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Fw: Fw: =- Pale Fire -=- All Hail King Zog! - and yet more
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reflections
From
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EDNOTE. Tom Bolt's astounding revelation that King Zog of Albania is the
prototype for King Charles of ZEMBLA has opened the floodgates to whole new
dimensions of Kinbotean lunacy. Pale fire indeed.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jennifer Parsons" <jdparsons@shaw.ca>
> Mr. Bolt,
>
> This Zog discovery is a stunner!
>
> After reading this revelation returned to "History of Iraq" site I'd
> been reading only to come upon more shades of PF (though admittedly
> Ghazi doesn't have much more in common with gentle Alfin the Vague than
> fondness for sports and consequential sudden, swift manner of death):
>
>
> "In 1938 King Ghazi decided to attempt to realize his ambition of
> annexing Kuwait, part of his dream to lead the Fertile Crescent
> movement [King Ghazi announced from Qasr al-Zohour radio station
> that he was looking forward to the day when Syria,
> Palestine, and Kuwait were united to Iraq]. With a combination of
> propaganda (Qasr al-Zohour radio station), and military
> intimidation, he began to foment dissent in Kuwait, exploiting the
> aspirations of sections of the Kuwaiti middle class, which sought
> greater participation in government. But, at a critical moment, when
> Iraqi troops had massed near Kuwait's northern border,
> Ghazi's obsession with fast motor cars proved his undoing. The king
> drove his car into a lamppost and died instantly on the 3rd of
> April 1939."
> .
>
> "Inspired by the example of Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt, the Hashimite
> monarchy was overthrown on July 14, 1958, in a swift,
> predawn coup executed by officers of the Nineteenth Brigade known as
> "Free Officers", under the leadership of Brigadier
> Abdul-Karim Qassem (known as "il-Za`im") and Colonel Abdul Salam
> Arif. King Faisal II and Abd al Ilah were executed in
> al-Rihab Palace, and displaying the bodies in public, hanging them
> by their feet outside the palace; as were many others in the
> royal family. Nuri as-Said escaped capture for one day after
> attempting to escape disguised as a veiled woman, but was then
> caught and put to death, ..."
> http://home.achilles.net/~sal/iraq_history.html
>
>
> "D. Barton Johnson" wrote:
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Thomas Bolt -- b0sh0tmalt" <bolt@tbolt.com>
> > To: "Vladimir Nabokov Forum" <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> > Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2002 11:18 AM
> > Subject: =- Pale Fire -=- All Hail King Zog! -=
> > > ===============================
> > > PALE FIRE:
> > > All hail King Zog !
> > > ===============================
> > >
> > >
> > > A Source for Charles Kinbote
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Palace intrigues.
> > > A "reader of Shakespeare."
> > > Assassination attempts.
> > > A bearded Royal Guard.
> > > Crown jewels.
> > > A middle-aged "bachelor king"--a manly dandy.
> > > A powerful red car (wedding gift from Hitler).
> > > A country bent sinister by both Fascists and Communists.
> > > A series of fantastic escapes.
> > > An exiled king, making the best of life in America.
> > > A queen's villa on the French Riviera....
> > >
> > >
> > > I learned about this real-life
> > > Kinbote recently when less-than-ideal
> > > insomnia found me reading THE LIFE
> > > OF IAN FLEMING. Fleming, then a Naval
> > > Reserve officer, is overseeing the
> > > last-minute escape from France of
> > > various VIPs as German tanks roll in:
> > >
> > > "From time to time German bombers came, but nothing stopped the
> > > evacuation, and by dusk nearly all the refugees were away. Then
> > > came a coup de théâtre. The last boat was nearly filled when
> > > motor-horns were heard in the distance; and over the
> > > cobblestones rolled a cavalcade of enormous motor cars carrying
> > > King Zog of Albania, his family, and mountains of luggage,
> > > including the crown jewels of Albania. Somehow Fleming managed
> > > to get the royal party safely off...."
> > >
> > > --John Pearson, 1966, Jonathan Cape, London, page 105
> > >
> > >
> > > Which led me to this riot of parallels
> > > in the very first place I looked:
> > >
> > >
> > > King Zog in America (1951)
> > >
> > > Ahmed Bey Zogu, born in 1895, battled innumerable Balkan
> > > adversaries to consolidate control of his country after the
> > > First World War, became President in 1925, and declared himself
> > > King Zog I in 1928. For his coronation, he ordered an outfit
> > > that included rose-colored breeches, gold spurs, and a gold
> > > crown weighing seven and five-eighths pounds.
> > >
> > > Zog's preoccupation once he was on the throne was how to stay
> > > alive. In 1931, he barely escaped assassination at the hands of
> > > two gunmen as he was leaving a performance of "Pagliacci" at the
> > > Vienna Opera House. His mother kept watch over the royal kitchen
> > > to make sure his food was not being poisoned. A virtual recluse
> > > in his capital city, Tirana, which in any case had neither night
> > > clubs nor theatres, Zog did little except play poker and smoke
> > > as many as a hundred and fifty perfumed cigarettes a day.
> > > Understandably, perhaps, shaking Europe's royal family trees for
> > > a queen yielded Zog no fruit. But his four sisters, each of them
> > > a division commander in the Albanian army and none of them
> > > married themselves, helped in the search, and he eventually
> > > found a penniless half-American, half-Hungarian countess,
> > > Geraldine Apponyi, who had been selling postcards in the
> > > Budapest National Museum for forty-five dollars a month. Her
> > > photograph captured Zog's heart, and they were married in 1938.
> > >
> > > A year later, Italy invaded Albania, routing its thirteen
> > > thousand troops and two airplanes within forty-eight hours.
> > > Having fled to England with his family and a hefty portion of
> > > his country's gold, Zog watched from afar as Mussolini's
> > > Fascists and then Enver Hoxha's Communists took over his
> > > kingdom. Zog was formally deposed in absentia in 1946. Having
> > > temporarily moved to Egypt, he became friends with King Farouk
> > > while he pondered the serious question of where an ex-monarch
> > > could live.
> > >
> > > He found the answer, he thought, during a 1951 tour of the
> > > United States: Knollwood, a sixty-room granite mansion that had
> > > been built on Long Island's North Shore in 1907. Zog bought it
> > > for $102,800 (not for "a bucket of diamonds and rubies," as some
> > > stories claimed at the time). Italian Renaissance in style,
> > > Knollwood boasted tall Ionic columns and a winding main stairway
> > > of Caen marble. Massive stone steps led down to vast reaches of
> > > landscaping, with gardens and reflecting pools. English ivy
> > > covered parts of wide terraces and also hung from marble
> > > fountains and urns. "A man must have a place to lay his head,"
> > > the Times commented, "and if Zog feels he must have sixty rooms
> > > to do it in, that is his business."
> > >
> > > Zog, it was announced, intended to turn Knollwood into his
> > > kingdom in exile. In its grounds would live Albanian subjects,
> > > working the land as his tenants. North Shore society, delighted
> > > at the prospect of royalty in its back yard, was soon flocking
> > > to Knollwood. At its gates, visitors were greeted by a bearded
> > > member of the Royal Guard: he would kiss their hands and turn
> > > them away.
> > >
> > > Alas, Zog wanted to settle into the mansion with his entire
> > > court, of a hundred and fifteen, but the immigration authorities
> > > would allow him to bring only twenty into the country. Attempts
> > > to bribe the State Department failed, and in 1952 he was forced
> > > to pay $2,914 in taxes to save his property, having been unable
> > > to convince Nassau County that as a monarch he had sovereign
> > > immunity from such trifles. In 1955, he sold Knollwood, which
> > > had meanwhile suffered eight thousand dollars' worth of damage
> > > from vandals. The vandals thereupon converged on the estate in
> > > earnest, ripping it apart in search of treasure that was rumored
> > > to be buried in its grounds. The mansion was later demolished,
> > > and Zog spent his last days in a nearly empty villa on the
> > > French Riviera, with Queen Geraldine doing the housework. He
> > > died in 1961.
> > >
> > > Excerpted from Muttontown's King, The New Yorker, pp. 33 & 34,
> > > September 11, 1989
> > >
> > > http://www.frosina.org/infobits/kingzog.shtml
> > >
> > >
> > > =-=-=-=-=
> > >
> > > His queen died only last month:
> > >
> > >
> > > 'White rose' blossomed in exile
> > > November 14 2002
> > >
> > > Queen Geraldine of Albania King's consort 1915-2002
> > >
> > > Her Majesty Queen Geraldine of the Albanians, who has died aged
> > > 87, was the wife of King Zog, the ruler of Albania for the two
> > > decades before World War II.
> > >
> > > As Countess Geraldine Apponyi, before her marriage to the
> > > 42-year-old bachelor king in 1938, she was one of Europe's great
> > > aristocratic beauties, sometimes referred to as "the white rose
> > > of Hungary".
> > >
> > > At 22, she became the second-youngest queen in the world; only
> > > King Farouk of Egypt's consort, Queen Farida, was younger.
> > >
> > > But in 1939, after only 388 days as Queen on Albanian soil, she
> > > and King Zog were forced to flee the country as Mussolini's
> > > forces overran it. They lived the rest of their lives in exile.
> > >
> > > Geraldine Apponyi was born in Budapest, a daughter of the
> > > Hungarian nobleman Count Gyula Apponyi de Nagy-Appony and his
> > > wife Gladys, daughter of John H. Stewart, the American consul at
> > > Antwerp.
> > >
> > > Geraldine's parents had met in Paris in 1912, at a dinner party
> > > at the Austro-Hungarian embassy, and were married in 1914. Her
> > > paternal grandfather, Count Ludwig Apponyi, was grand marshal of
> > > the Hapsburg court in Budapest.
> > >
> > > After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire at the end of
> > > World War I, the Apponyis left Hungary and went to Switzerland.
> > > They returned to Hungary in 1921 but, after Count Gyula's death
> > > in 1924, Gladys Apponyi decided to take her three children -
> > > Geraldine, Virginia and Gyula - to live near her widowed mother
> > > at Menton, in the south of France.
> > >
> > > But when Gladys then remarried - to a French army officer - the
> > > Apponyi family insisted that the girls be returned to Hungary.
> > > She agreed, and they were sent to board at the Sacred Heart
> > > school at Pressbaum, near Vienna, spending the holidays with
> > > their grandmother and aunts and uncles at the family's country
> > > estate.
> > > When Geraldine was 16 her grandmother died, and thereafter she
> > > and Virginia spent most of their holidays at Zebegny with their
> > > go-ahead aunt Countess Fanny Karolyi. In the mornings at
> > > Zebegny, the girls learnt shorthand and typing.
> > >
> > > At 17, staying at the Karolyi Palace in Budapest, Geraldine came
> > > out at a ball given by the Hungarian monarchists; one of several
> > > photographs taken of Geraldine at that ball would fix the
> > > direction of her life.
> > >
> > > Some years later she received, out of the blue, a letter from
> > > one of King Zog's six sisters inviting her to stay in Albania.
> > > Anxious to find a European bride (and one without a past), King
> > > Zog had sent his sisters to Vienna and Budapest to search for a
> > > suitable candidate. They had sent back to Tirana copies of the
> > > photographs taken of Geraldine at the ball.
> > >
> > > King Zog's trusty General Cyczy visited Geraldine and the
> > > Apponyis in Budapest to confirm the invitation, and Geraldine's
> > > friend, Countess Katherine Teleki, was sent to Tirana to thank
> > > the king and to "have a good look around".
> > >
> > > Subsequently, Geraldine wrote to accept the invitation and, just
> > > after Christmas 1937, she set off. The visit was a success; King
> > > Zog proposed marriage on New Year's Day and, after a decent
> > > interval, on January 10 Geraldine accepted. Her guardian, Count
> > > Charles Apponyi, gave his consent and Geraldine was given the
> > > rank of Princess of Albania.
> > >
> > > The marriage - a civil ceremony (King Zog was a Muslim, his
> > > bride a Roman Catholic) - took place in the spring of 1938.
> > > Geraldine wore a pearl and diamante wedding dress - which the
> > > king had ordered from Worth, in Paris - and orange blossom in
> > > her hair. She had six bridesmaids, and the wedding cake, which
> > > she cut with her husband's sabre, was three metres wide.
> > >
> > > The wedding presents included a phaeton and four Lipizzaner
> > > horses from Admiral Horthy, the Regent of Hungary, and a scarlet
> > > supercharged Mercedes from Adolf Hitler. King Victor Emmanuel of
> > > Italy sent a bronze equestrian statue of a dragoon; Mussolini
> > > sent some copper vases.
> > >
> > > When the Italians invaded Albania in April 1939, the king and
> > > queen fled with the infant Prince Leka - who spent only three
> > > days after his birth in Albania - via Greece to England. The
> > > puppet government announced that the crown of Albania had passed
> > > to King Victor Emmanuel of Italy.
> > >
> > > After a prolonged odyssey through Europe - Greece, Turkey,
> > > Romania, Poland, the Baltic states, Sweden, Belgium and France -
> > > the king, queen and prince arrived at the Ritz Hotel in London
> > > in 1940 with an entourage of 30, including the King's six
> > > sisters. They would remain in England for the duration of the
> > > war, moving from the Ritz to Parmoor House, a country house they
> > > rented in the Chilterns.
> > >
> > > When Auberon Herbert (son of that enthusiast for Albania,
> > > diplomat and MP Aubrey Herbert) paid them a visit in
> > > Buckinghamshire, it seemed to him that King Zog - once described
> > > by Aubrey Herbert as "a reader of Shakespeare and a fine
> > > fighting man" - did "nothing but nurse his majesty and take tiny
> > > Parisian walks".
> > >
> > > After the war, once it was clear that they would be unable to
> > > return to Albania, they moved to Egypt, at the invitation of
> > > King Farouk, where they were joined by other exiled European
> > > royalty to whom Farouk was ready to grant refuge.
> > >
> > > After Nasser toppled Farouk and the latter departed from Egypt
> > > in 1952 - Queen Geraldine watched Farouk board his yacht at
> > > Alexandria through binoculars - King Zog, whose health was
> > > failing, moved his family and entourage to France.
> > >
> > > After nearly a decade of declining health, King Zog died in
> > > hospital in Paris in April 1961; by the time of his death he had
> > > survived 55 assassination attempts.
> > >
> > > Queen Geraldine subsequently lived in Spain and South Africa,
> > > before returning to Albania at the invitation of 40 members of
> > > parliament this year. She is survived by her son Leka, who in
> > > exile was proclaimed king of the Albanians by the Albanian
> > > National Assembly, in Paris, after his father's death.
> > >
> > > --Telegraph, London
> > >
> > >
> > > ===========================
> > >
> > > ZOG comes after ZEMBLA in index-order...
> > > a last ghost-entry?
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > ~ Tom
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > PS
> > > If there are any Albanians on the
> > > List, I would love to hear more.
> > >
prototype for King Charles of ZEMBLA has opened the floodgates to whole new
dimensions of Kinbotean lunacy. Pale fire indeed.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jennifer Parsons" <jdparsons@shaw.ca>
> Mr. Bolt,
>
> This Zog discovery is a stunner!
>
> After reading this revelation returned to "History of Iraq" site I'd
> been reading only to come upon more shades of PF (though admittedly
> Ghazi doesn't have much more in common with gentle Alfin the Vague than
> fondness for sports and consequential sudden, swift manner of death):
>
>
> "In 1938 King Ghazi decided to attempt to realize his ambition of
> annexing Kuwait, part of his dream to lead the Fertile Crescent
> movement [King Ghazi announced from Qasr al-Zohour radio station
> that he was looking forward to the day when Syria,
> Palestine, and Kuwait were united to Iraq]. With a combination of
> propaganda (Qasr al-Zohour radio station), and military
> intimidation, he began to foment dissent in Kuwait, exploiting the
> aspirations of sections of the Kuwaiti middle class, which sought
> greater participation in government. But, at a critical moment, when
> Iraqi troops had massed near Kuwait's northern border,
> Ghazi's obsession with fast motor cars proved his undoing. The king
> drove his car into a lamppost and died instantly on the 3rd of
> April 1939."
> .
>
> "Inspired by the example of Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt, the Hashimite
> monarchy was overthrown on July 14, 1958, in a swift,
> predawn coup executed by officers of the Nineteenth Brigade known as
> "Free Officers", under the leadership of Brigadier
> Abdul-Karim Qassem (known as "il-Za`im") and Colonel Abdul Salam
> Arif. King Faisal II and Abd al Ilah were executed in
> al-Rihab Palace, and displaying the bodies in public, hanging them
> by their feet outside the palace; as were many others in the
> royal family. Nuri as-Said escaped capture for one day after
> attempting to escape disguised as a veiled woman, but was then
> caught and put to death, ..."
> http://home.achilles.net/~sal/iraq_history.html
>
>
> "D. Barton Johnson" wrote:
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Thomas Bolt -- b0sh0tmalt" <bolt@tbolt.com>
> > To: "Vladimir Nabokov Forum" <NABOKV-L@LISTSERV.UCSB.EDU>
> > Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2002 11:18 AM
> > Subject: =- Pale Fire -=- All Hail King Zog! -=
> > > ===============================
> > > PALE FIRE:
> > > All hail King Zog !
> > > ===============================
> > >
> > >
> > > A Source for Charles Kinbote
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Palace intrigues.
> > > A "reader of Shakespeare."
> > > Assassination attempts.
> > > A bearded Royal Guard.
> > > Crown jewels.
> > > A middle-aged "bachelor king"--a manly dandy.
> > > A powerful red car (wedding gift from Hitler).
> > > A country bent sinister by both Fascists and Communists.
> > > A series of fantastic escapes.
> > > An exiled king, making the best of life in America.
> > > A queen's villa on the French Riviera....
> > >
> > >
> > > I learned about this real-life
> > > Kinbote recently when less-than-ideal
> > > insomnia found me reading THE LIFE
> > > OF IAN FLEMING. Fleming, then a Naval
> > > Reserve officer, is overseeing the
> > > last-minute escape from France of
> > > various VIPs as German tanks roll in:
> > >
> > > "From time to time German bombers came, but nothing stopped the
> > > evacuation, and by dusk nearly all the refugees were away. Then
> > > came a coup de théâtre. The last boat was nearly filled when
> > > motor-horns were heard in the distance; and over the
> > > cobblestones rolled a cavalcade of enormous motor cars carrying
> > > King Zog of Albania, his family, and mountains of luggage,
> > > including the crown jewels of Albania. Somehow Fleming managed
> > > to get the royal party safely off...."
> > >
> > > --John Pearson, 1966, Jonathan Cape, London, page 105
> > >
> > >
> > > Which led me to this riot of parallels
> > > in the very first place I looked:
> > >
> > >
> > > King Zog in America (1951)
> > >
> > > Ahmed Bey Zogu, born in 1895, battled innumerable Balkan
> > > adversaries to consolidate control of his country after the
> > > First World War, became President in 1925, and declared himself
> > > King Zog I in 1928. For his coronation, he ordered an outfit
> > > that included rose-colored breeches, gold spurs, and a gold
> > > crown weighing seven and five-eighths pounds.
> > >
> > > Zog's preoccupation once he was on the throne was how to stay
> > > alive. In 1931, he barely escaped assassination at the hands of
> > > two gunmen as he was leaving a performance of "Pagliacci" at the
> > > Vienna Opera House. His mother kept watch over the royal kitchen
> > > to make sure his food was not being poisoned. A virtual recluse
> > > in his capital city, Tirana, which in any case had neither night
> > > clubs nor theatres, Zog did little except play poker and smoke
> > > as many as a hundred and fifty perfumed cigarettes a day.
> > > Understandably, perhaps, shaking Europe's royal family trees for
> > > a queen yielded Zog no fruit. But his four sisters, each of them
> > > a division commander in the Albanian army and none of them
> > > married themselves, helped in the search, and he eventually
> > > found a penniless half-American, half-Hungarian countess,
> > > Geraldine Apponyi, who had been selling postcards in the
> > > Budapest National Museum for forty-five dollars a month. Her
> > > photograph captured Zog's heart, and they were married in 1938.
> > >
> > > A year later, Italy invaded Albania, routing its thirteen
> > > thousand troops and two airplanes within forty-eight hours.
> > > Having fled to England with his family and a hefty portion of
> > > his country's gold, Zog watched from afar as Mussolini's
> > > Fascists and then Enver Hoxha's Communists took over his
> > > kingdom. Zog was formally deposed in absentia in 1946. Having
> > > temporarily moved to Egypt, he became friends with King Farouk
> > > while he pondered the serious question of where an ex-monarch
> > > could live.
> > >
> > > He found the answer, he thought, during a 1951 tour of the
> > > United States: Knollwood, a sixty-room granite mansion that had
> > > been built on Long Island's North Shore in 1907. Zog bought it
> > > for $102,800 (not for "a bucket of diamonds and rubies," as some
> > > stories claimed at the time). Italian Renaissance in style,
> > > Knollwood boasted tall Ionic columns and a winding main stairway
> > > of Caen marble. Massive stone steps led down to vast reaches of
> > > landscaping, with gardens and reflecting pools. English ivy
> > > covered parts of wide terraces and also hung from marble
> > > fountains and urns. "A man must have a place to lay his head,"
> > > the Times commented, "and if Zog feels he must have sixty rooms
> > > to do it in, that is his business."
> > >
> > > Zog, it was announced, intended to turn Knollwood into his
> > > kingdom in exile. In its grounds would live Albanian subjects,
> > > working the land as his tenants. North Shore society, delighted
> > > at the prospect of royalty in its back yard, was soon flocking
> > > to Knollwood. At its gates, visitors were greeted by a bearded
> > > member of the Royal Guard: he would kiss their hands and turn
> > > them away.
> > >
> > > Alas, Zog wanted to settle into the mansion with his entire
> > > court, of a hundred and fifteen, but the immigration authorities
> > > would allow him to bring only twenty into the country. Attempts
> > > to bribe the State Department failed, and in 1952 he was forced
> > > to pay $2,914 in taxes to save his property, having been unable
> > > to convince Nassau County that as a monarch he had sovereign
> > > immunity from such trifles. In 1955, he sold Knollwood, which
> > > had meanwhile suffered eight thousand dollars' worth of damage
> > > from vandals. The vandals thereupon converged on the estate in
> > > earnest, ripping it apart in search of treasure that was rumored
> > > to be buried in its grounds. The mansion was later demolished,
> > > and Zog spent his last days in a nearly empty villa on the
> > > French Riviera, with Queen Geraldine doing the housework. He
> > > died in 1961.
> > >
> > > Excerpted from Muttontown's King, The New Yorker, pp. 33 & 34,
> > > September 11, 1989
> > >
> > > http://www.frosina.org/infobits/kingzog.shtml
> > >
> > >
> > > =-=-=-=-=
> > >
> > > His queen died only last month:
> > >
> > >
> > > 'White rose' blossomed in exile
> > > November 14 2002
> > >
> > > Queen Geraldine of Albania King's consort 1915-2002
> > >
> > > Her Majesty Queen Geraldine of the Albanians, who has died aged
> > > 87, was the wife of King Zog, the ruler of Albania for the two
> > > decades before World War II.
> > >
> > > As Countess Geraldine Apponyi, before her marriage to the
> > > 42-year-old bachelor king in 1938, she was one of Europe's great
> > > aristocratic beauties, sometimes referred to as "the white rose
> > > of Hungary".
> > >
> > > At 22, she became the second-youngest queen in the world; only
> > > King Farouk of Egypt's consort, Queen Farida, was younger.
> > >
> > > But in 1939, after only 388 days as Queen on Albanian soil, she
> > > and King Zog were forced to flee the country as Mussolini's
> > > forces overran it. They lived the rest of their lives in exile.
> > >
> > > Geraldine Apponyi was born in Budapest, a daughter of the
> > > Hungarian nobleman Count Gyula Apponyi de Nagy-Appony and his
> > > wife Gladys, daughter of John H. Stewart, the American consul at
> > > Antwerp.
> > >
> > > Geraldine's parents had met in Paris in 1912, at a dinner party
> > > at the Austro-Hungarian embassy, and were married in 1914. Her
> > > paternal grandfather, Count Ludwig Apponyi, was grand marshal of
> > > the Hapsburg court in Budapest.
> > >
> > > After the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian empire at the end of
> > > World War I, the Apponyis left Hungary and went to Switzerland.
> > > They returned to Hungary in 1921 but, after Count Gyula's death
> > > in 1924, Gladys Apponyi decided to take her three children -
> > > Geraldine, Virginia and Gyula - to live near her widowed mother
> > > at Menton, in the south of France.
> > >
> > > But when Gladys then remarried - to a French army officer - the
> > > Apponyi family insisted that the girls be returned to Hungary.
> > > She agreed, and they were sent to board at the Sacred Heart
> > > school at Pressbaum, near Vienna, spending the holidays with
> > > their grandmother and aunts and uncles at the family's country
> > > estate.
> > > When Geraldine was 16 her grandmother died, and thereafter she
> > > and Virginia spent most of their holidays at Zebegny with their
> > > go-ahead aunt Countess Fanny Karolyi. In the mornings at
> > > Zebegny, the girls learnt shorthand and typing.
> > >
> > > At 17, staying at the Karolyi Palace in Budapest, Geraldine came
> > > out at a ball given by the Hungarian monarchists; one of several
> > > photographs taken of Geraldine at that ball would fix the
> > > direction of her life.
> > >
> > > Some years later she received, out of the blue, a letter from
> > > one of King Zog's six sisters inviting her to stay in Albania.
> > > Anxious to find a European bride (and one without a past), King
> > > Zog had sent his sisters to Vienna and Budapest to search for a
> > > suitable candidate. They had sent back to Tirana copies of the
> > > photographs taken of Geraldine at the ball.
> > >
> > > King Zog's trusty General Cyczy visited Geraldine and the
> > > Apponyis in Budapest to confirm the invitation, and Geraldine's
> > > friend, Countess Katherine Teleki, was sent to Tirana to thank
> > > the king and to "have a good look around".
> > >
> > > Subsequently, Geraldine wrote to accept the invitation and, just
> > > after Christmas 1937, she set off. The visit was a success; King
> > > Zog proposed marriage on New Year's Day and, after a decent
> > > interval, on January 10 Geraldine accepted. Her guardian, Count
> > > Charles Apponyi, gave his consent and Geraldine was given the
> > > rank of Princess of Albania.
> > >
> > > The marriage - a civil ceremony (King Zog was a Muslim, his
> > > bride a Roman Catholic) - took place in the spring of 1938.
> > > Geraldine wore a pearl and diamante wedding dress - which the
> > > king had ordered from Worth, in Paris - and orange blossom in
> > > her hair. She had six bridesmaids, and the wedding cake, which
> > > she cut with her husband's sabre, was three metres wide.
> > >
> > > The wedding presents included a phaeton and four Lipizzaner
> > > horses from Admiral Horthy, the Regent of Hungary, and a scarlet
> > > supercharged Mercedes from Adolf Hitler. King Victor Emmanuel of
> > > Italy sent a bronze equestrian statue of a dragoon; Mussolini
> > > sent some copper vases.
> > >
> > > When the Italians invaded Albania in April 1939, the king and
> > > queen fled with the infant Prince Leka - who spent only three
> > > days after his birth in Albania - via Greece to England. The
> > > puppet government announced that the crown of Albania had passed
> > > to King Victor Emmanuel of Italy.
> > >
> > > After a prolonged odyssey through Europe - Greece, Turkey,
> > > Romania, Poland, the Baltic states, Sweden, Belgium and France -
> > > the king, queen and prince arrived at the Ritz Hotel in London
> > > in 1940 with an entourage of 30, including the King's six
> > > sisters. They would remain in England for the duration of the
> > > war, moving from the Ritz to Parmoor House, a country house they
> > > rented in the Chilterns.
> > >
> > > When Auberon Herbert (son of that enthusiast for Albania,
> > > diplomat and MP Aubrey Herbert) paid them a visit in
> > > Buckinghamshire, it seemed to him that King Zog - once described
> > > by Aubrey Herbert as "a reader of Shakespeare and a fine
> > > fighting man" - did "nothing but nurse his majesty and take tiny
> > > Parisian walks".
> > >
> > > After the war, once it was clear that they would be unable to
> > > return to Albania, they moved to Egypt, at the invitation of
> > > King Farouk, where they were joined by other exiled European
> > > royalty to whom Farouk was ready to grant refuge.
> > >
> > > After Nasser toppled Farouk and the latter departed from Egypt
> > > in 1952 - Queen Geraldine watched Farouk board his yacht at
> > > Alexandria through binoculars - King Zog, whose health was
> > > failing, moved his family and entourage to France.
> > >
> > > After nearly a decade of declining health, King Zog died in
> > > hospital in Paris in April 1961; by the time of his death he had
> > > survived 55 assassination attempts.
> > >
> > > Queen Geraldine subsequently lived in Spain and South Africa,
> > > before returning to Albania at the invitation of 40 members of
> > > parliament this year. She is survived by her son Leka, who in
> > > exile was proclaimed king of the Albanians by the Albanian
> > > National Assembly, in Paris, after his father's death.
> > >
> > > --Telegraph, London
> > >
> > >
> > > ===========================
> > >
> > > ZOG comes after ZEMBLA in index-order...
> > > a last ghost-entry?
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > ~ Tom
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > PS
> > > If there are any Albanians on the
> > > List, I would love to hear more.
> > >