Skanderbeg

Who was Skanderbeg?

George Kastrioti Skanderbeg, widely known as Skanderbeg, was a 15th-century Albanian nobleman.

Skanderbeg was born in 1405 to the noble Kastrioti family, in a village in Dibra. Sultan Murad II took him hostage in 1423 and he served the Ottoman Empire during the next twenty years. He was appointed as the governor of the Sanjak of Dibra by the Ottomans in 1440. In 1443, he deserted the Ottomans during the Battle of Niš and became the ruler of Krujë, Svetigrad and Modrič. In 1444, he initiated and organized the League of Lezhë, which proclaimed him Chief of the League of the Albanian people, and defended the region of Albania against the Ottoman Empire for more than two decades. Skanderbeg's rebellion was not a general uprising of Albanians. People from the big cities in Albania on the Ottoman-controlled south and Venetian-controlled north did not support him while his followers were of different ethnicity including Albanians, Slavs, Vlachs and Greeks.

In 1451 he recognized de jure the suzerainty of Kingdom of Naples through the Treaty of Gaeta, to ensure a protective alliance, although he remained an independent ruler de facto. In 1460–1461, he participated in Italy's civil wars in support of Ferdinand I of Naples. In 1463, he became the chief commander of the crusading forces of Pope Pius II, but the Pope died while the armies were still gathering. Together with Venetians he fought against the Ottomans during the Ottoman–Venetian War until his death in January 1468.