4 – Gjergj Skanderbeg (1405 – 1468)
Also known as the Dragon of Albania, Skanderbeg is an Albanian national hero and was renowned for his fearsome fighting ability. He began his career fighting with the Ottomans before serving the Republic of Venice and the Kingdom of Naples as he fought against the Ottoman Empire. Such is his popularity that he has become the subject of various myths in Albanian Nationalism. Skanderbeg fought in various wars for around 40 years, and it is suggested that he killed 3,000 men on the battlefield during this time.
Skanderbeg was born Gjergj Kastrioti in Kruje in 1405 and was the son of the prince of a small Albanian district. By the time he was 18 years of age, the Ottomans had crossed the Bosporus and were laying siege to Eastern Europe. By 1423, they had conquered virtually all of what remained of the Byzantine Empire barring Constantinople and a few small regions. When they arrived at Kruje, Skanderbeg’s father surrendered and handed his four sons over as hostages. As a result, he trained as an Ottoman Janissary along with his brothers. He was only supposed to remain in the army for three years, but when his father died, the Sultan canceled the contract and kept Skanderbeg as a slave soldier.
He excelled in the Ottoman army, and the Sultan gave him the nickname ‘Lord Alexander the Albanian,’ a tribute to Alexander the Great. However, Skanderbeg did not want to spend the rest of his life in the Janissaries, so he left the Ottoman army during the Battle of Nis in 1443 along with 300 other Albanians. He used a fake letter (which claimed the Sultan gave him control) to take the castle of Kruje and announced a revolt against the Ottomans. The Ottomans were seldom defeated by a European army, but Skanderbeg gained victories in 1444 and again in 1445 at Moker and 1447 at Oranik.
One of his greatest achievements came in 1450 when he repelled a 150,000 man Ottoman Army that laid siege to Kruje Castle. Skanderbeg used guerilla tactics to destroy the enemy supply cabins and forced the Turks to abandon the siege. After taking Constantinople, the Ottomans once again turned their attention to Albania and inflicted a defeat on Skanderbeg in 1455. However, he got revenge at Ujebardha in 1457 and four years later, the Ottoman Sultan, Mehmed II, made peace with the Albanians.
Skanderbeg turned his attention to an uprising in Albania, and he also helped allies in Naples. The Ottomans abruptly ended the peace treaty in 1466 and Mehmed II followed in his father’s footsteps by trying to take Kruje Castle. They attacked relentlessly, but Skanderbeg was able to hold them off. However, he died of malaria in 1468, and within a decade, Kruje had fallen to the Ottomans.
The Siege of Berat in 1455 was Skanderbeg’s only military defeat, and he routinely defeated armies that outnumbered him; sometimes by as much as 10:1. His career was celebrated by various popes with Pope Nicholas V referring to him as the ‘Champion of Christendom.’