Skanderbeg - Descendants

Descendants

Skanderbeg’s family, the Kastrioti Scanderbeg, were invested with a Neapolitan dukedom after their flight from the Ottoman conquest of Albania. They obtained a feudal domain, the Duchy of San Pietro in Galatina and the County of Soleto (Province of Lecce, Italy). Gjon Kastrioti II, Scanderbeg’s son, married Irene Brankovic Palaiologina, daughter of Lazar Branković, despot of Serbia and one of the last descendents of the Byzantine imperial family, the Palaiologos.

Two lines of the Castriota Scanderbeg family lived from that time onwards to the present day in southern Italy, one of which has descended from Pardo Castriota Scanderbeg and the other from Achille Castriota Scanderbeg, who were both biological sons of Duke Ferrante, son of Gjon and Scanderbeg’s grandson. They are part of the Italian nobility and members of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta with the highest rank of nobility.

The only legitimate daughter of Duke Ferrante, Irene Castriota Scanderbeg, born to Andreana Acquaviva d'Aragona from the Nardò dukes, inherited the paternal estate, bringing the Duchy of Galatina and County of Soleto into the Sanseverino family after her marriage with Prince Pietrantonio Sanseverino (1508–1559). They had a son, Nicolò Bernardino Sanseverino (1541–1606), but the male line of descendants was lost after Irenece Castriota. Through the famale lines his descendants include the ruling (or former ruling) families of Belgium, Luxembourg, Austria-Hungary, Prussia, Serbia, and some members of the British royal family. Other prominent modern descendants include Filippo Castriota, collaborator of Ismail Qemali, founder of modern Albania and author Giorgio Maria Castriota.