See also:SCANDERBEG, or ISKENDER See also:BEY (14o3-1467)
, known also as " the See also:Dragon of See also:Albania," the See also:national See also:hero of the Albanians, was the son of See also:John (Giovanni) Castriota, See also:lord of Kroia and of the Mirdite See also:country in See also:northern Albania, and of a Servian princess named Vaisava
.
His actual name was See also:George (Giorgio) Castriota, and the name of Iskender See also:Bey (See also:Prince See also:Alexander) was given to him by the See also:Turks in complimentary reference to Alexander the See also:Great
.
In 1423, when See also:Murad II. invaded See also:Epirus, George Castriota, with his three See also:brothers, was handed over as a See also:hostage to the Turks and sent to be trained in the service of the seraglio
.
His brilliant qualities of mind and See also:body at once gained 'him the favour of the See also:sultan; he became a Mussulman, was promoted to high military command and, though barely nineteen years of See also:age, to the See also:government of a sanjak
.
He remained in the See also:Ottoman service for twenty years, dissembling his resentment when, on the See also:death of his See also:father, his principality was annexed
and his brothers poisoned
.
In 1443, however, his opportunity came with Janos See also:Hunyadi's victory at See also:Nish
.
He seized Kroia
by stratagem, proclaimed himself a See also:Christian, and gathered the See also:wild Albanian clansmen about him
.
In the inaccessible fastnesses of Albania he maintained a guerilla warfare against the Turks during nearly twenty-five years, easily routing the armies sent against him, and is said to have slain three thousand Turks with his own See also:hand
.
In 1461 Murad's successor Mahommed II. acknowledged him by a temporary truce as lord of
.
Albania and Epirus
.
He died in 1467 at Alessio, and his See also:tomb was See also:long the See also:object of a superstitious veneration on the See also:part of the Turks
.
See also:Scanderbeg's resistance to the See also:Turkish advance was invaluable to the cause of See also:Christianity, but the See also:union which he had maintained in Albania did not survive him
.
He was succeeded in Kroia by his son, Giovanni Castriota, who in 1474 sold the princi-
pality to the Venetians, by whom four years later it was re-sold to the Turks
.
See Georges T
.
Petrovitch, Scander-beg (Georges Castriota) Essai de bibliographie raisonnee; Ouvrages sur Scander-beg ecrits en langues francaise, anglaise, See also:allemande, latine, italienne, &c
.
(See also:Paris, 1881); Pisko, Skanderbeg, historische Studie (See also:Vienna, 1895)
.
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