Leka, Crown Prince of Albania (born 1939)

Leka was born on April 5, 1939, in the Royal Palace of Tirana in the Kingdom of Albania. He was named Crown Prince Skander and his birth was celebrated with a 101-gun salute and a military parade.[2][3] Leka was the son of King Zog I of Albania and Queen Geraldine of Albania; and was also an eighth cousin of U.S. President Richard Nixon through his maternal grandmother, a New York socialite.[4]

Just two days after his birth, King Zog I was forced into exile after Benito Mussolini's army invaded the country during the Italian invasion of Albania. Shortly after, Zog was replaced on the throne of Albania by Victor Emmanuel III of Italy — an action the King of Italy would later plead personal forgiveness for. Victor Emmanuel III remained King until his abdication in 1943, following the Armistice of Cassibile.

Crown Prince Leka began life in exile in various countries. After traveling across Europe, the Albanian Royal Family settled in England, first at the Ritz Hotel in London, then moving for a very short period in 1941 to South Ascot, near Ascot in Berkshire, and then in 1941 to Parmoor House, Parmoor, near Frieth in Buckinghamshire.

After the war, Zog, Queen Geraldine and Leka moved temporarily to Egypt, where they lived at the invitation of King Farouk I.

Leka attended high school in Alexandria, Egypt and at Phillips Academy in Andover, Massachusetts. He studied economics at the University of Geneva and at the Sorbonne, and attended the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst in England.[5] Following this he was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the British Army. He had since made his money with successful business deals in commodities.

Leka became heir apparent of the abolished throne on the 5th of April, 1957. On the death of King Zog in 1961, Leka was proclaimed King of the Albanians by a convened Albanian National Assembly-in-Exile, in a function room at the Hotel Bristol, Paris.[6]

In 1975, Leka married Australian citizen and former teacher Susan Cullen-Ward.[7] They were married in a civil ceremony in the Hôtel de Ville, Biarritz. The wedding reception, at a five-star Toledo Roadhouse, was attended by members of other exiled royal families, loyal Albanians and friends, who toasted "Long live the King".[1] The couple returned to Madrid, where they were befriended by the Spanish King Juan Carlos I and continued to enjoy the attentions of Albanians. The couple married religiously in Madrid. Their wedding was officiated by a Muslim ulema, a Protestant pastor (due to the fact that Susan was Episcopalian), and a Roman Catholic priest (as Queen Geraldine was Catholic).[8]

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. When his plane arrived at Gabon for refueling, he found that it was being surrounded by local troops, who were said to have been hired to capture him by the Albanian government. The soldiers backed down when Leka appeared at the plane's door with a bazooka in his hand.[2] The couple went on to Rhodesia but, after Robert Mugabe took power, they settled in a large compound near Johannesburg where they were given diplomatic status by the South African Government.

Leka spent many years exiled in Bryanston, South Africa, where his son Prince Leka II Zogu was born, before eventually returning to Albania in 2002.

In 1993 Leka was permitted to enter Albania for the first time (since being exiled aged a few days old in 1939), doing so under a passport issued by his own Royal Court-inexile. In this royal passport, which the Albanian government had previously refused to recognise, Leka listed his profession as "King".[9]

During the 1997 rebellion in Albania, Leka returned again, this time being greeted by 2,000 supporters.[10] A referendum was held in Albania concerning a restoration of the monarchy. After a recount it was announced that the restoration was rejected by approximately two-thirds of those voting.[11] The King questioned the results of the election and claimed the vote had been manipulated. Leka led a crowd of armed protesters outside the main elections building, which caused police intervention. Gunfire then broke out, killing one protestor and injuring several others, causing Leka to flee.[2]

President Sali Berisha later commented on the failed referendum in 2011 and stated:

"By 2003, the Albanian Parliament passed the law that recognized the attributes of the Royal Family and it was a right decision. Also I remind you that even the referendum was held in the context of flames of the communist rebellion and therefore cannot be considered a closed matter. The Stalinist principle of: ‘you vote, but I count the votes’ was applied in that referendum. But, the fact of the matter is the Albanians voted massively for their King, but the referendum failed to meet quotas as it was manipulated."[12]

When Leka was asked if he intended to leave Albania, he replied: "Why? It is my country." After soon leaving Albania of his own accord, Leka was tried and sentenced to three years imprisonment for sedition, in absentia; this conviction was set aside in March 2002, when 72 members of Parliament asked the royal family to return.[1][13] In June 2002, Leka returned to Albania and brought with him 11 cases of automatic weapons, grenades, and hunting arms. The authorities quickly seized them, though the weapons were later returned to the royal family six years later, after being deemed items of cultural heritage. After his 2002 settlement in Albania, he lived out a quiet life with his wife and son.[2] His wife died two years later in July 2004.[14]

Leka was backed by the Party of Right and Legality (PLL), a right wing monarchist party and a marginal factor in Albanian politics.[15] It formed a coalition with other parties in Albania. Leka, however, did not vote, stating that

I am above all political parties, even my own.[16]

Leka was head of the Movement for National Development.[17] He argued that he was a fighter for a Greater Albania in terms of ethnicity and that his restoration as king would make possible this goal.[15] However, in February 2006, he announced he would be withdrawing from political and public life.[17]

Leka died on 30 November 2011 from a heart attack in Mother Teresa Hospital, Tirana.[7] Albanian authorities held official ceremonies for the Leka and declared December 3rd, the day of his funeral, a day of national mourning. Tirana's mayor Lulzim Basha stated at the funeral that “We have come here today ... to honor, with full historic gratitude and national pride, the work of Leka Zogu.” Muslim, Catholic and Orthodox prayers were all read by religious leaders at the funeral. Leka's son, Leka II Zogu stated “I, Prince Leka II, swear in front of the body of my father that I will follow the road of King Zogu, of King Leka I to be at the service of the nation, the homeland.”

Leka was buried next to his wife's and mother's grave at the public Sharra cemetery in a Tirana suburb.[18] Later he was buried in the royal mausoleum.

• Dedet, Joséphine "Géraldine, reine des Albanais". Paris: Belfond, 2016, published at the occasion of Prince Leka's wedding in Tirana, on October 8, 2016 (Leka being Geraldine's grandson) ; former editions: Criterion, 1997 ISBN 2-7413-0148-4 and Belfond, 2012, ISBN 978-2-7144-5090-6. Biography enriched by the Queen's testimony, by her personal archives and by a huge correspondence with the author, who has benefited of many unpublished sources.
• Dedet, Joséphine, Géraldine, Egy Magyar No Albania Tronjan, Budapest : Europa, 2015, ISBN 978-963-405-202-9, best-seller in Hungary, translation of Géraldine, reine des Albanais".
• Fenyvesi, Charles. "Splendor in Exile". Washington D.C.: New Republic Books, 1979. ISBN 978-0915220557
• Najbor, Patrice. "Histoire de l'Albanie et de sa Maison Royale" (5 volumes) - JePublie - Paris - 2008
• Rees, Neil. A Royal Exile – King Zog & Queen Geraldine of Albania including their wartime exile in the Thames Valley and Chilterns, 2010 (ISBN 978-0-9550883-1-5)