Letter of Scanderbeg to Sultan Murad

Albanian revolt against the Turks begins to take the form of a personal
conflict between
Scanderbeg and the Sultan. Each protagonist has a strong position to start
from: Murad, because
he has just defeated a large Christian army at Varna in Hungary, and
Scanderbeg, because he
has defeated the Turkish army that the Sultan had sent into Epirus in order
to force the
rebels back into the pen. But the Sultan is old and tired and wants to spend
his last years
in peace and quiet. Therefore he tries "his well-known tricks and lies which
used to be
effective against others", and sends Scanderbeg a letter in which he speaks
to him as a father
to his son, accusing him of ingratitude, enumerating all his benefits
towards him, and offering
him peace on not very favourable terms. Scanderbeg answers with an excellent
piece of classical
rhetoric:

"The Christian soldier, Gjergj Kastrioti, also named Scanderbeg, Prince of
the Epirots, greets
the Ottoman Murad, Prince of the Turks. On previous occasions, you maintain,
you have outdone
me in many kinds of benefactions; today I shall defeat you in modesty and
disciplined speech.
For according to me, nothing is so clear a sign of a slavish mind as
inability to refrain from
coarse language and shameless speech, even towards the most menacing enemy.
Therefore I have
received and seen both your letter and your envoy with great tranquillity of
mind, and, to be
true, your letter caused my hilarity rather than my irritation, when right
from the beginning
of the letter you dared impute great ingratitude and perfidy to me, only to
lament just
afterwards in a slightly milder mood the perdition of my soul, while you
yourself – without
recognition of your own sad fate – eagerly recommended your protracted
error. Without heeding
the rights of war and the order of nature you proposed to me unwisely, if
not to say rudely,
many conditions for peace of a kind that ears can hardly bear hearing, as if
you were the
victor and I the defeated. My dear Murad, even though your many evil words
might provoke
even the most patient of men to evil speech, I understand them as an
expression partly of
age and an old man's wandering thoughts, partly of grief. This is so much
easier for me as
I have myself decided to fight against you, not with abuse and quarrelling,
but with weapons
and the anger of a just war."

Scanderbeg then denies that the Sultan has given him benefits, and
enumerates instead all
the evils he has done him by depriving him of his native country, killing
his brothers and
even planning to do away with him.

"How much longer (quousque tandem!) did you expect me to acquiesce with such
an arrogant master?
.... Please retain in the future your sharp arrows of menace, and do not
persevere in reminding
us of the Hungarians' fate as an example. Everybody, my lord, has his nature
and his talents,
and we have to bear with patience the fortune given us by the gods. We shall
not, however,
seek advice from an enemy about what has to be done, nor ask you for peace,
but the gods
for victory. Accept our greetings. Given in our camp, the day before idus
sextiles 1444."

The letter not only infuriates but also worries the Sultan.

"In order nevertheless not to reveal to his subjects any trace of
hesitation, it is told that
he stroked his old chin and feigned laughing while he said: 'So you are
seeking a glorious
name in death, you traitor, so that is what you are? We shall give it to
you, we shall, you
may be sure; we shall participate in our foster-child's funeral procession
and as uninvited
guests attend his funeral feast, you great King of the Albanians, so that
you shall never in
the underworld have to deplore having found a humble death