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The modern state of Albania came into being as a result of the Balkan Wars of 1912-13 after 500 years of Ottoman Turkish rule

A population of just under one million lived in a territory about half as big again as Wales

The Ottomans had never really mastered these people

Language did act as a unifying force

Nominally neutral during the First World War, and without a recognised government, the country was overrun by seven foreign armies

Like other Balkan states, it should repudiate the legacy of the Ottoman period and strive to catch up with the rest of Europe

He had first been fascinated by the story of Napoleon Bonaparte during his schooldays in Istanbul. King Ahmed sounded too exclusively Islamic, so the new monarch adopted his surname (which means ‘bird’)

According to Zogists, the Albanian throne had a 2,500-year history

In 1928, Zog purported to be filling Skanderbeg’s throne, left vacant for 450 years, and he claimed the medieval hero’s helmet and sword as regalia

Prince Xhelal, his half-brother, played no part in royal events, remaining largely forgotten in Mati

The day-to-day lifestyle of Zog did not seem so lavish to upper middle-class Western European diplomats

Albanians endured the poorest living conditions in Europe.

Zog did not dare to tax the rich and powerful for fear of provoking rebellion

Great Britain, France, and the US had greeted the kingdom with a modicum of politeness. They wanted to believe Zog when he assured them that monarchy would help promote peace and stability

Though Albania was legally a sovereign nation, it was wholly subordinate to Italy in all its foreign affairs

The Albanian monarchy reached the peak of its publicity in April 1938

Zog had always wanted a Christian queen, as a Westernising influence and a mark of approval for mixed marriages in general

Albanian resistance was minimal, King Zog fled abroad with a considerable fortune, and the monarchy stood revealed as a failure as great as most of his other modernising schemes

Had their King meant any more to them than the Ottoman Sultan before him

King Zog himself had sometimes observed that his homeland was ‘centuries behind the rest of Europe in civilisation’

The King, who died in France in 1961, never abandoned his claim to the throne