1689: Karposh, Macedonian rebel
Add comment December 4th, 2009 Headsman
On an uncertain date in early December (or possibly late November), the Macedonian* rebel Karposh was executed at Skopje.
The Great Turkish War had seen the Ottomans advance to the gates of Vienna, but an alliance of European powers pushed the Mohammedan back.
Their crisscrossing armies roiled the Balkans, creating the opportunity for a bit of ill-fated separatism.
Arambasha [a title, not a name] Karposh raised a native Macedonian rebellion (detailed account of it here) that waxed and waned with the fortunes of the Austrian army. In his brief heyday, he was acclaimed “Prince of Kumanovo“.
But a November 1689 counteroffensive seriously harshed that vibe; the Turks overran his force and drug Karposh back to Skopje where he and a couple hundred fellow Macedonian captives are said to have been put to death by impalement on the lovely Stone Bridge over the Vardar. (Other versions of this story cite, less picturesquely, hanging.)
You can still see this landmark today in Skopje … capital of the now-independent Macedonia.
* Lest I wade carelessly into the Balkan ethnic crossfire, I hasten to declaim that “Macedonian” here refers to the geographic environs roughly coincident with the present-day Republic of Macedonia. No representation as to the man’s ethnicity or his project is intended, or attempted.
On this day..
- 1969: Fred Hampton, "good and dead now" - 2019
- 1856: Six Tennessee slaves, election panic casualties - 2018
- 1531: Rhys ap Gruffydd - 2017
- 1914: The six martyrs of Vingre - 2016
- 1591: Four of The Sixteen - 2015
- 1900: Joseph Holden, killer of his own grandson - 2014
- 1778: Josiah Phillips, attainted by Thomas Jefferson - 2013
- 1723: The first London executions under the Waltham Black Act - 2012
- Feast Day of Santa Barbara - 2011
- 1896: Fred Behme, evangelical Methodist - 2010
- 1937: Masao Sudo, since rehabilitated - 2008
- 2001: Lois Nadean Smith - 2007
Entry Filed under: 17th Century,Capital Punishment,Death Penalty,Execution,Famous,Gruesome Methods,Hanged,History,Impaled,Macedonia,Martyrs,Occupation and Colonialism,Ottoman Empire,Outlaws,Power,Public Executions,Separatists,Soldiers,Torture,Treason,Wartime Executions
Tags: 1680s, 1689, battle of vienna, great turkish war, karposh, kumanovo, nationalism, skopje, stone bridge, vardar river
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