Reddit reviews King Zog: Self-Made Monarch of Albania

Here is the best that I'm aware of- King Zog and Crown Prince Leka of Albania. It's difficult for me to cite to sources beyond wikipedia and a couple History Today articles at the moment, as most of the knowledge I have of them comes from having been in Tirana at the absolutely excellent National Historical Museum of Albania, and from speaking to Albanians. There are also a couple of books on the subject: King Zog: Self-Made Monarch of Albania, and A Royal Exile: King Zog and Queen Geraldine, Including Their Wartime Exile in the Thames Valley and Chilterns.

Ahmet Muhtar Bej Zogolli, later Zogu, later King Zog was a politician of fairly extraordinary audacity. After being a local politician and national minister, he was elected President, and did quite a bit to shore up some real corruption and disorganization within Albania. Of course, he was doing so as a dictator, with the explicit help of the Italians. In 1928 he orchastrated what was essentially a government led coup, with Italian backing, and declared a constitutional monarchy.

Though he did marry a woman with royal lineage, the monarchy was always shaky, in part due to the fact that the Italians were pulling the strings for any meaningful exercise of external sovereignty. Italy invaded in 1939, days after the birth of Crown Prince Leka. The royal family went into exile, Albania went through nationalist convulsions, and was led by the fascist dictator Enver Hoxa, who is perhaps the most fascinatingly bizarre fascist dictator in the pantheon of fascinatingly bizarre fascist dictators.

In 1997, when things had reached a crisis, Crown Prince Leka returned and there was a referendum to restore the monarchy. The results were highly contested, but officially it failed by a 2-1 margin. Crown Prince Leka left in exile again. (And later returned and lived in Tirana until his death.)

It's not exactly a popular revolution as the referendum that created the monarchy was essentially orchestrated by Zog, and made Albania a client state of Italy. But it was a monarchy that was created completely from scratch, and was at least a marginally more effective government than what had existed before.

https://www.amazon.ca/King-Zog-Self-Made-Monarch-Albania/dp/0750944390