By James Aitchison

He was known as the king with the funny name, a self-appointed Muslim ruler who survived 55 assassination attempts, a dictator who fled to The Ritz in London and died in obscurity in France.

And while history has tossed up its share of bizarre characters, Ahmed Muhtar Zogolli must qualify as one of the most curious.

He was born into a wealthy landowning family on 8 October 1895 in northern Albania.  At the time, Albania was part of the Ottoman Empire.  Zogolli’s family enjoyed feudal authority; when his father died in 1911, Zogolli became the local governor.  As a Bey, the Turkish title for provincial chieftains (also known as Beyg, Begum, and Bygjymi), Zogolli was a member of the Albanian nobility.

He volunteered to serve with Austria-Hungary in the First World War, later enjoying a Western lifestyle during his time in Vienna.  Returning to post-war Albania, Zogolli served in government posts.  In 1922, in order to sound more “Albanian”, he changed his name to Zogu.

A Communist revolt drove him into exile in June 1924.  Backed by Yugoslav forces and White Russian troops, he made a triumphant return.  On 1 February 1925, Zogu was officially elected as the President of Albania by the country’s parliament.  To his credit, Zogu attempted many land reforms, granting better conditions for the peasants working for the local Beys.  Sadly, the experiments failed.  A new constitution gave Zogu dictatorial powers.  He appointed all major government officials as well as one third of the lower house.  Financial backing came from the Kingdom of Italy. 

Zogu ran a police state.  Civil liberties ceased to exist.  The press was tightly censored.

On 1 September 1928, Zogu declared himself King Zog I, King of the Albanians.  He also appointed himself Field Marshal of the Royal Albanian Army.  In 1929, he abolished Islamic law and adopted a civil code based on the Swiss model, as Mustafa Kemal Atatürk had done in Turkey.  Despite this, Zog’s monarchy remained a dictatorship wherein a strong police force liquidated his enemies.  Surprisingly, in 1938, King Zog opened Albania’s borders to Jewish refugees fleeing Nazi Germany.

Zog found himself isolated by much of European royalty.  The fact that he had appointed himself king cut little ice with other European monarchs.  He was also the target of 55 assassination attempts as a result of 600 blood feuds against him.  On one occasion, he narrowly escaped death at the Vienna State Opera; in fact, he reportedly snatched up a gun and returned his assailants’ fire.  His mother supervised the royal kitchen to ensure he wasn’t poisoned.  

Smoking 200 cigarettes a day, Zog could claim to be the world’s heaviest smoker.

Through the worldwide depression in the 1930s, Albania was plunged into financial chaos.  Zog depended on Mussolini to survive.  But the Italians soon made impossible demands.  On 7 April 1939, the Italians invaded and the Albanian army was helpless to stop them.  Zog and his royal family allegedly raided the National Bank in Tirana, filled their bags with a fortune in gold, and fled into exile.  Mussolini declared Albania a protectorate of Italy to the cheers of many Albanians.

Zog fled first to Greece, where he famously declared, “We prefer to die, from the littlest child to the oldest man, to show our independence is not for sale.”  The world knew he had stolen most of Albania’s gold and was unimpressed.

His royal entourage made a haphazard dash to Paris.  When the Germans invaded, Zog escaped to England and the refined comforts of The Ritz in London. 

With the war done and dusted, King Zog blithely announced he was returning to rule Albania.  The new Communist-dominated government thought otherwise.  It banned Zog from ever setting foot in the country again and formally deposed him in 1946.  He went to live in Egypt with his good friend King Farouk.  When Farouk was overthrown in 1952, Zog and family moved to France where he died on 9 April 1961 aged 65.

But Zog left perhaps his most curious legacy of all in the USA. 

In 1952, he had purchased a sprawling 270-acre estate in Muttontown, Long Island.  Knollwood was a sixty-room gilded age mansion built for Wall Street tycoon Charles Hudson.  Zog paid $102,800, reportedly buying it with a bucket of diamonds and rubies.  Zog planned to turn it into his own micro-kingdom in exile, complete with Albanian subjects.  The New York Times observed, “A man must have a place to lay his head, and if Zog feels he must have sixty rooms to do it, that is his business.”  The Nassau County authorities were not so kind.  They demanded Zog cough up $2,914 in taxes.  Zog responded that as a monarch he had “sovereign immunity from such trifles.”

While the estate awaited the hapless monarch, rumours circulated that Albanian treasure was hidden in the walls.  Vandals tore apart the unprotected property and it was demolished in 1959.

It was the final devastating blow for a man who would be king.