Royal Family Of Albania 1: Ending Aug 2023


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suturegeisha

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Does anyone know where the royal family of Albania is living at the present time? I thought that I had read somewhere that they were allowed to return to their homeland after living in exile in South Africa.
-Kara-
 
leka of albania is studing in germany or britain.... maybe sandhurst
 
Originally posted by suturegeisha@May 30th, 2004 - 3:18 am
Does anyone know where the royal family of Albania is living at the present time? I thought that I had read somewhere that they were allowed to return to their homeland after living in exile in South Africa.
-Kara-
Try this site: Maîson Royale d'Albanie.
 
King Leka and Queen Susan have lived in many places due to Leka being kicked out for suspected gun running and being a covert agent. Last I knew, he was in South Africa.

King Leka has an extensive collection of firearms and has photographed his son, Prince Leka Anwar Badouin, with some of these when he was a child. Putting a gun in a child's hand is not smart.

King Leka's parents were King Zog and Queen Geraldine. Geraldine was a Hungarian Countess through her father and had American blue blood from her mother.

For more information on the Albanian royal family, Please read Geoffrey Hindley's The Royal Families of Europe.
 
The Royal Family of Albania went into exile 2 days after the birth of present King of Albania on April 5, 1939. They escaped Mussolini by taking a red Mercedes Benz out of the country before Mussolini could capture them. When Mussolini had totally conquered Albania, he proclaimed the Italian King, Vittorio Emmanuele III, King of Albania also.

King Leka is also known as "the Rambo of the Balkans"
 
Originally posted by tiaraprin@Jun 13th, 2004 - 1:26 am
Please read Geoffrey Hindley's The Royal Families of Europe.
Just as a cautionary word of advise. Geoffrey Hindley's book "The Royal Families of Europe" is loaded with mistakes. Unfortunatley it is one of the only 'upto date' books on Europe in general that is available at the moment. I have to say I was very dissapointed with the book, as most appears to be re-writtings of other peoples work which has not been fully understood by the author. Before taking any fact from Hindley's book as 'truth' I would strongley recomened cross referencing it with other material first.
 
What is the religion of the Royal Family of Albania? I believe that King Zog was Muslim, but his wife Geraldine was a Catholic. Are they Muslim, Catholic, or another religion?
 
Originally posted by bct88@Jun 21st, 2004 - 6:08 pm
What is the religion of the Royal Family of Albania? I believe that King Zog was Muslim, but his wife Geraldine was a Catholic. Are they Muslim, Catholic, or another religion?
They are Muslim.
 
Originally posted by Splodger+Jun 20th, 2004 - 4:27 am--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Splodger @ Jun 20th, 2004 - 4:27 am)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-tiaraprin@Jun 13th, 2004 - 1:26 am
Please read Geoffrey Hindley's The Royal Families of Europe.
Just as a cautionary word of advise. Geoffrey Hindley's book "The Royal Families of Europe" is loaded with mistakes. Unfortunatley it is one of the only 'upto date' books on Europe in general that is available at the moment. I have to say I was very dissapointed with the book, as most appears to be re-writtings of other peoples work which has not been fully understood by the author. Before taking any fact from Hindley's book as 'truth' I would strongley recomened cross referencing it with other material first. [/b][/quote]
Thank you Splodger, I was not aware of that.
 
I am just going to check on my previous statement - I think Hindley has written more than one book with similar title... i will confirm when i get home to ensure we are all talking about the same book and either way give the details of the one that is incorrect.
 
Book Reference Confirmation

Please find below the details of Geoffrey Hindley’s book (UK edition) that I referred to earlier and have found to have questionable references. Please Note however that I am not suggesting that the whole book is inaccurate! I am by no means an expert in all areas covered in the book (for example I can not comment on the accuracy on Albanian references) however on the topics I am more familiar with, I found Hindley to have confused events and names and been inconsistent in his presentation of material. This view has also been supported by reviews I have read (sadly after I purchased the book). My personal recommendation is by all means borrow it from your library but I would not bother purchasing the book, and to cross reference using other sources any facts. I was sadly very disappointed by the book.

Title The Royal Families of Europe
Author: Geoffrey Hindley
Publisher: Constable & Robinson, London
Date: 2000
 
Originally posted by Splodger+Jun 20th, 2004 - 4:27 am--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Splodger @ Jun 20th, 2004 - 4:27 am)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin-tiaraprin@Jun 13th, 2004 - 1:26 am
Please read Geoffrey Hindley's The Royal Families of Europe.
Just as a cautionary word of advise. Geoffrey Hindley's book "The Royal Families of Europe" is loaded with mistakes. Unfortunatley it is one of the only 'upto date' books on Europe in general that is available at the moment. I have to say I was very dissapointed with the book, as most appears to be re-writtings of other peoples work which has not been fully understood by the author. Before taking any fact from Hindley's book as 'truth' I would strongley recomened cross referencing it with other material first. [/b][/quote]
I gave Hindley's book a terrible review in Royal Book News. There is nothing to recommend about this book.

Slipshod to say the least.
 
Although I found some inaccuracies in the book, I did not realize it was that bad--I find mistakes in most books, so I shrugged it off. I am curious to know a better a source for information?
 
Thanks, you guys, for all of the info. I appreciate it. ;)
-Kara-
 
Originally posted by tiaraprin@Jun 26th, 2004 - 6:47 pm
I am curious to know a better a source for information?
I am afraid that to my knowledge I do not know of any other books that cover Europe as a whole that are upto date. I have a copy of a 1980 eddition of:

"Country Life's Book of Europian Royal Families"
Maria Kroll & Jason Lindsey
with photographs by Lord Litchfield (Queen Liz II Cousin)
and complied & edited by Burke's Peerage

I have found this to be a good book & it was reading this many years ago that sparked off the interest in monarchy, although naturaly it is 24years old, whether there has been an upto date edition printed recently I do not know.

One good place for 2nd Hand books you could try for either General or Specific books is www.abebooks.co.uk who have book shops listed from around the world and I have found a very good service.

Hope this at least helps suggest a few places to look if nothing else... happy book hunting.
 
Does anyone have any images of the funeral?
 
I have a picture of Queen Susan of Albania, but I am not sure in what event she was.
 

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Australian Queen of Albania

Looks like CP Mary of Denmark wasnt the firs Aussie to marry into royalty. The pretender to the throne of Albania married Susan Ward of Australia. She recently died. Australian authorities refused to recognize her as Queen Susan but then they agreed and her passport was changed to Queen Susan of Albania.

Apparently she was a very elegant and dignified woman. At their wedding, there were cries of "Long live the King"
 
Queen Susan of the Albanians
(Filed: 22/07/2004)

Queen Susan of the Albanians, who has died in Tirana aged 63, was the level-headed Australian wife of King Leka I, claimant to the Albanian throne.

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It is unusual, though not unknown, for middle-class girls to marry into the fading respectability of dispossessed monarchs. But when in 1975 the petite Susan Cullen-Ward married Leka, son of King Zog I, she became consort to a 6ft 9in tall, six-gun-toting giant who has never shaken off the aura of his country's bandit culture.

Leka was born at Tirana just before the Second World War and left with his family two days later when Mussolini invaded Albania. After his father's death in 1961, he was crowned in Paris, from which he was expelled because of the ill-effects he was having on French relations with Albania's Communist regime; he was once arrested on suspicion of arms smuggling in Thailand. In the course of his restless travels, he met Susan Cullen-Ward at a dinner party in Sydney.

They discovered that they both had claims of royal lineage; she was descended from King Edward I and he was a ninth cousin once removed of Queen Elizabeth II. When later she was on holiday in London, a courtier suggested that she visit the King in Madrid.

Leka's mother, Queen Geraldine, realised that the couple's friendship was turning into love, and proceeded to groom the Australian girl as her royal successor. This involved teaching her to speak Albanian and steeping her in the history and customs of the country.

Leka and Susan were married in a civil ceremony at Biarritz, then held a reception at a five-star Toledo roadhouse, which was attended by members of other exiled royal families, loyal Albanians and Spanish friends. An Anglican clergyman flew from Australia to give the couple a blessing. Queen Elizabeth II sent a telegram of congratulations. Queen Susan looked suitably regal in a 200-year-old gold embroidered Royal Albanian shawl and the guests cried "Long live the King".

A grazier's daughter, Susan Cullen-Ward was born at Waverly, a suburb of Sydney, on January 28 1941 (Australia Day). She was brought up on a New South Wales sheep station, where she remembered practising to curtsey to Her Majesty The Queen before a royal visit, but also being taken with the achievements of Colonel Harry Llewellyn and his showjumper Foxhunter, which won a gold medal at the 1952 Olympics.

Young Sue went to the Presbyterian Ladies' College at Orange, then Sydney Technical College, before teaching art at a private studio and contracting a brief marriage.

After returning with her husband to Spain, she told the press at the reception, "I don't feel like a queen. I feel a happy bride. Nothing has changed except I have the responsibility of helping His Majesty back on to the throne of his country."

The couple returned to Madrid, where they were befriended by King Juan Carlos and continued to enjoy the attentions of Albanians while awaiting what they knew must be the fall of Communism. But when it was discovered that Leka not only retained some Thai bodyguards but had what was described as an arms cache in their home, the Spanish government asked him to leave.

That Leka had some reason for his fears was proved when he arrived at Gabon to find his plane surrounded by local troops, who were said to have been hired to capture him by the Albanian government; he saw them off by appearing at the plane's door with a bazooka in his hand. The couple went on to Rhodesia. But after Mugabe took power they settled in a large compound at Johannesburg, where they were given diplomatic status by the apartheid regime.

There were always questions about how Leka lived. Such good friends as the Shah of Persia, President Richard Nixon (a distant cousin) and the CIA are thought to have helped.

The royal couple enjoyed a close personal relationship. They both had a keen liking for smoking. He affectionately called her "Roo", and showed some signs of allowing her to check some of his more outlandish instincts. For more than a decade she tried to lead as ordinary a life as her roles of housewife, mother and queen permitted.

Out shopping, she often called herself Mrs Smith or Mrs Jones because shop assistants were so bamboozled by her title that they would ask "Queen? That's a funny name, Mrs Susan." When her son, also called Leka, was born, her hospital room was declared part of Albania for an hour. The boy used another name at school, though she once heard him tell a friend: "You can't say that to me, because I'm a prince." Entering the room, she said: "Well, I am queen, so I outrank you. Bend over."

But as Communism looked increasingly shaky in Eastern Europe, she felt lonely with Leka so frequently away; and she was always delighted to receive visits from old Australian friends, replete with gossip. Her relationship with the dominion's government proved a problem when she wanted a passport.

The Australian authorities declined to recognise her as a queen, and eventually, after a friend had a word with the Foreign Minister Andrew Peacock, the document described her as "Susan Cullen-Ward, known as Queen Susan". There was also trouble when her son, aged four, had wanted to visit a dying grandfather whom he had never met. He was asked to sign an undertaking not to address any dissident groups.

By the time it was clear that Leka's dream of returning to his country was to be fulfilled, she showed signs of preferring the simple life, saying she had no desire to live in a castle and was sometimes tempted to laugh when grown men, in their confusion, had curtseyed to her.

But she duly went to Albania where a referendum was held on his offer to become king in 1997; it was lost. But he was invited to return by 74 members of parliament in 2002; and it is thought that the royalist party could join a government after next year's general election, thanks to proportional representation.

After her death on Saturday, Queen Sue lay in state at the royal palace outside Tirana. Hundreds paid their last respects before she was buried yesterday in a grave next to her mother-in-law and bridge
 
Would-be Queen Susan dies uncrowned

By Tony Stephens
July 19, 2004





susanandkind_wideweb__430x320.jpg
Royal dream ... Susan Cullen Ward with her husband King Leka. She was regarded by Albanian monarchists as Queen Susan.




Susan, the woman raised in the central western town of Cumnock who became the wife of Leka, the pretender to the Albanian throne, died on Saturday in Albania.

"Her Majesty Susan I Zog is no longer with us," spokesman Fluturak Germenji announced in Tirana, the capital.

He said she had died from a heart condition although a brother, John Cullen Ward, said in Forster that his sister was being treated for cancer. She was 63.

Born Susan Barbara Cullen Ward, she married King Leka in Biarritz in 1975 after meeting him at a Sydney dinner party.

Barry Everingham, a commentator on royal families who has represented Leka and Susan in Australia, said the marriage was a "love match" and King Leka would be devastated. However, in many ways, she had led a sad life, moving from one country to another while her husband tried in vain to capture the crown once worn by his father, King Zog.

Susan, one of five children, attended the Presbyterian Ladies College in Orange, where she later taught art.

Her marriage at 34 to Leka followed a failed first union. Guests at the wedding shouted "Long live the king!", then acknowledged the Spanish dictator, "Long Live Franco!"


King Zog fled with his wife, Geraldine, two-day-old son Leka, and some of the Albanian treasury when Benito Mussolini, the Italian fascist dictator, occupied Albania in World War II.

After Zog died in 1961, monarchist emigres declared Leka their king at the Bristol Hotel in Paris.

Leka denied being on the CIA payroll in the late 1960s and early 1970s and Susan later denied another common allegation, that her husband was an arms dealer.

The couple lived in Madrid until Spain expelled them when an arms cache was found at their home. He had been arrested earlier in Thailand on charges of arms smuggling.

Leka and Susan went to Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, until the whites lost power, and then to South Africa, where they lost diplomatic favours after Nelson Mandela won office.

Australian authorities refused to recognise Susan as a queen but, in a compromise when Andrew Peacock was foreign minister, issued a passport in the name of "Susan Cullen Ward, known as Queen Susan".

Leka and Susan returned to Albania a few years after communism crumbled in 1990. They were ordered out by the first democratically-elected president, Sali Berisha.

They went back in 1997, when Leka lost a referendum on the monarchy that he claimed was manipulated.

Maureen Cullen Ward, a cousin, said yesterday: "Susan was very nice, very clever, cool and with a great sense of humour."

Mr Everingham said: "She was a woman of great dignity who became enamoured by her husband's dream to return to the monarchy."
 
Thanks for the article Australian, its very interesting. Queen Susan was a beautiful woman indeed. I guessed her life was not very easy by Leka's situation.
 
King Zogu (zogolli), Queen Geraldine, And Entourage

After reading the posted messages regarding the above, I am quite surprised to find a number of discrepancies (apart from the cut/pasted articles - which are correct). My husband's grandfather was King Zog's personnal bodyguard and fled Albania the same night as the Royal group.
It is wonderful to see so many people interested in this line, but a shame that so much information is incorrect. We have researched the story of King Zog, including his time in exile, and it is a very traumatic, yet amazing story.
If there is anything anyone would like to know, please ask and I will try to answer.
A book on King Zog and his family is being written by a friend of mine and will be available in 2008. I am currently working on an informative website on them, which will include unseen photographs and documents; this will be available shortly. In 2008, there will be an exhibition at Parmoor House, Bucks, which is where King Zog and his family and entourage stayed for a number of years, which I am currently working on for 2008.
With reference to the inaccuracies already posted I would like to amend them:
King Zog was not a pretender - his uncle was a long reigning chieftan of the region of Mati - (chieftan meaning ruler, to us in Western Europe, king-like ruler) and his line refers back many hundreds of years as ruling areas in the north of Albania. He was officially 'crowned' (which the Western europe 'recognise as ruling as a king) by the people of Albania, because they wanted it that way, not because he wanted to crown himself.
Also, King Zog remained Muslim, and Queen Geraldine remained Catholic throughout their marriage. Their religions ran alongside each other in harmony.
King Leka was educated all over the world including Paris and Switzerland. He lived in Rhodesia and has now returned to Tirana in Albania. His mother is buried in Albania.
King Leka's aim is to exhume the bodies of his father and the entourage (including my husbands grandfather) who are all buried in the royal plot at Suresnes, Paris. He believes that they should be returned to their homeland.

I do hope that this helps a little. I will be happy to answer any questions you may have. I will post news of the website path when it is ready.

JB
 
Thanks for all the information daydream.

Do you know if King Leka still has a house in South Africa?

Also, does the king have any ties with the Albanian Legality Party?
 
King Zog info

Not sure if there is still a house in SA, but I would presume so, as its still rather dicey for them in Albania, so its probably their Plan B!!
King Leka is still involved in the Legality Party - details can be found if googled.

JB

xx
 
Thanks for your help daydream :). Are there any books that you would recommend about the Albanian Royals? I'm trying to get ahold of Geraldine's authorized biography but as of yet haven't gotten it.
 
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The Royal Family of Albania are Muslims like most people in Albania,Kosovo,& Bosnia-Hercegovina are.Although King Leka spent most of his life in South Africa,he did spend a short period in the rebel British colony of Rhodesia after it had unilaterally declared independence.

In addition to Albanian,King Leka speaks English,albeit,with a heavily-accented voice because of his upbringing in South Africa.

The Legality Movement Party is still a very active organisation in Albania.However,it is not the only Royalist organisation in the Balkans.
 
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