Donika Kastrioti
| Andronika (Donika) Kastrioti | |
|---|---|
| File:Arolsen Klebeband 01 453 3.jpg
1596 engraving by Johann Theodor de Bry (1561–1623)
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| Spouse | Skanderbeg |
| Issue | |
| Full name
Andronika (Donika) Arianiti Muzaka
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| Noble family | Arianiti (paternally) Muzaka (maternally) Kastrioti (by marriage) |
| Father | Gjergj Arianiti |
| Mother | Maria Muzaka |
| Born | 1428 Kaninë, Ottoman Empire |
| Died | Kingdom of Naples |
Donika Kastrioti (née Arianiti-Muzaka)[a] was an Albanian noblewoman, the daughter of Gjergj Arianiti, one of the greatest leaders in the war against the Ottoman Empire for more than two decades, and his first wife Maria Muzaka. Donika is known as the spouse of George Kastrioti Skanderbeg.
Life
Donika was born in Kaninë, in 1428. Her father was Gjergj Arianiti, of the Arianiti family, whose domain stretched across the Shkumbin valley and the old Via Egnatia road and reached to the east today's Bitola.[1] Her mother was Maria Muzaka, of the Muzaka family, whose domain was the Myzeqe region.
A month after the Treaty of Gaeta (in which Skanderbeg became a vassal of Alfonso the Magnanimous in exchange for military aid[2]), on 21 April 1451, Skanderbeg married Donika, and thus strengthened the ties with the Arianiti's,[3] in the Eastern Orthodox Ardenica Monastery,[4][5] in Fier, present-day southwestern Albania.
Her sister, Angelina, was married to Serbian ruler Stefan Branković, and is venerated as a saint in the Serbian Orthodox Church.[6]
After the Ottoman conquest of Albania, the Kastrioti's were given peerage in the Kingdom of Naples.[7] They obtained a feudal domain, the Duchy of San Pietro in Galatina and the County of Soleto (Province of Lecce, Italy).[8] Gjon Kastrioti II, Donika's and Skanderbeg's only child, married Irene Branković Palaiologina, the daughter of Lazar Branković, Despot of Serbia.[8]
Notes
- ^ Her name is mentioned as Andronica Comneniates in Gjon Muzaka's work about the Muzaka family.[9] Oliver Jens Schmitt names her Andronika Arianiti in his biographical work on Skanderbeg.[10]
References
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Frashëri 2002, pp. 310–316
- ↑ Frashëri 2002, p. 181
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Gibbon 1901, p. 467
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 Runciman 1990, pp. 183–185
- ↑ John Musachi: Brief Chronicle on the Descendants of our Musachi Dynasty
- ↑ Schmitt Oliver, Skanderbeg, Der neue Alexander auf dem Balkan, Verlag Friedrich Pustet, 2009, p. 45
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