Zog of Albania: Biography from Answers.com

Zog I (1895-1961) was an Albanian ruler who fought to defend Albanian autonomy.

Ahmed Bey Zog, originally Zogolli (Zogu), son of the most powerful Muslim chieftain in northern Albania, the head of the Mati tribe, was born in the village of Burgayet. His formal Ottoman education was limited to three years of study, first at the Galata-Serail Lyceum for notables and later at a military school in Bitola (Monastir). Following his training, Zog resided briefly in Constantinople. In 1911 he was called back to Albania to lead his tribe in a revolt against the increasing authority of the Young Turks. The following year he distinguished himself in a campaign against the invading Serbian army. During that conflict Zog fought in defense of Albanian autonomy, and when Albania's independence was proclaimed in the marketplace of Vlorë on November 28, 1912, Zog was among the eighty-some notables present.

Zog was one of the first supporters of the new Albanian state. In March 1914 a German Prince, William of Wied, was selected by the Great Powers as Albania's ruler. Despite Zog's considerable military backing, Prince William was no able to suppress an Italian-sponsored rebellion against his government and he thus fled Albania in September 1914. Having returned to their northern district, Zog and his tribesmen joined the Austrians who penetrated Albania during the early stages of the First World War. Initially the Austrians awarded Zog with the title of Imperial and Royal Colonel and the Order of Francis Joseph, but later, suspecting him of plotting to restore Albanian independence, they interned him in Vienna until the end of the war. Zog returned to Albania in November 1918 to discover a country overwhelmed by crisis. The nation had been physically devastated by the preceding conflict, central authority was non-existent, and most of Albania was under foreign occupation. In February 1920 an Albanian provisional government was formed in order to organize resistance against the French, Greek, Italian, and Yugoslav plans for the partition of Albania. Zog was appointed interior minister and commander-in-chief of the Albanian armed forces. Due to international diplomatic conditions, and in no small part to Zog's military leadership, Albania succeeded in preserving its territorial integrity, and by November 1921, all foreign occupation forces had withdrawn from Albania.

Taking advantage of his countrymen's admiration of his organizational skills and his proven determination to rid Albania of foreign troops, Zog pursued parliamentary politics as a means to promote his ambitions. In the politically unstable period from 1921 to 1924 Zog advanced his influence at every opportunity through the Albanian military and the Legislative Assembly. After exploiting a number of political crises as his pretext, Zog entered the capital of Tirana at the head of the army in December 1921 and proclaimed martial law. During the following year Zog attempted to crush his opponents which condemned him for governing as a dictator, but opposition to his regime expanded under the leadership of his former parliamentary ally, Fan Stylian Noli. Nevertheless, Zog became prime minister in December 1922. That same month Noli and his supporters left Zog's Popular party to organize an opposition bloc in parliament. After a series of electoral crises, mounting parliamentary and popular opposition, and an assassination attempt against him, Zog resigned from the premiership in February 1924. A new government was formed without Zog, but it was made up of his cronies and it was apparent that Zog continued to rule using the government as his front. Dissatisfaction with Zog's policies was great enough to produce a rebellion against his government. On June 10, 1924, Zog fled to Yugoslavia as insurgents entered Tirana. Zog's rival, Noli, took command of the state and formed a new liberal government. However, in December 1924, with the military backing of the Yugoslavs, Zog returned to Albania and forced Noli into exile.

With the overthrow of the Noli government and the emergence of Zog as Albania's dominant political personality, prospects for the survival of a democratic parliamentary system dimmed. A newly convened parliament under Zog's control proclaimed him president at the close of January 1925. In March of that same year a new constitution was approved which invested the president with virtually dictatorial powers. Despite at least five different uprisings, Zog continued to solidify his authority. On September 1, 1928, Zog realized his ultimate ambition-the parliament unanimously proclaimed Albania a hereditary monarchy and Zog assumed the title of "Zog I, King of the Albanians." Zog's royal dictatorship was characterized by a combination of despotism and Western reform. Although Zog continued to practice oppressive policies, his regime enacted a substantial number of reforms. Western-style civil, commercial, and penal codes were adopted while some modern facilities and technology were introduced into Albania for the first time. A major land-tenure. reform law was approved in 1930, but was never effectively implemented.

Although Zog succeeded in centralizing his regime's political authority, he was incapable of developing Albania's primitive economy with the domestic resources at his disposal-his policies in this sphere eventually led to his downfall. Zog turned to Italy for assistance. Accordingly, in March 1925 Rome and Tirana concluded a far-reaching economic agreement which quickly drew both countries closer together politically as well. By 1927 Italian economic and political influence so dominated Albania that Rome had assumed responsibility for the training and equipping of the Albanian army. During the 1930s Zog attempted on several occasions to lessen Rome's tightening grip on Albania. However, in April 1939, angered by Zog's refusal to transform Albania into an Italian protectorate, Mussolini's forces invaded Albania. The Italian army was met with little resistance, and Zog fled to Greece on April 8, 1939, to join his wife, Geraldine Apponyi of Hungary, whom he had married a year earlier, and his newborn son, Leka. Zog's monarchy came to a formal end on April 12, 1939, when the Albanian parliament abolished the 1928 constitution and proclaimed Albania's union with Rome by offering the crown to the Italian monarch, Victor Emmanuel III. Zog's wartime attempts to gain allied recognition, organize a provisional government, and lead an Albanian resistance movement against the axis from abroad ended unsuccessfully. Until his death outside Paris in 1961, Zog spent most of his very private years in exile in Britain, Egypt, and France. Although Zog's regime ended in failure, it was significant for having established the foundations for a cohesive and centralized Albanian state.

Zog I, Skanderbeg III
King of the Albanians

11th Prime Minister of Albania
Term	26 December 1922 – 25 February 1924
Predecessor	Xhafer Bej Ypi
Successor	Shefqet Bej Vërlaci
16th Prime Minister of Albania
Term	6 January 1925 – 1 September 1928
Predecessor	Iliaz Bej Vrioni
Successor	Koço Kota
President of Albania
Term	1 February 1925 – 1 September 1928
Predecessor	New Post
Successor	Monarchy established
King of the Albanians
Reign	1 September 1928 – 7 April 1939
Predecessor	Monarchy established
Successor	Victor Emmanuel III of Italy

Consort	Géraldine Apponyi de Nagyappony
Issue
Leka, Crown Prince of Albania
Full name
Ahmet Zogu
House	House of Zogu
Father	Xhemal Pasha Zogu
Mother	Sadijé Toptani
Born	8 October 1895(1895-10-08) Castle Burgajet, Albania
Died	9 April 1961 (aged 65) Suresnes, Paris, France
Religion	Sunni Islam

Background and early political career

Zog was born Ahmet Muhtar Bey Zogolli in Castle Burgajet, Albania, third son to Xhemal Pasha Zogolli, by his second wife Sadijé Toptani. His family was a beylik family of landowners, with feudal authority over the region of Mati. His mother's Toptani family claimed to be descended from the line of Albania's greatest national hero, the 15th-century general Skanderbeg, through the general's sister. Their lands were in the same districts as Skanderbeg's family's had been, and certainly, the Zogu family had deep roots in indigenous clannish nobility. No historically attested genealogy has been shown for this alleged lineage from the Middle Ages, although Zog's wife had a pedigree from Albania.

Zogolli was educated at Galatasaray College in Constantinople, ^[2] then the seat of the decaying Ottoman Empire, which technically controlled Albania. Upon his father's death in 1911, Zogolli, at age sixteen, became governor of Mat. He was appointed over his two elder brothers Xhelal Bey.

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 and was rumoured to be very popular among the Viennese women.

Upon his return, Zogolli became involved in the political life of the fledgling Albanian government that had been created in the wake of the First World War. He became leader of a major reformist party, and his political supporters included many southern feudal landowners (called beys, Turkish for "village chieftain", the social group to which he belonged) and noble families in the north, along with merchants, industrialists, and intellectuals. During the early 1920s, Zog 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 name from the Turkish Zogolli to Zog, which in the Albanian language means "bird".

It was a dangerous time to be an Albanian politician. In 1923, Zog was shot and wounded in Parliament. A crisis arose in 1924 after the assassination of one of Zog's industrialist opponents, Avni Rustemi; in the aftermath, a leftist revolt forced Zog, along with 600 of his allies, into exile in June 1924. He returned to Albania with the backing of Yugoslav forces and Yugoslavia-based White Russian troops and became Prime Minister.

President of Albania

Zog was officially elected as the first President of Albania by the Constituent Assembly on 21 January 1925, taking office on February 1 for a seven-year term. Zog's government followed the European model, though large parts of Albania still maintained a social structure unchanged from the days of Ottoman rule, and most villages were serf plantations run by the Beys.

As president, Zog assumed dictatorial powers. Opposition was not tolerated; dissidents were often killed. The press was also heavily censored. His deputies were four military governors responsible to him alone.

However, Zog enacted several major reforms. These included the prohibition of veils (although a Muslim himself) and prohibitions against cruelty to animals. Zog's principal ally during this period was Italy, which lent his government funds in exchange for a greater role in Albania's fiscal policy. During Zog's presidency, serfdom was gradually eliminated. For the first time since the death of Skanderbeg, Albania began to emerge as a nation, rather than a feudal patchwork of local Beyliks. His administration was marred by disputes with Kosovar leaders, primarily Hasan Prishtina and Bajram Curri.

Albanian King

On 1 September 1928 General Zogu was crowned King of the Albanians (Mbret i Shqiptarëve in Albanian), and declared Field Marshal of the Royal Albanian Army on the same day. He proclaimed a constitutional monarchy similar to the contemporary regime in Italy, created a strong police force, and instituted the Zogist salute (flat hand over the heart with palm facing downwards). He claimed to be a successor of Skanderbeg, a lineage which was correct to an extent. Zog hoarded gold coins and precious stones, which were used to back Albania's first paper currency.

Zog's mother, Sadijé, 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, Senijé, Princess Zogu (1897-1969), married His Imperial Highness Prince Shehzade Mehmed Abid Efendi of Turkey, a son of Sultan Abdul Hamid II.

Zog attempted to reinforce his regime's legitimacy further by ruling as a constitutional monarch. His kingdom's constitution forbade any Prince of 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. Ironically, in light of later events, the constitution also forbade the union of the Albanian throne with that of any other country. Under the Zogist constitution, the King of the Albanians, like the King of the Belgians, exercised Royal powers only after taking an oath before Parliament; Zog himself swore an oath on the Bible and the Qur'an (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 Ataturk's Turkey had done in the same decade.^[3]

Zog's regime brought stability to Albania. The King organized an educational system and attempted to modernize the Albanian military, though the costs involved in this project were high. He also tried to alter the ethnic character of the Greek minority. Under King Zog the Greek villages suffered considerable repression, including the forcible closure of Greek-language schools in 1933-1934 and the ordering of Greek Orthodox monasteries to accept mentally sick individuals as inmates.^[4]

Life as King

Reverse of Zogian coin

Obverse of Zogian coin

Although born as an aristocrat and hereditary Bey, King Zog was somewhat ignored by other monarchs in Europe because he had no links to European royal bloodlines, although he did have strong connections with Muslim royal families in the Middle East and Egypt. However, as King, he was honored by the governments of Italy, Luxembourg, Egypt, Kingdom of Yugoslavia, France, Romania, Greece, Belgium, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia and Austria.^[2] In the absence of nightclubs or theatres in Tirana, the King spent much of his time playing poker, usually with his sisters. He was also addicted to perfumed cigarettes and smoked about 150 a day.

Zog had been engaged to the daughter of Shefqet Bey Verlaci before he became King. Soon after his coronation, however, he broke off the engagement. According to traditional customs of blood vengeance prevalent in Albania at the time, Verlaci had the right to kill Zog. The King made more than a few enemies—rumour had it that he was the subject of over 600 blood vendettas in addition to Verlaci's—and he frequently surrounded himself with a personal guard and avoided public appearances. He also feared that he might be poisoned, so the Queen Mother assumed supervision of the Royal Kitchen.

During his reign he is said to have survived over 55 assassination attempts. One of these occurred in 1931 while Zog was visiting a Vienna opera house for a performance of Pagliacci. The attackers struck whilst Zog was getting into his car, and he survived by firing back with a pistol that he always carried. This is the only occasion in modern history when a Head of State has personally exchanged fire with potential assassins.

In April 1938 Zog married Countess Geraldine Apponyi de Nagy-Apponyi, a Roman Catholic aristocrat who was half-Hungarian and half-American. Their only child, HRH Crown Prince Leka, was born in Albania on 5 April 1939.

Relations with Italy

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 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, to the point that the Albanian national bank had its seat in Rome. Grain had to be imported, many Albanians emigrated, and Italian settlers were allowed to settle in Albania. In 1932 and 1933, Albania was unable to pay 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 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 the Balkan states, and Albania drifted back into the Italian orbit.

Two days after the birth of his son and heir, 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 the gendarmerie and general population. The Royal Family, realising correctly that their lives were in danger, fled into exile. "Oh God, it was so short" were King Zog's last words to Geraldine on Albanian soil. Count Ciano, the Italian Foreign Minister, arrived the following day; on searching the Palace in Tirana, he found the labour room in the Queen's suite; seeing a pile of linen on the floor, stained by the afterbirth, he kicked it across the room. "The cub has escaped!" he said.

Mussolini declared Albania a protectorate under Italy's King Victor Emmanuel III. Zog and his family were forced into exile. While some Albanians continued to resist, "a large part of the population ... welcomed the Italians with cheers", according to one contemporary account. ^[5]

Former crown prince

Prior to the birth of Prince Leka, the position of Heir Presumptive was held by Prince Tati Esad Murad Kryziu, the son of the King's sister, Princess Nafisa. He was born 24 December 1923 in Tirana. He became 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 Kosoves) in 1931. After the Royal House's exile, he moved to France, where he died in August 1993.

Life in exile

The royal family settled in England, first at The Ritz in London, followed by a brief stay in Ascot, Berkshire in 1941 (near Zog's nieces who were at school in Ascot), and a move in 1941 to Parmoor House, Parmoor, near Frieth in Buckinghamshire with some staff of the court living in locations around Lane End.^[6]

Zog was an occasional guest at Claridge's on Brook Street in Mayfair. He once talked of using part of his huge fortune to buy The Times, telling Auberon Herbert: "I won't give a penny more than ten million for it."

In 1946, King Zog and most of his family left England and went to live in Egypt at the behest of King Farouk, until he was overthrown in 1952.

The grave of Zog I at the Thiais cemetery near Paris

In 1951, Zog bought the Knollwood estate in Muttontown, New York, for approximately $102,800. The sixty-room estate was described as a castle. Zog intended Knollwood to be his kingdom-in-exile, staffed by loyal Albanian subjects, but he never moved into the mansion. The house was never used, and Zog sold the estate in 1955, by which time vandals had done over $8,000 worth of damage, apparently hunting for treasure in his absence. The mansion was later further vandalized, and parts of it have since been torn down. Ruins of this mansion can still be seen deep in the woods of Muttontown preserve, located on Route 106 in Muttontown, New York.

When Zog briefly went to the United States, he wanted to bring along his Court, but the immigration authorities allowed only twenty members. Zog tried unsuccessfully to bribe the United States Senate to permit the remainder to join him.

Zog finally chose to make his home in France, living the lifestyle of a Riviera recluse as favoured by exiled monarchs. He died in Hospital Foch, Suresnes, Hauts-de-Seine^[2] on 9 April 1961 at the age of 65 after being seriously ill for some time. Allegedly his son and Albanian officers, who stayed with Zog in exile, had to use force to prevent the hospital staff from taking his body to the Chapel (Zog was a Muslim).^[7] He was survived by his wife and son, and is buried at the Thiais Cemetery in Paris.

On his death, his son Leka was pronounced H.M. King Leka of the Albanians by the exiled Albanian community.

His widow, Queen Geraldine, died of natural causes in 2002 at the age of 87 in a military hospital in Tirana, Albania.

Political legacy

During World War II, there were three resistance groups operating in Albania: the nationalists, the royalists and the communists. Some of the Albanian establishment opted for collaboration. The partisans would not co-operate with the other resistance groups and took control of the country. They were able to defeat the last Nazi remnants as the war ended, with the help of British arms and aid.

Zog attempted to reclaim his throne after the war. Sponsored by the British, some forces loyal to Zog attempted to mount invasions but were continually ambushed due to intelligence sent to the Soviet Union by spy Kim Philby—Albania now had a communist government led by Enver Hoxha, who remained in power for 45 years. A referendum in 1997 proposed to restore the monarchy in the person of Zog's son Leka Zogu who, since 1961, has been styled "Leka I, King of the Albanians". The official results stated that about two-thirds of voters favoured a continued republican government. HM King Leka, believing the result to be fraudulent, attempted an armed uprising: he was unsuccessful and was forced into exile, although he later returned and now lives in Tirana.

A main street in Tirana was later renamed "Boulevard Zog I" by the Albanian government.

In popular culture

A character bearing a striking similarity to the king appeared in the Tintin comic book series as King Muskar XII in "King Ottokar's Sceptre".

In the fourth episode of Monty Python's Flying Circus, the first sketch was noted as having been "specially written for the pubescence of Ex-King Zog of Albania." Other passing references to Zog became something of a running gag on the show.

In Ian Fleming's James Bond novel The Man With the Golden Gun, Francisco Scaramanga says that the Rastafarians of Jamaica owe their allegiance to the ruler of Ethiopia, who he identifies as "this King Zog or what-have-you." Actually, the monarch that Scaramanga had in mind was Haile Selassie.

The song "Don Juan" by British synth duo the Pet Shop Boys (the B-side to their 1988 single "Domino Dancing") contains the phrase "King Zog's back from holiday, Marie Lupescu's grey and King Alexander is dead in Marseilles".

The assassination attempt of 1931 was depicted in the 1987 film Aria. Zog was played by Theresa Russell, and the segment was directed by Nicolas Roeg.

Anecdotes

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (September 2008)

There are many anecdotes about King Zog:

After Italy's invasion of Albania in 1939, King Zog, having been exiled by Benito Mussolini, set out with his retinue for the Ritz Hotel in London. The hall porter, surprised by the unusual weight of the king's cases, asked him whether they contained anything valuable. "Yes," Zog replied, "gold."

Zog was described by British Conservative politician Julian Amery as the cleverest man he had ever met.

Aubrey Herbert, who met Zog in 1913 when he was only eighteen, described him as "a reader of Shakespeare and a fine fighting man."

External links

References

Bernd Fischer - King Zog and the Struggle for Stability in Albania, (East European Monographs, Boulder, 1984)
Jason Tomes - "The Throne of Zog: Monarchy in Albania 1928-1939" (History Today, September 2001)

^ Pearson, Owen (2006). Albania in the Twentieth Century: a history. I.B. Tauris. p. 568. ISBN 1845110137.
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Royal Ark
^ Swiss Laws, Greek Patriarch, Time magazine, April 15, 1929
^ http://www.da.mod.uk/colleges/csrc/document-listings/balkan/G97,"Under King Zog, the Greek villages suffered considerable repression, including the forcible closure of Greek-language schools in 1933-1934 and the ordering of Greek Orthodox] monasteries to accept mentally sick individuals as inmates. "
^ "Fascist Soldiers Take over Tirana". The New York Times. 9 April 1939.
^ Naçi collection, School of Slavonic and East European Studies, accessed 27 January 2007
^ "Queen Geraldine of the Albanians" by Gwen Robyns

Bibliography

Bernd Fischer - King Zog and the Struggle for Stability in Albania, (East European Monographs, Boulder, 1984)
O.S. Pearson, Albania and King Zog, I.B. Tauris. 2005 (ISBN 1-84511-013-7).
Jason Tomes - King Zog, Self-Made Monarch of Albania, 2003 (ISBN 0-7509-3077-2)
Gwen Robyns - Geraldine of the Albanians (ISBN 0-584-11133-9)

Political offices
Zog of Albania House of Zogu Born: October 8 1895 Died: April 9 1961
Preceded by Xhafer Ypi	Prime Minister of Albania 1922–1924	Succeeded by Shefqet Bej Verlaci
Preceded by Ilias Bej Vrioni	Prime Minister of Albania 1925	Vacant Title next held by Koço Kota
New title	President of Albania 1925–1928	Vacant Title next held by Omer Nishani
Regnal titles
Vacant Title last held by William of Wied as Prince of Albania	King of the Albanians 1928–1939	Succeeded by Vittorio Emanuele III (Italian occupation)
Preceded by Xhemal Pasha Zogu	Hereditary Governor of Mati 1911–1939	Succeeded by Leka Zogu
Titles in pretence
Loss of title Italian invasion, communist regime	— TITULAR — King of the Albanians 1939–1961	Succeeded by Leka Zogu

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Zog of Albania

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