Albania - 500th Anniversary of Skanderbeg's Death - League of Lezhë
1968 Proof 5 Leke Silver 30mm (16.74 grams) .999 Silver (0.5351 oz ASW)
Reference: KM# 49
5 LEKË 1000, Coat-of-arms.
SHQIPËRI·ALBANIA 1444-1969 LIDHJA E LEZHËS - LIGA LISSI, League of Lezhë motif.
Coin Notes:
Countermarks for 1968 and 1969 coins were hand positioned, then punched. The result is a variety of countermark positions, to the left and right of LEKE. For the 1970 issue the fineness marking has been incorporated in the dies. You are bidding on the exact item pictured, provided with a Certificate of Authenticity and Lifetime Guarantee of Authenticity.
 The League of Lezhë (Albanian: Lidhja e Lezhës) was a military alliance of Albanian feudal lords forged in Lezhë on 2 March 1444, with Skanderbeg as leader of the regional Albanian and Serbian chieftains united against the Ottoman Empire. Skanderbeg was proclaimed "Chief of the League of the Albanian people".
The main members of the league were the Arianiti, Balšić, Zaharia, Muzaka, Spani, Thopia and Crnojevići. The members contributed to the League with men and money, while Skanderbeg had no right to interfere with the affairs of their domains. All earlier and many modern historians accepted Marin Barleti's news about this meeting in Lezhë (without giving it equal weight), although no contemporary Venetian document mentions it. Barleti referred to the meeting as the generalis concilium or universum concilium ("general council" or "whole council"); the term "League of Lezhë" was coined by subsequent historians. After the death of Serbian Emperor Stefan Dušan in 1355, the magnates in Albania established their own dominions. When Ottoman forces entered Albania, they were faced with small principalities that were engaged in vicious fights among themselves. The first battle against the Ottoman forces in Albania was that of Balša II, the Lord of Zeta, when one of the Albanian rulers, Karlo Thopia, invited Ottomans who defeated and killed Balša II in the battle of Savra which happened on 18 September 1385. In the 15th century, the Ottoman Empire established itself in the Balkans with no significant resistance offered by local Christian nobles. Many of them were still fighting amongst themselves and didn't see the Ottoman advance as a threat to their power. Although a civil war broke out between Bayezid I's sons in 1402-13, none of the Christian noblemen in the Balkans at the time seized the opportunity to repel the Ottomans; on the contrary, Bulgarians, Serbs and Hungarians even helped the future Sultan Mehmed I seize power, by participating as his allies in the final battle against his brother. After the Ottoman civil war was over in favour of Mehmed I, his forces captured Kruja from the Thopia in 1415, Berat in 1417 from the Muzaka, Vlora and Kanina in 1417 from the widow of Balša III and Gjirokastër in 1418 from the Zenevisi. Under pressure from the Ottoman Empire and the Republic of Venice, the Albanian principalities began to vacillate. Some Albanian nobility revolted in 1432-36. In November 1443, Skanderbeg captured Kruja with his troops and declared its independence from the Sultan.
 Gjergj Kastrioti (6 May 1405 - 17 January 1468), known as Skanderbeg (Albanian: Skënderbej or Skënderbeu from Ottoman Turkish: اسکندر بگ, romanized: İskender Beğ), was an Albanian nobleman and military commander who led a rebellion against the Ottoman Empire in what is today Albania, North Macedonia, Kosovo, Montenegro and Serbia.
A member of the noble Kastrioti family, he was sent as a hostage to the Ottoman court. He was educated there and entered the service of the Ottoman sultan for the next twenty years. His rise through the ranks culminated in his appointment as sanjakbey (governor) of the Sanjak of Dibra in 1440. In 1443, during the Battle of Niš, he deserted the Ottomans and became the ruler of Krujë, Svetigrad, and Modrič. In 1444, the council of feudal lords that historians would later call the League of Lezhë named Skanderbeg its chief military commander (first among equals). The league consolidated nobility throughout what is today Northern Albania, under King Alfonso V, with Skanderbeg as captain general. Thus, for the first time Albania was united under a single leader. Skanderbeg's rebellion was not a general uprising of Albanians, because he did not gain support in the Venetian-controlled north or in the Ottoman-controlled south. His followers included, apart from Albanians, also Slavs, Vlachs, and Greeks. Despite this military valor he was not able to do more than to hold his own possessions within the very small area in today's northern Albania where almost all of his victories against the Ottomans took place. His rebellion was a national rebellion. The resistance led by him brought Albanians of different regions and dialects together in a common cause, helping define the ethnic identity of the Albanians. Skanderbeg's military skills presented a major obstacle to Ottoman expansion, and many in western Europe considered him to be a model of Christian resistance against Muslims. For 25 years, from 1443 to 1468, Skanderbeg's 10,000-man army marched through Ottoman territory, winning against consistently larger and better-supplied Ottoman forces. He was greatly admired for this. Skanderbeg always signed himself in Latin: Dominus Albaniae ("Lord of Albania"), and claimed no other titles but that in surviving documents. In 1451, through the Treaty of Gaeta, he recognized de jure the sovereignty of the Kingdom of Naples over Albania, ensuring a protective alliance, although he remained a de facto independent ruler. In 1460-61, he supported Ferdinand I of Naples in his wars against John of Anjou and the barons who supported John's claim to the throne of Naples. In 1463, he became the chief commander of the crusading forces of Pope Pius II, but the Pope died while the armies were still gathering. Together with Venetians, he fought against the Ottomans during the Ottoman-Venetian War (1463-1479) until his death in January 1468. He ranks high in the military history of that time as the most persistent-and ever-victorious-opponent of the Ottoman Empire in its heyday.
 Albania, officially the Republic of Albania (Albanian: Republika e Shqipërisë, pronounced [ɾɛpuˈblika ɛ ʃcipəˈɾiːsə]), is a country in Southeast Europe on the Adriatic and Ionian Sea within the Mediterranean Sea. It is bounded by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo[a] to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast.
Geographically, the country displays varied climatic, geological, hydrological and morphological conditions, defined in an area of 28,748 km2 (11,100 sq mi). It possesses remarkable diversity with the landscape ranging from the snow-capped mountains in the Albanian Alps as well as the Korab, Skanderbeg, Pindus and Ceraunian Mountains to the hot and sunny coasts of the Albanian Adriatic and Ionian Sea along the Mediterranean Sea. Historically, the area of Albania was populated by various Illyrian, Thracian and Ancient Greek tribes as well as several Greek colonies established in the Illyrian coast. The area was annexed in the 3rd century by Romans and became an integral part of the Roman provinces of Dalmatia, Macedonia and Illyricum. The autonomous Principality of Arbër emerged in 1190, established by archon Progon in the Krujë, within the Byzantine Empire. In the late thirteenth century, Charles of Anjou conquered Albanian territories from the Byzantines and established the medieval Kingdom of Albania, which at its maximal extension was extending from Durrës along the coast to Butrint in the south. In the mid-fifteenth century, it was conquered by the Ottomans. The modern nation state of Albania emerged in 1912 following the defeat of the Ottomans in the Balkan Wars. The modern Kingdom of Albania was invaded by Italy in 1939, which formed Greater Albania, before becoming a Nazi German protectorate in 1943. After the defeat of Nazi Germany, a Communist state titled the People's Socialist Republic of Albania was founded under the leadership of Enver Hoxha and the Party of Labour. The country experienced widespread social and political transformations in the communist era, as well as isolation from much of the international community. In the aftermath of the Revolutions of 1991, the Socialist Republic was dissolved and the fourth Republic of Albania was established. Politically, the country is a unitary parliamentary constitutional republic and developing country with an upper-middle income economy dominated by the tertiary sector followed by the secondary and primary sector. It went through a process of transition, following the end of communism in 1990, from a centralized to a market-based economy. It also provides universal health care and free primary and secondary education to its citizens. The country is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, UNESCO, NATO, WTO, COE, OSCE and OIC. It is also an official candidate for membership in the European Union. In addition it is one of the founding members of the Energy Community, including the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation and Union for the Mediterranean.
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