Tanush Thopia or Tanusio Thopia (, la, Tanusas Thopius; d. 1467) was an Albanian nobleman and one of the closest collaborators of

Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg , reign = 28 November 1443 – 17 January 1468 , predecessor = Gjon Kastrioti , successor = Gjon Kastrioti II , spouse = Donika Arianiti , issue = Gjon Kastrioti II , royal house = Kastrioti , father ...

. Thopia descended from the

Thopia family The Thopia family was one of the most powerful Albanian feudal families in the Late Middle Ages. It was initially part of the nobility of the Angevin Kingdom of Albania. Early history The first attestation of the Thopia can be found in an Ang ...

that converted from Orthodox Christianity to Catholicism. In 1444, together with his uncle Andrea Thopia, he participated in the founding of the

League of Lezhë The League of Lezhë ( sq, Lidhja e Lezhës), also commonly referred to as the Albanian League ( sq, Lidhja Arbërore), was a military and diplomatic alliance of the Albanian aristocracy, created in the city of Lezhë on 2 March 1444. The Leag ...

, the military alliance led by

Skanderbeg , reign = 28 November 1443 – 17 January 1468 , predecessor = Gjon Kastrioti , successor = Gjon Kastrioti II , spouse = Donika Arianiti , issue = Gjon Kastrioti II , royal house = Kastrioti , father ...

. He was a commander of the infantry of the

, and his garrison became famous for their resistance during the

Second Siege of Krujë The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...

. After that siege he is no longer mentioned in historical sources, and some suppose that he might have been killed in the end of that battle or died soon afterwards. He was a skillful commander and his loyalty to

was undeterred and that was the reason why he was appointed in that delicate position.Noli, Fan Stylian, George Castroiti Scanderbeg (1405–1468), International Universities Press, 1947 The name ''Tanush'' is an Albanian

exonym An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...

for ''Athanassius''.

References

15th-century Albanian people 1460s deaths

Tanush Tanush is the Albanian variant of the Greek given name Athanasius, loaned from Latin. Where the fricative /θ/ becomes the stop /t/, this shows that the name passed through Latin before entering Albanian; the Greek-derived equivalent is the name an ...

Year of birth unknown Skanderbeg Albanian Roman Catholics {{Albania-bio-stub