Short Reign

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30568, 10 October 1964, Page 21

Short Reign

(Specially written for "The

Press" by

KENNETH ANTHONY]

QEVERAL stories have been ° written about characters who became “king for a day”; but this stamp shows a man who in real life was king for no more than six months—long enough for handsome stamps showing his portrait to be prepared, but not long enough for any of them to be used for postage! The portrait is of Prince William of Wied, a German appointed hereditary prince of Albania after an international conference in London. Albania had been part of the Ottoman Empire for nearly 500 years when an uprising occurred in 1912. A provisional government led a stormy existence for a few months until the great European powers intervened. Against the Kaiser’s advice William agreed to accept the Albanian throne; he landed at Durazzo in March 1914 and was accepted by the Albanians as their king. But he faced a chaotic situation. Much of Southern Albania

was still in Greek occupation; to the north Serbia and Montenegro were hostile; and at one stage the unfortunate prince had to seek refuge on board an Italian warship to escape from Albanian rebels. Another international effort to guarantee Albanian independence was under consideration when the First World War broke out. The situation went from bad to worse. By September the easygoing prince had had enough of his troublesome throne, and went back home, never to return. Within a few months the Albanians had split up into several rival governments. Soon afterwards this luckless country, nominally neutral, became the battleground for all the contending armies of the Balkans.

The stamps with William’s portrait were never issued, but some of the stocks were looted in the upheavel and found their way on to the market After the war Prince William contemplated returning to his Albanian kingdom, but by that time Achmed Zogu Bey (afterwards King Zog) had appeared on the scene. And so Prince William withdrew from history. Then, in 1920, his stamps were taken out of store and issued at last—-but not before the Albanian double-eagle had been over-printed on them to obliterate his portrait

It was a sad contrast to the commemorative overprint applied to an earlier issue to welcome his arrival in Albania only six years previously.