26 March 1451 – 22 April 1453
Skanderbeg and Aragon, 1451–1453
On 26 March 1451 Skanderbeg’s envoys sign the Treaty of Gaeta with Alfonso V of Aragon, king of Naples. Skanderbeg becomes Alfonso’s vassal in return for money, troops and protection against the Ottomans, and Alfonso makes similar treaties with other Albanian lords and with Despot Demetrios of the Morea. At the end of May 1451 a hundred Catalan soldiers under Bernard Vaquer take over the castle of Krujë in Alfonso’s name, and in May 1452 Ramon d’Ortafà arrives there as viceroy. In summer 1451 Skanderbeg builds a fortress at Modrič in the Drin valley, near Svetigrad, which he lost to the Ottomans in 1448.
Alfonso V of Aragon, king of Naples, painted by Juan de Juanes in 1557 after a portrait by PisanelloWikimedia Commons, Juan de Juanes, Public domain (Alfonso V rey de Aragón.jpg)
In 1452 Mehmed sends his first army against Skanderbeg, about 25,000 men under Tahip Pasha, with Hamza Pasha in command of one part. Skanderbeg gathers 14,000 men. On 21 July 1452 he routs Hamza’s force at Modrič, and on the same day he routs Tahip’s force at Meçad, where Tahip is killed. In the winter Alfonso sends him guns and arquebuses.
The coast of Albania on Bartolomeo Pareto’s nautical chart of 1455Wikimedia Commons, Bartolomeo Pareto, Public domain (1455 Nautical Chart of Albania by Bartolomeo Pareto.jpg)
In spring 1453 Skanderbeg marches into Macedonia to lay waste the land around Svetigrad and draw its garrison out. Ibrahim Pasha, who is coming from Skopje with 14,000 men to invade Albania, camps in the Polog valley near Tetovo and blocks Skanderbeg’s way. On 22 April, in a storm, Skanderbeg’s horsemen break into the Ottoman camp, and Ibrahim is killed, in single combat with Skanderbeg by Francione’s account. Barleti puts the Ottoman dead at 10,000 and the Albanian dead at 300, and Francione puts the Ottoman dead at 3,000. The Albanians plunder the valley and return to Debar.
Sources
- Demetrio Franco, Comentario de le cose de’ Turchi, et del S. Georgio Scanderbeg (1480).
- Marin Barleti, Historia de vita et gestis Scanderbegi Epirotarum principis (about 1508).
- Fan S. Noli, George Castrioti Scanderbeg (1405–1468) (1947).
- Franz Babinger, Mehmed the Conqueror and His Time (1978).
- Constantin Marinescu, La politique orientale d’Alfonse V d’Aragon, roi de Naples (1416–1458) (1994).
- Kristo Frashëri, Gjergj Kastrioti Skënderbeu: jeta dhe vepra, 1405–1468 (2002).
- Gennaro Francione, Skënderbeu, një hero modern (2003).
- Oliver Jens Schmitt, Skanderbeg: Der neue Alexander auf dem Balkan (2009).
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