Skanderbeg's Italian expedition (Albanian: Ekspedita italiane e Skënderbeut) (1460–1462) was undertaken to aid his ally Ferdinand I of Naples, whose rulership was threatened by the Angevin Dynasty. Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg was the ruler of Albania (Latin: dominus Albaniae) who had been leading a rebellion against the Ottoman Empire since 1443 and allied himself with several European monarchs in order to consolidate his domains. In 1458, Alfonso V of Aragon, ruler of Sicily and Naples and Skanderbeg's most important ally, died, leaving his illegitimate son, Ferdinand, on the Neapolitan throne; René d'Anjou, the French Duke of Anjou, laid claim to the throne. The conflict between René's and Ferdinand's supporters soon erupted into a civil war. Pope Calixtus III, of Spanish background himself, could do little to secure Ferdinand, so he turned to Skanderbeg for aid.
In 1457, Skanderbeg had achieved his most famous victory over the Ottoman Empire at Albulena (Ujëbardha), which was received with great enthusiasm throughout Italy. In order to repay Alfonso for the financial and military assistance given to him years before, Skanderbeg took up the pope's pleas to help out Alfonso's son by sending a military expedition to Italy. Before leaving, Skanderbeg tried to negotiate a ceasefire with Sultan Mehmed II, the conqueror of Constantinople, to ensure his domain's safety. Mehmed had not declared a truce and he was still sending his armies against Bosnia and the Byzantine Morea. It was not until 1459, after Mehmed's conquest of Serbia, that Mehmed not only declared a truce, but also a three-year ceasefire with Skanderbeg. This gave Skanderbeg his opportunity to send his men to Italy.
Due to fears of an approaching Ottoman army, Skanderbeg first sent his nephew, Constantine, with 500 cavalry to Barletta. They were incorporated into Ferdinand's forces to combat his Angevin rivals. They held back their enemy for a year, but did not gain much ground until Skanderbeg arrived in September 1461. Before reaching Italy, Skanderbeg visited Ragusa (Dubrovnik) to convince its rectors to help fund his campaign. Meanwhile, his men landed in Italy and Angevin forces lifted their siege on Barletta. Upon arriving, Skanderbeg continued to pursue his ally's enemies with great success. Ferdinand's adversaries thus began to retreat from his territories and Skanderbeg went back to Albania; a troop of his men stayed until Ferdinand managed to finally defeat the pretenders to his throne at the Battle of Orsara, although it is not known if Skanderbeg's men participated.
Background
In 1456, Skanderbeg's ally, Janos Hunyadi, died, and his son, Matthias Corvinus, was crowned King of Hungary. Hunyadi had been an advocate for an offensive war against the Ottoman Empire, whereas the Hungarian nobility and his son promoted a defensive war. The next year, however, Skanderbeg defeated a sizable Ottoman force at the Battle of Albulena (Ujëbardha). Rome had been desperately waiting for such a victory after the Siege of Belgrade, as Pope Calixtus III had wanted to assure himself of the feasibility of a crusade before declaring one. Calixtus thus named Skanderbeg the Captain-General of the Curia; to secure the pope's interests, Skanderbeg sent twelve Turkish prisoners of war that had been captured at Albulena to Rome. Despite seeing his forces defeated the year before, Sultan Mehmed II prepared another force to be sent into Albania. The country had been obstructing his ambitions for empire in the West and he grew restless to defeat Skanderbeg. Skanderbeg sent delegations to several Western European states to convince them to stop fighting each other and unite for Calixtus' crusade.
Italian situation
On 27 June 1458, Alfonso V of Aragon, Skanderbeg's most important and helpful ally after the stipulation of the Treaty of Gaeta, died. In 1448, as a gesture of friendship with Alfonso, Skanderbeg sent a detachment of Albanian troops commanded by General Demetrios Reres to Crotone to quell a rebellion against Alfonso. The next year, many of these men were allowed to settle four villages in Sicily which Alfonso controlled. Upon hearing of his ally's death, Skanderbeg sent emissaries to the new King of Naples, Ferdinand I, to give condolence for his father's death, but also to congratulate him on his accession to the throne of Naples. The succession was not without turbulence, however: René d'Anjou laid claim to the throne since his family had controlled Naples before Aragon had taken control of it, and also because Ferdinand was Alfonso's illegitimate son. The Southern Italian nobility, many of Angevin background, supported René d'Anjou over the Aragonese Ferdinand. Among them was Giovanni Antonio del Balzo Orsini, the Prince of Taranto, and Jacopo Piccinino, a famed condottieri who had been invited by the Angevins. Francisco Sforza, the Duke of Milan, who was wary of a French presence in Italy, sided with Ferdinand and sent his nephew, Alessandro Sforza, to command his army in southern Italy. Pope Calixtus, a Spaniard who wished to see his compatriot in control of Naples, was in no position to help the weak Ferdinand, so he turned to Skanderbeg for help. However, by that time, Piccinino and his men had conquered all of southern Italy except Naples, Capua, Aversa, Gaeta, Troia, and Barletta, where Ferdinand was besieged.
Skanderbeg had received much aid from Ferdinand's father, Alfonso, and was still a vassal of the Crown of Aragon, so he felt the need to repay the Crown. He accepted the pope's pleas to go to Italy and aid Ferdinand. Skanderbeg's stated reasoning was two-fold: he wanted to remain loyal to his ally and he wanted to prevent an Angevin takeover of Naples since they had maintained friendly relations with the Turks. Skanderbeg also feared that if the Angevins took Naples, they would turn to Albania where they had previously maintained a kingdom. On the other hand, before undertaking any action against the Angevins, he took measures to soften relations with Venice. Seeing that Southern Italy was locked in conflict, Venice no longer feared an Aragonese-Albanian alliance and the Senate decided to take a friendlier approach in Albanian-Venetian relations. Meanwhile, Pope Calixtus III had died and was succeeded by Pope Pius II. Sensing that war would soon begin, Pius tried to convince Giovanni Orsini, Ferdinand's main rival, to settle his differences with the King. The French King, Louis XI, took up the Angevin stance and, in the hopes of convincing Pius to allow the French takeover of Naples, proposed the repeal of the Pragmatic Sanction of Bourges which undermined the pope's power and he even declared that he would be willing to lend 70,000 men for the planned papal crusade. Pius, however, was wary of insincerity and disregarded these proposals. A further effort to deter Skanderbeg's landing was made by Sigismondo Malatesta, the Lord of Rimini and Italy's most feared petty tyrant, who had tried to invite Mehmed to Italy with a detailed map of the Adriatic if Ferdinand sent for the Albanian. The manuscript, however, never reached the sultan and fell into Pius' hands.
Albanian situation
Constant news of Ottoman campaigns against Bosnia and Byzantine Morea but not against Albania seemed to suggest to Skanderbeg that Mehmed II had been considering an armistice with Skanderbeg. The latter took advantage of this lull in the fighting by preparing for his voyage to Italy and by securing his northern frontiers from a possible attack by Skanderbeg's elusive ally in northern Albania, Lekë Dukagjini, who had been trying to expand his realm by reaching an agreement with the Turks. In order to curb his ambitions, Skanderbeg seized Shat Fortress and presented it as a gift to Venice. Skanderbeg then established an alliance with Venice against Dukagjini, while Dukagjni was strengthening his Turkish alliance. The new pope issued a bull against Dukagjini, giving him fifteen days to break his alliance with the Ottomans and to reconcile with Skanderbeg, or be subject to interdiction; Dukagjini conceded and chose the former option. He then reestablished his alliance with Skanderbeg and Venice and accepted all of its losses.
Pius II continued to support Skanderbeg, but did not provide him as much financial aid as Calixtus had since he believed that Skanderbeg's military skill and his soldiers' aptitude for battle were enough to hold back the Turkish armies. However, the pope still considered Skanderbeg's assistance essential for his plans for an anti-Ottoman crusade. In 1459, after Mehmed II completed his conquest of Serbia, Ottoman envoys appealed for a three-year armistice between Skanderbeg's Albania and the Ottoman Empire. The sultan's purpose was to distance Skanderbeg from the pope's crusade as he believed the crusade's only hope for success was Skanderbeg. In order to give Albania a break from fifteen years of continuous Ottoman invasion, Skanderbeg considered accepting the proposal but he had to get the pope's approval. Pius did not allow such an agreement and began to doubt Skanderbeg's loyalty. As the Ottomans were operating in the Western Balkans, Pius feared that the Ottoman soldiers would break the truce and pour into Albania. In order to regain the pope's trust, Skanderbeg did not agree to the peace. Skanderbeg, nevertheless, was disappointed by Rome's response and he responded by not participating in the Council of Mantua which was held to plan the future crusade. The Council ended in failure, signifying that Skanderbeg would receive no help from the West. He thus sent ambassadors to the pope saying that he would only be willing to land in Italy if a ceasefire with the Turks were arranged, something which Rome soon allowed.
Before sending his men to Italy, Ragusa (Dubrovnik) was to receive Skanderbeg's envoy on 9 June 1460. He requested the city's support for the transport of his warriors to southern Italy over the Adriatic. Venice was not consulted since they pursued their own interests in Italy, whereas Ragusa held close economic relations with the Crown of Aragon. Meanwhile, Skanderbeg sent Martin Muzaka to Rome where he presented Pius with Skanderbeg's plans, and Pius in turn notified Ferdinand. Pius then ordered Venice to guard the Albanian coastline. Skanderbeg then decided to send a troop of his men while he remained in Albania. In mid-June 1461, Skanderbeg agreed to a ceasefire with Mehmed who used this time to finally conquer Trebizond (Trabzon) in the northeastern part of modern Turkey. The truce was agreed to last for three years.
First landings
On 17 September 1460, Skanderbeg sent 500 cavalry to Barletta in Apulia under the command of his nephew, Constantine, who at the time was 22 or 23 years old. The battles for the Crown of Naples up to that point had been minor with not much more than one-thousand troops per belligerent. Ferdinand's Neapolitan army as a whole stood at 7,000 men. The addition of 500 Albanian cavalry, even though they were not cuirassed like their Italian counterparts, increased his force's effectiveness. By this time, Ferdinand had lost most of his territory, and was left with some fortresses in Apulia and the area surrounding Naples. The Angevins were swiftly approaching Naples and Ferdinand prepared a counteroffensive. He first secured what he had by putting Roberto del Balzo Orsini in command, but Orsini's incompetence held up the Neapolitan army. By this time, Skanderbeg's men had already arrived, and Ferdinand commenced his offensive. Albanian light-cavalry warfare was first noted here for its swiftness and effectiveness where they were reported to travel 30–40 miles (48–64 km) per day as opposed to the Italian cavalry which could only travel 10–12 miles (16–19 km). The Albanians were encouraged by Ferdinand to fight in their traditional manner and to raid the territory; Ferdinand informed Francisco Sforza that the Albanians had been devastating Apulia and taking whatever loot they could. These events worried the Angevins and prompted Giovanni Orsini to try to stop Skanderbeg from pouring his men into Italy. René d'Anjou had been particularly surprised by Skanderbeg's action since he believed that he had never offended the Albanian.
Orsini–Skanderbeg correspondence
"The Prince of Taranto wrote me a letter, a copy of which, and the reply I made him, I am sending to Your Majesty. I am very surprised that His Lordship should think to turn me from my intention by his brusque words, and I should like to say one thing: may God guard Your Majesty from ill and harm and danger, but however things may turn out I am the friend of virtue and not fortune."
— Skanderbeg's letter to Ferdinand I of Naples.
Giovanni Orsini was the Prince of Taranto and Ferdinand's fiercest rival. He had been, however, Alfonso's faithful ally and had developed an admiration for Skanderbeg and his campaigns in Albania. After Skanderbeg had sided with his rival, Orsini allied with the Angevins and refused to recognize Ferdinand as King of Naples. He then sent a letter to convince Skanderbeg to pull his men out of Italy arguing that Ferdinand's fortunes were hopeless, that Skanderbeg's fame would die out after his supposed debacle, and that an alliance with René would be much more rewarding than an alliance with Ferdinand. Skanderbeg's letter in response, dated to 10 October 1460, stated that he was not a condottieri looking for fortune, but a mature man looking to help his ally. Furthermore, he sent another letter to Ferdinand assuring him his loyalty. Another letter was sent to Pius assuring him that the Albanians were fit for battle in Italy, something the Italian rulers did not believe. The letters elucidate Skanderbeg's political motives behind his Italian expedition, presenting himself as a noble ally, and also illustrate the influence of the Renaissance in Skanderbeg's court. They also served a psychological purpose to intimidate Ferdinand's rivals: Skanderbeg compared himself to Pyrrhus of Epirus of antiquity who marched into Italy to defend the Greek city-states from Roman expansion.