a quarter of a century. Fighting with small forces in the mountains of Albania, he defeated several Ottoman armies sent by Sultans Murad II and Mehmed II. His resistance made him famous across Christian Europe, and today he is Albania’s national hero.

Background

By the early fifteenth century the Ottoman Turks had become the dominant power in the Balkans. Their victory at the Battle of Kosovo in 1389 and their steady advance through Serbia, Bulgaria and Greece left the small lordships of Albania exposed. Albanian noble families such as the Kastrioti, Arianiti, Dukagjini and Thopia ruled valleys and fortresses, often as Ottoman vassals.

George Kastrioti was born around 1405, a son of Gjon Kastrioti, a lord whose lands lay in central and northern Albania. As was common for vassals, Gjon had to send sons to the Ottoman court as hostages and guarantees of loyalty. George was raised in Ottoman service, converted to Islam and received the name Iskender. As a cavalry commander and later a provincial governor he won the title of bey, and so became known as Iskender Bey, or Skanderbeg.

Ottoman administrators also expanded the timar system in Albania, granting land revenues to cavalrymen in return for service. This change displaced some local landholders and helped fuel unrest. Albanian revolts had already broken out in 1432–1436, led by Gjergj Arianiti among others.

The defection of 1443

In 1443 a Hungarian and Polish army led by John Hunyadi and King Władysław III advanced into the Balkans in what became known as the Long Campaign. During the fighting near Niš in November 1443, Skanderbeg left the Ottoman army with a group of Albanian horsemen, often put at around 300 men, and rode for home.

According to his early biographer Marin Barleti, he obtained the fortress of Krujë by presenting a forged order from the sultan to its governor. Historians treat the details of Barleti’s account with caution, but Skanderbeg did take Krujë in late November 1443, raised his red banner with a black double-headed eagle, and returned to Christianity. Tradition places the raising of the flag on 28 November, a date Albanians still celebrate.

The League of Lezhë

On 2 March 1444 Albanian nobles met in the Venetian-controlled town of Lezhë, on the coast north of Krujë. Members of the Arianiti, Dukagjini, Zaharia, Spani, Thopia and other families, together with Stefan Crnojević of Zeta, agreed to form an alliance and chose Skanderbeg as its commander. This alliance is known as the League of Lezhë.

The league was not a state with fixed institutions. Its members contributed men and money but kept their own lands and interests, and several later quarrelled with Skanderbeg or went over to the Ottomans. Even so, it gave Albanian resistance a single military leader for the first time.

Twenty-five years of war

The first test came quickly. On 29 June 1444, at Torvioll in the Dibër region, Skanderbeg defeated an Ottoman army under Ali Pasha. It was the first of many encounters in which he used the mountainous terrain, ambushes and fast cavalry to defeat larger forces.

In 1448 the Ottomans captured the fortress of Svetigrad, an important loss. In 1450 Sultan Murad II personally besieged Krujë for several months but failed to take it and withdrew before winter. The successful defence spread Skanderbeg’s fame throughout Europe.

To survive, Skanderbeg sought foreign allies. In 1451, by the Treaty of Gaeta, he accepted the overlordship of King Alfonso V of Aragon and Naples in exchange for military and financial support. In the same year he married Donika Arianiti, daughter of Gjergj Arianiti, strengthening his ties to another powerful family. His relationship with Venice, which held coastal towns in Albania, swung between cooperation and open conflict.

Not every campaign went well. In 1455 Skanderbeg’s attempt to take the fortress of Berat ended in a heavy defeat. In 1457, however, he defeated a large Ottoman army under Isa Bey Evrenos at Ujëbardha, also known as Albulena, in one of his best-known victories.

Between 1460 and 1462 he even sent troops to southern Italy to help Alfonso’s son, Ferdinand I of Naples, against a rival claimant. After a truce with Mehmed II in 1463, Skanderbeg resumed war when Pope Pius II called a new crusade, which collapsed when the pope died in 1464.

Mehmed II, the conqueror of Constantinople, then turned his full attention to Albania. In 1466 he built the fortress of Elbasan to control central Albania and besieged Krujë; a second siege followed in 1467. Both failed. Skanderbeg died of fever, probably malaria, at Lezhë on 17 January 1468.

Key people

• George Kastrioti Skanderbeg (c. 1405–1468): Albanian lord and former Ottoman officer who led the resistance.
• Murad II: Ottoman sultan who besieged Krujë in 1450.
• Mehmed II: Ottoman sultan who led campaigns into Albania in 1466 and 1467.
• Alfonso V of Aragon: King of Naples and Skanderbeg’s overlord and ally from 1451.
• Donika Arianiti: Skanderbeg’s wife, from one of Albania’s leading noble families.

Consequences

Without Skanderbeg, Albanian resistance weakened. Venice took over the defence of several fortresses, but Krujë fell in 1478 and Shkodër in 1479 after a long siege. Albania remained part of the Ottoman Empire until 1912. Many Albanians, including members of the Kastrioti family, moved to southern Italy, where communities known as the Arbëreshë still preserve a form of the Albanian language.

Skanderbeg’s wars delayed Ottoman expansion along the Adriatic coast. In the 1440s and 1450s his resistance tied down Ottoman troops at the same time as the Battle of Varna, the fall of Constantinople and the siege of Belgrade. Popes praised him as a champion of Christendom, and he became a hero of European literature and music.

Myths and facts

Myth: Skanderbeg was never defeated. He won many battles, but he also lost Svetigrad in 1448 and suffered a serious defeat at Berat in 1455.

Myth: Every detail of his life is known from reliable records. Much of the popular story comes from Marin Barleti’s Latin biography, written around 1508–1510, which glorifies its hero and includes speeches and episodes that cannot be confirmed.

Fact: His helmet, topped with a goat’s head, and a sword associated with him are preserved in Vienna, though historians have debated how much of the equipment belonged to him personally.

Timeline

• 1443, November: Skanderbeg leaves the Ottoman army during fighting near Niš and takes Krujë.
• 1444, 2 March: Albanian nobles form the League of Lezhë.
• 1444, 29 June: Victory over Ali Pasha at Torvioll.
• 1450: Murad II besieges Krujë and fails to take it.
• 1451: Treaty of Gaeta with Alfonso V of Aragon and Naples.
• 1457: Victory over Isa Bey Evrenos at Ujëbardha (Albulena).
• 1466–1467: Mehmed II builds Elbasan and besieges Krujë twice without success.
• 1468, 17 January: Skanderbeg dies at Lezhë.
• 1478: Krujë falls to the Ottomans.

Legacy

In the nineteenth century, Albanian writers of the national revival turned Skanderbeg into a symbol of unity, and the black eagle on a red field became the national flag when Albania declared independence in 1912. An equestrian statue was unveiled in the centre of Tirana in 1968, on the 500th anniversary of his death, and a museum dedicated to him opened in the castle of Krujë in 1982. Antonio Vivaldi composed an opera about him in 1718.

Why it matters

Skanderbeg’s revolt was one of the most durable acts of resistance to Ottoman expansion in the fifteenth century. It shaped the history of the Adriatic for a generation and gave Albanians a lasting national hero whose memory still unites Muslims and Christians alike.