Nicholas Dukagjini (, ) was a 15th-century member of the

Dukagjini family The House of Dukagjini is an Albanian noble family which ruled over an area of Northern Albania and Western Kosovo known as the Principality of Dukagjini in the 14th and 15th centuries. They may have been descendants of the earlier Progoni f ...

Biography

Nicholas Dukagjini was the son of Gjergj Dukagjini, who died before 1409 when Nicholas was mentioned for the first time as the landlord of two villages near

Lezhë Lezhë (, sq-definite, Lezha) is a List of cities and towns in Albania, city in the Republic of Albania and seat of Lezhë County and Lezhë Municipality. It is one of Albania's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously i ...

(Alessio) and the commander of a 140 men troop (40 cavalry and 100 infantry). Nicholas' name appears in documents of 1409. He participated in Albanian Revolt of 1432–1436 led by

Gjergj Arianiti Gjergj Arianiti (13??–1462) was an Albanian feudal lord who led several successful campaigns against the Ottoman Empire. He was the father of Donika, Skanderbeg's wife, as well as the uncle of Moisi Golemi. Gjergj Arianiti was Skanderbeg's ...

, during which he succeeded in regaining the territory held by his family before the Ottoman conquest of Albania. He even managed to capture

Dagnum Dagnum (, , ) was a town, bishopric and important medieval fortress located on the territory of present-day Albania, which has been under Albanian, Serbian, Venetian and Ottoman control and remains a Latin Catholic titular see. It is close to t ...

which he promptly granted to

Venice Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

. Unwilling to provoke the Ottomans, Venice returned Dagnum to Ottoman control in 1435.

League of Lezhë

Nicholas Dukagjini was one of the founding members of

League of Lezhë The League of Lezhë (), also commonly referred to as the Albanian League (), was a military and diplomatic alliance of the Albanian aristocracy, created in the city of Lezhë on 2 March 1444. The League of Lezhë is considered the first unif ...

, a military alliance of some members of the

Albanian nobility The Albanian nobility was an elite hereditary ruling class in Albania, parts of the western Balkans and later in parts of the Ottoman world. The Albanian nobility was composed of landowners of vast areas, often in allegiance to states like the B ...

forged in Lezhë on 2 March 1444 by: * Lekë Zaharia (lord of Sati and

), and his vassals

Pal Phase Alternating Line (PAL) is a color encoding system for analog television. It was one of three major analogue colour television standards, the others being NTSC and SECAM. In most countries it was broadcast at 625 lines, 50 fields (25 ...

and Nicholas Dukagjini * Pjetër Shpani (lord of the mountains behind Drivasto) * Lekë Dushmani (lord of Pult) * Gjergj Strez,

Gjon Gjon (definite form: ''Gjoni'') is an Albanian language, Albanian male given name, clan, surname and onomastic element. As given name Etymology and history ''Gjon'' as a given name is a form of the English language, English name John (given name ...

and Gojko Balsha (lords of Misia) * Andrea Thopia together with nis nephew

Tanush Tanush is the Albanian language, Albanian variant of the Greek given name Athanasius (disambiguation), Athanasius, loaned from Latin. Where the fricative /θ/ becomes the stop /t/, this shows that the name passed through Latin before entering Albani ...

* Theodor Corona Musachi *

Stefan Crnojević Stefan Crnojević ( sr-Cyrl, Стефан Црнојевић), known as Stefanica (; 1426–1465) was the Zeta under the Crnojevići, Lord of Zeta between 1451 and 1465. Until 1441, as a knyaz he was one of many governors in Upper Zeta, whic ...

( lord of Upper Zeta) with his three sons

Ivan Ivan () is a Slavic male given name, connected with the variant of the Greek name (English: John) from Hebrew meaning 'God is gracious'. It is associated worldwide with Slavic countries. The earliest person known to bear the name was the B ...

, Andrija and Božidar When Nicholas Dukagjini killed Lekë Zaharia in 1444 the Venetian Republic took over control of Zaharia's former realm. Nicholas Dukagjini continued his struggle against the new authorities and managed to capture Sati and several villages without a fight. He later concluded peace with Venice and in 1446 he is recorded in Venetian archives as the "former enemy" (''tunc hostis noster''). On October 4, 1448, the

Albanian–Venetian War The Albanian–Venetian War of 1447–48 () was waged between Venetian and Ottoman forces against the Albanians under George Kastrioti Skanderbeg. The war was the result of a dispute between the Republic and the Dukagjini family over the pos ...

was ended when

Skanderbeg Gjergj Kastrioti (17 January 1468), commonly known as Skanderbeg, was an Albanians, Albanian Albanian nobility, feudal lord and military commander who led Skanderbeg's rebellion, a rebellion against the Ottoman Empire in what is today Albania, ...

and Nicholas Dukagjini signed a peace treaty with the

Republic of Venice The Republic of Venice, officially the Most Serene Republic of Venice and traditionally known as La Serenissima, was a sovereign state and Maritime republics, maritime republic with its capital in Venice. Founded, according to tradition, in 697 ...

, represented by the governor of Shkodra, Paulo Loredano and a special envoy, Andrea Venerio. According to this agreement, signed at Skanderbeg's military camp, adjacent to

Alessio Alessio is an Italian male name, Italian form of Alexius. Individuals with the given name Alessio *Alessio Ascalesi (1872–1952), Italian cardinal * Alessio Bandieri (born 1974), Italian footballer * Alessio Boni (born 1966), Italian actor * A ...

, Venice would keep its possessions in Albania, including

under certain conditions: The Republic had to pay to Skanderbeg an yearly sum of 1,400

ducat The ducat ( ) coin was used as a trade coin in Europe from the later Middle Ages to the 19th century. Its most familiar version, the gold ducat or sequin containing around of 98.6% fine gold, originated in Venice in 1284 and gained wide inter ...

s, some members of

the League ''The League'' is an American television sitcom that aired on FX and later FXX from October 29, 2009, to December 9, 2015, for a total of seven seasons. The series, set in Chicago, is a semi-improvised comedy show about a fantasy football l ...

would benefit certain trade privileges etc. Together with many other Albanian noblemen (such as Moisi Arianit Golemi, Pal Dukagjini and

Hamza Kastrioti Hamza Kastrioti () was a 15th-century Albanian nobleman and the nephew of Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg. Probably born in Ottoman territory, after the death of his father Stanisha he was raised by Skanderbeg, who took him in his military expediti ...

) he abandoned Skanderbeg's forces and deserted to the Ottomans. Ottomans allowed him to govern 25 villages in

Debar Debar ( ; , sq-definite, Dibra or Dibra e Madhe) is a city in the western part of North Macedonia, near the border with Albania, off the road from Struga to Gostivar. It is the seat of Debar Municipality. Debar has an ethnic Albanian majorit ...

and 7 villages in Fandi. Nicholas died before 1454.

Descendants

Nicholas Dukagjini had two sons, Draga and Gjergj, none of whom could lead a political life, because they were both killed in 1462. Draga Dukagjini was killed from ambush by Lekë Dukagjini who first captured many Draga's villages. Only a descendant remained, Gjergj's infant son, Nicholas, who eventually entered the service of the

Venetian Republic The Republic of Venice, officially the Most Serene Republic of Venice and traditionally known as La Serenissima, was a sovereign state and Maritime republics, maritime republic with its capital in Venice. Founded, according to tradition, in 697 ...

In literature

Girolamo de Rada Girolamo de Rada ( Arbërisht: ''Jeronim de Rada''; 29 November 181428 February 1903) was an Arbëreshë folklorist, journalist, lawyer, playwright, poet, rilindas and writer. He is regarded as one of the most influential Albanian writers of ...

, an

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

writer of Italo-

Albanian literature Albanian literature stretches back to the Middle Ages and comprises those literary texts and works written in Albanian language, Albanian. It may also refer to literature written by Albanians in Albania, Kosovo and the Albanian diaspora particul ...

, dedicated his 1839 work ''Albanian Historical Songs of Serafina Thopia, Wife of Prince Nicholas Dukagjini'' () to unfulfilled love of Serafina Thopia and Bosdare Stresa (an Albanian Romeo and Juliet). Serafina sacrificed her love to Bosdare and married Nicholas Dukagjini to help uniting southern and northern Albania to fight against the Ottomans.

References

Sources

* * * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dukagjini, Nicholas

Nicholas Nicholas is a male name, the Anglophone version of an ancient Greek name in use since antiquity, and cognate with the modern Greek , . It originally derived from a combination of two Ancient Greek, Greek words meaning 'victory' and 'people'. In ...

15th-century Albanian people Albanian Roman Catholics Medieval Albanian nobility