Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Zog joins Geraldine and infant son in Greece

 


April 8, 1939

King Zog of Albania is now in Florina, Greece, and has been united with his wife, Geraldine, and their infant son.

Albania's capital, Tirana, is now under the occupation of Italian soldiers.

The royal couple will stay in Greece until Queen Geraldine has regained her strength. It has been reported by the Chicago Daily Tribune and other newspapers that the Albanian couple plan to live abroad. It has also been reported that the king has a "nest egg" of about $160,000, which is said to be Albania's entire gold reserve. The Queen is said to be strong enough to travel, but will not be able to walk for several weeks, according to her doctor.

Zog urged his people to fight to "their last drop of blood" for Albania.

The Queen gave an interview to a London newspaper, where she said that she hoped the world would be "shocked" by Italy's aggression toward Albania. The story was dictated to her grandmother, "who repeated it by telephone to London." The queen said she left her husband "leading his troops into battle," but there was little he could do against "such armed might." She said she wanted to stay in Tirana and pleaded with Zog to allow her to stay. But he ordered her to leave, and a fleet of cars, including an ambulance, was in the palace courtyard. The queen and her two-day-old son rode in the ambulance.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It was interesting to read this. Zog & Geraldine's only child Prince Leka married an Australian, Susan Cullen-Ward in ceremonies in France & Spain in 1975. Susan died on July 17th 2004. They had a son Luka born in 1982.

From what I can gather Susan is buried alongside Queen Geraldine.

Marlene Eilers Koenig said...

Yes, we know this. Perhaps you should realize that his blog reports what was happening on a certain day.

Actually, Leka's son is also named Leka, not Luka.

Anonymous said...

My apologies. I am sorry that I was out of order. Also apologies for the typing error re Leka b.1982.

Marlene Eilers Koenig said...

Just enjoy Royal Musings ... You will find rather interesting news stories of events that never happened ...