Gjon Kastrioti

Gjon Kastrioti or John Castriot (13?? – 4 May 1437) was an Albanian nobleman, member of the Kastrioti family, and the father of Skanderbeg. He governed the territory between Cape of Rodon and Debar and had at his disposal an army of 2,000 horsemen.

According to Gjon Muzaka's chronicle (1515), Gjon Kastrioti's father was nobleman Pal Kastrioti, who held two villages, Sina and Lower Gardi. These two villages were located on the mountain of Qidhna northwest of Debar.

Gjon managed to expand his family domain over the region of Mat.

Gjon married Voisava, the daughter of a "Triballian" ruler, the lord of Polog (situated in modern R. Macedonia) and had nine children with her: four sons and five daughters. The sons' names were Stanisha, Reposh, Kostandin, and George (Skanderbeg) and the daughters' names were Mara, Jelena, Angjelina, Vlajka and Mamica. The oldest daughter of Gjon Kastrioti, Maria Kastrioti, also called Mamica, married Muzakë Topia. Gjon Kastrioti was also the name of the grandson through George Kastrioti.

According to some sources, Gjon Kastrioti participated on the Serbian side against the Ottomans in the Battle of Pločnik (1386). Some even attribute the Serbian victory to him, through his cleverness and cooperation with Bosnian troops. In 1386, like many other noblemen from Albania, Gjon became an Ottoman vassal. In 1402 together with other Ottoman vassals from Albania he supported Bayezid I in the Battle of Ankara. He was one of the noblemen who were guarantors for Balša III and Jelena Balšić in the treaty they concluded with the Venetians on 6 June 1408 during the First Scutari War. At the beginning of 1412 Venetians offered 1,000 ducats of yearly provisions to Gjon and the Đurašević brothers to switch sides and leave Balša III, but they refused.

Kastrioti accepted the suzerainty and was made a citizen of Venice in 1413, along with his heirs. Kastrioti maintained good relations with Venice after becoming an Ottoman vassal between 1415 and 1417, and was not likely to endanger the relations by seizing the Cape from Venice. The Venetians tried to bribe the Kastrioti and Dukagjini to fight against Zeta in 1419, but it seems without success.

Map of operations in 1421–1423 war between Serbian Despotate and Venice

In the period 1419–1426 Gjon was an ally of Serbian Despot Stefan Lazarević, who was also an Ottoman vassal. Lazarević had been ceded Zeta from Balša III in 1421, but the Venetians did not recognize him, holding on to the occupied Zetan coast and Bojana, including Drivast. In August 1421, Lazarević led armies into Zeta and took Sveti Srdj, Drivast and Bar; the Venetians concluded a truce and now held only the towns of Skadar, Ulcinj and Budva; when Lazarević demanded the surrender of these towns, Venice refused and war resumed. A number of Gjon Kastrioti's Albanians led by one of his sons joined Lazarević immediately upon the arrival of the latter in Zeta. According to Fan Noli it was Stanisha who was sent by his father, together with auxiliary forces, to help Serbian despot to capture Scutari from Venetians. Lazarević besieged Scutari, probably in June 1422, and for a year, it seemed that Venice would have lost their possessions, however, supported by some local Albanians, Venice managed to break the siege in December 1422. In January 1423, Venice bribed and won over the Pamaliots on Bojana, and then bought over several tribal leader in or near Zeta: the Paštrovići, Gjon Kastrioti (who had extended to the outskirts of Alessio), the Dukagjins, and Koja Zaharija. Though none of these were mobilized militarly by Venice, they left the ranks of Lazarević's army, thus became a potential danger to Lazarević. Although Venetian admiral Francesco Bembo offered money to Kastrioti, Dukagjins and to Koja Zaharija in April 1423 to join the Venetian forces against Serbian Despotate (offering 300 ducats to Gjon Kastrioti), they refused.

From time to time one or more of Gjon's sons were sent as a hostages to Ottoman court. In 1428 Gjon Kastrioti had to seek forgiveness from the Venetian Senate because of Skanderbeg's participation in Ottoman military campaigns against the Christians.

In attempt to relieve Ottoman pressure during the Siege of Thessalonica Venice inspired Gjon to rebel against Ottomans in 1428. In August 1428 sent his envoys, priest Dimitrije and lord Murat, to present to Venetians the letters written by sultan during past five years (since Venetians captured Thessalonica in 1423). By those letters sultan sent orders to Gjon to attack Venetian possessions in Albania. Since he refused to cooperate with Ottomans Gjon begged Venetians to provide him with a safe conduct if Ottomans would attack him. In April 1430, after Ottomans captured Thessalonica, they captured most of Gjon's land. Ottoman forces were led by Isak-Beg who was a sanjakbey of the Sanjak of Skopje. He positioned Ottoman garrison in two Gjon's castles and destroyed rest of them. Isak-Beg allowed Gjon to govern a very small part of the territory because Ottomans held Gjon responsible only for disobedience, not for the treason. Gjon Kastrioti joined an unsuccessful uprising against the Ottoman Empire led by Gjergj Arianiti between 1432 and 1436 and was again defeated by the Ottoman forces of Isak-Beg.

Hilandar Monastery

Gjon died in on 4 May 1437. The territory previously controlled by Gjon Kastrioti was annexed by the Ottomans and listed in their registers as land of Yuvan-ili (Yuvan was Gjon's name on Turkish language). Until 1438 a part of Gjon Kastrioti's estates comprising nine villages was awarded to Skanderbeg as his timar and in May 1438 those nine villages had been awarded to André Karlo. The granting of these villages to André Karlo must have upset Skanderbeg who requested to be granted with control over the zeamet in Misia consisting of his father's former domain. Sanjakbey (probably of the Sanjak of Ohrid) objected Skanderbeg's request.

Some of Gjon's subordinates held the title of kephale as it was used in many regions of Albania at that time (like in Valona and Kanine). At the court of Gjon Kastriot there was also the position of čelnik, with the same or similar duties like those of Stefan Lazarević or Đurađ Branković – being responsible for judiciary and civil affairs.

Collecting the custom duties from Ragusan traders, exporting the grain and trading with salt was important source of income of Gjon Kastrioti.

Venetian Republic attempted to introduce its own units of measure on marketplaces in Scutari, Durazo and Alessio since the beginning of 1410. This intention caused confusion which was a reason for Gjon Kastriot to complain through his envoys in Venice. In January 1410 Venetians accepted Gjon's demands to measure grain and other products exported by him the way they were previously measured.

On 25 February 1420 Gjon Kastriot wrote a letter in the Serbian language to merchants from Ragusa (Dubrovnik). Based on the order of the despot of Serbia, when they would travel from Ragusa to Prizren they had to use the route through Shkodër in Albania Veneta and the Kastriot's land instead of the previous route through the land under control of the small feudal lords and highland tribes of Montenegro. With that letter Gjon informed merchants from Dubrovnik that they were granted safe conduct when passing through regions under his control, on their way from Šufadaj to Prizren. In March 1422 Gjon asked Venice to allow Ragusan traders to travel to his territory in Sufaday through Alessio instead of Scutari, which was allowed starting from August.

After the death of Balša in 1421 Venetians promised to allow Kastrioti to collect salt produced in Durres. Because of the reduced production Venice did not respect its promise. Gjon tried to avoid the monopoly of Venetian Republic and built his own salt evaporation ponds. In 1424 Venetians forced him to destroy all of them because they noticed some of their convoys directed to collect salt in Durres never appeared there. At the beginning of the 15th century Šufaday (important former marketplace on the Adriatic sea, near Lezhë) was a possession of Jonima family and in 1428 it was under Gjon's control. At that time region of Šufadaj was rich with forests and the wood was transported through its port to Ragusa. Оn 17 August 1428 Gjon complained through his representatives in Venice because he was not allowed to collect salt in Durres.

His religion was directly influenced by the international balance of political powers. It is believed that a popular saying in southern Albania "Where the sword is, there lies religion" (Albanian: Ku është shpata, është feja) have originated from Gjon Kastrioti. When he was an ally of Venice, in period 1407–1410, he was Roman Catholic. After he allied himself with Stefan Lazarević, despot of Serbian Despotate in period 1419–1426, he converted to Orthodoxy, and in 1431 he was converted to Islam because he was a vassal of the Ottoman Empire.

In 1426 he donated the right to the proceeds from taxes collected from the two villages (Rostuša and Trebište in Macedonia) and from the church of Saint Mary, which was in one of them, to the Serbian Orthodox Monastery of Hilandar in Mount Athos where his son Reposh retired and died on 25 July 1431. Afterwards, in period between 1426 and 1431, Gjon Kastrioti and his sons, with the exception of Stanisha, purchased four adelphates (rights to reside on monastic territory and receive subsidies from monastic resources) to the Saint George tower and to some property within the monastery. In his honor the Saint George tower of Monastery of Hilandar was known as the Albanian tower (Serbian: Arbanaški pirg).

According to Noli, he died Roman Catholic. According to the archives of the Hilandar monastery on Mount Athos, he took monastic vows there and received the name Joachim, becoming an Orthodox monk, where he died.

His different titles used in sources include Lord of Emathia and Vumenestia or simply Lord of Mat. In Venetian sources he was also referred to as "lord in Albania" (dominum in Albania), and "lord of the part of Albania" (dominus partium Albanie).