Albania Ali Pasha of Tepelen (b. about 1750), an able, cruel and unscrupulous man, subdued the neighbouring pashas and chiefs, crushed the Suliotes and Khimarrhotes, and exercised a practically independent sovereignty from the Adriatic to the Aegean. He introduced comparative civilization at Iannina, his capital, and maintained direct relations with foreign powers. Eventually he renounced his allegiance to the sultan, but was overthrown by a Turkish army in 1822. Shortly afterwards the dynasty of Scutari came to an end with the surrender of Mustafa Pasha, the last of the house of Bushat, to the grand vizier Reshid Pasha, in 1831.
The opposition of the Albanians, Christian as well as Moslem, to the reforms introduced by the sultan Mahmud II. led to the devastation of the country and the expatriation of thousands of its inhabitants. During the next half-century several local revolts occurred, but no movement of a strictly political character took place till after the Berlin Treaty (July 13, 1878), when some of the Moslems and Catholics combined to resist the stipulated transference of Albanian territory to Austria-Hungary, Servia and Montenegro) and the Albanian League was formed by an assemblage of chiefs at Prizren. The movement, which was instigated by the Porte with the object of evading the provisions of the treaty, was so far successful that the restoration of Plava and Gusinye to Albania was sanctioned by the powers, Montenegro receiving in exchange the town and district of Dulcigno. The Albanian leaders, however, soon displayed a spirit of independence, which proved embarrassing to Turkish diplomacy and caused alarm at Constantinople; their forces came into conflict with a Turkish army under Dervish Pasha near Dulcigno (November 1880), and eventually the league was suppressed. A similar agitation on a smaller scale was organized in southern Albania to resist the territorial concessions awarded by the powers to Greece. In the spring of 1903 serious disturbances took place in north-western Albania, but the Turks succeeded in pacifying the revolted tribesmen, partly by force and partly by concessions. These movements were far from displaying a genuinely national character. In recent years attempts have been made by Albanians resident abroad to propagate the national idea among their compatriots at home; committees have been formed at Brussels, Bucharest, Athens and elsewhere, and books, pamphlets and newspapers are surreptitiously sent into the country. Unity of aim and effort, however, seems foreign to the Albanians, except in defence of local or tribal privileges. The growth of a wider patriotic sentiment must depend on the spread of popular education; certainly up to 1908 no appreciable progress had been made in this direction.
Authorities.—F. C. H. Pouqueville, Voyage de la Grèce (Paris, 1820); W. M. Leake, Travels in Northern Greece (London, 1835); J. G. von Hahn, Albanesische Studien (Jena, 1854), Reise durch die Gebiete des Drin und Vardar (Vienna, 1867); F. Bopp, Über das Albanesische (Berlin, 1854); J. P. Fallmerayer, Das albanesische Element in Griechenland (Munich, 1864); N. Camarda, Saggio di grammatologia comparata sulla lingua albanese (Leghorn, 1865); Viscountess Strangford, The Eastern Shores of the Adriatic (London, 1865); H. F. Tozer, Researches in the Highlands of Turkey (London, 1869); F. Miklosich, Albanes. Forschungen (Vienna, 1870); C. Hopf, Chroniques gréco-romaines inédites ou peu connues (Berlin, 1873); H. Hecquard, Histoire et description de la Haute Albanie ou Guégarie (Paris, undated); S. Gopchevich, Oberalbanien und seine Liga (Leipzig, 1881); V. Tajani, Le Istoria Albanesi (Salerno, 1886); G. Gelchich, La Zedda e la dinastia dei Balshi (Spalato, 1899); S. Lambros, Ἡ ὀνοματολογία τῆς Ἀττικῆς καὶ ἡ εἰς τὴν χώραν ἐποίκησις τῶν Ἀλβανῶν in the Ἐπετηρὶς τοῦ Παρνασσοῦ (Athens, 1896); Theodore Ippen “Beiträge zur inneren Geschichte der Turkei im 19. Jahrhundert speciell Albaniens,” in the Österreichisch-Ungarische Revue, vol. xxviii.; A. Philippson, Thessalia und Epirus (Berlin, 1897). See also Murray’s Greece, ed. 1900, pp. 720-731 and 760-814, and Blue-book Turkey, No. 15, Part ii., 1886. (J. D. B.)
ALBANUS LACUS (mod. Lago di Albano), a lake about 12 m. S.E. of Rome. It is generally considered to have been formed by a volcanic explosion at the margin of the great crater of the Albanus Mons; it has the shape of a crater, the banks of which are over 400 ft. in height from the water-level, while the water is as much as 560 ft. deep in the S. portion. It is fed by subterranean springs. According to the legend, the emissarium (outlet) which still drains it was made in 398–397 B.C., the Delphic oracle having declared that Veii could only be taken when the waters of the lake reached the sea. It is over a mile in length, hewn in the rock, and about 6 ft. high and 4 ft. broad; it has vertical shafts at intervals, and a sluice chamber at its egress from the lake. In the time of Domitian the whole lake belonged to the imperial domain. (See Alba Longa.)
ALBANUS MONS (mod. Monte Cavo, from an early city of the name of Cabum? [1]), the highest point of the volcanic Alban hills, about 13 m. S.E. of Rome, 3115 ft. above sea-level. It is upon the line of the rim of the inner crater of the great volcano, while Tusculum and Algidus Mons mark the edge of the earlier outer crater, which was about 7 m. wide. The lakes of Albano and Nemi were probably formed by volcanic explosions at the margin of the great crater; though a view has also been expressed that the basins are the result of subsidence. The name Albanus Mons is also used generally of the Alban group of hills in which there seem to have been some remains of volcanic activity in early Roman times, which covered the early necropolis of Alba Longa, and occasionally produced showers of stones, e.g. in the time of Tullus Hostilius (Liv. i. 31), and perhaps much later. In 193 B.C. it is recorded (ib. xxxv. 9) that such a shower occurred at Aricia, Lanuvium and on the Aventine. Upon the Mons Albanus stood the temple of Jupiter Latiaris, where the annual festival of the Latin League was held. The foundations and some of the architectural fragments of the temple were still in existence until 1777, when they were used to build the Passionist monastery by Cardinal York. The road which ascended to the temple from the rim of the lake is still well preserved.
ALBANY, DUKES OF. The territorial designation of Albany was formerly given to those parts of Scotland to the north of the firths of Clyde and Forth. The title of duke of Albany was first bestowed in 1398 by King Robert III. on his brother, Robert Stewart, earl of Fife (see I. below); but in 1425 it became extinct. The dukedom was re-created, c. 1458, in favour of Alexander Stewart, “lord of Annandale and earl of March” (see II. below), whose son and successor (see III. below) left no legitimate heir. The title of duke of Albany was next bestowed upon Henry Stuart, commonly known as Lord Darnley, by Mary, queen of Scots, in 1565. From him the title passed to his son, James VI. of Scotland and I. of England. The title was by him given, at his birth, to Charles, his second son, afterwards King Charles I. By Charles II. it was again bestowed, in 1660, on James, duke of York, afterwards King James II. On the 5th of July 1716 Ernest Augustus, bishop of Osnaburgh [Osnabrück] (1715–1728), youngest brother of King George I., was created duke of York and Albany, the title becoming extinct on his death without heirs in 1728. On the 1st of April 1760 Prince Edward Augustus, younger brother of King George III., was created duke of York and Albany; he died without heirs on the 17th of September 1767. On the 29th of November 1784 the title of duke of York and Albany was again created in favour of Frederick, second son of George III., who died without heirs on the 5th of January 1827. The title of duke of Albany was bestowed on the 24th of May 1881 on Prince Leopold, youngest son of Queen Victoria (see IV. below).
I. Robert Stewart, duke of Albany (c. 1345–1420), regent of Scotland, was a son of King Robert II. by his mistress, Elizabeth Mure, and was legitimatized when his parents were married about 1349. In 1361 he married Margaret, countess of Menteith, and after his widowed sister-in-law, Isabel, countess of Fife, had recognized him as her heir, he was known as the earl of Fife and Menteith. Taking an active part in the government of the kingdom, the earl was made high chamberlain of Scotland in 1382, and gained military reputation by leading several plundering expeditions into England. In 1389 after his elder brother John, earl of Carrick, had been incapacitated by an accident, and when his father the king was old and infirm, he was chosen governor of Scotland by the estates; and he retained the control of affairs after his brother John became king as Robert III. in 1390. In April 1398 he was created duke of Albany;
- ↑ See Th. Mommsen in Bulletino dell’ Istituto (1861), 206; Corpus Inscrip. Lat. (Berlin, 1887), xiv. 2228.
