Gjergj Kastrioti (6 May 1405 – 17 January 1468), known as Skanderbeg (Albanian: Skënderbej or Skënderbeu from Ottoman Turkish: اسکندر بگ‎, romanized: İskender Bey), was an Albanian nobleman and military commander who led a rebellion against the Ottoman Empire in what is today Albania, North Macedonia, Greece, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia.SkanderbegLord of the Principality of KastriotiReignPredecessorSuccessorBornDiedBurialSpouseIssueHouseFatherMotherOccupationA member of the noble Kastrioti family, he was sent as a hostage to the Ottoman court. He was educated there and entered the service of the Ottoman sultan for the next twenty years. His rise through the ranks culminated in his appointment as sanjakbey (governor) of the Sanjak of Dibra in 1440. In 1443, during the Battle of Niš, he deserted the Ottomans and became the ruler of Krujë, Svetigrad, and Modrič. In 1444, the council of feudal lords that historians would later call the League of Lezhë named Skanderbeg its chief military commander (first among equals). The league consolidated nobility throughout what is today Northern Albania, under King Alfonso V, with Skanderbeg as captain general. Thus, for the first time Albania was united under a single leader. Skanderbegs rebellion was not a general uprising of Albanians, because he did not gain support in the Venetian-controlled north or in the Ottoman-controlled south. His followers additionally included, apart from Albanians, also Slavs, Vlachs, and Greeks; he also had at his service Venetian and Neapolitan mercenaries. The resistance led by him nevertheless brought Albanians of different regions and dialects together in a common cause, helping define Albanian ethnic identity. Despite this military valor he was not able to do more than to hold his own possessions within the very small area in todays northern Albania where almost all of his victories against the Ottomans took place. Skanderbegs military skills presented a major obstacle to Ottoman expansion, and many in western Europe considered him to be a model of Christian resistance against Muslims. For 25 years, from 1443 to 1468, Skanderbegs 10,000-man army marched through Ottoman territory, winning against consistently larger and better-supplied Ottoman forces. He was greatly admired for this.Skanderbeg always signed himself in Latin: Dominus Albaniae (Lord of Albania), and claimed no other titles but that in surviving documents. In 1451, through the Treaty of Gaeta, he recognized de jure the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Naples over Albania, ensuring a protective alliance, although he remained a de facto independent ruler. In 1460–61, he supported Ferdinand I of Naples in his wars against John of Anjou and the barons who supported Johns claim to the throne 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 (1463–1479) until his death in January 1468. He ranks high in the military history of that time as the most persistent—and ever-victorious—opponent of the Ottoman Empire in its heyday.NameThe original form of the surname, Castrioti (also as Castriothi in 1408), is rendered in modern Albanian historiography as Kastrioti. In correspondence with Slavic regions, Đurađ and Đorđe are used for his first name. In 1450 his full name was written by his chancellor Ninac Vukosalić in Old Slavic Cyrillic as Đurađ Kastriot Skenderbeg i Arbanija  Gjergj is the Albanian derivative of the Latin name Georgius. Charles du Fresne (1610–1688), writing in Latin, used Georgius Castriotus Scanderbegus in his work. C. C. Moore in his biographical work on Skanderbeg (1850) used Castriot. The surname is derived from the Latin castrum via the Greek word κάστρο (English: castle). According to Fan Noli, the surname is a toponym, of Kastriot in modern northeastern Albania. In 1463, his name was written in Latin as Zorzi Castrioti.The Ottoman Turks gave him the name اسکندر بگ İskender bey or İskender beğ, meaning Lord Alexander, or Leader Alexander. Skënderbeu, Skënderbej or Skanderbeg are the Albanian versions, with Skander being the Albanian form of Alexander. Latinized in Barletis version as Scanderbegi and translated into English as Skanderbeg or Scanderbeg, the combined appellative is assumed to have been a comparison of Skanderbegs military skill to that of Alexander the Great.Early lifeCoat of arms of the Kastrioti family. According to records, Skanderbeg raised a red flag with the black eagle over KrujëThere have been many theories on the place where Skanderbeg was born. One of the main Skanderbeg biographers, Frashëri, has, among other, interpreted Gjon Muzakas book of genealogies, sources of Raffaele Maffei (il Volterrano; 1451–1522), and the Ottoman defter (census) of 1467, and placed the birth of Skanderbeg in the small village of Sinë, one of the two villages owned by his grandfather Pal Kastrioti. Fan Nolis placement of the year of birth in 1405 is now largely agreed upon, after earlier disagreements, and lack of birth documents for him and his siblings. His father Gjon Kastrioti held a territory between Lezhë and Prizren that included Mat, Mirditë and Dibër in north-central Albania. His mother was Voisava, whose origin is disputed. One view holds that she was a Slavic princess from the Polog region, which has been interpreted as her being a possible member of the Serbian Branković family or a local Bulgarian noble family. The other view is that she was a member of Muzaka family, daughter of Dominicus alias Moncinus a relative of Muzaka house. Skanderbeg had three older brothers, Stanisha, Reposh and Constantine, and five sisters, Mara, Jelena, Angelina, Vlajka and Mamica.According to the geopolitical contexts of the time, John Castriot changed allegiances and religions when allied to Venice as a Catholic and Serbia as an Orthodox Christian. John Castriot later became a vassal of the Sultan since the end of the 14th century, and, as a consequence, paid tribute and provided military services to the Ottomans (like in the Battle of Ankara 1402). In 1409, he sent his eldest son, Stanisha, to be the Sultans hostage. According to Marin Barleti, a primary source, Skanderbeg and his three older brothers, Reposh, Kostandin, and Stanisha, were taken by the Sultan to his court as hostages. However, according to documents, besides Skanderbeg, only one of the brothers of Skanderbeg, probably Stanisha, was taken hostage and had been coned into the Devşirme system, a military institute that enrolled Christian boys, converted them to Islam, and trained them to become military officers. Recent historians are of the opinion that while Stanisha might have been coned at a young age, and had to go through the Devşirme, this was not the case with Skanderbeg, who is assumed to have been sent hostage to the Sultan by his father only at the age of 18. It was customary at the time that a local chieftain, who had been defeated by the Sultan, would send one of his children to the Sultans court, where the child would be a hostage for an unspecified time; this way, the Sultan was able to exercise control in the area ruled by the hostages father. The treatment of the hostages was not bad. Far from being held in a prison, the hostages were usually sent to the best military schools and trained to become future military leaders.Ottoman service: 1423 to 1443Skanderbeg and other students receiving military education in the Enderun schoolSkanderbeg was sent as a hostage to the Ottoman court in Adrianople (Edirne) in 1415, and again in 1423. It is assumed that he remained at Murad IIs court as iç oğlan for a maximum of three years, where he received military training at Enderun.The earliest existing record of Georges name is the First Act of Hilandar from 1426, when John Castriot and his four sons donated the right to the proceeds from taxes collected from two villages in Macedonia (in modern Mavrovo and Rostuša, North Macedonia) to the Serbian monastery of Hilandar. Afterwards, between 1426 and 1431, John Castriot and his sons, with the exception of Stanisha, purchased four adelphates (rights to reside on monastic territory and receive subsidies from monastic resources) to the Saint George tower and to some property within the monastery as stated in the Second Act of Hilandar.After graduating Enderun, the sultan granted Skanderbeg control over one timar (land grant) which was near the territories controlled by his father. His father was concerned that the sultan might order Skanderbeg to occupy his territory and informed Venice about this in April 1428. In the same year John had to seek forgiveness from the Venetian Senate because Skanderbeg participated in Ottoman military campaigns against Christians. In 1430, John was defeated in battle by the Ottoman governor of Skopje, Ishak Bey, and as a result, his territorial possessions were extremely reduced. Later that year, Skanderbeg continued fighting for Murad II in his expeditions, and gained the title of sipahi. Several scholars have assumed that Skanderbeg was given a fiefdom in Nikopol in northern Bulgaria, because a certain Iskander bey is mentioned in a 1430 document holding fiefs there. Although Skanderbeg was summoned home by his relatives when Gjergj Arianiti and Andrew Thopia along with other chiefs from the region between Vlorë and Shkodër organized the Albanian revolt of 1432–1436, he did nothing, remaining loyal to the sultan.Skanderbeg dueling a Tatar at the Ottoman court, some time before 1439In 1437–38, he became a subaşi (governor) of the Krujë subaşilik before Hizir Bey was again appointed to that position in November 1438. Until May 1438, Skanderbeg controlled a relatively large timar (of the vilayet of Dhimitër Jonima) composed of nine villages which previously belonged to his father (registered as Giovannis land, Turkish: Yuvan-ili). According to İnalcık, at that time Skanderbeg was referred to in Ottoman documents as Juvan oglu Iskender bey. It was because of Skanderbegs display of military merit in several Ottoman campaigns, that Murad II (r. 1421–51) had given him the title of vali. At that time, Skanderbeg was leading a cavalry unit of 5,000 men.After his brother Reposhs death on 25 July 1431 and the later deaths of Kostandin and Skanderbegs father (who died in 1437), Skanderbeg and his surviving brother Stanisha maintained the relations that their father had with the Republic of Ragusa and the Republic of Venice; in 1438 and 1439, they sustained their fathers privileges with those states.During the 1438–43 period, he is thought to have been fighting alongside the Ottomans in their European campaigns, mostly against the Christian forces led by Janos Hunyadi. In 1440 Skanderbeg was appointed sanjakbey of Dibra.During his stay in Albania as Ottoman governor, he maintained close relations with the population in his fathers former properties and also with other Albanian noble families.