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Liberation of Krujë (1443)

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Liberation of Krujë (1443)
Çlirimi i Krujës
Part of Skanderbeg's rebellion and Albanian-Ottoman Wars
Date28 November 1443
Location
Krujë,Ottoman Albania,Ottoman Empire
Result

Albanian Victory

  • Krujë is captured by Albanian forces.
Belligerents
Albanian defectors from the Ottoman Army Ottoman Empire Ottoman Empire
Commanders and leaders
Skanderbeg
Hamza Kastrioti		 Ottoman Empire Zabel Pasha
Units involved
Skanderbeg's Unit Ottoman Empire Garrison of Krujë
Strength
300 troops Ottoman Empire Unknown
Casualties and losses
Minimal Ottoman Empire All killed

The Liberation of Krujë (Albanian: Çlirimi i Krujës) was an event that happened on 28 November 1443. It marks the start of Skanderbeg's rebellion and is an important event in Albanian History.

Background

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Albanian revolt of 1432-1436

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Main article: Albanian revolt of 1432–1436

On 1432, an armed revolt happened in the Ottoman controlled Albania when Andrea Thopia defeated a small Ottoman force in central Albania.[1] His victory encouraged the other leaders and the revolt spread throughout Albania. Later that year the Ottomans lost control of the central seaport of Vlorë.[2] Gjergj Arianiti, who was living at the Ottoman court as a hostage, was called by rebels to lead the revolt in his family's domains. In response, he fled from Edirne and returned to Albania.[3] In the winter of 1432, Sultan Murat II gathered around 10,000 troops under Ali Bey, who marched along the Via Egnatia and reached the central valley of Shkumbin, where he was ambushed and defeated by forces under Gjergj Arianiti.[4] His victory prompted the Albanians in the area of Gjirokastër to call upon Depë Zenebishi, who had settled in his estates in Corfu after the Ottoman conquest of the Principality of Gjirokastër, to lead the rebels in the south.[5] After spreading the revolt in nearby areas including Këlcyrë, Zagorie and Pogon his forces besieged the southern city of Gjirokastër, capital of the sanjak of Albania.[6] At nearby Këlcyrë the rebels captured the castle, but the concurrent siege of Gjirokastër was prolonged and Turahan Bey attacked and defeated the troops that surrounded the city in early 1433.[4][7] Zenebishi himself was captured and executed.[8]

In the summer of 1433 an army led by Sinan Pasha, beylerbey of Rumelia, pillaged the areas of Kanina and Yannina and moved northwards, where they subdued the rebels in the domains of Gjon Kastrioti, who was reduced again to vassal status, while his son Skanderbeg, who was also called to join the revolt, remained in Ottoman service in Anatolia.[1][9] In August 1433, the senate of Venice convened to evaluate the situation and deemed that the revolt posed a threat to the Venetian territories in the region too. However, by the end of October they re-evaluated the crisis and rejected the deployment of a war galley to the Venetian colonies.[9] In northern Albania Nicholas Dukagjini captured territories of the pre-Ottoman Principality of Dukagjini and besieged and captured Dagnum. Dukagjini then tried to ally himself with Venice by offering to accept Venetian suzerainty and granting them control of Dagnum. However, Venice refused any kind of involvement in his plan and the revolt in general.[citation needed] Dukagjini was not aware that Hasan Bey, the Ottoman governor of Dagnum, had requested Venetian assistance after his defeat. As Venice did not want to provoke Ottoman hostility, the captain of Shkodër (Scutari) was ordered to assist Hasan Bey in recapturing Dagnum. Arms were subsequently sent to the garrison of Lezhë (Alessio) and by 1435 the fort had been returned to Ottoman control.[1][3] In central Albania, Andrea Thopia unsuccessfully besieged the castle of Krujë, while in the region of Vlorë the siege of the fort of Kaninë began. Vlorë was lost to the rebels as early as May 1432, but must have been recovered by May 1434 as contemporary Venetian documents mention an Ottoman official (subaşi) stationed there at that time.[10]

Another Ottoman army was assembled in Manastir in the summer of 1434.[8] Again under the command of Sinan Pasha, this Ottoman expedition was defeated by Gjergj Arianiti in south-central Albania in August 1434. After his defeat, all beys of the territories bordering Albania were ordered to gather their forces and attack the rebels. In December 1434 Ishak Bey, sanjakbey of Üsküb marched into south-central Albania but was defeated by Gjergj Arianiti. Contemporary sources from the senate of Ragusa mention that many Ottoman soldiers were captured, while Ishak Bey escaped with a small group.[8] In April 1435, Arianiti defeated another Ottoman campaign and hostilities virtually ceased until the beginning of 1436, as Murat II's military efforts were focused against Ibrahim of Karaman in Anatolia.[8][11] At the end of 1435 reports of the Ragusan senate assessed the situation as calm and noted that the belligerents had retreated to their respective territories.[11]

During the revolt many attempts were made to form an anti-Ottoman coalition including the Holy Roman Empire. Pope Eugene IV requested troops to be sent to assist the revolt and tried to gather funds.[12] In 1435, Holy Roman Emperor Sigismund of Luxemburg sent Fruzhin, a Bulgarian nobleman, and in early 1436 Daud, a pretender to the Ottoman throne, to negotiate the possibility of a coalition with the rebels.[13] However, by mid-1436 a large force under Turahan Bey had been assembled. Despite the military victories the rebel leaders acted autonomously without a central leadership, the lack of which contributed greatly to their final defeat.[13] Turahan's forces eventually subdued the revolt and marched through Albania, committing widespread massacres of civilians.[1]

Skanderbeg's desertion at the Battle of Niš

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Main article: Battle of Nish (1443)

According to Chalcocondyles, "Weary after Hunyadi forced the Ottomans to retreat in the Balkans in 1443, the old lords hurried on all sides to regain possession of their fathers' fields".[14] One of them was Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg who deserted the Ottoman army along with his nephew Hamza Kastrioti and 300 Albanians.[15][16]

Battle

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On 28 November 1443, Skanderbeg's 300 soldiers reached the city of Krujë. Skanderbeg hid his soldiers in the woods as Hamza Kastrioti made his way to the entrance of the castle, giving the leader of the castle, Zabel Pasha, a forged letter from the Sultan where it said that Skanderbeg was to be appointed the new ruler of the city. After Zabel Pasha left the city,Skanderbeg entered the city together with his 300 Albanian soldiers.[17] When it became nighttime the Albanian forces attacked the Ottoman guards picking them off one-by-one. The remaining Ottoman guards asked for peace, leading to Skanderbeg asking for an ultimatum where the Ottomans were to leave the city, however some of the ottomans didnt accept and charged at the Albanian soldiers, but they were quickly killed. Skanderbeg let the remaining Ottomans escape, however as soon as they left the city walls they were killed by mobs of Albanian civilans, with no Ottoman guard being left alive.[18][19]

After the end of the battle Skanderbeg gave a speech where he stated:[20]

I did not bring you freedom, I found it here among you. As soon as I set foot here, as soon as you heard my name, all of you came to me faster, as if your fathers, brothers and sons had risen from the graves, as if God himself had descended from heaven.

Aftermath

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After the Liberation of Krujë, Skanderbeg, together with help from the Dibran forces led by Moisi Golemi captured many other Albanian fortresses that were under the rule of the Ottomans, one of the most crucial fortresses would be the Castle of Svetigrad.[21]

On 2 March 1444 the regional Albanian chieftains and nobles united against the Ottoman Empire and established the League of Lezhë.[22]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d Fine 1994
  2. ^ İnalcık 1954, p. 12
  3. ^ a b Buda 2002, p. 246
  4. ^ a b Islami et al. 2002
  5. ^ Imber 1990, p. 114
  6. ^ Pulaha 1967, p. 39
  7. ^ Imber 2006, p. 27
  8. ^ a b c d Islami et al. 2002, p. 337
  9. ^ a b Imber 1990, p. 115
  10. ^ Shuteriqi 2012, pp. 129–130
  11. ^ a b Biçoku 1970, pp. 142
  12. ^ Buda 2002, p. 247
  13. ^ a b Islami et al. 2002
  14. ^ İnalcık, Halil (1995), From empire to republic : essays on Ottoman and Turkish social history, Istanbul: Isis Press, p. 88, ISBN 978-975-428-080-7, OCLC 34985150, retrieved 4 January 2012, Comme nous le dit Chalcocondy- las après la retraite des Ottomans dans les Balkans en 1443 devant l'Hunyade, les anciens seigneurs se dépêchèrent de tous les côtés à rentrer en possession des domaines de leurs pères....(As Chalcocondyles tells us, "Weary after Hunyadi forced the Ottomans to retreat in the Balkans in 1443, the old lords hurried on all sides to regain possession of their fathers' fields".)
  15. ^ Encyclopaedia of the Muslim World, Ed. Taru Bahl, M.H. Syed, (Anmol Publications, 2003), 45.
  16. ^ Dialogue, Volume 5, Issues 17-20. Dijalog. 1996. p. 78. Retrieved 27 March 2012. Posle bitke kod Pirota, Skenderbeg zajedno sa sinovcem Hamzom, sinom svog starijeg brata Staniše ...
  17. ^ "Çlirimi i Krujës nga Skënderbeu, 1443 (Nëntori i Parë)". inforculture.info.
  18. ^ Barleti, Marin. Historia e Skënderbeut. ISBN 9789992799536.
  19. ^ Kristo, Frashëri (2002). Skënderbeu, jeta dhe vepra. Toena. ISBN 978-99927-1-627-4.
  20. ^ Agron, Shala (2018). "Fjalimi i Skënderbeut!?". telegrafi.com.
  21. ^ "Fjalimi i Gjergj Kastriotit pas çlirimit të Krujës". botasot.info. 17 January 2020.
  22. ^ Noli 1947, p. 36
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