Some monarchs are killed, some are pushed off the throne and others forced into exile. There are few who suffered the humiliation experienced by Prince William I of Albania, crowned the country’s first king in February 1914.
In early 1914 the clouds of war were gathering in Europe. The Great Powers – Austria-Hungary, Britain, France, Russia, Germany and Italy – sought to avert conflict spreading to the lower Balkans by creating, out of the collapsing Ottoman Empire, the newly independent state of Albania.
A new state could not possibly exist without a king. The powers, under the chairmanship of the British and with no Albanian representation, took various soundings for candidates among Europe’s royal households; adverts for a monarch were even placed in the British press.
Finally Prince William Frederick Henry of Wied, a minor German royal, was deemed satisfactory. After some bullying and bribery of the Albanians the tall, mustachioed, 37-year-old prince, along with wife and two young children, departed for Albania.
It is here that the swashbuckling figure of Duncan Heaton-Armstrong, describing himself as an Irishman and professional militiaman, enters the picture.
Though born in Austria, Heaton-Armstrong had strong Irish connections, descended on his father’s side from a long line of adventurers who, mostly based in Tipperary, had won and lost vast fortunes over the generations.
"I was shooting with a cousin in Prussia when the Albanian question became acute," writes Heaton-Armstrong in his book on Albania (The Six Month Kingdom, IB Tauris Books). He applied for the job of private secretary to the new Albanian king. Fluent in several European languages and, as an Irish Protestant, seen as a neutral in the Balkans, Heaton-Armstrong landed as part of the royal entourage in the Albanian port of Durazzo – now named Durres – in March 1914.
At first things went well for the royal party. The new king and his family, together with Heaton-Armstrong and an English butler, an Arab valet and German footmen, established themselves in a palace at Durazzo. The cellars had a supply of excellent Hock and the food was deemed more than adequate.
Prince William, dressed in immaculate military uniform complete with elaborate feathered hat, busied himself awarding medals to various local bigwigs. Heaton-Armstrong decided the local tribal leaders were gentlemen though many were bloodthirsty looking, with an allergy to soap and a fondness for chewing mouthfuls of garlic.
“Albanians are very chivalrous and would hesitate to murder a man in the presence of his wife,” he said.
It was not long before blood feuds and fighting between local factions disturbed royal life. The Muslim majority was resentful at having a foreigner – and a Christian – thrust upon them. The prince was indecisive and afraid to leave his palace. He also had no understanding of Albanian ways and customs. The language proved impossible, even for the multilingual Heaton-Armstrong; he says several Gaelic societies made enquiries of him, insisting that Albanian was of Celtic origin.
Heaton-Armstrong drafted in his brother Jack, a monocle-wearing former soldier, to help tackle the insurgents and brigands. A rag-tag army of Germans, Italians, Dutch, British and others was involved in some bloody fighting. The one boat that comprised the Albanian navy – a small steamer chartered from an Austrian shipping company – became stuck on a sandbank. Enthusiasm for Albania’s newly minted monarchy among Europe’s rulers was short lived; as the months of 1914 passed, diplomacy stopped and preparations for war gained pace.
The Albanian court was isolated, its funds fast running out, the forces of rebellion moving ever closer to the palace. The English butler complained that the sound of gunfire was interrupting the meals.
In August 1914 Heaton-Armstrong left Albania to accompany the two royal children back to Germany. Despite having papers of safe conduct, he was arrested in Munich, believed to be the first prisoner of the first World War. He was subsequently swapped in a prisoner exchange and then, during the second World War, ran a prisoner of war camp for Italians in Herefordshire. Heaton-Armstrong died, aged 82, in 1969.
And King William? He left his kingdom in early September 1914, his reign having lasted barely six months. Up until his death 30 years later, William insisted he would one day retake his Balkan throne. It was not to be; in 1928 a clan chief, Ahmed Bey Zogu, had himself proclaimed King Zog of the Albanians, adopting much of the paraphernalia of William’s reign. Then, after the second World War, the Stalinist regime of Enver Hoxha began.