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70-472: Ettore Bugatti planned to build twenty-five of these cars and sell them to royalty as the most luxurious car ever, but even European royalty were not buying such things during the Great Depression , and Bugatti was able to sell only three of the seven made (six still exist, one was wrecked in a crash). Still, the leftover engines were re-used successfully in newly constructed high-speed railcars for

140-469: A constitutional monarch, in practice Zog retained the dictatorial powers he had enjoyed as president. Thus, in effect, Albania remained a military dictatorship. In 1938, as a result of a request from his advisor and friend Constantino Spanchis, Zog opened the borders of Albania to Jewish refugees fleeing persecution in Nazi Germany . Although born as an aristocrat and hereditary Bey , King Zog

210-495: A different director and each featuring a different opera aria. This segment, entitled ' Un ballo in maschera ' after the Giuseppe Verdi opera, was directed by Nicolas Roeg , with actor Theresa Russell playing King Zog during a fictionalized account of his visit to Vienna in 1931 and the assassination attempt on the steps of that city's opera house (as noted earlier, Zog had actually seen a performance of 'Pagliacci' before

280-511: A protectorate under Italy's King Victor Emmanuel III . While some Albanians continued to resist, "a large part of the population ... welcomed the Italians with cheers", according to one contemporary account. Prior to the birth of Prince Leka, the position of heir presumptive was held by Tati Esad Murad Kryziu , Prince of Kosova , who was born on the 24th of December 1923 in Tirana, and who

350-596: A reconstruction of the 41100 Packard prototype by Dutch company Hevec Classics was presented at the Molsheim festival. It claims to use the original prototype chassis frame and other parts and was initially fitted with a replica engine (built by Tom Wheatcroft ). In 2016, the same team that reconstructed the Packard prototype, led by Frank Slopsma, unveiled a new replica of the Royale Esders Roadster at

420-580: A replica made of the car. It now resides with the two originals they purchased at the Musée National de l'Automobile de Mulhouse. The late Tom Wheatcroft commissioned Ashton Keynes Vintage Restorations (AKVR) to build an exact replica of Bugatti's personal car, the Coupe Napoleon (chassis number 41100), for his Donington Grand Prix Collection in England . It has since been sold and left

490-619: A social structure unchanged from the days of Ottoman rule, and most villages were serf plantations run by the Beys. On 28 June 1925, Zogu ceded Sveti Naum to Yugoslavia in exchange for Peshkëpi (Pëshkupat) village and other concessions. Zogu enacted several major reforms. His principal ally during this period was the Kingdom of Italy , which lent his government funds in exchange for a greater role in Albania's fiscal policy. His administration

560-527: A state ceremony on 17 November 2012, coinciding with celebrations for Albania's independence centennial . The bodies of the king and his family members now lie in the reconstructed royal mausoleum in the capital Tirana. The interment was attended by the government of Albania, including the President and Prime Minister, and representatives of the former royal families of Romania, Montenegro, Russia and Albania. In Albania: From other countries: Zog's name

630-685: Is about Hitler's attempt to get a Royale and efforts to thwart him. Ettore Bugatti Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.237 via cp1104 cp1104, Varnish XID 209004833 Upstream caches: cp1104 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 07:44:19 GMT King Zog of Albania leader of Albania Government Battle Life in exile and death Legacy Family Zog I (born Ahmed Muhtar Zogolli ; 8 October 1895 – 9 April 1961)

700-712: The Albanian Declaration of Independence as the representative of the Mat District. As a young man during the First World War, Zogolli volunteered on the side of Austria-Hungary . He was detained at Vienna in 1917 and 1918 and in Rome in 1918 and 1919 before returning to Albania in 1919. During his time in Vienna, he grew to enjoy a Western European lifestyle. Upon his return, Zogolli became involved in

770-606: The Balkan states . Albania then drifted back into the Italian orbit. Two days after the birth of Zog's son and heir apparent, on 7 April 1939 ( Good Friday ), Mussolini's Italy invaded , facing no significant resistance. The Albanian army was ill-equipped to resist, as it was almost entirely dominated by Italian advisors and officers and was no match for the Italian Army. The Italians were, however, resisted by small elements in

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840-563: The First Treaty of Tirana (1926), although Zog still retained British officers in the Gendarmerie as a counterbalance against the Italians, who had pressured Zog to remove them. During the worldwide depression of the early 1930s, Zog's government became almost completely dependent on Mussolini. Grain had to be imported, many Albanians emigrated, and Italians were allowed to settle in Albania. In 1932 and 1933, Albania could not pay

910-489: The Foch Hospital , Suresnes , Hauts-de-Seine on 9 April 1961, aged 65, of an undisclosed condition. Zog was said to have regularly smoked 200 cigarettes a day, giving him a possible claim to the title of the world's heaviest smoker in 1929, but had been seriously ill for some time. He was survived by his wife and son, and was initially buried at the cimetière parisien de Thiais , near Paris. On his death, his son Leka

980-1011: The Germans invaded . Their escape from France was helped by Prince Mehmed Orhan Osmanoğlu from the Ottoman Imperial Dynasty , who was aide-de-camp of Zog I. The royal family then settled in England. Their first residence was at The Ritz in London. This was followed in 1941 by a brief stay at Forest Ridge, a house in the South Ascot area of Sunninghill in Berkshire , near where Zog's nieces had been at school in Ascot . In 1941 they moved to Parmoor House, Parmoor , near Frieth in Buckinghamshire, with some staff of

1050-490: The Italian language in all Albanian schools, a demand that was swiftly refused by Zog. In defiance of Italian demands, he ordered the national budget to be slashed by 30 percent, dismissed all Italian military advisers, and nationalized Italian-run Roman Catholic schools in the north of Albania to decrease Italian influence on the population of Albania. In 1934, he tried without success to build ties with France , Germany , and

1120-591: The Thiais Cemetery near Paris, before being transferred to the royal mausoleum in Tirana in 2012. Zog was born as Ahmed Muhtar Zogolli in Burgajet Castle , near Burrel in northern Albania, third son to Xhemal Pasha Zogolli , and first son by his second wife Sadije Toptani in 1895. His family was a beylik family of landowners , with feudal authority over the region of Mati . His grandfather

1190-450: The 2012 book Lucia on Holiday by Guy Fraser-Sampson, an addition to the Mapp and Lucia series of novels by E.F.Benson . In the story Major Mapp-Flint is asked by a maharajah to drive the car from Paris to Bellagio, but he drives so badly and inflicts so much damage that the maharajah has the car driven into Lake Como. The Bugatti Royale 41150 Berline de Voyage 1931 also features throughout

1260-410: The 2014 book The Eye of Zoltar , book 3 of The Last Dragonslayer series by Jasper Fforde . The car is referenced ten times within the book. The protagonist Jennifer Strange describes her choice of car "After looking at several I'd chosen a massive vintage car called a Bugatti Royale. Inside it was sumptuously comfortable, and outside, the bonnet was so long that in misty weather it was hard to make out

1330-531: The Albanian political émigrés in Vienna were subsequently arrested, beside Hasan Prishtina . Most of them were quickly released and expelled from Austria. Gjeloshi was sentenced to 3 years and 6 months of jail, while Çami got 2 years and 6 months. The fascist government of Benito Mussolini 's Italy had supported Zog since early in his presidency; that support had led to increased Italian influence in Albanian affairs. The Italians compelled Zog to refuse to renew

1400-487: The French Air Ministry, but never produced. It was built around a single huge block cast in one unit with an integrated cylinder head , and at approx. 1.4 m (4.6 ft) long x 1.1 m (3.6 ft) high, is physically one of the largest engines ever made for a passenger automobile; it also had one of the largest displacements,12.7 L (775 cu in), with each cylinder displacing more than

1470-570: The French National Railway ( SNCF ). When the Royale went to the market in the 1980s, it sold for the price of more than 6 Ferrari 250 GTOs . The Type 41 is said to have come about because Alsatian autobuilder Ettore Bugatti took exception to the comments of an English lady who compared his cars unfavourably with those of Rolls-Royce . The overhead cam straight 8 engine was based on an aero design that had been done for

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1540-668: The RETRO CLASSICS show in Stuttgart, Germany. A year later this same team showed a part-finished replica of the Weymann coach version of the 41100 Royale prototype at the Mondorf Classic Days & Concours d'Elegance. All three replicas built by the team were shown at the show, they were built for an undisclosed Dutch owner. The Sinsheim Auto & Technik Museum has a replica of the 41100 Coupe Napoleon that

1610-792: The Royal House from serving as Prime Minister or a member of the Cabinet, and contained provisions for the potential extinction of the royal family. The constitution also forbade the union of the Albanian throne with that of any other country, a term which would later be violated with the Italian invasion . Under the Zogist constitution, the King of the Albanians, like the King of the Belgians , ascended

1680-458: The assassination of one of Zogu's industrialist opponents, Avni Rustemi ; in the aftermath, a leftist revolt forced Zogu, along with 600 of his allies, into exile in June 1924. He returned to Albania with the backing of Yugoslav forces and Yugoslavia-based General Pyotr Wrangel 's White Russian troops led by Russian Gen Sergei Ulagay and became Prime Minister . Zogu was officially elected as

1750-505: The collection. So good was the replica, that when the Kellner car needed a replacement piston, its then Japanese owners commissioned South Cerney Engineering, part of AKVR, to provide a replacement. On May 24, 2008, Prince Joachim of Denmark on the day of his wedding to Princess Marie (formerly Marie Cavallier ) had Wheatcroft's replica waiting outside Møgeltønder Church to drive the newly married couple to Schackenborg Castle . In 2011

1820-708: The contemporary regime in Italy, created a strong police force, and instituted the Zogist salute (flat hand over the heart with palm facing downwards). Zog hoarded gold coins and precious stones, which were used to back Albania's first paper currency . Zog's mother, Sadije, was declared Queen Mother of Albania, and Zog also gave his brother and sisters Royal status as Prince and Princesses Zogu. One of his sisters, Senije ( c.  1897 – 1969), married Shehzade Mehmed Abid Efendi , another Ottoman prince and son of Sultan Abdul Hamid II . Zog's constitution forbade any Prince of

1890-475: The corridors of the Albanian Parliament premises on 23 February 1924. Beqir Valteri , originating from the same area as Zog, was waiting for him and opened fire suddenly. Zog was shot twice. Meanwhile, Valteri fled but, surrounded by the militia, took refuge in one of the bathrooms, refusing to surrender and singing patriotic songs. According to the memoirs of Ekrem Vlora , he surrendered after

1960-572: The country was rapidly overrun. Mussolini declared Albania an Italian protectorate under King Victor Emmanuel III , forcing Zog into exile. He lived in England during the Second World War but was barred from returning to Albania by the anti-monarchist government led by Enver Hoxha . Zog spent the rest of his life in France and died in April 1961 at the age of 65. His remains were buried at

2030-639: The court living in locations around Lane End. In 1946, Zog and most of his family left England and went to live in Egypt at the behest of King Farouk . In 1951, Zog bought the Knollwood estate in Muttontown, New York , Long Island but the sixty-room estate was never occupied; it quickly fell into ruin and Zog sold the estate in 1955. Farouk was overthrown in 1952 , and the family left for France in 1955. He made his final home in France, where he died at

2100-401: The daughter of Shefqet Bey Verlaci before he became king. Soon after he became king, however, he broke off the engagement. According to traditional customs of blood vengeance prevalent in Albania at the time, Verlaci had the right and obligation to kill Zog. The king frequently surrounded himself with a personal guard and avoided public appearances. He also feared that he might be poisoned, so

2170-528: The early 1920s, Zogolli served as Governor of Shkodër (1920–1921), Minister of the Interior (March–November 1920, 1921–1924), and chief of the Albanian military (1921–1922). His primary rivals were Luigj Gurakuqi and Fan S. Noli . In 1922, Zogolli formally changed his surname from Zogolli to Zogu, which sounds more Albanian. In 1923, he was shot and wounded in Parliament . A crisis arose in 1924 after

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2240-418: The engine valves was a regular maintenance requirement, and removing the engine valves to do so required removing and disassembling the large cast iron engine. The chassis was understandably substantial, with a conventional semi-elliptic leaf spring suspension arrangement at the front. At the rear the forward-facing Bugatti quarter-elliptics were supplemented by a second set facing to the rear. Strangely for

2310-437: The entire engine of the contemporary Type 40 touring car . It had a bore of 125 mm (4.9 in) and stroke of 130 mm (5.1 in), 3 valves per cylinder (two inlet:one exhaust) driven by a centrally positioned single overhead cam. Only three bearings and only a single custom carburettor was used. Output was 205–224 kW (275–300 hp) @ 1800 rpm, and 875 lb⋅ft (1,186 N⋅m) of torque. Grinding of

2380-586: The first President of Albania by the Constituent Assembly on 21 January 1925, taking office on 1 February for a seven-year term. A new constitution vested Zogu with sweeping executive and legislative powers, to the point that he was effectively a dictator. He had the right to appoint all major government personnel, as well as one-third of the lower house. Zogu's government followed the European model, though large parts of Albania still maintained

2450-495: The gendarmerie and general population. The royal family, realising that their lives were in danger, fled into exile, taking with them a considerable amount of gold from the National Bank of Tirana and Durrës . Since the royal family had expected an Italian invasion, the gathering of gold had started in advance. "Oh God, it was so short" were King Zog's last words to Geraldine on Albanian soil. Mussolini declared Albania

2520-654: The hood ornament." The Bugatti Royale features in the David Grossman book The Zigzag Kid . A blood-red Bugatti type 41 Royale Coupe de Ville appears in Leslie Charteris ' Vendetta For the Saint (Doubleday 1964, ghostwritten by Harry Harrison ) as a rental car for Simon Templar . A Bugatti Royale was featured in the Clive Cussler novel The Wrecker . The Seventh Royale by Donald Stanwood

2590-669: The interest on its loans from the Society for the Economic Development of Albania, and the Italians used this as a pretext for further dominance. They demanded that Tirana put Italians in charge of the Gendarmerie, join Italy in a customs union, and grant the Italian Kingdom control of Albania's sugar, telegraph, and electrical monopolies. Finally, Italy called for the Albanian government to establish teaching of

2660-595: The intervention of Qazim Koculi and Ali Klissura . Zog stepped down briefly from political activity, but promised to forgive Valteri. Valteri, a member of the revolutionary Bashkimi ("The union") committee led by Avni Rustemi , was set free by the Court of Tirana after declaring that it was an individual act. Meanwhile, all rumors pointed to the opposition, specifically to Rustemi. Two weeks later Zog and Valteri would meet in private. Soon after, Rustemi would be shot. Another attempt occurred on 21 February 1931, while Zog

2730-575: The littlest child to the oldest man, to show our independence is not for sale." The world, aware that Zog and his entourage had carried off most of the Albanian treasury's gold, was not impressed. After a short stay in Greece, the Zog party went to Istanbul in Turkey , then fled through Romania , Poland , Latvia , Sweden , Norway , Belgium to Paris . Zog and his family lived a time in France and fled when

2800-405: The modern day observer, the aluminium clutch box was attached to the chassis - not to the engine - and the gearbox (also aluminium) was attached to the rear axle which meant it was part of the unsprung mass of the suspension. The clutch and gearbox were placed at odd locations to reduce noise and increase comfort, a difficult problem in those days. The transmission was mounted at the rear to offset

2870-463: The monarchy in the person of Zog's son Leka Zogu who, since 1961, had been styled "Leka I, King of the Albanians". The official but disputed results stated that about two-thirds of voters favoured a continued republican government. Leka, believing the result to be fraudulent, attempted an armed uprising: he was unsuccessful and was forced into exile, although he later returned and lived in Tirana until his death on 30 November 2011. A main street in Tirana

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2940-591: The mother of the king assumed supervision of the royal kitchen. In April 1938, Zog married Countess Geraldine Apponyi de Nagy-Appony , a Roman Catholic aristocrat who was half- Hungarian and half- American . The ceremony was broadcast throughout Tirana via Radio Tirana that was officially launched by the monarch five months later. Their only child, Crown Prince Leka , was born in Albania on 5 April 1939. About 600 blood feuds reportedly existed against Zog, and during his reign he reputedly survived more than 55 assassination attempts. One of these occurred inside

3010-607: The name Ahmed Zogu . He held various ministerial posts in the Albanian government before being driven into exile in June 1924, but returned later in the year with Yugoslav and White Russian military support and was subsequently elected prime minister. Zogu was elected president in January 1925 and vested with dictatorial powers, with which he enacted major domestic reforms, suppressed civil liberties , and struck an alliance with Benito Mussolini's Italy . In September 1928, Albania

3080-559: The other resistance groups and eventually took control of the country . They were able to defeat the Nazi remnants and had full control of Albania in November 1944. Zog attempted to reclaim his throne after the war. However, when the communist government, successful in its partisan movement, seized power, one of its first acts was to ban Zog from ever returning to Albania. It formally deposed him in 1946. In 1952, his representatives met with

3150-478: The parallel name "Skanderbeg III" (Zogu claimed to be a successor of Skanderbeg through descent through Skanderbeg's sister; "Skanderbeg II" was taken to be Prince Wied , but this fell out of use). On the same day as he declared himself king (he was never technically crowned), he also declared himself Field Marshal of the Royal Albanian Army . He proclaimed a constitutional monarchy similar to

3220-461: The political life of the fledgling Albanian government that had been created in the wake of the First World War. His political supporters included many southern feudal landowners called beys , Turkish for "province chieftain" with title variations including Beyg, Begum, Bygjymi. The Bey title refers to the social group to which he belonged, which was also used by noble families in the north, along with merchants, industrialists, and intellectuals. During

3290-436: The prototype was destroyed in an accident in 1931, and each has a different body, some having been rebodied several times. The car would eventually find its way into The Harrah Collection . The car was then sold at the 1986 Harrah auction where Houston, Texas real estate developer Jerry J. Moore paid $ 6.5 million for it. He kept it for 1 year, and then sold it to Tom Monaghan for £5.7 million ( US$ 8.1 million). To utilize

3360-490: The railcars took a world average speed record of 122 mph (196 km/h) for 43.9 miles (70.7 km). [REDACTED] Media related to Bugatti railcar at Wikimedia Commons In light of the rarity of the Type 41 and its associated price, it is unsurprising that some replicas have been made. The Schlumpf brothers so liked the original Dr Armand Esders coupe body on chassis 41111, using original Bugatti parts they had

3430-547: The real attack). In the "new" Doc Savage pulp fiction novel, The Whistling Wraith (July 1993, Bantam/Spectra), from the original notes of Lester Dent (primary writer of the sagas) but now completed as a novel by Will Murray, the life & person of Zog, as well as Albania's political problems and foreign policy issues with Mussolini's Italy are key to the plot. The story slots into the Doc Savage timeline in 1938 (a few weeks after The Motion Menace, per p. 61). Egil Goz

3500-682: The remaining 23 engines after the final Royale was built, Bugatti built a railcar powered by either two or four of the eight-cylinder units. Seventy-nine were built for the French National Railway SNCF , using a further 186 engines, the last of them remaining in regular use until 1956 or 1958 (sources differ). The railcar turned the Royale project from an economic failure into a commercial success for Bugatti. The engines were derated to produce only about 200 hp, but even in this form they provided excellent performance. One of

3570-571: The representatives of the Yugoslavian government over possible collaboration. Sponsored by MI6 and the CIA , some forces loyal to Zog attempted to mount infiltrations into the country , but most were ambushed due to intelligence sent to the Soviet Union by spy Kim Philby . A referendum in 1997 – seven years after the end of Communist rule – proposed to restore

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3640-564: The throne and exercised Royal powers only after taking an oath before Parliament; Zog himself swore an oath on the Bible and the Quran (the king being Muslim ) in an attempt to unify the country. In 1929, King Zog abolished Islamic law in Albania, adopting in its place a civil code based on the Swiss one, as Mustafa Kemal Atatürk had done in Turkey in the same decade. Although nominally

3710-475: The villainous Francisco Scaramanga telling his compatriots that the Rastafari of Jamaica "believes it owes allegiance" to the King of Ethiopia , this "King Zog or what-have-you." Fleming had been assigned with the task of escorting Zog when in exile after Albania was annexed by Italy. In Aria , a 1987 British anthology film, Zog was a character in the first of ten short self-contained segments, each by

3780-409: The weight of the engine. Massive brake shoes were mechanically operated via cable controls: the brakes were effective but without servo-assistance required significant muscle power from the driver. The car's light alloy "Roue Royale" wheels measured 610 millimetres (24 in) in diameter and were cast in one piece with the brake drums. Reflecting some tradition-based fashions of the time, the driver

3850-399: The world economy began to deteriorate into the 1930s Great Depression . Six Royales were built between 1929 and 1933, with just three sold to external customers. Intended for royalty, none was eventually sold to any royals, and Bugatti even refused to sell one to King Zog of Albania , claiming that "the man's table manners are beyond belief!" Six of seven production Royales still exist, as

3920-605: Was Xhelal Pasha Zogolli . His mother's Toptani family claimed to be descended from the sister of Albania's greatest national hero, the 15th-century general Skanderbeg . He was educated at Galatasaray High School ( French : Lycée Impérial de Galatasaray ) in Beyoğlu , a district of the capital of the Ottoman Empire , Upon his father's death in 1911, Zogolli became governor of Mat, being appointed ahead of his elder half-brother, Xhelal Bey Zogolli . In 1912, he participated in

3990-409: Was a posed elephant , a sculpture by Ettore's brother Rembrandt Bugatti . In 1928, Ettore Bugatti asserted that "this year King Alfonso of Spain will receive his Royale", but the Spanish king was deposed in April 1931 without taking delivery of a Royale, and the first of the cars to find a customer was not delivered until 1932. The Royale with a basic chassis price of $ 30,000, was launched just as

4060-402: Was built for the 1968 film Rebus . The much smaller Panther De Ville (produced between 1974 and 1985) consciously resembled the Type 41. In the 1985 Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance , all six cars appeared together on display. In 2007, five of the six cars were on display at the Goodwood Festival of Speed to celebrate the Royale's eightieth anniversary. A Bugatti Royale features in

4130-440: Was confronted by a series of knobs of whalebone , while the steering wheel was covered with walnut . A road test performed in 1926 by W. F. Bradley at the request of Ettore Bugatti for the Autocar magazine proved how exquisite chassis construction allowed very good and balanced handling at speed, similar to smaller Bugatti sports cars, despite the car's weight and size. All Royales were individually bodied. The radiator cap

4200-520: Was in the company of Minister Eqrem Libohova who was wounded, while Zog's guard Llesh Topallaj was mistaken for Zog by Gjeloshi, who shot him three times in the back of the head. Çami's gun was stuck and did not fire. Zog came out of the event unharmed, thanks also to the prompt intervention of Albanian Consul Zef Serreqi and local police. The Austrian authorities arrested Çami, Gjeloshi, and later Qazim Mulleti , Rexhep Mitrovica , Menduh Angoni , Angjelin Suma , Luigj Shkurti, Sejfi Vllamasi , etc. All

4270-428: Was in use by 1972 in the English language palaeontological mnemonic for the names of zonal index fossils in part of the Lower Carboniferous System of Great Britain (namely C leistopora, which geologists decided to call 'zone k', Z aphrentis, C aninia, S eminula and D ibanophylum): " K ing Z og c aught s yphilis and d ied". In the James Bond novel The Man with the Golden Gun , Ian Fleming writes of

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4340-427: Was later renamed " Boulevard Zog I " by the Albanian government. In October 2012, the government of Albania decided to bring back the remains of the former king from France, where he died in 1961. Zog's body was exhumed from the Thiais Cemetery , Paris on 15 November 2012. A guard of honour was provided by the French President, in the form of French Legionnaires in ceremonial dress. Zog's remains were returned in

4410-416: Was marred by disputes with Kosovo Albanian leaders, primarily Hasan Prishtina and Bajram Curri , among others. On the debit side, Zogu's Albania was a police state in which civil liberties were all but nonexistent and the press was closely censored. Political opponents were imprisoned and often killed. For all intents and purposes, he held all governing power in the nation. On 1 September 1928, Albania

4480-412: Was proclaimed a monarchy and he acceded to the throne as Zog I, King of the Albanians. He married Geraldine Apponyi de Nagy-Appony in 1938, and their only child Leka was born a year later. Albania fell further under Italian influence during Zog's reign, and by the end of the 1930s the country had become almost fully dependent on Italy despite Zog's resistance. In April 1939, Italy invaded Albania and

4550-440: Was pronounced H. M. King Leka of the Albanians by the exiled Albanian community. His widow, Geraldine, died of natural causes in 2002 at the age of 87 in a military hospital in Tirana . During World War II , three resistance groups were operating in Albania : the nationalists , the royalists and the communists . Some of the Albanian establishment opted for collaboration . The communist partisans refused to co-operate with

4620-533: Was somewhat ignored by other monarchs in Europe because he was a self-proclaimed monarch who had no links to any other European royal families. Nonetheless, he did have strong connections with Muslim royal families in the Arab World , particularly Egypt , whose ruling dynasty had Albanian origins. As king, he was honoured by the governments of Italy , Luxembourg , Egypt , Yugoslavia , France , Romania , Greece , Belgium , Bulgaria , Hungary , Poland , Czechoslovakia , and Austria . Zog had been engaged to

4690-399: Was the leader of Albania from 1922 to 1939. At age 27, he first served as Albania's youngest ever Prime Minister (1922–1924), then as president (1925–1928), and finally as king (1928–1939). Born to a beylik family in Ottoman Albania , Zogolli was active in Albanian politics from a young age and fought on the side of Austria-Hungary during the First World War . In 1922, he adopted

4760-582: Was the son of the King's sister, Princess Nafije. He became an honorary General of the Royal Albanian Army in 1928, at age five. He was made Heir Presumptive with the style of His Highness and title of "Prince of Kosova" ( Princ i Kosovës ) in 1931. After the royal house's exile, he moved to France, where he died in August 1993, aged 69. The royal family fled to Greece . Zog, speaking a few days after his arrival there, characterized Hitler and Mussolini as madmen facing "two fools who sleep": Chamberlain and Daladier . Zog went on to declare, "We prefer to die, from

4830-412: Was transformed into a kingdom, and President Zogu declared himself to be Zog I, with the title King of the Albanians . He appointed as his advisor Mehmed Orhan Efendi , a prince of the recently-abolished Ottoman Empire . He took as his regnal name his surname rather than his forename since the Islamic name Ahmet might have had the effect of isolating him on the European stage. He also initially took

4900-408: Was visiting the Vienna State Opera house for a performance of Pagliacci . The attackers ( Aziz Çami and Ndok Gjeloshi ) struck whilst Zog was getting into his car. The attempt was organized by "National Union" ( Albanian : Bashkimi Kombëtar" ), a union of Zog opponents in exile which was formed in Vienna (1925) with the initiative of Ali Këlcyra , Sejfi Vllamasi , Xhemal Bushati etc. Zog

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