King of Albania
The King of Albania was a title styled by the official ruler of Albania. While the medieval Angevin Kingdom of Albania was a monarchy, it did not encompass the entirety of modern Albania. Although discontent among Albanian nobles emerged by 1282 due to the Angevin king's unfulfilled promises, the kingdom did not end at that time. Instead, Albanian nobles sought the support of the Roman Emperor in Constantinople, but Angevin rule continued in the region for several more decades. During the Middle Ages there have been many different Albanian nobles who called themselves ruler of Albania, including Dhimitër Progoni, Andrea II Muzaka, Karl Thopia, and Skanderbeg.
The modern Albania has been a kingdom on two occasions.
The first occasion was after the Albanian Declaration of Independence in 1912, though a monarch was not chosen until 1914. Prince Wilhelm of Wied assumed the throne but was forced into exile later that year as World War I led to the occupation of Albania. The country remained politically unstable until the establishment of the Albanian Republic in 1924.
The second instance began in 1928, when President Ahmet Zogu declared himself King Zog I. However, the continuity of the monarchy was disrupted by World War II. Albania was occupied by Italy from 1939 to 1943 and later by Nazi Germany until 1944. Following a civil war, the monarchy was formally abolished in 1946 with the establishment of the People's Republic of Albania.
After the fall of communism in 1992, Albania became a unitary parliamentary constitutional republic. Although the monarchy was never restored, hereditary pretenders to the title "King of the Albanians" continue to exist.
History
The Albanian Congress of Trieste of 1913 discussed the question of the future prince and several candidates came through: Baron Franz Nopcsa von Felső-Szilvás, Marchese D'Auletta with the support of the Arbereshe delegates and Italy, Prince Albert Ghica from Romania supported by the Albanian colony there, and Aladro Kastriota.Under the independence settlement imposed by the Great Powers, the country was styled a principality, and its ruler, William of Wied, was titled prince. However, these styles were only used outside the country. In Albanian, William was referred to as mbret, meaning king. This was because many local nobles already had the title of prince, and because domestically the Albanian sovereign could not be seen as holding a title inferior to that of the king of Montenegro. Prince William's full style was: "By the grace of the powers and the will of the people the prince of Albania".
William was forced into exile by internal disorder just after the outbreak of World War I, and Albania was to be occupied by various foreign powers for most of the war. In the confusing aftermath of the war, some of the several regimes competing for power officially styled themselves as regencies for William. Albania's first monarchy ended definitively when the restored central government declared the country a republic in 1924.
Four years later, on September 1, 1928, President Ahmed Bey Zogu proclaimed himself "king of the Albanians". Zog sought to establish a constitutional monarchy. Under the royal constitution, the Albanian king, like the king of the Belgians, had to swear an oath before parliament before entering into his royal powers. The text of the oath was as follows:
Zog's kingdom was closely tied to Italy, then ruled by Victor Emmanuel III. On April 7, 1939, Italy occupied Albania, treating it as the Italian protectorate of Albania. Zog fled the country, though he never abdicated, and five days later the Albanian Parliament proclaimed Victor Emmanuel as the new King of the Albanians. When the Italian Armed Forces started being decimated in 1943, Victor Emmanuel signed the Armistice of Cassibile with the Allies on 3 September 1943, which included his abdication as the Albanian monarch and the end of the so-called protectorate. While Zog I was reinstated as king by pro-monarchy partisans, this action was opposed by pro-communist partisans, all made moot as Nazi Germany immediately commenced the German occupation of Albania. The Germans were pushed out by late 1944, by which point the partisan factions were basically fighting a civil war. This continued until the socialist People's Republic of Albania was established in 1946.
During and after World War II, some Albanians worked for the return of King Zog; however, they were not successful. Neither Zog nor Victor Emmanuel had the Albanian royal title widely acknowledged by the international community. Zog's son, Crown Prince Leka, was the main pretender to the Albanian Crown. As he himself stated, his title was not "king of Albania" but "king of the Albanians", which included a claim to Kosovo and part of today's North Macedonia. Since Crown Prince Leka's death in late November, 2011, the main pretender to the Albanian Throne is his son Leka II.