Hello and welcome to this first episode of
history bubble extra on these special episodes
of history bubble we will cover someone something
or some civilization from the country i just
covered today for Albania i will be covering
Skanderbeg.
he was named an Albanian national hero for
keeping the ottomans from invading back in
the 15´th century.
this mean we will dive deeper into the history
of medieval Albania.
so it all start with the first independent
state of the Principality of Kastrioti because
its founders surname was Kastrioti.
Skanderbegs father Gjon had managed to expand
from just owning a few small villages to what
is now central Albania and thus had created
the Principality of Kastrioti.
but he opposed the Otomans and fought against
them with ended up with his Principality having
to pay tribute to the ottomans and kind of
becoming their vassals.
around 1405 Gjons wife gave birth to a son
he named George or Gjergj in Albanian.
George had five sisters and three older brothers.
by the age of 18 George was sent as a hostage
to the ottomans.
hostage is probably not the right word because
they where very well treated and went to some
of the best schools in the Ottoman empire.
but it was a common practice for the sultan
to keep his christian tributes and vassals
in check.
after he had finished his military schooling
George got a bit of land and started to fight
with the Ottomans.
Skanderbeg was also forced to covert to Islam
and was renamed to Iskender by the Ottomans.
This is also the reason for the name Skaderbeg
since thought the translations Iskender became
skaderbeg.
a rebellion was staged against the ottomans
by christian lords controlled by the Ottomans,
some of them being Skanderbegs relatives but
he stayed truthful to the Ottomans.
Skanderbeg shew his skill in the Ottoman military
and they gave him more and more land to control
and a 5000 men cavalry regiment to lead.
some of the lands he got was from his father
since he lost much of it while rebelling.
and soon his father and two of
his older brothers died.
but during the Crusade of Varna Skanderbeg
deserted the Ottoman army along with 300 Albanian
cavalrymen.
he went to his holding in Krujë a few weeks
later.
he declared his independence and and also
to be decedent of an old Albanian noble family
to increase his rights to parts of the country.
he started to concur castles, villages and
forts and soon controlled a larger area than
his after had.
he also converted back to Christianity and
forced the people who flowed him to do the
same.
obviously the ottomans under Mehmed the second
went to war against them.
Skanderbeg joined up with previous smaller
rebellions in the area to fight the Ottomans
and called themselves the League of Lezhë.
because skanderbeg could not field a large
army he led a guerrilla war in the mountainous
terrain of Albania striking the Ottomans where
they where the weakest. with his around 10
0000 men these tactics where viable.
but 1444 skqaderbeg faced the Ottoman army
in the field and they outnumbered him almost
3 to 1. or maybe just 2 to 1 or even less
it´s hard with these sources since much may
just be christian propaganda.
but its likely that skanderbeg had 15 000
men and the Ottomans led by Ali pasha had
somewhere between 25 000 and 40 000 men likely
the lower amount.
Skanderbeg had moved his forces to a destination
for a defensive position against the Ottomans.
the place chosen was a hilly plain surrounded
by many forests. and in those forests skanderbeg
had hidden 3000 of his men to rear attack
the Ottomans in the battle.
this was done before the ottoman force came
to the place of battle and encamped close
to the Albanian forces.
while skanderbegs men tried to stay quiet
during the night from his orders the Ottomans
where said to be partying and sending out
men to provoke the Albanian leading to small
fights between the armies. in the morning
of the battle skanderbeg placed his forces
in the bottom of a hill.
Ali leading the Ottomans saw this as his chance
of victory and ordered a full on attack on
the Albanian forces with most of his men of
his men charging down the hill. this was skanderbegs
plan looking weak and incompetent to make
the Ottomans do something foolish and it had
now worked.
he ordered his hidden cavalry to attack and
they did causing huge damage in a devastating
rear attack.
routing much of the ottoman army and the Albanians
started to surround the larger Ottoman force
and soon the battle was over,. the battle
was a huge win for skanderbeg who had lost
most likely around 4000 men against the Ottomans
at least double that and maybe even five times
more losses.
some sources say skanderbeg only lost 120
men but as i said christian crusade propaganda.
there more battles where fought against the
remaining Ottomans and three times the Ottomans
where defeated and at least one of those times
it was because skanderbeg had tricked them.
the Venetians had been a strong ally to skanderbed
during the war because of their close ties
to Georges father.
Lezhë witch was the main base for the league
of Lezhë was in Venetian territory and the
had let the Albanians be there.
they soon relisted this was a bad choice because
the forces of the league was now in their
territory.
and soon a territory despite over a fortress
triggered a war between them.
this led to the league facing a two front
war against the Ottomans and the Venetians.
the two front war exhausted the Albanians
but in most engagements they loss less than
the enemy they faced.
the Albanians won a large battle against the
Venetians in northern Albania and that won
them a peace treaty.
they did not get much of it but they no longer
had to fight a two front war.the war was now
back against the ottomans who had captured
a strategic fortress on the Albanian border
Svetigrad in what is now Macedonia.
this meant the ottomans had it much easier
to march into the country but it had been
to a loss of up to 20 000 men against the
Albanians who had lost almost none.
(the huge casualties was because of assaults
from the leagues guerrilla fighters).
the Ottomans soon started a siege of the the
city Krujë with their main force led by the
sultan.
skanderbeg knew of the city strong defenses
and started scorching the earth around the
city to keep the Ottomans from resupplying.
they also made numerous attacks on the Ottoman
supply carts and attacked all caravans trying
to resupply the besiegers.
one Venetian caravan was not attacked for
a while but it soon was almost triggering
the Venetians to a war again but luckily for
Albania it never happened.
this led to the besiegers starving dehydrating
and dying of disease and more did every day.
the sultan soon lifted the siege and escaped
having lost 20 000 men and more in his escape
including himself.
but even with this success skanderbeg had
lost most of his territory.
but it had also granted him much fame in the
christian world and people started sending
money to him to help his cause witch it did
help him regain lost territory.
one especially helpful was Alfonso 5 of Aragon
who gave him huge support in extange for skanderbeg
becoming his vassal but this was mostly in
name and he was still de facto independent.
more Ottomans attacks came and more was defeated.
in one more famous battle skanderbeg killed
and captured 15 000 respectively.
this was so great of a loss for the ottomans
a five year truce was signed.
he helped the son of Alfonso keep Italy to
the crown of Aragon at that time too.
the ottomans keep invading but now they invaded
the Venetians too so skanderbeg allied with
them.
and together they won more battles.
a second siege of Krujë was started but once
again ended in an Ottoman defeat. and later
also a third witch also failed.
in 1468 skaderbeg fell ill with malaria and
died and just a few years later Albania was
part of the ottoman empire.
and that is about all i want to cover here
today so see you in my videos about Algeria.
