71 Facts About Skanderbeg

Skanderbeg graduated from the Enderun School and entered the service of the Ottoman sultan Murad II for the next twenty years.

In 1451, through the Treaty of Gaeta, Skanderbeg recognized the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Naples over Albania, ensuring a protective alliance, although he remained a independent ruler.

Skanderbeg became a central figure in the Albanian National Awakening of the 19th century.

Skanderbeg is honored in modern Albania and is commemorated with many monuments and cultural works.

Skanderbeg always signed himself in Latin: Dominus Albaniae, and claimed no other titles but that in surviving documents.

Skanderbeg had three older brothers: Stanisha, Reposh and Constantine, and five sisters: Mara, Jelena, Angelina, Vlajka and Mamica.

Skanderbeg was sent as a hostage to the Ottoman court in Adrianople in 1415, and again in 1423.

Later that year, Skanderbeg continued fighting for Murad II in his expeditions, and gained the title of sipahi.

Several scholars have assumed that Skanderbeg was given a fiefdom in Nikopol in northern Bulgaria, because a certain "Iskander bey" is mentioned in a 1430 document holding fiefs there.

At that time, Skanderbeg was leading a cavalry unit of 5,000 men.

Skanderbeg quit the field along with 300 other Albanians serving in the Ottoman army.

Skanderbeg abandoned Islam, reverted to Christianity, and ordered others who had embraced Islam or were Muslim settlers to convert to Christianity or face death.

The small court of Skanderbeg consisted of persons of various ethnicities.

Skanderbeg was supposedly the manager of Skanderbeg's bank account in Ragusa.

Skanderbeg organized a mobile defense army that forced the Ottomans to disperse their troops, leaving them vulnerable to the hit-and-run tactics of the Albanians.

Skanderbeg fought a guerrilla war against the opposing armies by using the mountainous terrain to his advantage.

Skanderbeg occasionally had to pay tribute to the Ottomans, but only in exceptional circumstances, such as during the war with the Venetians or his travel to Italy and perhaps when he was under pressure of Ottoman forces that were too strong.

Skanderbeg had under his command 7,000 infantry and 8,000 cavalry.

At the beginning of the Albanian insurrection, the Republic of Venice was supportive of Skanderbeg, considering his forces to be a buffer between them and the Ottoman Empire.

The Albanian garrison in the castle resisted the frontal assaults of the Ottoman army, while Skanderbeg harassed the besieging forces with the remaining Albanian army under his personal command.

Skanderbeg learned from these officers that it was the Venetians who pushed the Ottomans to invade Albania.

Skanderbeg instructed his troops on what to expect and opened battle by ordering a force of archers to open fire on the Venetian line.

Skanderbeg, seeing his fleeing adversaries, ordered a full-scale offensive, routing the entire Venetian army.

Skanderbeg's army suffered 400 casualties, most on the right wing.

One of the reasons Skanderbeg agreed to sign the peace treaty with Venice was the advance of John Hunyadi's army in Kosovo and his invitation for Skanderbeg to join the expedition against the sultan.

However, the Albanian army under Skanderbeg did not participate in this battle as he was prevented from joining with Hunyadi's army.

Skanderbeg was outraged at the fact that he had been prevented in participating in a battle which could have changed the fate of his homeland if not the entirety of the Balkan Peninsula.

Skanderbeg then traveled to Ragusa, urging for assistance, and the Ragusans informed Pope Nicholas V Through financial assistance, Skanderbeg managed to hold Kruje and regain much of his territory.

Skanderbeg's success brought praise from all over Europe and ambassadors were sent to him from Rome, Naples, Hungary, and Burgundy.

Skanderbeg planned to first defeat Hamza and then to move around Tahip and encircle him.

Skanderbeg returned triumphantly with his army with whom he had split his booty.

Skanderbeg informed King Alfonso that he had conquered some territories and a castle, and Alfonso replied some days later that soon Ramon d'Ortafa would return to continue the war against the Ottomans and promised more troops and supplies.

The Siege of Berat, the first real test between the armies of the new sultan and Skanderbeg, ended up in an Ottoman victory.

Skanderbeg besieged the town's castle for months, causing the demoralized Ottoman officer in charge of the castle to promise his surrender.

At that point, Skanderbeg relaxed his grip, split his forces, and departed the siege, leaving behind one of his generals, Muzake Topia, and half of his cavalry on the banks of the Osum River in order to finalize the surrender.

Skanderbeg took over possessions of the Zenevisi and the Balsic as well.

Skanderbeg tried to cover up the act; however, his treason was discovered and he was sent to prison in Naples.

Ferdinand I was not as able as his father and now it was Skanderbeg's turn to help King Ferdinand to regain and maintain his kingdom.

In 1459 Skanderbeg captured the fortress of Sati from the Ottoman Empire and ceded it to Venice in order to secure cordial relationship with Signoria.

Skanderbeg gave the dethroned Despot Stefan an unknown estate as appanage.

Skanderbeg did not want peace, but Tanush Thopia's willingness for peace prevailed.

Tanush himself went to Tivoli to explain to the Pope why Skanderbeg had opted for peace with Mehmed II.

Skanderbeg pointed out that Skanderbeg would be ready to go back to war should the Pope ask for it.

Meanwhile, the position of Venice towards Skanderbeg had changed perceptibly because it entered a war with the Ottomans.

Skanderbeg attacked Ballaban's forces at the Second Battle of Vajkal, where the Ottomans were defeated.

Only when Skanderbeg left for Naples did Pope Paul II give him 2,300 ducats.

The court of Naples, whose policy in the Balkans hinged on Skanderbeg's resistance, was more generous with money, armaments, and supplies.

However, it is probably better to say that Skanderbeg financed and equipped his troops largely from local resources, richly supplemented by Ottoman booty.

The victory was well-received among the Albanians, and Skanderbeg's recruits increased as documented by Geraldini: Skanderbeg was in his camp with 16,000 men and every day his camp grows with young warriors.

Skanderbeg retreated to the mountains while Ottoman grand vizier Mahmud Pasha Angelovic pursued him but failed to find him because Skanderbeg succeeded in fleeing to the coast.

Skanderbeg's family were given control over the Duchy of San Pietro in Galatina and the County of Soleto in the Province of Lecce, Italy.

Skanderbeg had black hair, fiery eyes, and a powerful voice.

Rather than challenge or break him, the brutal Janissary training young Skanderbeg was subjected to only complemented what was already in his soul: a penchant for war.

Marin Barletius, a contemporary and chief biographer of Skanderbeg, provides one of the earliest descriptions of him.

Skanderbeg's arms looked as if nothing like them had ever been seen.

Skanderbeg's neck was strong and somewhat bending, such as possessed by wrestlers.

Skanderbeg has been credited with being one of the main reasons for the delay of Ottoman expansion into Western Europe, giving the Italian principalities more time to better prepare for the Ottoman arrival.

Skanderbeg is considered today a commanding figure not only in the national consciousness of Albanians but of 15th-century European history.

Contemporary Muslim Albanians deemphasize the religious heritage of Skanderbeg by viewing him as a defender of the nation and he is promoted as an Albanian symbol of Europe and the West.

The trouble Skanderbeg gave the Ottoman Empire's military forces was such that when the Ottomans found the grave of Skanderbeg in the church of St Nicholas in Lezhe, they opened it and made amulets of his bones, believing that these would confer bravery on the wearer.

Indeed, the damage inflicted to the Ottoman Army was such that Skanderbeg is said to have slain three thousand Ottomans with his own hand during his campaigns.

One of the earliest was the History of the life and deeds of Scanderbeg, Prince of the Epirotes, published a mere four decades after Skanderbeg's death, written by Albanian-Venetian historian Marinus Barletius, who, after experiencing the Ottoman capture of his native Scutari firsthand, settled in Padua where he became rector of the parish church of St Stephan.

Sir William Temple considered Skanderbeg to be one of the seven greatest chiefs without a crown, along with Belisarius, Flavius Aetius, John Hunyadi, Gonzalo Fernandez de Cordoba, Alexander Farnese, and William the Silent.

Ludvig Holberg, a Danish writer and philosopher, claimed that Skanderbeg was one of the greatest generals in history.

Skanderbeg is the protagonist of three 18th-century British tragedies: William Havard's Scanderbeg, A Tragedy, George Lillo's The Christian Hero, and Thomas Whincop's Scanderbeg, Or, Love and Liberty.

Giammaria Biemmi, an Italian priest, published a work on Skanderbeg titled Istoria di Giorgio Castrioto Scanderbeg-Begh in Brescia, Italy in 1742.

Skanderbeg claimed that he had found a work published in Venice in 1480 and written by an Albanian humanist from Bar, whose brother was a warrior in Skanderbeg's personal guard.

Skanderbeg is mentioned by the Prince-Bishop of Montenegro, Petar II Petrovic-Njegos, one of the greatest poets of Serbian literature, in his 1847 epic poem The Mountain Wreath, and in False Tsar Stephen the Little.

Skanderbeg's memory has been engraved in many museums, such as the Skanderbeg Museum next to Kruje Castle.

Monuments or statues of Skanderbeg have been erected in the cities of Skopje and Debar, in North Macedonia; Pristina, in Kosovo; Geneva, in Switzerland; Brussels, in Belgium; London, in England; and other settlements in southern Italy where there is an Arbereshe community.

In 2006, a statue of Skanderbeg was unveiled on the grounds of St Paul's Albanian Catholic Church in Rochester Hills, Michigan.