Skanderbeg

Who is Skanderbeg?

Skanderbeg, born Gjergj Kastrioti, was an Albanian nobleman and military commander who became the national hero of Albania. Sent as a hostage to the Ottoman court as a boy, he was educated there and served the Ottoman sultan Murad II for roughly two decades before deserting during the Battle of Nish in November 1443 and reclaiming his family stronghold of Krujë. In March 1444 he founded the League of Lezhë, uniting the Albanian principalities under a single military command for the first time. Over the following twenty-five years he won a remarkable series of victories against much larger Ottoman armies, including the successful defense of Krujë against a massive siege led personally by Sultan Murad II in 1450 and a major victory at the Battle of Albulena in 1457. In recognition of his resistance, the Papacy declared him "Champion of Christ" (Athleta Christi) in 1457, and Naples and Rome both recognized him as a key ally against Ottoman expansion. He died in 1468 in Lezhë, and Ottoman conquest of Albania followed within years, but his campaigns delayed that conquest for a generation. In the nineteenth century his legend became central to the Albanian National Awakening, and he remains the most widely honored figure in Albanian history, commemorated on the national flag-bearing statue in Skanderbeg Square in Tirana.

Sources: Oliver Jens Schmitt, Skanderbeg: Der neue Alexander auf dem Balkan (biography) · Franz Babinger, Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time · Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Skanderbeg"