Queen Geraldine of Albania, the White Rose of Hungary

Queen Geraldine of Albania and King Zog I in Sweden, c1939. Image from Wikimedia Commons

Born Countess Géraldine Margit Virginia Olga Mária Apponyi de Nagy-Appony on August 6, 1915 in Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary, Geraldine was the daughter of the impoverished Hungarian noble, Count Gyula Apponyi de Nagy-Appony, and his wife, American heiress Gladys Virginia Steuart.

Birth and Early Years

She spent an idyllic childhood between Hungary, in their family castle at Nagy Appony, and Vienna, where she and her sisters attended the Catholic Sacred Heart boarding school. Geraldine and her family also lived for a time at their chateau Oponice in Slovakia. Geraldine’s family fortune, however, was all spent by the time she was a teenager, which compelled her to take on numerous jobs. She became a shorthand typist and also worked in the gift shop of the Budapest National Museum, where her uncle was then the director. She grew up to be a bookish and intelligent lady who developed a profound interest in Egyptology after securing a stint as librarian at the National Museum.

Marriage 

Prior to meeting her future husband, King Zog I, for the first time in December of 1937, the latter already saw her in a photograph. Within just days of Geraldine being in Albania, the couple became engaged. Prior to the wedding, the Hungarian countess was elevated as Princess Geraldine of Albania.

The 22-year-old Geraldine married Zog, who was 20 years her senior and whom she admired for his “maturity and authority”, on April 27, 1938 in Tirana, Albania, with  Galeazzo Ciano, son-in-law of Il Duce and Prime Minister of Italy, Benito Mussolini, as witness. The couple drove to their honeymoon in an enormous open-top, supercharged scarlet Mercedez-Benz, which was a gift from Adolf Hitler. The union produced one son, H.R.H. The Crown Prince Leka Zogu.

Life in Exile

 Exactly a year after the wedding, Geraldine and her family were forced into exile following the Italian invasion of Alabania. They spent some time in France before settling in England, living in Ritz Hotel London and at Ascot prior to taking residence at the Parmoor House in Frieth, Buckinghamshire, where Geraldine was struck with unhappiness due to Zog’s closeness with his sisters, who competed with her as the chief woman of his family.

 After the war in Europe ended, Geraldine’s family went to Egypt upon the invitation of King Farouk and stayed there until the Egyptian monarch’s own deposition in 1952. It was where she spent the best years of her life, she would later confess. During this time, she also became friends with a fellow queen-in-exile, Giovanna of Italy.

Later Life and Death 

The Albanian royal family would then travel to Cannes before settling in France, where King Zog I would die of terminal illness, which led to proclamation of their son Leka as the new King of Albania in a Paris hotel room in 1961. After her husband’s death, Geraldine preferred to be called "Queen Mother of Albania". The family would also journey to Spain and Rhodesia before taking residence in South Africa.

A change in law allowed Geraldine to go back to Albania in June of 2002. Even then, she continued to assert that her son Leka was the legitimate King of Albania.

Queen Geraldine, “White Rose of Hungary”, died on October 22, 2002 in a military hospital in Tirana after suffering from three heart attacks. She was 87 years old. She was buried by the Central House of the Army with full honors and was laid to rest in the “VIP plot” of the public cemetery of Sharra. Her remains were later transferred to the Royal Mausoleum in Tirana, Albania.