Letter from Skanderbeg to the Prince of Taranto

Giorgio, gentleman of Albania, to Giovanni Antonio, Prince of Taranto, greeting.

Having made a truce with the enemy of my religion I have not wanted that my friend remain (fraudato) of my aid. (Spesse?) times, Alfonso, his father, invited my help while I waged war against the Turks. Therefore I would be very ungrateful if I had not resisted (lÕistesso?) service to his son. I remember what your king did because now (non deve vedere succedergli?) this who is his son? You adored his father, and why now do you try to throw out his son? Where did this power come from? Who has the power to set up the King of Sicily, you or the Roman Pontiff?

I came to aid Ferrante, son of the king and seat of the Apostolica. I came opposing your unfaithfulness and innumerable great betrayals in this kingdom. Will you ever be unpunished for your perjury. This is the reason for my war against you. I merit this no less than I merited making war against the Turks, nor are you less Turk than them. (ImperoccheÕ vi sono alcuni?) that guide you in a straight line not to be of some sect. You my opponents the French and the names of those people, and those for the religion wage grand war.

I do not want to dispute ancient matters with you, matters that perhaps were much less than what was told about them. Certainly in our times the Aragonese armadas have often coursed the Aegean Sea, have plundered the Turkish coasts, have (riportata?) the prey of the enemies; and even today the Aragonese armies defend Troja from the jaws of the enemy. Why do I remember the old things and leave the new parts? If they change the family costumes and the plowmen of the kingdom, and the kings of the plowmen return? (NeÕ troverai nobilitaÕ piuÕ antica della virtuÕ.)

Nor can I deny that you are not with the obnoxious French nation, (imperoccheÕ) you being mainly in aid of King Alfonso, you hunted the French of this kingdom. I do not know now what new virtue shines in this. Perhaps it is some new star that you have now seen among the French?

Moreover, you scorned our people, and compared the Albanese to sheep, and according to your custom think of us with insults. Nor have you shown yourself to have any knowledge of my race. My elders were from Epirus, where this Pirro came from, whose force could scarcely support the Romans. This Pirro, who Taranto and many other places of Italy held back with armies.

I do not have to speak for the Epiroti. They are very much stronger men than your Tarantini, a species of wet men who are born only to fish. If you want to say that Albania is part of Macedonia I would concede that a lot more of our ancestors were nobles who went as far as India under Alexander the Great and defeated all those peoples with incredible difficulty. From those men come these who you called sheep. But the nature of things is not changed. Why do your men run away in the faces of sheep?

In the past the Albanese have (fatto?) experience if the Pugilese were armed; (neÕ) I would again find some who would have been able to aspired to my nature. I have well noted from the back how many of your soldiers are well armed but have never been able to see their helmets or (tanpoco?) the face except those that have become prisoners. (NeÕ?) I seek your house (Bastandomi?) my own. Besides, it is well known that you often would have shot your neighbors for their possessions, as now you would force out the king of your house and your kingdom.

(Che se?) If I fall in the difficult task I have embarked on I will be buried as (mi vai?) wishing in your letter, will bring back my soul as a reward from the Chancellor of the universe, of God. Not only will I have perfected my intention, but also I will have planned and attempted some distinguished deed.

Good bye....

- Piccinino was very small in stature, and when they met, Skanderbeg took him by his arms and lifted him in the air like a child.

- With reference to the place where they had the above mentioned battle, the eminent (arr.?) Terlizzi gave me the following: ÒReferring to the battles of 1461 in which the angioini were trying to regain the Kingdom of Naples, I have not been able to learn if in (agro?) of Troja there is a place called Mount Sejano, where according to Paganel (from whom you have received the piece of information) the rout of the Angioni took place; but I would have to believe that it referred to mount Magliano or Montemaggiore which are two vast holdings in the territory of Orsara, exactly half way on the road toward Troja. Most likely it was mount Magliano because I remember reading that one of the armies was camped onVerditello, which is a separate mountain that dominates the road between Orsara and Troja near Magliano and Montemaggiore.

Besides, Lago di sangue, near Terrastrutta (Ripalonga), as we know, is found below Crepacore at the beginning of the Sannoro river. ItÕs name certainly indicates that there had to be some fighting here. But this happened in 1461 and I indicated the extermination of the angioini already beaten and put to flight. Or perhaps it refers to yet another defeat of the angioini that took place twenty years earlier when Alfonso I of Aragon defeated the last resistance by his adversaries in Orsara and assured the conquest of the Kingdom of Naples? Or not referring to this but rather to some other even more ancient encounter between armies?

Professor Flammia in his history of the city of Ariano, on page 117, says that a concave place near Castiglione is called Lago di sangue because in 1461 Ferdinand of Aragon came to hunt for Giovanni of AngioÕ of Orsara, followed him and caught up with him here, slaughtered his enemy so much that blood ran in a (fossatello?) and remained for a long time as a horrible spectacle for visitors.

However this version recorded by Flammia is unlikely or at least greatly exaggerated. At the end, I remember that the first battle in which the angioini were beaten mainly by the operations of Skanderbeg and the Albanese, had took place at Mount Arato which is a hill situated between Lucera and Troja.

- To honor Skanderbeg, who in restoring the legitimate sovereign to the throne, restored peace in all of Italy, the Pope came to Naples accompanied by various princes and offered him riches and grand gifts. Several European countries promised to cooperate with him and send large armies to help him fight the Ottomans, but unfortunately the western peoples had faint enthusiasm for the (prischi?) crusaders, and after the death of its hero Skanderbeg, Albania still fell under the subjugation of the Turks.

Returning to Rome, the Pope was accompanied by Skanderbeg to whom he granted as a gift a palace on the side of the Quirinale on the road that still today carries the name of Òvia SkanderbegÓ. Today everyone can admire a magnificent portrait of the Albanian hero engraved and well preserved on the pediment of this palace, in the wall at the top of the entrance.

At the same time, the above mentioned pontiff, not being able to offer anything else, gave him ten thousand shields for the cause of his country. Skanderbeg returned them to him courteously however, thanking him and suggesting that with the money he might say a mass for the walled-in Albanese.

It is also recorded that when Skanderbeg left Naples he left his sword there on the hilt of which is inscribed his portrait. It is still preserved in the royal palace of Capodemonte along with the swords of Charles V and Ettore Fieromosca .

Skanderbeg died in 1467 and was buried in the S. Nicolo Church in Alessio(Lezhe). However, this church was transformed into a mosque by the Turks who, (per altro?) (ne facero?) of the talisman, believe that in the bones of this hero, like in the hair of Sansone, was reposed a divine force.

This entire Part 5 was originally written in French