Serbian dynasties and Albanian noble families
The well-known Serbian and Albanian ruling and noble families, during the Middle Ages, established various family ties. In accordance with medieval customs, the most efficient way to ensure close relations among allies has been the connection of political marriages, writes Dushko Lopandiq for Kohen Ditore.
This was the way to guarantee peace and maintain the security of the state, as well as good cooperation between neighbors and between the sovereign and his vassals. The ties between the Serbian and Albanian ruling and noble families were created as early as the time of the first Serbian rulers from the house of Nemanjik, while they became very intense and close at the time of the invasion by the Turks, when both peoples found themselves in the path of a very powerful greater and of greater threat. The well-known Albanian families from the Middle Ages were: the Topijas, the Muzakas, the Arianites, the Dukagjins, the Kastriots.
A princess from the house of Nemanjiq was married in the 1215th century to a noble Albanian leader. It is about Komnena, the daughter of Stephen the First Crowned, who was also the sister of King Radoslav, whose mother was the Byzantine princess Eudokia, the daughter of Emperor Alexius II the Angel. Princess Konina in her first marriage was the wife of the Albanian nobleman Dhimitri, son of Progan (died around 1217). In a card of the people of Dubrovnik, Dhimitri mentions his Byzantine title "panipersevast", which he probably earned as the son-in-law of the Serbian ruler. He is also called "Arhont of the Arbans" and is the first nobleman who tried (unsuccessfully) to make the Albanian lands independent in the Kruja region. In her second marriage, Komnina married around the year XNUMX the "sevast" Gregor Kopmon, also Albanian, lord of Kruja and Elbasan, with whom she had a daughter. It is assumed that from the marriage of this girl whose name is not known (granddaughter of Stephen the First Crowned) with the Albanian prince Golem, the family of Arian Komnenos also derives.
The two most important personalities of Albanian origin that connect the Serbian and Albanian dynasties, as well as the history of these two neighboring peoples, are, without a doubt, the Serbian despot Angjelina, as well as the Albanian hero Gjergj Kastrioti - Skënderbeu.
also
Serbian-Albanian dynastic ties in the Middle Ages
The Albanian - Serbian saint
Angjelina was the daughter of the Albanian noble Gjergj Arianit Komneni, who, perhaps, as we said, came from the family whose predecessors included King Stefan Nemanjiq, the First Crowned. Gjergj Arianiti was the leader of the war against the Turks. He led the Albanians between Vlora and Shkodra, and won three battles in the period 1433-1436. Around the year 1456, Venice proclaimed him "Grand Duke" and he ruled between Durrës and Shkodra. He had his son Konstantin, who later became the regent of the Count of Monferrato, in Italy. Of the three known daughters, he married two (Angelina and Gojislava) to Serbian princes (the despot Stefan Brankovic and Ivan Crnojevic, the lord of Zeta).
Angelina married in 1460 the exiled and blind Serbian despot Stefan Brankovic (c. 1425-1476). Both spouses, therefore, in different lines, were descendants of the great ruler Stefan Nemanje. Despot Stefan the blind was the son of Gjuragj Branković. The Turks had blinded Stefan and his brother Gergur since they were young, as a punishment for their father. Towards the end of the Serbian despotism, Stefan was briefly proclaimed despot (1458), but after only a few months he had to flee to Smederevo (1459). The Dubrovnik native Mavro Orbin, in his book "Kingdom of the Slavs", wrote that "Stephan fled to Albania, where, persuaded by his own people, he took Angelina as his wife, or as others call her, Teodora, a virtuous woman, the daughter of Skanderbeg's father-in-law, Arianit, so that the house will not be left without descendants". Perhaps Gjergj Kastrioti, who had Angelina's sister-in-law, played a significant role in the realization of this marriage.
Angelina really showed herself as a virtuous and faithful woman, who shared with her husband and children all the evils of the banished house of the Brankonvics, and the scattered Serbian people. From the beginning of 1461, the married couple left Albania and went to Venice, where Stefan had the title of patrician. From the count of Gorica, they bought a property in Furlani, with the castle they named Belgrade. Stefani died here in 1471, while the despot Angelina was left as a poor widow with three children: Gjorgji, Jovani and Mara (Marija). Before he died, Stefan wrote to the people of Dubrovnik, begging them to help his wife and children: "I recommend to you my name Angelina, and my children Gjura and Mara and Jovan, and before God, before the Community, and before the whole world : What you do with them, may God do with you…” Somewhere around the year 1485, Stefan was declared a saint.
Stephen and Angelina's daughter, Mara (or Marija), with the mediation of the German emperor, was married in 1493 to Boniface V, Marquis of Monferat and direct descendant of the Byzantine Palaiologus family (according to the younger side line that ruled in Italy), with whom he had two sons. From this marriage in the female line are also the members of some of the most famous ruling dynasties of Europe (eg the Austrian emperors Habsburg-Loren, and others).
Angelina and her family moved from the Albanian mountains, through Italy to Frushka Gorë, in Srem. Three times she carried the remains of her husband (Saint Stephen) and twice of her son - and her, in great poverty. In Srem, she built the Sretenje monastery, where she became a nun and died in 1520. Soon after her death, she was declared a saint. Through Angelina's service, her Christian virtues were also revealed: the purity of her life, charity, patience and wisdom, the loyalty of a woman, the sacrifice of a mother. Saint Angelina's Day is July 30. In addition to Stefan and Angelina, the Orthodox Church has declared their sons, despot Jovan (died in 1502) and Vladika Maksim (despot Gjorgje, died in 1516) as saints. When the Turks, in 1716, burned the monastery in Krushedoll, only the left hand remained of Angelina's remains. Her bones, i.e. the hand, are still found today in the renovated monastery in Krushedoll, in Srem.
Skanderbeg - Balkan hero
Angelina's son-in-law, the husband of her sister Andronika, was the great Albanian nobleman and Balkan hero Gjergj Kastrioti - Skënderbeu. The homeland of Gjergj Kastriot Skenderbeu is Epirus.
Skanderbeg's family has been in very close relations with the Serbian-Slavic nobles. Gjergji's mother, Voisava (Vojislava Tripalda) was the daughter of a Serbian nobleman from Lower Polog in Macedonia. Skanderbeg's great-grandfather had a Slavic name, Brailo (or Branilo). Brailo was a mullet in Ioannina (Epirus) during the rule of the last Nemanjiks. Brailo's son, Pali, held the Dibra region, while Pali's son, Gjon Kastrioti, expanded his holdings in Epirus.
also
Daughter of Gjergj Arianiti and granddaughter of Skanderbeg, saint in Serbia
We must also take into account the fact that among the Balkan peoples, that is, among the Serbs, there was a great variety in the tradition of giving personal names. So it happened that the father has a Serbian name, while the son has a foreign one. Then, there were cases when the father has a Serbian name, the son a foreign one and a grandson a foreign one. However, nowhere in the medieval sources does this clear symbiosis of Orthodox Albanians and Slavs appear, in the giving of personal names, as is the case in the family of Gjergj Kastriot-Skënderbeu.
Skanderbeg's father, Gjoni (Serbian Ivan) Kastrioti (1407-1437) with his sons Stanish, Reposh, Kostadin and Gjergji, made a great gift to the Hilendar monastery on the Holy Mountain (Mount Athos) by donating the villages of Radostushë and Trebishte, near Dibra, which is recorded in a card which is still kept in the monastery today. In 1430, Gjon Kastrioti with his three sons reached an agreement with the Hilendar monastery, according to which they were given a stack (tower), which even today has the name "Pirgu arbanas". The card for the gift begins with this sentence: "With the unspeakable charity of my ruler Christ, I, a sinner and unworthy, who dare not call myself a slave of Christ my Lord, John Kastrioti, with my sons Stanish and Reposh, Constantine and Gjergji , I tried that, according to my God who sustains and with the help of Our Lady Lavri of Hilendar…” John's son, Reposhi, died in 1431 in the Hilendar monastery, where his grave can still be seen today. It is assumed that Gjon Kastrioti himself is buried in Hilendar.
Gjon's youngest son, Gjergj Kastrioti, was captured by the Turks as a young man, where he adopted the Islamic religion and the name Skënder (meaning Alexander). After returning to Albania, around the year 1444, Skënderbeu - Gjergji gave up Islam and put himself in charge of the resistance against the Ottomans who were coming. He freed almost the entire area of Central Albania. In the impenetrable fortress of Kruja, Skenderbeu will provide heroic resistance to the Turks for two decades. Although he had few forces (12.000 fighters), Gjergj Kastrioti successfully fought against the ten times larger Turkish army. He died undefeated in 1468 in Lezhë, while his name, even while he was alive, became a legend, for which he was told in all the Balkan countries, as well as in the seat of the Pope and throughout Europe. At the beginning of the "Crown of the Mountains", Petar Petrović Njegosi sings: "Skenderbeu has heart Obiliqi..." The well-known Serbian writer Jovan Sterja Popović wrote the drama "Skenderbeu".
Skanderbeg's son, Gjoni (or Jani, Ivani, Gjovani) Kastrioti, after the fall of the Albanian lands under the Turks, fled to the castle of the king of Naples, where, thanks to his father's merits, he also won the title of duke of "San Pietro di Galantina". John was married to the daughter of the Serbian despot Lazar Brankovic (1421-1458) - Irina. Considering that Irina's mother was Jelena Paleologu, the daughter of the despot of Morea Tomas, the brother of the last Byzantine emperor (Constantine XI) - the Italian descendants from this Albanian-Serbian marriage are also descendants of the last Christian imperial dynasty from Constantinople. Their descendants in the Italian aristocracy can be traced to the present day. In fact, from the marriage of Gjon Kastrioti with Irina Branković, a son was born named Ferante, who bore the surname "Kastriota Skenderbeg". Ferrante did not have sons "in legal marriage", but he left behind his daughter Irina (Maria), who married Pietro Antonio, prince of Bisignani, from the Sanseverino family. The descendants from this marriage are in Italian and German noble families: Bisignano-Sanseverino, di Capua, Pignatelli, d'Arenberg, Windisch-Graetz, Ursel and de Lin, etc. The mentioned Ferante Kastrioti also left behind illegitimate children, whose descendants have survived to this day (this is the family "from Kastriot-Skenderbeg")
Multiple connections
In addition to the ones mentioned, many other connections between Serbian and Albanian noble families are known. The Kastrioti family has also been connected to Serbian dynasties in other ways. Thus, Skenderbeu's sister, Marija, was married to the ruler of Zeta (that is, Montenegro) – Stefan Crnojevic (died in 1465). From this marriage derives the well-known Ivan Crnojevic (popularly known as Ivan-Begu, who ruled in the years 1464-1490), who transferred the seat of Zeta, as well as the metropolis, to Cetina and built the well-known monastery of Cetina. As mentioned, this Ivan in his first marriage had as his wife Gojislava, the daughter of Gjergj Ariani Komneni, the sister of the saint Angjelina Brakovic, as well as Andronika, the wife of Skanderbeg.
There are also numerous connections between the Serbian ruling family Brankovic and the noble Albanian family Topia: the sister of Vuk Brankovic, the participant of the Battle of Kosovo and the ruler of the Kosovo region, who was called Teodora (or Vojislava) was married to the ruler of Durrës, Gjergj Topina (1388-1392). The mother of this Gjergji was Vojisava Balšić, married around 1370 to the ruler of Durrës, the "prince of Arberia", Karl Topina (1359-1388). Karl Topia in 1381 renovated the church of Saint John (Serbian "Saint Jovan") in Elbasan in Central Albania, founded in honor of Saint John of Vladimir, Serbian ruler (Duklan) and saint. One daughter of Karl Topia was named Voisava (after the mother). The other, Elena, was married to Konstantin Balshajn, the lord of Kruja and the Turkish vassal, who came from the family of the rulers of Zeta, the Balshiks, and who was executed by the Venetians in Durrës in 1402.
Finally, Mara, the daughter of Niketa Topia (in all likelihood the son of Karl Topia), married in 1407 Balsha (III) Balshiq, the ruler of Zeta from 1403 to 1421. Balsha's mother was well-known Elena Hrebljanovic, daughter of Prince Lazar. Balsha had no children, so before his death he left all the rights of inheritance in the lands of Zeta to his uncle - the Serbian despot Stefan Lazarevic.
also
Kotor Nobility and Albanian Connection
The fact that two leading Serbian and Albanian families - the despots Brankovic and Kastriot - were closely related by marriage ties, indirectly indicates the intensity of the general ties between the two peoples from the end of the Middle Ages.
(Dushko Lopandiq is a professional diplomat and expert in European studies. For decades he deals with genealogy and writes books in the field of popular history. This article was written in the framework of the project "Overcoming Hostility: Changing Serbian-Albanian Perceptions", realized from the "Multimedia" Center from Prishtina in cooperation with the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory from Belgrade, with the support of the Embassy of Switzerland in Kosovo, and from the PERFORM Initiative for the support of social sciences in the Western Balkans)
