Athleta Christi: George Kastrioti Skanderbeg

Elton Varfi

Appendix

When Mehmed II learned of Skanderbeg's death, he exclaimed:

“Such a lion will never be born again in this world! Now Europe and Asia are mine! Poor Christianity, it has finally lost its sword and defense!”[1]

The Sultan's intention was obviously the conquest of Rome.

After George Kastrioti's death, the war between the Ottomans and the Albanians continued for another eleven years, and it was clear that this time it could only end with the complete victory of one of the two sides. It was equally clear that the Albanians would be the losers. The Ottoman Empire was an inexhaustible source of men, while the Albanian military forces were increasingly reduced, almost to the point of exhaustion. Furthermore, the Turks formed a compact nation that supported the Sultan both for fanaticism and discipline, while the Albanians were not united and cohesive among themselves. Only Skanderbeg's remarkable intelligence managed to unite them, albeit for a very short time, to jointly confront the Turkish colossus. The real event materialized after George Kastrioti's death with the alliance between the Albanians and Venice, which together sustained the war against the Sultan for another eleven years.

From the work: M. Barletius – Historia de vita et gestis Scanderbegi Epirotarum principis – Rome 1506.

His son, Prince John Kastrioti, only twelve years old at his father's death, although holding dynastic titles, was too young to lead the League of Princes and did not inherit his father's exceptional qualities. In 1474, he handed over Kruja and his father's kingdom to the Republic of Venice and moved with his mother to Trani in Puglia.

The regions of Albania already under Turkish control were entrusted to a nephew of Skanderbeg who had converted to Islam and was thus in the Sultan's service. Upon the death of George Arianiti in 1461, the only remaining warrior princes were Lek Dukagjini and John Musachi. However, the true immense tragedy occurred when the Albanians put down their pens. No chronicler wrote anything about the war in the years following Skanderbeg's death. We only know for certain about the sieges of Kruja and Shkodra from Barletius.[2]

Twice a year, during the harvest and the grape harvest, Turkish armies presented themselves before the fortresses of Kruja, Durres, Lezha, and Shkodra, defended by Venetian-Albanian garrisons. Right in front of the gates of Kruja, the Turks had built a fortress with a powerful garrison to continue the siege of the fortress they had vainly tried to conquer.

In the spring of 1477, Ahmet Bey besieged Kruja with an army of 8,000 men. The reduced number of men involved in this siege gives an idea of how confident the Ottomans felt after Skanderbeg's death. Yet not long before, in front of those walls, much larger armies led by the sultans Murad II and his son Mehmed II had tried and failed.

The commander of Kruja was the Venetian Pietro Vettori. Ahmet Bey did not waste time or men in vain attacks because he was convinced that Kruja could not be taken by force. His strategy was to continue the siege until the fortress surrendered from hunger.

A Venetian-Albanian army of 13,000 men under the command of Francesco Contarini and Lek Dukagjini came on September 6, 1477, to liberate Kruja. They attacked and defeated Ahmet Bey in the plain of Little Tirana, 4 miles from Kruja, remaining masters of the enemy camp. Instead of pursuing and dispersing what remained of Ahmet Bey's army, Contarini and Dukagjini allowed their troops to scatter and loot the enemy camp. As soon as Ahmet Bey understood the intentions of the Venetian-Albanian army, he attacked them at night and routed them. The Venetian commander Contarini was killed. After this defeat, Venice, attacked from multiple fronts by Turkish armies in Shkodra, Dalmatia, the Isonzo, and the Tagliamento, exhausted by the enormous costs sustained for this war and weakened by the military contingent, abandoned Kruja to its fate.

With the provisions taken from the Turks in the battle of Little Tirana, the garrison managed to resist through the winter. Since the siege lasted thirteen months, the supplies ran out without any possibility of receiving foreign aid, so the garrison and the inhabitants of Kruja decided to negotiate for surrender. When they received news of the siege of Shkodra by Sultan Mehmed II on June 15, 1478, they sent ambassadors to the Turkish capital proposing to hand over the fortress on the condition that they could leave without impediment, with the honor of arms and their possessions. The Sultan agreed to this condition but later violated it with his usual perfidy. He allowed the inhabitants and the garrison to leave the fortress, which remained in his power, but immediately ordered that the men be slaughtered, the women and children enslaved, and that only the Venetian commander and those leaders deemed rich enough to be ransomed with money be spared. In this way, Sultan Mehmed II avenged the defeats suffered by him, his father Murad II, and their generals before Kruja. After subduing the inhabitants, the Turks wanted to erase even the name of Kruja, replacing it with Ak-Hissar, meaning White Castle. During the same spring, the fortresses of Lezha, Drivasto, and Zabijak fell.

Mehmed II against Venice in Albania. (Venice - Calle San Maurizio)

On January 25, 1479, after a second siege of fifteen months and a heroic defense, Shkodra capitulated from hunger and agreed to the same condition that the garrison and inhabitants could leave freely with the honor of arms and their possessions. This time, Sultan Mehmed II did not breach the pact because the Venetian commander Antonio de Lezze requested and obtained some hostages from the Sultan as a guarantee of his loyalty. The refugees from Shkodra settled in Venice with the help of the Republic. One day before Shkodra fell, Venice had made peace with Turkey, abandoning all of Albania except Durres to the Turks' mercy. All the Albanian Princes who had fought against the Turks under the alliance with the Venetians were left to their fate.

Similarly persecuted, all the other Albanian Princes found refuge in flight or conversion to Islam. Many thousands of Albanians, unable to submit to Turkish rule, scattered throughout Europe, mainly to Italy, where around 200,000 preserved their language, customs, and national traditions. When the "Albanians of Albania" forgot Skanderbeg and his name a few centuries later, the "Albanians of Italy" preserved the memory of the national hero in songs and traditional legends.

Pope Paul III, in a letter to Philip, Duke of Burgundy, described the condition of these refugees: “No one without shedding tears can see these refugees in Italy's ports, who, hungry and ragged, having been driven from their homes on the seacoast, raise their hands to heaven in supplication and weep and lament in a language we do not understand.”

In 1481, Skanderbeg's son, John Kastrioti, was called by the Albanians and crossed from Italy to Albania, where he not only took control of a large part of his father's kingdom with the help of the Himariots but also defeated a Turkish army of 2,000 men sent against him.[3] The insurrection extended north and south and lasted several years. Later, other leaders and many Albanians sought refuge in Italy. However, this time King Ferdinand of Naples did not allow John Kastrioti or the Albanians to enter his state and did not let them disembark in Palermo or Naples, fearing a war with the Sultan. Then John went to Rome to plead with the Pope, who resolved the disputes, allowing the Albanians to settle in Sicily and Calabria, but not in a specific territory to remain united, instead scattered in different areas; they were not granted any rights to build cities or fortresses[4]

In 1488, John Kastrioti made a second attempt to regain his father's kingdom, and in 1500 we find him in Venice, where the Senate, with a decree dated April 9 of the same year, decided to send him with men and money to Albania. In 1499, the Turks treacherously captured Durres from the Venetians, who in turn took Lezha from the Turks. Soon after, Turkey and Venice signed peace on December 14, 1502, under which all of Albania remained under the Sultan's rule except for Antivari and Dulcigno, which were eventually taken in 1571. Thus, during the transition period when Europe was emerging from the Middle Ages and entering the Renaissance, Albania was erased from the list of free states and fell under the aberrant yoke of a barbarian power that kept it enslaved and oppressed for four centuries. The country became bleak and deserted, trade stopped, civilization was extinguished, and all ties with Europe were severed. The fortresses and cities that flourished during Skanderbeg's time, adorned with palaces and monuments, including Petrela, Petralba, Stellusi, Tornaco, Sardo, Drivasto, Danja, Vulpiano, and Sfetigrad, disappeared without a trace; others like Kruja, Durres, Shkodra, Lezha, Vlora, Kanina, Berat, and Gjirokastra gradually decayed, remaining as shadows of their lost beauty and former splendor. The significance of Skanderbeg's wars for Europe was seen after the fall of Kruja and Shkodra.

In 1480, as soon as the Sultan Mehmed conquered Albania, he turned against Italy. Admiral Ahmed Gedik Pasha, an Albanian renegade, led a fleet and a powerful army from Vlora to Otranto. As soon as he conquered it, he prepared to advance towards Rome. Italy was in a panic; the Pope thought of fleeing. But on May 3, 1481, Sultan Mehmed II died during preparations for the conquest of Europe. He would have certainly achieved this great ambition if Albania under Skanderbeg's command had not prevented him. This is a great merit to be attributed to Skanderbeg. If the European nations had helped him to the necessary extent, Skanderbeg would have rendered even greater services and could have defeated the Turkish power. But Europe showed indecision, and fate decreed that Pope Pius II, one of the few who appreciated Skanderbeg, passed away just as he was preparing to transit to Albania at the head of the European crusaders.

It is said that when the Turks took Lezha, they opened Skanderbeg's tomb, not to desecrate it but to divide his bones among themselves, which they later dressed in gold and silver and hung around their necks as sacred amulets to increase their courage and protect them from enemy lead.

George Kastrioti, a great warrior and one of the most prudent diplomats, managed to win the sympathies of the European powers, which gradually offered him their moral and material support to continue the war for freedom. He alone, in all of Albanian national history, managed to organize them into a single regular army, despite being rebels who could hardly tolerate the figure of a commanding leader.

Writing about George Kastrioti is like writing about art, referring to one of the greatest artists of all time, like Michelangelo. I do not know how many kilometers of paper and how many rivers of ink have been used to write hundreds of books, essays, and other works about his figure. Vivaldi dedicated a musical work to him, Rembrandt among many other painters portrayed him in his works. Many thinkers, men of faith, writers, and philosophers have expressed themselves about this gigantic figure.

Despite his objective criticism, Fallmerayer described Skanderbeg:

“George Kastrioti is to be placed among the most accomplished, fortunate, and ingenious captains of the world. As long as he lived, he ensured the Nation's freedom; but this fact he could not transmit as an inheritance to his descendants, nor could his illustrious compatriots Pyrrhus and Ali Pasha; however, he excelled above them not only in moral greatness but also in the fortune of having completed his endeavors amidst the splendor of fame, crowned with laurel and conquered only by death.”

Elisée Reclus praised him with words as true as they were deserved:

“He was saintly like Saint Louis, diplomatic like Talleyrand, and valiant like Alexander the Great.”

Pope Callixtus III, who historians claim was always measured in his words and never heard dispensing compliments to flatter anyone's self-esteem, wrote these words to Skanderbeg on September 11, 1457:

“Nemo enim tantum ignarus rerum qui non summis laudibus ad coelum te extollat, et de tua nobilitate tamquam de vero Athleta et propugnatore nominis christiani non loquatur”[5]

Ending our story, we can conclude and affirm that Skanderbeg's figure needs no introduction, but I believe every Albanian should embrace his deeds and lifestyle to remember the great character to whom our country gave birth.

Bibliography

"Historia e Skënderbeut," Marin Barleti. Tirana 1968.

"L’Albania ed il Principe Scanderbeg," F. Cuniberti, Roux Frassati e C° Editori, Torino 1898.

"Storia di Scanderbeg," Fan S. Noli, (translated by Francesco Argondizza), Rome 1924.

"Scanderbeg," Alessandro Cutolo, Milan 1940.

[1] Storia di Scanderbeg, Fan S. Noli (version by Francesco Argondizza), Rome 1924.

[2] De Expugnatione Scodrensi, Marino Barlezio, Venice 1504.

[3] Annali di Domenico Malipiero. (Pisko: Scanderbeg, p. 160).

[4] The story of John Kastrioti, Skanderbeg's son, is narrated according to Italo-Albanian popular traditions by Agostino Tocci in 1650. This manuscript was published in the journal La Bandiera d’Albania.

[5] No man in the world is ignorant of your heroic deeds and does not extol you to the heavens with the greatest praises and does not speak of you as a true champion and magnanimous defender of Christianity