8 October: King Zog of Albania

On this date in 1895 Zog I, King of Albania was born. Referred to by The Times as ‘the bizarre King Zog’, he was Europe's only Muslim king.

1. He was born in Burgajet Castle, near Burrel in the northern part of the Albanian section of the Ottoman Empire. His family were landowners with feudal authority over a region called Mat. When his father died in 1911, he became governor of the region and signed the Albanian Declaration of Independence as the representative of that district. His mother's family claimed to be descended from the sister of Albania's greatest national hero, the 15th century general Skanderbeg. Zog's name at birth was Ahmet Muhtar Zogolli, but he changed his surname to Zogu in 1922, because it sounded more Albanian.
2. He served in the first World War for Austria-Hungary. He was a prisoner in Vienna and Rome before returning to Albania in 1919.
3. He held numerous government posts from 1920 to 1924, when he was sent into exile in Yugoslavi. However, he recruited an army of mercenaries with money from international oil companies and rich Albanian families and fought his way back. He became the first President of Albania in January 1925.
4. He turned Albania into a police state with few civil liberties or free press. He murdered his political opponents. His government was highly dependent on Italy for funds, so Italy had a say in how Albania was run. He also signed a military alliance with Italy in 1927. On the plus side, Zogu's reforms eliminated serfdom and helped unite Albania as a nation.
5. In 1928, he decided to make Albania a monarchy and to install himself as king. He took the name King Zog, derived from his surname, rather then his first name Ahmet because he feared a Muslim name might mean he was less accepted by the rest of Europe. He also called himself "Skanderbeg III" in reference to his mother's family being related to Skanderbeg. He declared that his mother, Sadije, would be Queen Mother of Albania and his brother and sisters would be Prince and Princesses Zogu. As King, he abolished Islamic law in Albania, adopting in its place a civil code based on the Swiss one. Despite his name change, and the fact he based his constitutional monarchy on the Italian system, other European monarchs didn't take him seriously because he was self-proclaimed and had no ancestral links with any of them.
6. When he became king, Zog was engaged to the daughter of Shefqet Bey Verlaci, but presumably decided she wasn't good enough for him anymore and broke off the engagement. By doing so, he put his life in danger, because, according to traditional customs, Verlaci had the right to kill Zog in revenge. Hence Zog was always surrounded by personal guards, avoided appearing in public and put his mother in charge of the Royal Kitchen so nobody could poison him. In April 1938 Zog married Countess Geraldine Apponyi de Nagy-Appony, a Roman Catholic aristocrat who was half-Hungarian and half-American. They had one child, HRH Crown Prince Leka.
7. Verlaci wasn't the only one with a grudge against Zog. It's said that he had about 600 blood feuds against him. He was right to be paranoid – he allegedly survived more than 55 assassination attempts. Even on the day he was proclaimed king, no spectators were allowed to line the route to the ceremony.
8. In the 1930s, Zog's government became almost completely dependent on Mussolini. Albania was unable to pay back loans from Italy and so Italy began making more and more demands. Zog eventually got tired of it. He dismissed his Italian military advisers, nationalised schools and slashed budgets. He tried to build alliances with France, Germany and the Balkan states, but got nowhere. In 1939, Italy invaded Albania, forcing Zog and his family into exile.
9. His first home after that was the Ritz hotel in London, then houses in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire. He then moved to Egypt, and planned to move on to America, buying an estate in New York, but he never lived there as the family decided to move to France instead. He died in France at the age of 65.
10. In 1929, Zog was reportedly smoking 200 cigarettes a day, which possibly entitled him to the title of the world's heaviest smoker. He is said to have liked western classical music and films starring Charlie Chaplin and Shirley Temple.

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