The Six Month Kingdom

Albania 1914

Captain Duncan Heaton-Armstrong

Edited by Gervase Belfield and Bejtullah Destani

With an Introduction by Gervase Belfield

in association with
THE CENTRE FOR ALBANIAN STUDIES
Published in 2005 by I.B.Tauris & Co. Ltd.
6 Salem Road,
London W2 4BU
175 Fifth Avenue, New York NY 10010
www.ibtauris.com

In association with
The Centre for Albanian Studies

In the United States of America and in Canada distributed by Palgrave

Macmillan, a division of St Martins Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York
NY 10010

Introduction  2005 Gervase Belfield

Text  2005 Natalia Adam

The right of Duncan Heaton-Armstrong to be identified as the author of this

work has been asserted by the author in accordance with the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book or
any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introducd into a
retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic,
mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior
written permission of the publisher.

ISBN: 1 85043 761 0

EAN: 978 1 85043 761 1

A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library
A full CIP record for this book is available from the Library of Congress

Library of Congress catalog card: available

Printed and bound in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall

using camera-ready copy edited and supplied by the editors.
 Contents

Editorial Notes and Acknowledgements v

Introduction ix

One Potsdam 1
Two Vienna - London - Paris 6
Three The Albanian Deputation 12
Four Trieste - Durazzo 16
Five Small Beginnings 23
Six Life At Durazzo 29
Seven April 35
Eight State Visit To Tirana 40
Nine The Outbreak Of Rebellion 46
Ten A Day With The Insurgents 51
Eleven The Coup D’État - 19th May 57
Twelve Essad Arrested And Released 63
Thirteen 23rd May - Flight 70
Fourteen 23rd May - Return 77
Fifteen End Of The Month 84
Sixteen Intrigue And Rebellion 90
Seventeen The Rebels Attack Durazzo 96
Eighteen The Insurgents Repulsed 102
Nineteen An Unsuccessful Sortie 107
Twenty A Decisive Defeat 112
Twenty-One An Armistice Arranged 118
Twenty-Two Prenk Bib Doda Pasha’s Artillery 123
Twenty-Three The King’s Power Broken 128
Twenty-Four The Beginning Of The Collapse 134
Twenty-Five The End Of July 140
Twenty-Six The King Visits Valona 146
Twenty-Seven Valona 151
Twenty-Eight The Last Month 156
Twenty-Nine Goodbye To Durazzo 164
Epilogue Humpty Dumpty Had A Great Fall 170

Notes 175
Select Bibliography and Sources 183
Index 187
 E DITO RIAL N OTES
AND A CKNOWLEDGEMENTS

. . . . .

Ever since I studied Balkan history at university in the mid-1970s,

I have wanted to write a book about Albania, and the opportunity
presented itself when my Albanian friend, historian and publisher,
Bejtullah Destanti, suggested I edit the memoirs of Captain Duncan
Heaton-Armstrong (1886-1969). For nearly nine months, between
January and August 1914, Heaton-Armstrong held the post of
“Private Secretary and Comptroller of the Privy Purse” to Prince
William of Wied, a young German prince who had been persuaded by
the six Great Powers of Europe to accept the throne of Albania. These
memoirs were entitled The Six Month Kingdom; they give the most
detailed narrative of the reign of Prince William of Wied known to
exist.
It should be pointed out at once that, strictly speaking,
throughout the period with which this book is concerned, Albania
was not a kingdom, but a principality, and Prince William of Wied
was not a king but remained a prince. My justification for calling him
“King William” after he accepted the throne, and for calling Albania
a kingdom, is two-fold. First, he was known to the Albanians as
“Mbret” (and is often referred to as this by Heaton-Armstrong),
which translates more closely into English as King than Prince.
Secondly, he was generally known throughout Europe as “King
William of Albania”, and Heaton-Armstrong refers to the “King” and
“Kingdom” of Albania throughout his memoirs.
The manuscript of the memoirs was given by Duncan Heaton-
Armstrong’s daughter, Mrs Griselda Adam, together with a
photograph album and many press cuttings, to the Centre for
Albanian Studies, which was set up by Bejtullah about ten years ago
to publish source material relating to the history of Albania. Bejtullah
vi THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

suggested a very brief Introduction, but as I proceeded, I soon realised

that both before and after King William accepted the throne, there
lay an extraordinary story, most of which had never been told before.
The intended “brief Introduction” rapidly grew into a book covering
Albanian history between 1912 and the proclamation of a Republic
by Ahmed Bey Zogu (the future King Zog) on 22 January 1925.
Within this period, there were about 40 serious candidates for the
throne, and at least as twice as many replied to an advertisement
placed in the “Situations Vacant” section of a London newspaper,
which read “Wanted, a King; an English country gentleman preferred
– Apply to the Government of Albania”. I hope to publish, as a
separate book, the story of Albania’s quest for a king.
There was little in the way of standardisation in the spelling of
Albanian names of people and places. I have retained Heaton-
Armstrong’s naming of the main towns as they were generally known
at the period in which he was writing. This is often different from the
names now found on modern maps of the country. Thus, the former
capital, Durazzo, is now known as Durres; Scutari is now known as
Shkoder, and Valona as Vlora. As for the spelling of given names and
surnames, I have followed the advice of Bejtullah. Albanian names
are often complicated. For instance, King William’s great enemy,
Essad Pasha Toptani (1863-1920), was generally known as Essad
Pasha. Essad was his given name; his surname Toptani was very rarely
used. The name Pasha is a title derived from the Ottoman word for
governor; it was not a surname. Similarly, “Bey” is a title used to
denote a landowner. I have made very few alterations to the text of
Duncan Heaton-Armstrong’s manuscript, and have left some of his
footnotes intact, but I have added more of my own to identify people
and to explain places.
This project has, to a large extent, been a joint enterprise with
Bejtullah, whose knowledge of Albanian history is unrivalled. Over
the past year, a package has arrived almost every week on my doorstep
from him containing some new and fascinatingly obscure source
(often in Albanian, Italian or German), revealing another unlikely
candidate for the throne or shedding fresh light on the reign of King
William. His enthusiasm has been enormous, and my debt to him is
large. I am grateful for information, advice and friendly encourage-
ment from the Heaton-Armstrong family, particularly Duncan’s
great-nephew, Anthony Heaton-Armstrong, and Mrs Griselda Adam.
I must also thank Mrs Marlis Hutchings for skilfully translating
 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM vii

William of Wied’s Denkschrift uber Albanien into English. My wife,

Drusilla, and our children must know more about the bye-ways of
Albanian history than most families in Winchester, and I thank them
for their forbearance.

The Centre for Albanian Studies gratefully acknowledges the

assistance of Mrs Griselda Adam, Kosova Aid, Mr and Mrs Tanush
Frasheri and Margaret and Pam Davis.
 I NTRODUCTION

. . . . .

By Gervase Belfield

Prince William of Wied

From the second half of the fifteenth-century until independence

was declared on 28 November 1912, Albania was part of the Ottoman
Empire. The country emerged very hesitantly into the modern world
when, on 28 November 1912, its independence was proclaimed at the
port of Valona (now called Vlora) by its 68 year old nationalist leader,
Ismail Kemal Vlora (1844-1919). Left to themselves the Albanian
leaders would have preferred another twenty years, at least, to prepare
their nation for independence, under the nominal suzerainty of the
Sultan of Turkey. The country was a desperately poor and neglected
backwater. King William arrived in 1914 to find no railways,
appallingly bad roads and communications, few public buildings or
schools and no university. There was no police force outside the towns,
and Albania was famous for its blood feuds. It had no currency or
banks, and the economy was primitive and almost entirely agricultural.
Albania was the creation of the Great Powers, particularly
Austria-Hungary and Italy; without their intervention in 1913 at the
end of the First Balkan War, the Ottoman province of Albania would
have divided up between its victorious neighbours, the Greeks to the
south, the Serbs to the east and the Montenegrins to the north.
From December 1912, for nearly a year, the ambassadors in London of
the six Great Powers of Europe (Britain, France, Germany, Russia,
Austria-Hungary and Italy), under the chairmanship of the British
Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, met regularly to fashion the new
state of Albania into a shape which would be acceptable to all the
powers. Albanians played no part in the selection of their future
x THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

monarch, just as they played no part in the definition of their borders

or the construction of their constitution. About a third of the territory
in which Albanians formed the majority of the population, mainly the
province of Kosovo, was given to the Serbs, the Montenegrins and the
Greeks. The Great Powers sanctioned the creation of a truncated
Albania not because of any modern belief in “the right to self-
determination” of a small nation, but because it was believed that an
Albanian state was essential to preserve the fragile peace in Europe.
Albania was created to serve a specific political objective. On 29 July
1913 the Conference of Ambassadors formally announced that
Albania would be an independent and neutral principality (not a
kingdom), its security guaranteed by the Great Powers. It was
promised that a prince would be appointed within six months. The
European statesmen who fashioned the country had no detailed
knowledge of it, nor did they consider very closely what sort of
monarch the Albanians either desired or required. The selection of a
prince was yet another headache for the foreign ministries; each of the
many candidates seemed to have an insurmountable defect in the eyes
of one or other of the Great Powers. Personal qualities and abilities
were hardly considered; the imperative factor was to find a man
without any impediment in terms of nationality or religion; one who
would not contribute further to international tensions. As for the
Albanians, they had little appreciation of the complex web of
diplomatic manoeuvring and subtle intrigue in the chancelleries of
Europe. In so far as they had any view on the subject, many would
have preferred a prince from the British royal family; Prince Arthur,
Duke of Connaught (1850-1942), the third son of Queen Victoria,
was probably the favourite (Edith Durham, Albania and the
Albanians, page 88, and Twenty Years of Balkan Tangle, page 257).
Many other Albanians would have liked a Moslem prince rather than
a Christian one, this being a reflection of the fact that two thirds of
the population was Moslem. They were certainly impatient with the
Great Powers for their slowness in selecting a prince, but equally they
were immensely grateful to them for taking on this role; like an
orphaned child, they longed for the stability and prestige of a parent
they could call their own.
By September 1913 still no prince had been announced. Europe
had now divided firmly into two diplomatic and military camps,
Germany and Austria-Hungary on the one hand, and the Entente
Cordial between Great Britain and France, supported by Russia, on
 INTRODUCTION xi

the other. The Austro-Hungarians, who took the initiative in

recruiting a prince, would certainly not have accepted an Italian or a
French candidate, and would probably have opposed a British prince
or aristocrat. The Italians, who were equally keen to gain influence in
Albania, preferred to see a Protestant on the throne and would
certainly not have agreed to any prince from Austria-Hungary or its
Catholic allies in southern Germany. The Russians would also have
objected to a Catholic prince, and tended to favour a Moslem. Most
leading Albanians would have ruled out a Moslem, a Catholic or an
Orthodox prince, because significant proportions of the Albanian
population would have been alienated by any one of these. Their
desire for a British prince could not be fulfilled. The room for
manoeuvre was not great. Ideally the candidate needed to be a
distinguished Protestant prince with connections to several royal
houses and with many robust personal virtues, capable of strong
military leadership, having a good understanding of international
diplomacy, and above all giving complete dedication to the cause of a
desperately poor and vulnerable small nation, emerging from
centuries of stagnation under the Ottoman empire.
When it was announced, in November 1913, that His Serene
Highness Prince William Frederick Henry of Wied, had been selected
by the Great Powers to be the future sovereign, there was great
optimism in Albania, and throughout the capitals of Europe, that a
man with most of these virtues had at last been found. Prince William
was then a 37 year old Captain in the 3rd Regiment of Uhlans of the
Guard, in the imperial German army. He was tall, handsome and
imposing; he was known as a capable soldier, popular with both his
fellow officers in Potsdam and with society in Berlin. He was
Protestant by religion and well connected, particularly to the Dutch
and Prussian royal families. He was married to an attractive and
vivacious princess, and they had two young children, Princess Maria
Eleanora, then nearly four, and a son and heir, Prince Carol Victor,
who was six months.
The Princes of Wied were minor German royalty, closer in social
status to the higher reaches of the aristocracy than to dynasties such
the Habsburgs and Hohenzollerns. Prince William was born at the
family seat at Neuwied, overlooking the River Rhine, near Koblenz,
on 26 March 1876, the second son of His Serene Highness William,
5th Prince of Wied (1845-1907) and his wife, Princess Marie of the
Netherlands (1841-1910). Throughout his youth his father’s sister,
xii THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

the extremely eccentric and highly-strung Queen Elisabeth of

Roumania (1843-1916), was an important influence on William. The
Wied family used to spend “happy weeks” at Pelesc Castle, the royal
residence at Sinaia in the Transylvanian Alps in Roumania. Elizabeth
was a striking figure: tall and plump, with bright blue eyes and
prematurely white hair. Writing was the main outlet for her huge
energy, and she wrote over 50 books under the pen-name “Carmen
Sylva” (Song and Nature); her oeuvre was eclectic: verses with easy
rhythms, often expressing nostalgia for her homeland on the Rhine,
folk-tales, Roumanian literature and folk-law, and reminiscences. She
lived a life of great emotional intensity; her successor as Queen of
Roumania described her as “both splendid and absurd”. In complete
contrast, her husband King Carol I (died 1914), was an extremely
efficient and hard-working man.
On 30 November 1906 Prince William of Wied married Princess
Sophie Helene Cecilie, the 21 year-old daughter of Victor, Hereditary
Prince of Schonburg-Waldenburg (died 1888), and his wife, Princess
Lucy (died 1903). Sophie was born on 21 May 1885 in Potsdam, and
spent most of her youth in Moldavia, Roumania, where her mother’s
family had a country house and estate called Fantanele. She was a
much loved protégé and close companion of Queen Elisabeth;
together they sang, painted, wrote poetry, and played the harp; they
spoke to mystical spirits beyond this world. Sophie and Elisabeth saw
in Albania a thrilling and glamorous adventure. The hesitant Prince
William of Wied was cajoled by his wife and aunt, and bullied, behind
the scenes, by the Austro-Hungarians into accepting the throne. In
his brief memoirs (Denkschrift uber Albanien), he says that for nearly
six months after he first turned down the throne in the spring of 1913,
the Austrians put increasing pressure on him to change his mind. He
relented, probably during a visit to Sinaia in September 1913.
Roumania was a convenient stage-entrance from which he could
emerge as a “neutral” candidate. He was acceptable to the all Great
Powers above all because nobody objected to him. He had no previous
connection with, or knowledge of, Albania. A contemporary
described William as “a fine, healthy, kindly fellow, with a soft voice
and a wide smile, but not having the artistic temperament, he was
occasionally somewhat bewildered by the atmosphere into which he
was being drawn ... Sophie was full of excited anticipation, but it
seemed ... as though quiet William was a little less enthusiastic, not
being so deeply moved by the romantic possibilities of this new
 INTRODUCTION xiii

career.” (Queen Marie of Roumania, The Story of My Life, vol 2, p

295). Queen Elisabeth launched a vigorous campaign in the Viennese
newspapers in favour of William’s candidature for the throne, starting
with an article entitled “Fairyland wants its Prince”. This described
how the Albanians clamoured for a sovereign, and, in romantic
Wagnerian prose, introduced a scion of an ancient race dwelling on
the banks of the river Rhine (The Memoirs of Ismail Kemal Bey, page
379). Emperor William II of Germany, who took a close interest in his
kinsman, was in no doubt who lay behind the Prince’s eventual
acceptance of the throne: “The ambitious, mystically excited wife of
the prince saw in Albania the fulfilment of her wishes, and ‘Ce que
femme veut, Dieu le veut’”, the Emperor wrote in his memoirs (Ex-
Kaiser Wilhelm II, My Memoirs, 1879-1918, page 162).
His naivety, and lack of experience in diplomacy and politics
showed itself during the long and tortuous diplomatic process by
which William came to be formally offered the throne. In particular,
it was vital that he should not be presented as the preferred candidate
of any one power, but the unanimous choice of all. Although German
by nationality, the German government distanced itself from the
whole project, while the Emperor was openly hostile to the whole
adventure. Guided by his uncle, King Carol of Roumania, William
negotiated the terms upon which he would accept the throne. A
substantial loan of 10 million French francs was promised to him, but
he made the crucial mistake of not insisting upon a military force to
accompany him to Albania to guarantee the disputed borders of the
new country, and its internal security. Eventually, on 7 February 1914
William sent a formal note to the ambassadors of the Great Powers in
Berlin, stating that he had decided to accept the throne of Albania
and would proceed there shortly.
Meanwhile, in Albania news of William of Wied’s candidature
was received with mixed feelings. Its leaders urged the Great Powers
to install him as quickly as possible. The young Roman Catholic
Albanian diplomat, Philip Nogga, was allegedly paid 30,000 French
francs by the Roumanian government to promote Wied’s cause in
Albania and elsewhere; he was in Valona in about September 1913,
distributing picture post-cards of the Prince, small mementoes, and
even money. Ismail Kemal, the head of Provisional Government, was
unenthusiastic, accusing Queen Elisabeth of promoting her nephew
through bribery: “The prospect of confiding the destinies of Albania
to this unknown celebrity did not particularly enchant me, but what
xiv THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

troubled me more was the propaganda that began openly in favour of

this candidature, in which money and presents were distributed with
cynical effrontery” (The Memoirs of Ismail Kemal Bey, page 379). It
is easy to understand the mutual lack of enthusiasm. Germany and its
people had no interests, political or economic, in Albania; William
was a completely unknown quantity. Kemal’s government was beset
with problems, the greatest of which was Essad Pasha, who set up his
own rival administration in central Albania in the autumn of 1913. In
January 1914 both men were implicated in a serious plot to restore the
country to Ottoman rule, and install a Turkish prince as ruler. The
Great Powers intervened, and set up an “International Commission of
Control” as an interim administration until the new monarch arrived.
This consisted of a representative of each of the Great Powers, and
one Albanian. They were joined by 15 Dutch army officers, whose
main task was to recruit and train, from scratch, an Albanian army. In
fact, these brave men, who feature so prominently in Heaton-
Armstrong’s narrative, bore the brunt of the fighting during King
William’s reign, and the ablest, Colonel Lodewijk Thomson, was
killed in action on 15 June 1914.
William’s protracted negotiations with the Great Powers left him
little time to learn about his new kingdom. Many of the people who
tried to help him commented on his lack of preparation for the task
before him. For instance Emperor William drew the Prince’s attention
to a pamphlet which had just been published by an Austrian General
Staff Officer, giving an account of his recent travels in Albania. The
officer pointed out that any future ruler should not reside on the coast
close to the protection of the warships of the Powers, but should show
himself to the people by travelling around on horseback in a nomadic
style, with a “bag of sequins”. He should bind himself to the clan
leaders, since there was no regular army in Albania. “Did the Prince
ever read the pamphlet?” asked the Emperor; the answer was clearly
not: “he adopted a course contrary to its advice and my advice” (My
Memoirs, page 163). A retired German army officer, Colonel William
Shaefer, who knew the country well, met William and Sophie in
January 1914, and stated “I was taken aback by their absolute
ignorance about everything Albanian or Eastern ... Both the Prince
and Princess looked very miserable at having to go to Albania... The
Princess seemed to be gifted with a finer perception, but looked a
nervous person” (National Archives (NA) ref : FO371/1892). The
Wieds reported to their English friend, Aubrey Herbert MP (1880-
 INTRODUCTION xv

1923) who knew Albania and Albanian better than any other
Englishman of his day, that they were finding the language “pretty stiff
work ... We feel almost like children learning geography and all sorts
of things one has not learnt for centuries. We see heaps of anxieties
and dangers for the future, but we try to see the beautiful and
interesting side, as well ...” (Somerset Record Office ref :
DD/HER/34).
The popular press of Western Europe presented the new dynasty
in an entirely different light; it was as if Ruritania had come to life, and
the great Albanian adventure of the Wied family was reported in great
detail. For instance, the Daily Mail of 21 January 1914, portrayed
William as “Lohengrin” after the heroic knight in Wagner’s opera; the
article described him as having been “a brilliant undergraduate” at Jena
University (in fact he left without taking a degree); he was also the
“strongest man in the university”, capable of lifting a comrade high in
the air with one arm. He was full of “burning desire to face the ominous
uncertainties of the new kingdom ... He is ready to beard a world of
dangers unseen”. Princess Sophie’s beauty and charms were also
extolled: “She was brought up not to be afraid of common people”.
Together “they will never found lacking in pluck”.
The reign of King William was a catalogue of disasters and
misfortunes, starting with the serious rebellion fermented by the
Greeks in Epirus, along the southern border of Albania in April 1914.
This was followed by an uprising of Moslems, with a medley of
grievances, in central Albania, which rapidly turned into a movement
to overthrow William in favour of a Moslem prince. William’s weak
government never came close to suppressing either of these threats,
and he failed to establish any effective rule in the country at large.
Few commentators have disagreed that William of Wied was a well-
meaning and honourable man, and he would, no doubt, have made a
good constitutional figurehead in the tranquil setting of a modern
western European monarchy. But he was totally unsuited to the role
which he reluctantly agreed to take on in Albania. Although he was
superficially charming, he had a formal, rather wooden approach to
kingship, which was perhaps a reflection of his somewhat limited
military mind. He was lacking in imagination and energy, and as
Duncan Heaton-Armstrong emphasises, he was extremely indecisive.
In his memoirs, he admits that he made some mistakes and had
insufficient knowledge of the country and its people. He expected the
loyalty and devotion of his subjects almost as a matter of course, and
xvi THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

seemed genuinely surprised at the duplicity and cunning of Essad

Pasha, whose malign influence dominated the first half of his reign.
With the benefit of hindsight, King William identified Essad as being
at the root of his misfortunes; he described him as “brutal” and
“illiterate (apart from laboriously scribbling his name)”. (Denkschrift,
pages 10-11) William also believed, as did most other commentators,
probably correctly although no certain proof exists, that Essad was at
various points in the reign, in the pay of the Serbs, the Montenegrins,
the Italians and the Greeks. One obvious illustration of Essad’s
manipulation of the royal family was his advice to them as soon as
they arrived in Albania not to venture out of Durazzo. William’s
height and imposing military bearing would have appealed to
Albanians, who liked their leaders and chieftains to be visible and
physically impressive. William singularly failed to capitalise upon this
great natural asset; instead of immediately touring the country and
meeting its people, he rarely ventured out the confines of the palace
at Durazzo. During his entire reign he spent just one night away from
the palace, on board the Italian ship “Misurata” en route to Valona,
where he and Queen Sophie spent the day on 26 July 1914. When the
intrepid Englishwoman Edith Durham (1863-1944) who, from about
1905, devoted most of her life to the Albanians, met Queen Sophie,
she tackled her on this issue; she begged them “to go to Valona or
Scutari, and at once start a tour through the land. I offered to go with
her, and assured her safe conduct, saying all misunderstanding would
have been avoided had she and the Prince made such a journey on
arrival. She said she had wished to, but that Essad always advised
against it”. (Balkan Tangle, page 267-8). William claimed he was
filled with high regard for the Germanic virtues of “Right, Justice and
Truthfulness, and did not possess the armoury to fend off the lies,
malice and intrigues of the Serbs and Italians” (Denkschrift page 51).
He lacked the flamboyance and nerve of his fellow countryman,
Baron Theodore von Neuhoff, who in 1736, persuaded the Corsicans
to crown him as their King, and who also reigned for only six months.
King William left Albania on 3 September 1914, a completely
discredited figure in Albania and throughout Europe. The Great War
had started, and his departure went unnoticed. Yet he never
abdicated, and for the next 30 years, until his death on 18 April 1945,
he retained an almost child-like belief that he might be restored, or
that his son might be given a chance to rule Albania. A month after
his departure, he was shocked to learn that Essad had broken his word
 INTRODUCTION xvii

of honour as an officer not to return to Albania without his

permission. Essad was welcomed back to Durazzo with great
ostentation and publicity by the Italians, and he installed himself in
the Wied family’s private rooms in the palace, which the Moslem
rebels had preserved untouched. William wrote to Essad requesting
the return of his family property, but Essad replied with a demand for
half a million marks; “naturally I refused Essad, so he sold or gave away
the greatest part of my personal valuables, horses, carriages, silver,
works of art etc.... Only the Austrian consul managed to preserve a
few family heirlooms” (Denkschrift, page 32). Queen Sophie was
particularly upset at the loss of her favourite harp.
At the beginning of 1916 the Austrians were successful in driving
out the Serbs and Montenegrins from the whole of the northern half
of Albania. This gave William hope that he would be restored as King
of Albania. In the following year, on 3 June 1917, Italy’s ambition to
dominate Albania caused her to proclaim the country an Italian
Protectorate, and this event drew forth “the sharpest protest” from
William in his brief memoirs, entitled Denkschrift uber Albanien,
which were published in August 1917. This booklet might more
accurately be described as a political memorandum, or reflections on
the politics of his brief reign and subsequent developments in
Albania. Its true purpose was undoubtedly to persuade the Austro-
Hungarian government to give him a second chance in Albania. He
still saw himself as the only legitimate ruler of the country, selected and
guaranteed by all the Great Powers; he had no intention of abdicating.
Why, now that the situation was again favourable to him, in northern
Albania at least, were the Austrians no longer interested in supporting
him? When he had arrived in Albania in March 1914, he had not
realised the true extent of the problems facing the country, but now
more than three years later, he claimed he had far greater knowledge
and insight into his country, drawn from practical experience.
William stated that throughout the war, wherever he was serving
“I was continually thinking of Albania. During my leave from the
battle-front, I worked for my country as best I could and attempted to
keep in touch with Albanians inside and outside the country”
(Denkschrift, page 38). Queen Sophie, too, never lost her enthusiasm
for Albania; according to Queen Marie of Roumania, writing in the
early 1930s, “Sophie has kept her love for Albania and the Albanians;
the romance of that wild country sank into her soul and still lives
there; the flame of her enthusiasm has not burnt out ...” (Marie,
xviii THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

Queen of Roumania, Story of My Life, vol 2, page 295).

The defeat of Germany at the end of 1918 effectively ended
William of Wied’s chances of being restored to his throne; his active
military service in the German army during the Great War alone
would have disqualified him. On the other hand, the leading
Albanian politician at the end of the war, Akif Pasha Elbasani, told a
British Foreign Office official in April 1919 that he and many others
wished to return to the “starting point government” established by the
Great Powers under Wied, since it was the only “National
Government” the Albanians had ever had. Akif described how, in a
primitive people, the sentiment of loyalty is deep, and there was
considerable sympathy for Wied personally “as an unfortunate man
who was driven from the land by foreign intrigues”. Since William
had not abdicated, he was still the rightful ruler of the country; if the
Great Powers found him unacceptable, they should persuade him to
renounce the throne and select another in his place (NA ref:
FO608/29). The question of whether Albania should retain its
monarchy or become a republic was discussed in January 1920 at the
important National Congress held in the town of Lushnja, under the
leadership of Akif. The deputies at Lushnja decided in favour of the
former, but postponed any discussion of who might be offered the
throne until the country was more secure. They then elected a High
Council of Regency, consisting of four members, each representing a
different strand of religion, these being two Moslems, one from the
mild Bektashi sect and one from the stricter Sunni sect, a Roman
Catholic and an Orthodox Christian. The senior member or
President of this High Council was Akif Pasha Elbasani. The powers
of the Council were limited and were never clearly defined, although
they had an important role in calling elections and in forming
cabinets. The four Regents were popularly referred to as “the quarter
kings”, and this curious, if not unique, constitutional quadruped
remained the nominal head of state for five years until January 1925,
when Ahmed Bey Zogu led a coup and proclaimed a Republic.
When Zogu changed the Albanian constitution in August 1928,
and was proclaimed King Zog of the Albanians on 1 September,
William of Wied emerged briefly from the shadows and issued a formal
protest from Berlin. He said that he “claims for himself and his heirs
all the rights to the Albanian Throne to which he was elected in
February 1914”. He believed that the majority of Albanians still
supported him, but considered that a free and unbiased referendum on
 INTRODUCTION xix

the question of his return was at this point impossible. He was free
from personal ambition; thought only of the welfare of his people, and
awaited “the right moment” for his return (Times, 25 August 1928).
In the following year, 1929, an Englishman, Joseph Swire, published
his authoritative and detailed history of Albania (Albania – The Rise
of a Kingdom, London, 1929), and acknowledged that William had
discussed his reign “with the utmost frankness and provided me with
a mass of valuable notes”. Swire presented William and his reign in as
generous a light as the facts would allow, and even suggested that
should King Zog die without an heir, William might be restored.
In their private lives between the wars, the Wied family settled
near Munich, where they lived modestly; in 1937 Swire reported that
William enjoyed simple pleasures and drove his own car. The family
also regularly visited Sophie’s family castle and estate, Fantanele, near
the town of Bacau, about 150 miles north of Bucharest, in Moldavia.
Shooting and hunting remained William’s main activity, but he never
gave up hope of returning as King of Albania. In May 1935 King
Carol II of Roumania invited him to attend the Conference of the
Balkan Pact, which took place in Bucharest, even though Albania
was not a party to the Pact. William was accorded “the usual royal
honours” and his presence “has roused the most excited discussion in
Balkan diplomatic circles”. Here, in his “modest six-shilling-a-day”
bedroom in a busy commercial hotel in Bucharest Prince William
gave a lengthy interview to the Daily Mail’s correspondent, who
described him as “a magnificent figure of a sportsman and athlete,
dressed in brown tweeds, strong and upstanding although 59 years of
age”. He claimed wistfully that he remembered every incident of his
reign vividly; “I can never forget nor cease to admire the Albanian
people. I made many friends among them, and I have never lost touch
with my country. Especially I admire the mountaineers of the north
and south – fearless, independent men of unswerving loyalty and
attachment”. He reiterated that he had never abdicated; “When I left
the country in 1914, I promised then I would come back if ever they
wanted me. If my people want me, I will go back at any time.” (Daily
Mail, 30 May 1935).
Sophie died aged 51 on 3 February 1936 at Fantanele. William
survived another nine years; he died on 18 April 1945 at Predeal, near
Sinaia, in Roumania. His death, which occurred near the end of the
Second World War, appears to have gone un-noticed in the European
and Albanian press. William and Sophie’s two children took little
xx THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

more than a passing interest in Albania, although in his interview

with the Daily Mail in May 1935, William hoped that one day his 22
year old son would be King. Prince Carol Victor studied law at
Tubingen University in Germany; his doctoral thesis on criminal
procedure was published in Stuttgart in 1936. He was a keen
swordsman and enjoyed skiing; in 1937 Swire described him as a
young man of great ability, with his father’s good nature (Swire, Zog’s
Albania, page 202). During the Second World War, he served as an
officer in the German army in Roumania, and in the autumn of 1941
there was speculation that the Germans, who had occupied
Yugoslavia including the northern part of Kosovo, would use him to
rally Albanians to the German cause. This worried Mussolini’s
Foreign Minister, Count Ciano, to such an extent that in November
1941, he accused the Germans of aiming to construct a new Albanian
state led by Prince Carol Victor, which would be anti-Italian and
whose militia would take a oath directly to Hitler. There appeared to
be little truth to Ciano’s fears, and the Germans reassured him they
had no such ambitions for the prince (Fischer, Albania at War,
1939–1945, page 86). On the death of his father Carol Victor made
no public claim to the throne of Albania. In September 1966, he
married a widowed Englishwoman, Mrs Eileen de Coppet, the
daughter of George Johnson. She was born in Chester in 1922, and
she and Prince Carol Victor lived in Cheyne Walk, Chelsea, London.
He died childless in Munich on 8 December 1973, aged 60, and was
buried at Neuwied. Eileen died on 1 September 1985 in New York.
Princess Marie Eleanora, who as a four-year child in 1914 can be
seen in many photographs of the Albanian royal family, studied
economics in Berlin, following which she published a book about
foreign investment and economics in South America (Das
Auslandskapital in Sudamerika, Waldenburg, 1937). She was married
twice; her first husband was her distant cousin, Prince Alfred
Schonburg-Waldenburg, who died of an illness while on military
service at Zeite, Germany, in 1941 after only four years of marriage.
Her second husband, whom she married in Bucharest in February
1948, was a Roumanian politician and businessman, Jon Bunea. In
the previous year, King Michael of Roumania was forced to abdicate
and a Communist People’s Republic was proclaimed. This created
great danger for those with royal backgrounds, such as Princess Marie
Eleanora, and she obtained employment in the press office of the
British Legation in Bucharest, and was known as Mrs Bunea. This
 INTRODUCTION xxi

offered her no protection, since in the summer of 1949 she and her
husband were arrested, and in March 1950 they were each sentenced
to 15 years’ hard labour. She spent more than six years in a prison for
political prisoners. According to information given by a British
woman who was released from a Roumanian prison, the Princess
became ill and needed an operation, but the authority to move her
from the prison to hospital in Miercurea Ciur took so long to arrive
that the operation was unsuccessful, and she died childless on 28 or 30
September 1956. She was buried in the town cemetery at Miercurea
Ciur. The Princess had left her possessions, such jewellery, watches,
carpets and 300 gold sovereigns, at the British Legation in Bucharest
while working there, and there is a file in the National Archives in
London which notes that since the fate of her husband was unknown,
these were held by friends at least until the early 1960s
(FO371/128966).

The Heaton-Armstrong Brothers

Captain Duncan Heaton-Armstrong writes his eye-witness

account of events in Albania in the first eight months of 1914 with
vibrancy, directness, informality and humour, all of which reflect his
engaging and irreverent character. His style may lack literary polish,
but it is readable and well suited to the exciting story he has to tell.
Most members of his social class and generation were taught from an
early age to write lucidly and accurately, and Heaton-Armstrong was
no exception. His memoirs show that he shared some of the prejudices
of his generation and class, and his writing sometimes reveals a
patronising attitude towards “native” Albanians.
He was born on 29 September 1886 at his mother’s family home
at Velden, in Austria close to the borders with Slovenia and Italy, the
elder of two brothers, his younger brother being John Dunamace,
known as “Jack”. They were the sons of William Charles Heaton-
Armstrong and his Austrian wife, Bertha, daughter of Baron
Zois-Edelstein of Chateau d’Egg, Velden, Austria. William Charles
had a strong buccaneering spirit and pursued various careers in several
different countries; the story of his life reads like a novel by Joseph
Conrad or John Buchan. He was born in 1853 at Gmunden, Austria,
and was educated partly in Austria and partly in Ireland. In his youth,
he fell out with his family and ran away to sea to join the British
merchant navy, serving mainly in China and the Caribbean. With the
xxii THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

help of his wealthy Austrian cousins, he was able to start trading by

using spare space in the cargo holds to carry goods which he would
then sell at a profit. Later his entrepreneurial spirit led him to import
German beer into England, and he became very wealthy. Among his
adventures, he joined the Turkish Navy during the Russo-Turkish War
of 1876, and in the early 1880s he took out a warship from England
for the Chilean navy during the Chilean-Peruvian War, and ran the
gauntlet of a Peruvian blockade of the South American coast.
After his marriage in 1885 William Charles lived partly in
Austria and partly in London. In the 1890s, he developed an interest
in Irish politics, and stood as a Conservative candidate for mid-
Tipperary in 1892. He failed to gain the seat, and thereafter changed
his allegiance to the English Liberal party, and in 1906 was elected as
Member of Parliament for Sudbury, Suffolk. He sat until he retired
from politics in January 1910. He then pursued a career as a banker,
and as such helped to finance railways in Jersey and in British
Columbia, Canada, where a town was named after him. However, his
banking career ended in financial disaster during the First World War.
He died in July 1917, and his widow Bertha in December 1949.
Duncan and Jack had aristocratic Austrian blood and
connections from two generations of maternal ancestors, and they
were as much at home in Austria and middle Europe as they were in
England or Ireland. In their paternal ancestry, they descended from
Sir Thomas Armstrong (died 1662) who, like so many of his
descendants, was a reckless adventurer, making his name as a royalist
soldier in Ireland in the mid-seventeenth century. He was rewarded
well for his loyalty to King Charles II, and was given the concession
to mint farthings in Ireland. His descendants settled in County
Tipperary, and served as members of parliament for the county. Sir
Thomas’s great grandson, Colonel William Armstrong MP, married
the heiress, Mary Heaton of Mount Heaton in County Offaly, in
1731, and thereafter the family rose to be among the more substantial
gentry in the southern midlands of Ireland. A century later, however,
in 1834, the head of the family dissipated his huge fortune through
gambling, and was forced to sell all his estates. He retired to the
continent, thus beginning the links with Austria.
Duncan and Jack Heaton-Armstrong were both sent to school at
Eton in 1900, but Duncan was unhappy, and only stayed three years.
He was certainly not academic or intellectual, either by inclination or
background, and after he left school his ambition was to join the army.
 INTRODUCTION xxiii

In 1904 he joined the 3rd battalion of the Lancashire Fusiliers as a

militiaman (or part-time soldier) while receiving coaching for the
army examinations. He appears to have changed direction since at the
end of this year he went up to Cambridge, in the hope of gaining a
place as an undergraduate; he made two unsuccessful attempts to pass
the entrance examination at Trinity College. He admitted that his
father gave him a good allowance, which meant he was able to
entertain his friends lavishly, and to hunt with the Cambridge
Harriers and the Fitzwilliam Hunt; according to family tradition he
attended only one lecture, clothed in full hunting dress. After
Cambridge, it was decided that he should try for the diplomatic
service, and to this end he spent a year in France, followed by a year
in Italy, to learn their languages. As with his other ambitions,
however, his devotion to country sports handicapped his efforts to
pass the entrance examinations.
His younger brother, Jack Heaton-Armstrong, who joined
Duncan in Albania throughout the month of June 1914, was born in
February 1888 at Edmonton, north London. He was of a more
academic temperament, and gained a degree at Trinity, Cambridge.
He then joined the Inner Temple in London, where he trained as a
barrister, and was called to the bar in 1912. The Heaton-Armstrong
brothers thus belong to that generation which, being under the age of
30 when the First World War began, saw many of their
contemporaries killed or wounded.
Duncan begins his narrative by relating how, almost casually, he
came to be appointed Private Secretary and Comptroller of the Privy
Purse to Prince William of Wied on 7 January 1914. Before this date,
he knew nothing about Albania, and it was purely his sense of
adventure which prompted him to apply, along with 500 others, for
the post. He claims that he accepted the job because he was “on the
look out for a more stable career”, but the pay, which was 30 shillings
a month, could not have been an inducement. In fact, his
cosmopolitan family background made him a very good choice to be
the Prince’s right-hand man. As a Protestant Irishman, his neutrality
in the Balkans was an obvious advantage, but he spoke German “like
a native”, and was a first class interpreter in French and Italian.
During the busy month of February 1914, as Prince William made his
rapid tour of the European capitals, Duncan Heaton-Armstrong was
frequently noticed in the popular press as the new king’s private
secretary, unofficial equerry, political lieutenant, press spokesman and
xxiv THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

general “handy man”. The Tatler reported that Duncan’s appointment

caused a “good deal of flutter in Pan-German dovecotes”, and in an
interview with the Standard of 19 February, Duncan gave an account
of King William’s European tour and told how the old Turkish
government headquarters (or Konak) in Durazzo were being
renovated and equipped with electric lights and bathrooms to make
them into an acceptable royal palace.
When the new royal family at last arrived at Durazzo on 9 March
1914, Harry (later Sir Harry) Lamb, the British representative in
Albania on the International Commission of Control, was impressed
by King William personally, but was critical of the various courtiers
and advisers, both Albanian and European, including Duncan
Heaton-Armstrong, who had been recruited to serve him. The
Comptroller of the royal household, the Prussian Major von Trotha,
was a typical “Junker”, while the court doctor, Berghausen, was “a
charlatan”. However, Lamb’s opinion of Duncan appears to have
improved as he got to know him better; at the end of May 1914 he was
impressed by Duncan’s courage in the face of serious intimidation by
the Italians, and he reported to Sir Edward Grey that Duncan was
“one of the few independent sources of information and advice”
(FO371 1895, page 43). For most of the reign, Duncan was also on
very good terms with the King; the Daily Express (18 June 1914)
reported that “he enjoyed the confidence of the unfortunate Mbret
(Albanian King) to a charming degree. ... it is the custom of the
Mbret almost every night to stroll into the officer’s apartments (which
adjoin his at the Palace) after the day’s work, and there, over a pipe,
discuss with his trusted secretary the latest doings in his somewhat
troublous (sic) little state”. The relationship only deteriorated at the
end of the reign, caused, no doubt, by the stresses of having lived for
three months with constant gun-fire within ear-shot of the palace,
and the real threat of being over-run by the Moslem rebels. In
addition, Britain and Germany declared war on 4 August, and the
harmony which had prevailed between Duncan and his German
employer and colleagues was put under great strain, and made his
position at court virtually impossible.
Duncan’s relations with Queen Sophie were not as good, and he
grew to resent her “regal” manner towards him, particularly since he
considered his own family as not much socially inferior to hers. We
have a brief glimpse of Duncan’s activities as a courtier in the memoirs
of a Scottish missionary, Miss Katherine Stuart Macqueen, who
 INTRODUCTION xxv

arrived in Durazzo on 1 May 1914. She described him as “youthful,

very free and easy and rather blunt ...” (Records of a Scotswoman,
page 146). Miss Macqueen had several interviews and meetings with
Queen Sophie, which were arranged by Duncan. The Queen was keen
to offer Miss Macqueen a paid job organising industrial work for
Albanian women, or running orphanages and hospitals : “Well, I told
Captain Armstrong that if they paid my expenses and gave me a salary
of £3 a week I would take the job. It was not meant that I should live
in the Palace, he said, it was over-crowded, three of them sharing one
room.... I suggested to Captain Armstrong that they might like some
references. He said he didn’t think they would bother about references
– they didn’t take up his!”. After some negotiation with Duncan, it
was agreed that the Albanian government could not afford to employ
Miss Macqueen. During the first fortnight of May, however, she
visited the palace most days, where she sat with the Queen and the
two German ladies in waiting, cutting out and sewing clothes for the
Albanian refugees who had fled from the Greeks in Epirus. She found
Queen Sophie very easy and pleasant; “she is full of ideas for helping
the people and especially about women’s work, hospitals etc”. Miss
Macqueen’s final comment on Albania was “Oh! It is an
extraordinary little place, like an Anthony Hope kingdom” (Records
of a Scotswoman, pages 145 to 153).
The hostile actions of the Greeks in southern Albania in May
1914 were the subject of much indignation at King William’s court in
Durazzo, and Duncan felt strongly enough to attempt a diplomatic
initiative of his own, to which he did not refer in his memoirs. On 15
May he wrote to the British ambassador in Athens, Sir Francis Elliot,
asking him to bring to the notice of the British government the
“infamous conduct of the Greek government”, and the atrocities
committed by Greek soldiers in Epirus against Albanians. Duncan
said he was writing the letter not in his capacity as secretary to the
King of Albania, but as a British officer seconded to Albania under
the Foreign Office for two years. Elliot acknowledged the letter, but
was unsure as to how to respond to this unorthodox diplomatic
communication. He forwarded Duncan’s letter to the Foreign Office
in London, and they replied that Elliot should take no notice of
Heaton-Armstrong’s “pardonable attempt to find a remedy”. He was
inexperienced, and furthermore was inaccurate in describing himself
as “seconded under the Foreign Office”; he was in fact “an officer of
the Special Reserve, seconded in his Regiment for service under the
xxvi THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

Albanian government, and he has no connection with the Foreign

Office.” (FO371 1888, page 227-30).
From the end of May onwards, Duncan’s main pre-occupations
were military rather than diplomatic or courtly. For instance, between
18 and 22 May he made urgent attempts to recruit contingents of
Catholic soldiers from the “Malissori” tribes of northern Albania to
help quell the Moslem rebellion against King William. This rebellion
reached a climax in the middle of June; both Heaton-Armstrong
brothers were noted for their courage and initiative in the fierce
fighting; indeed their heroic exploits were widely reported in the
British press throughout June and July. For instance, on 18 June 1914,
the front page of the Daily Sketch was devoted entirely to Duncan;
beneath the caption “Captain Armstrong, the British Officer who
keeps the Albanian King on his throne, makes the rebels show a white
flag”, two photographs of him were printed, one in the splendid
Albanian blue-grey cavalry uniform with black facings and astrakhan
cap, topped with a tall aigrette, which he wore on formal occasions in
Albania. The report described him as “another British officer seeking
adventure in troublesome foreign parts and finding fame ... It was
Captain Heaton-Armstrong who tapped Essad Pasha on the shoulder,
and saying ‘Come with me’, marched him off under fire as a captive
when it was found that he was scheming to overthrow the new King”.
The following day, a friend of the family wrote to congratulate
Duncan’s mother, saying that when he was last in England Duncan
complained that his life was a failure, with no niche for him at all. At
the beginning of July Duncan wrote a detailed “Report on the Present
State of Albania”, which he sent to a friend in England, requesting
him to pass it on to the Foreign Office. The message was that the only
salvation for Albania as an independent state would be if the Great
Powers sent “a well-organised little army, which would at first have to
be composed of foreigners and be ready to strike in any direction at
short notice”. He did not mince his words about the quality of
Albanian soldiers: “Without this army it is not possible to govern the
country as the Albanians are savages and will understand nothing but
force. Enlightened Albanians have pointed this out to the King time
after time, even some time before he came to this country ...”. He said
that the present system of employing chieftains to raise armies was
both ineffective and very expensive, since they claimed pay for double
the number of men actually brought into the field. He concluded that
“Should the King be able to put down the present rebellion without
 INTRODUCTION xxvii

foreign assistance or a legion of foreigners, it will do him no good, as

another rebellion will break out in every district where the tax-
collector appears and we would again have no force with which to
pacify the country.”
In mid-July 1914, on his return to England after a month in
Albania, it was Jack’s turn to bathe in the limelight; most of the daily
newspapers carried long accounts of his march from northern Albania
with the chief of the Catholic Mirdite clan, Prenk Bid Doda, in order
to oppose the Moslem rebels from behind Durazzo. For instance, the
Daily Chronicle of 16 July described Jack as “a debonair, monocled
young Englishman” who commanded Prenk’s artillery, consisting of
one Austrian mountain-gun: “’It was curious’, said Mr Armstrong,
‘how the gun was a sort of fetish to the Albanians. The rebels would
never stand shell fire, while our own men would run to me for the gun
on the slightest excuse. My eyeglass was an object of great interest to
them. They believed it was essential to the working of the gun, and I
did not dispel the illusion, but kept the glass in my eye whenever an
Albanian was in sight’”. Jack had a more important message for the
press, similar to what Duncan had reported to the Foreign Office; he
stated that “The King of Albania and his officers have, I think, made
Durazzo quite secure against further attack, but the manner in which
the Powers have left him unaided is shameful .... It is, I think, obvious
that King William can do nothing without European troops, and a
couple of thousand disciplined men would suffice to restore order in
the whole country”. Jack gave his services to King William without
any payment, and he was rewarded with the fifth class of the Order of
the Eagle of Albania. One of Duncan’s many duties at court was
secretary of this order of chivalry, which King William had instituted
at the start of his reign; on 27 July 1914 he asked Harry Lamb to
arrange that official recognition be given to the award by the British
government:
“I have the honour to forward to you a full statement of the
services rendered to the Albanian government by my brother. My
brother was on a visit to me, when the government decided to send a
gun to the Northern force under Prenk Bib Doda. As my brother was
one of the few people here that understood the working of the gun,
and had offered to make himself useful in any way he could, he was
asked to take the gun North. This he did. He assisted in the
bombardment of Ishmi and Malkuts and on both occasions directed
the fire well. He trained 25 Mirdites to serve the gun etc and these
xxviii THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

Mirdites worked the gun better than all the other volunteers in this
country. My brother was away from Durazzo about a month and for
part of the time lived on bread and water, sleeping in the open for
three weeks. When Prenk Bib Doda’s army fled in disorder, my
brother saved the gun with all the ammunition and after great
hardships got everything back safely to Durazzo. He did
extraordinarily well all through and more than earned a decoration.”
(FO 320/4, fol 546).
Colonel George Fraser Phillips of the West Yorkshire Regiment
(who commanded a small detachment of British troops in Scutari from
September 1913) gave a more professional assessment of Jack’s
handling of the gun when he wrote to Harry Lamb: “I do wish you
could have come with me to see (Prenk) Bib Doda’s army; there were
only about 2,000 left, and for the one cannon nobody can fire there is
a Romanian prince, a French count and a young English barrister, none
of whom have the faintest idea how to use it.” (FO 320/4, fol 477).
Unfortunately for Duncan, he appears to have upset Edith
Durham, whose caustic and forthright opinions about King William’s
court were regularly despatched to the Foreign Office in London.
Although she was not lacking in a sense of humour, Duncan
undoubtedly could not resist the temptation of teasing her, and his
irreverent approach did not appeal to her:

Durazzo, Albania, 23 June 1914

“I had a talk yesterday with Heaton-Armstrong, the King’s right
hand man. A feeble stick with no ideas and the last man in the world
for the job. We were on board the “Defence” lunching with the
Admiral (Troubridge). Looking at the beautiful mountains I asked
Armstrong if he were not longing to be able to get up country and
explore them. He replied that he hated roughing it and hadn’t the
least wish to go anywhere that entailed discomfort. I said “What on
earth did you come here for?” and he said “Because I’m paid”. He
maintained that he could see no fun whatever in camping or riding
about – that he like good food and comfort. And he added that the
day he had been to Tirana a dinner was prepared for the Royal party
and that he had been expected to eat roast mutton. The Austrians as
you know have a horror of mutton for some mysterious reason and this
blighter is half Austrian. The next dinner he went, he said, he had
refused to eat anything at all and he should make it a rule to do so in
future. I told him it was insulting the people to behave like that – and
 INTRODUCTION xxix

that he was quite the wrong man for the job. He replied he was doing
it merely for pay and was not going to put himself out. He has never
knocked about – he is merely a young chap spoilt by good living, more
in place in a Vienna cafe than here. Who on earth appointed him?”
(FO 371 1896, fol 155-7)

Durazzo, 10 July 1914

“As for Wied and his surroundings, Heaton Armstrong ‘the
chocolate soldier’ (a name which just hits him off), and the ‘nervos’
(von) Trotha, they do not even know how to behave ... I never saw a
more pitiable show than Wied giving putty-medals to the wounded in
the English hospital – as though he were feeding nuts to monkeys.
Made no speech – looked bored to death and took no notice of either
Dr Ward or the Chaplains or the German and Austrian ladies who
had all worked hard and were grouped by the door.... The King has a
nervous laugh which he fires off at most things. He asked me about
some of my travels but has evidently not the vaguest comprehension
of what life up-country means. I believe he imagines he is roughing it.
The palace is very large and got up very swagger – butlers, cooks, all
the paraphernalia. As the populace frequently points out the chief
thing the King has done is to take their public garden.”
(FO 371 1896, fol 195)

In July she wrote in the same vein to Aubrey Herbert :

“I have little or no sympathy with the King. He is a blighter. Why

or by whom he was chosen is a mystery. Surely those responsible must
have known he was a feeble stick, devoid of energy or tact or manners
and wholly ignorant of the country? They are very Royal – both of
them – keep a court and keep people standing in their presence. It is
all ludicrous. The Queen, the few times I have spoken to her,
impresses me as a bright young woman, but her only idea is to play
Lady Bountiful, distribute flowers, put medals on the wounded and
make fancy blouses of native embroidery. As for the King he seems a
hopeless combine of pretentiousness and incapacity .... The King
might have pulled through if he had a decent entourage. But Heaton-
Armstrong is the wrongest man for his post that could have been
found. His nickname of the chocolate soldier exactly hits him off. He
tells everyone that he only came for the pay. He boasted to me that
when he, together with all the Royal party, were invited to dinner at
xxx THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

a Bey’s house, he refused all the dishes. Said he’d sworn not to eat any
of their food. I told him if he meant to succeed here he must eat
everything and take a pill afterwards if necessary....” (Margaret
FitzHerbert, The Man who was Greenmantle, page 126)

To Edith Durham, the world beyond Albania was full of

“blighters” and “feeble sticks”, and had her despatches to the Foreign
Office been more balanced and temperate, she would have gained
greater respect. As for Duncan, his gallantry is evident from his own
memoirs and is well attested by other observers throughout May and
June 1914. For instance, on 18 May he rode out alone to meet the
rebels, and in the serious fighting on 15 June and the following days,
he showed great energy and disregard for his own safety.
The last chapter of Duncan’s memoirs describes his sad departure
from Durazzo on 22 August 1914 to escort the royal children and ladies
in waiting back to Queen Sophie’s home at Waldenburg in Germany:
“I had dreamed of remaining here and making a career and now it was
rapidly disappearing in the dusk”. Graver misfortunes befell Duncan in
Germany, for he was arrested and detained as the first prisoner of war.
It is frankly impossible to understand why King William never
responded to Duncan’s many urgent pleas, since a word from him
would have ensured his release. William’s later explanation, in 1937,
that there was a fear that Duncan might return to Albania and “raise
the northern clans” against the Austrians, was preposterous.
In the early months of the First World War, Duncan’s younger
sister, Bertha Grace Heaton-Armstrong, worked in the office of the
Censor of Mails in the War Office in London. In January 1915, the
head of the Censor office made accusations that she was pro-German.
As a result of these reports, the Conservative MP for Hammersmith,
Sir William Bull, asked a question in the House of Commons, as to
whether the government was aware that in the Censor’s office “there
is employed a lady whose mother is a native of Austria, and her father
half English and half Austrian, and whether he is aware that her
brother is private secretary to an exalted person in Germany, and that
he communicated with his sister expressing strong sympathies with
Germany?”. Fortunately the Postmaster General, Charles (later Sir
Charles) Hobhouse, was able to put the record straight: Bertha was
“the daughter of an ex-MP, who himself was the son of an Irish
gentleman and an Austrian lady and married to an Austrian lady.
Both ladies became in the ordinary course British subjects on
 INTRODUCTION xxxi

marriage.”. He then told how, despite being given a safe-conduct by

King William to return to Germany, Duncan had been incarcerated.
He added that Bertha’s other brother, Jack, was now serving with the
20th Deccan Horse in France. The Under Secretary had seen some of
Duncan’s private correspondence, and “had found therein many
expressions of his desire to return to his regiment and his country”. He
admitted that since the outbreak of war, Bertha had written to a
relation in Germany “on domestic matters” and to enquire as to the
whereabouts of her brother. He concluded by stating that he saw no
objection to Bertha’s continued employment in the Censor’s office.
The episode conveys the difficulties of families with German or
Austrian blood in the intensely nationalist atmosphere of the First
World War.
Meanwhile, Duncan spent two years as a prisoner of war before
being released on exchange on July 1916. After a spell at the War
Office in London, he was at last able to rejoin his old regiment in
France in January 1917, but in an non-combatant roll as a pay-master.
While on leave he met Thelma Eileen Scott, whose father was a
politician and MP in Tasmania; she had come to work in England as
a nurse. They married in December 1920 and went to live in Vienna.
There were two children, Griselda Nonee, born in 1922, and Thomas
Michael Robert, born in 1925. Duncan went into business with
George von Trapp, a member of the musical family, but later moved
to Slovakia, where he enjoyed limitless shooting. He remained in
close touch with England, and served as a Gold Staff officer at the
coronation of King George VI in 1937. During the 1930s he managed
a large group of farms for his cousins in Austria, sharing the
considerable profits with them. In 1938 when Hitler invaded the
country, the family moved to Switzerland. In the following year, on
the outbreak of war, they moved again to London, and for a period
Duncan returned to work at the War Office in London, before moving
to Herefordshire to run a prisoner of war camp for Italians. Thelma
died in December 1967 and Duncan on 1 May 1969 at his house,
Holymount, in Ledbury, aged 82. Duncan is remembered by his family
as a kindly, foot-loose man, his main interest being in country sports.
Jack Heaton-Armstrong lost an eye in an accident as a boy, and
hence his use of a monocle, which so impressed the Albanians in
1914, was no affectation. Despite his limited eye-sight, he served
throughout the First World War in France, Egypt and Palestine with
the Indian Army, rising to be a Captain. He was badly wounded; he
xxxii THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

lost a leg and was shot through the neck. After the war he did not
resume his career as a barrister; he had a brief spell working in the
Colonial Office, but joined the College of Arms, Queen Victoria
Street, London. He was made an officer of College in 1922 as Rouge
Dragon Pursuivant, and rose to be the second most senior herald,
Clarenceux King of Arms, in 1956. He developed a particular interest
in the heraldry of the RAF and its badges, and during the Second
World War he was a reserve Squadron Leader in the RAF. In June
1919 he married a French widow, Suzanne Laura, daughter of Etienne
Bechet de Balan, and the widow of John Whitehead, who had been
killed flying in the First World War. They had one son and two
daughters. Jack was made a Member of the Royal Victorian Order in
1937, and was knighted in 1953. He continued to work at the College
of Arms until his death on 27 August 1967 aged 79.

The Significance of the Six Months Kingdom

Few people nowadays will ever have heard of King William of

Albania; indeed there were probably many Albanians in 1914 who
were unaware of their monarch’s existence during his brief and
troubled reign of exactly six months. It would therefore be easy to
dismiss his reign as a footnote in the history of the Balkans, or to agree
with Ismail Kemal’s quip that “Wied is a void”. Yet it would have
needed a leader with the energies and abilities of King Henry V of
England, or of William’s ancestor, Frederick the Great of Prussia, to
have created order and stability in Albania in 1914. As one
contemporary Albanian commented “Prince William can only be
criticised for being unable to perform miracles” (Fan Noli, quoted in
Swire, Albania, the Rise of a Kingdom, page 195). I am conscious that
Duncan Heaton-Armstrong’s memoirs have little to do with the
history of ordinary Albanians, and may be read as no more than an
entertaining adventure of a well-to-do Englishman at a moment in
history when it was possible for such men to follow their chivalrous
imaginations without hindrance almost anywhere in the world, with
effortless superiority. In her biography of Duncan’s contemporary and
enthusiast for Albania, Aubrey Herbert MP, Margaret FitzHerbert,
states “Theirs was, briefly, an age of chivalry, soon to be laid to rest in
the trenches of the Great War” (The Man Who was Greenmantle,
page 117).
 INTRODUCTION xxxiii

The story of William of Wied in Albania really belongs to

nineteenth century rather than twentieth century history. During the
course of the nineteenth century, the Great Powers had planted
German dynasties in Greece, Roumania and Bulgaria, and these new
royal families gave their countries a measure of stability, as well as
connections with the leading royal families of Europe. It was a
universally accepted truth that a newly created country would be in
want of a prince from a respectable royal dynasty. Albania was now
the last piece of the old Ottoman jig-saw to be given its own German
dynasty, modelled on the royal courts of Christian Europe. After the
First World War, it would have been unthinkable for the Great
Powers (or the League of Nations) to have selected a foreign prince
for a newly established nation; the process ran counter to the new
principles of “self-determination” for small countries. During the first
couple of months of William’s reign, outwardly it seemed that the
Albanians were immensely grateful to the Powers; the Albanian
diplomat, linguist and eye-witness to the events of 1914, Constantine
Chekrezi (1892-1959), summed up the mood on the king’s arrival:
“during that supreme moment of delirious happiness, the past, present
and future misfortunes of the people and of the country were entirely
lost sight of”, and William was greeted as the “saviour of Albania”
(Albania Past and Present, page 136).
The process of selecting Albania’s monarch and placing him in
the palace at Durazzo can be seen as one of the last minor triumphs of
diplomatic co-operation between the six Great Powers before the
Great War broke out. During the first three months of 1914, William
was constantly re-assured that he was being sent to Albania with the
full support of the Concert of Europe, and not just with the backing
of those nations which had an interest in the establishment of
Albania. Sir Edward Grey was insistent that all the Great Powers
should act together in unison so that a neutral Albania could be seen
clearly as the creation of an agreed European policy. This was, no
doubt, reassuring to William and his advisors, and naively he trusted
and believed the statesmen; indeed, in his memoirs, William returned
again and again to the notion that his sovereignty was “guaranteed by
the Great Powers”. In particular, Germany and Britain found that
they had a common policy with regard to the limited extent to which
they would under-write, financially and militarily, King William’s
government.
Similarly, in 1912/3 it was easy enough for the Italians and
xxxiv THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

Austrians to agree on the necessity to create the state of Albania to

prevent the Serbs, Montenegrins and Greeks from gaining complete
control of the Dalmatian coast and the Adriatic. However, once
Albania was a reality, their common interests ceased, and conflicts
ensued. The Austrians were determined to preserve their access to the
Adriatic since it was their only route for maritime trade into Europe;
their fear was that the Adriatic would be turned into an Italian lake.
On the other hand, the Italians regarded the Adriatic as their sphere
of influence: “The two allies therefore fought, through military, naval
and commercial missions, every inch of ground for local influence”
(Gottlieb, Studies in Secret Diplomacy, page 158). The increasingly
tense atmosphere in the palace in Durazzo among William of Wied’s
advisors and staff as the summer of 1914 progressed, mirrored the
sharp deterioration in international relations in Europe at large. Up
until about the middle of May, the King’s Austrian and Italian
advisors, together with the Dutch army officers, all worked together in
relative harmony, but thereafter, it was a downward spiral as the
Italians perceived that the Austrians and the Dutch were gaining the
upper hand at the Albanian court.
The Italians interpreted the dismissal of their ally, Essad, as an
insult, and thereafter there is good evidence that Italian agents were
in close touch with, and even encouraged, the Moslem rebels who
surrounded Durazzo. There can be no doubt that the Italians exploited
the King’s difficulties, although it is difficult to judge whether the
overthrow of the Wied dynasty was their ultimate goal. When the
British Admiral, Troubridge arrived on HMS “Defence” in Durazzo
harbour in mid-June 1914, he had several long conversations with
King William, who attributed all his difficulties to Italian intrigues:
“What stands clearly out” Troubridge reported to the Admiralty in
London, “is the universal impression that Italy is doing her utmost to
compel the King to leave the country” (NA ref : ADM1 8386/210).
Although we have no direct evidence, it is possible that the Italian
royal prince and admiral, Prince Luigi, the Duke of Abruzzi (1873-
1933), who visited Albania in April 1914, was hoping to replace
William as King.
As the unity of Great Powers rapidly disintegrated, the strength
of the Moslem rebellion in central Albania increased. The main
demand of the rebels was that William be replaced by a Moslem
prince. In selecting William to rule the country, the Great Powers
failed to realise how different Albania was to its Balkan and east
 INTRODUCTION xxxv

European neighbours, and how inappropriate was their choice of

sovereign. William had unwisely chosen his capital city on the
doorstep of the most fanatical and “Ottomanised” community of
Sunni Moslems, many of whom were descendants of refugees from
Bosnia in 1878. The picture of these war-like Moslems facing the
Christian prince chosen by Austria, symbolises the agony and
difficulty the new nation was experiencing in deciding its true
identity. Before they were ready to do so, Albanians were forced to
decide whether they were to remain facing eastwards towards their
Ottoman past, or whether they should embrace the less familiar
Christian world of Europe. As the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans
rapidly crumbled, the leaders of Albania were given too little time to
decide. In this sense, the main theme of the reign of William of Wied
was civil war. Unfortunately, neither William nor the Great Powers
perceived the true nature of this struggle, and little was done to
convince ordinary Albanians that their best chances for future
development and stability lay in looking westwards towards Europe.
Aubrey Herbert compared William of Wied to the biblical David
but without even a pebble or a sling with which to fight Goliath (Ben
Kendim, page 162). He was in fact faced with several Goliaths, and in
his memoirs he lists no less than 12 reasons why he failed to fulfil his
mission as King. The first of these reasons was “the absence of a
fighting force”. Here we can perhaps identify William’s greatest
mistake as his failure, before he arrived in Albania, to insist upon an
international force of, say, 3,000 troops, to accompany him in March
1914, in order to secure the Greek border and maintain internal
security, for a period of perhaps five years. Had this demand been
made as the foremost condition to accepting the throne, there was a
good chance that the Great Powers, under pressure, would have
agreed. It was, after all, no more than what the Great Powers had
done in the previous century to secure the new German rulers in
Greece and Bulgaria. Such a force might have deterred the Greeks
from fermenting the uprising in southern Albania in April 1914; such
a force would have denied Essad the chance of raising a Moslem army
from central Albania, which then formed the corner-stone of the
rebellion in favour of a Moslem prince.
William realised the necessity for such an international force too
late. By the early summer of 1914, the Great Powers could not agree
together to provide such a force, as they might have done in the early
spring of that year; the political and diplomatic landscape had changed
xxxvi THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

radically. By July 1914, Sir Edward Grey had washed his hands of the
problem of Albania, and suggested to King William that he applied to
Austria and Italy for support. In the end, not even Roumania was
prepared to give William any military aid. The situation was entirely
outside King William’s control, just as on the diplomatic front,
Albania’s enemies, Greece and Turkey, were simultaneously being
courted by both the Entente Cordial and the central powers in
attempts to win them over as allies. In truth, he was ruthlessly
abandoned by those who had enticed him to accept the Albanian
throne. As the First World War approached, he was the helpless victim
of the intrigues and quarrels between the Great Powers, and when the
warships of the Powers pulled out of Durazzo harbour in the first days
of August 1914, they even denied him and his young family the
assurance they had given of their own personal safety.
It is easy to understand why modern Albanian historians have
either ignored or ridiculed William of Wied and his court. If he is
mentioned at all, it is to revile the Great Powers for burdening the
Albanian people with such an ineffectual and inappropriate ruler.
Understandably, the Albanians see the reign in terms of
“imperialism”; an episode to illustrate how the arrogant western
powers sought to impose an alien identity on their country. After the
Great War, Zog borrowed, in an exaggerated form, many of the
outward trappings of monarchy from William of Wied (who, in turn,
had borrowed them from his former employer, Emperor William II);
the brilliant white military uniforms, the orders of chivalry, the rituals
of court life in newly built palaces and all the flamboyant
paraphernalia of a “nouveau” dynasty. The comic opera atmosphere
continued to appeal to the popular press in western Europe, just as it
had during William of Wied’s adventure. Yet all the while, for
ordinary Albanians there were still no railways or decent roads, nor
any real investment in education, industry or the country’s natural
resources. A generation of future leaders of Albania grew up hearing
the rest of Europe laugh as the country attempted to gain stability and
respectability through tinsel monarchies. It would, of course, be
incorrect to attribute Albania’s own peculiar brand of xenophobic
Marxist-Leninism, which flourished between 1944 and the early
1990s, exclusively to the Ruritanian flavour of pre-war Albania. But
is it any wonder that left-wing men, such as Enver Hoxha, felt
revulsion towards such degenerate, pseudo-feudal forms of
government? Once he gained power at the end of the Second World
 INTRODUCTION xxxvii

War, he imposed a harsh Marxist dictatorship, ruthlessly isolating

Albania from all but similar Stalinist, and later Maoist, countries. In
this sense, William of Wied’s brief reign may have carried a long-term
and darkly concealed legacy.

Winchester, June 2004

The arrival of the new monarchs at Durazzo, 7th March 1914. Note the
prominent position of Essad Pasha in uniform on Sophie’s right

The Royal Palace, or Konak, Durazzo 1914

‘Albania’s New King Arrives: The Committee of Welcome’ Cartoon
from the Literary Digest, March 14, 1914

“Welcome, Willie, I hope you find the palace comfortable.”

Cartoon from the Literary Digest, March 14, 1914
The Throne Room, Royal Palace, Durazzo 1914

The Albanian Royal Family in the Palace Gardens, Durazzo

The Royal Family inspecting troops. Duncan Heaton-Armstrong is in uniform,
2nd on the left, between the two ladies-in-waiting

The funeral of Colonel Thomson, 16th June 1914, in Durazzo

William and Sophie in Durazzo, followed by Duncan Heaton-Armstrong

Baron Buchberger Captain Castoldi, Prince William of

Wied, Durazzo
Prince William of Albania, August 1914
Turkhan Pasha Premeti, Prime Minister of
Albania, 1914

Jock Heaton-Armstrong and Mirdite soldiers, 1914

 Chapter One
. . . .

POTSDAM

How I, an Irishman, came to be mixed up in the Albanian

adventure, really wants some explanation. I was shooting with
a cousin in Prussia when the Albanian question became acute
and read in the Daily Mail that Prince William of Wied had
been chosen as the new ruler. Being what used to be known as
a professional militiaman (a trade which had no future) I was
on the look out for a more stable career and got in touch with
Baron Esebeck, the Kaiser's Master of the Horse, who knew the
Prince and kindly arranged a meeting for me at dinner. My
original idea was to raise a bodyguard which could really be
relied on. But the Prince turned down this offer as the Concert
of Europe did not allow him to take on foreign soldiers. Just
before the party broke up he came up to me and asked whether
I would by any chance be interested in being taken on as the
Secretary, should his negotiations with someone else break
down. I told him I couldn't type or write shorthand, but would
be only too glad to accept the job. When we parted he said he'd
let me know in due course.
At the end of December 1913, I got a wire telling me I had
been appointed Private Secretary and Comptroller of the Privy
Purse and was to report at Potsdam within 48 hours, which I
did. I owed my job to the fact that the Prince could not take on
an Italian or a German for political reasons, and that it was a
2 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

help to him to have found a 'neutral', who spoke German like

a native and was a first class interpreter in French and Italian,
in which languages most of the correspondence would have to
be carried on. There were over 500 applicants for the post, in
spite of the very low salary it carried. After the preliminary
interviews, I began my duties as Secretary to the Prince of Wied
at Potsdam on the 7 January 1914. It was a new experience for
me to be in harness and it was not always pleasant, as never
having been dependent on anybody I now had to behave
respectfully to my new master, even out of office hours, which
was not at all to my liking. However, my duties were light and
I had nothing to complain about; in the mornings I had to
report myself at the Prince's villa, to receive instructions for the
day. As a rule, I only got a few unimportant letters to write,
such as refusals to applicants asking for appointments, but
sometimes I was sent into Berlin on all sorts of errands, some of
which were quite amusing. Once, when visiting an official,
who was staying at a well-known hotel in Berlin, I gave my
visiting card to the hall-porter to take up to him. As soon as the
porter saw my name, he handed me the newspaper, which he
had been reading, and I found it to contain a paragraph about
myself, which was anything but complimentary and much
resented my appointment, as I was a British officer!
It is curious what a number of people there were who
wanted appointments; men holding high positions in their own
countries and ne'er-do-wells; there were Englishmen,
Austrians, Germans and representatives from nearly every
country in Europe. All their applications were immediately
refused - but kept for further reference - hundreds of them!
Amongst the applicants for Court appointments there were
some very funny specimens - adventurers, professional snobs
and swindlers, and one had to keep awake when dealing with
them. A curious case was that of a certain X.; his application
had been refused twice, but he would not accept a refusal; after
bothering me with his letters for weeks, he one day came to see
me; for this great occasion he had put on a couple of
decorations - perhaps this was done to impress me - I don't
 POTSDAM 3

know! This visitor, who had a distinctly Semitic appearance,

made a most unfavourable impression on me, so I got rid of him
as quickly as possible. On returning to my hotel after lunch, the
porter informed me that the man was still waiting and wanted
to see me again; he advised me to have nothing to do with him,
as he had met him twice before, using names and titles to
which he had no right, and that he had on one occasion
swindled my informant's employers, somewhere in the South of
France. Naturally enough I took little further interest in this
budding courtier and though he still wrote regularly that he
would come to pay me his respects in Durazzo, I never had the
pleasure of seeing him again.
We were much bothered by over-zealous journalists in
search of copy, but as I was strictly forbidden to receive them
and the Prince himself would have nothing to do with them,
they had to go empty away. From the very beginning I warned
the Prince that this was a bad policy on his part, but being of a
very retiring nature, he would not believe that it is sometimes
a most useful thing to have "a good Press" on one's side. During
the whole of his short reign, the Prince only received very few
journalists, and, as far as I remember, those few were English;
however after a time I was able to get his permission to do so;
but it was by that time too late and the international press had
already turned against him, particularly the German press,
which poured ridicule on the unhappy Mbret (“King” in
Albanian) from a thousand scurrilous pens.
Occasionally I lunched or dined at the villa and on these
occasions I made the acquaintance of several Albanian
notables, among whom were Ekrem Bey Libohova, who later
became Aide-de-camp, and Ekrem Bey Vlora whose undoubted
abilities were unfortunately not made use of.1 These two were
Mahommedans, and "Beys", as the landed aristocracy are
described; both of them are highly cultured and well educated
patriots. They gave their future sovereign a lot of advice while
they were at Potsdam, which advice was perhaps not
sufficiently regarded; time and again they pointed out that the
Prince could not possibly govern Albania without bringing an
4 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

army with him, strong enough to deal with any league of Beys,
or others, which might be formed against him. Unfortunately
the Prince could not be convinced that an army was a sine qua
non, though everybody else saw how necessary it would be! As
already mentioned, I heard at a later date that the Concert of
Europe had made the stipulation that the King would not be
allowed any foreign mercenaries. I also made the acquaintance
of the other members of the Court, who were being taken to
Durazzo from Europe: von Trotha, the Comptroller of the
Household, a typical Prussian officer of the best type, was as
honourable and straightforward a fellow as one could wish to
meet, and we were the best of friends during the whole of our
time at Durazzo. Then there were two ladies-in-waiting,
Fräulein von Oidtmann and Fräulein von Pfuel, the latter a
sister-in-law of the German Chancellor, von Bethmann-
Hollweg. Besides these there were the two members of a sort of
Privy Council, who, though not actually belonging to the
Court, were attached to it; these were Capitano Fortunato
Castoldi and Vice-Consul Buchberger, who were to represent
the interests of Italy and Austria respectively at the Court,
though officially they were only the Mbret's advisers and
political secretaries. Castoldi, being strongly recommended by
his Government and as he was certainly a very clever man,
soon managed to get the bit between his teeth and keep it there
until about the middle of May, when Buchberger was for a short
time in the ascendant.
At Potsdam the Prince worked very hard, much harder
than I did at any rate, and spent the greater part of his days at
his desk writing. Things appeared to remain at a standstill and
nothing of importance happened; new arms, flags and uniforms
were invented and it was my impression that too much
valuable time was being wasted on such rather unimportant
matters. However, I was very comfortable and did not bother
my head about things that did not concern me; the Prince's
amiable disposition made it a pleasure to do anything one could
for him, though it was sometimes rather worrying not to get an
answer on quite simple matters. His one great fault was that he
 POTSDAM 5

could never make up his mind!

While I was at Potsdam, I met several of his brother-
officers, amongst whom he was very popular, although they did
not appear to have a high opinion of his qualifications as a
ruler. During this time I made the acquaintance in Berlin of an
Albanian lady and her husband, who had come over to
Germany to see what was going to happen. One night I went
to dine with this couple and was much amused by the very
emancipated opinions expressed by the wife, who, though a
"down-trodden" Mahommedan, seemed to have her husband
well under her thumb.
Occasionally very disquieting rumours reached us from
Albania, but eventually things appeared to have improved and
von Trotha was sent down to Durazzo to make the necessary
preparations for the King's arrival; he took the greater part of
the European household staff with him and was kept hard at
work trying to make the old Konak2 more or less inhabitable.
As may be imagined, he found things in an awful state!
Nevertheless he succeeded in turning an Augean stable into a
very respectable gentleman's residence; of course it was quite
impossible to turn a Turkish Governor's Konak, which had
been uninhabited for years, into a European Royal Palace. So
time went on and after a period of about a month, we began our
little "Lightning Tour" round the capitals of Europe.
 Chapter Two
. . . .

V I E N N A - L O N D O N - PA R I S

On 6 February I received instructions to be in readiness to

leave for Vienna, where I was to buy horses the next evening; I
was kept hard at work till the time for leaving came and hardly
had time to pack my luggage. I got to Vienna without any
incidents and immediately set to work interviewing job-
masters, horse-coopers and private owners; after a few days'
looking and bargaining, I bought a very good team of bays at a
low figure, so when the Prince followed me, he was quite
satisfied with my work. He arrived in the early morning from
Rome, where he had paid his first visit accompanied by
Capitano Castoldi, who had been left in Italy, and Buchberger
was now in attendance. At the station the Prince was received
by an Aide-de-camp, whom the Emperor had sent to welcome
him, a representative from the Austrian Foreign Office and a
large crowd of people interested in the new country; amongst
these was Dr. Gjergj Pekmezi,3 a very cultured Albanian, and a
number of Albanian boys who were being educated at some
school near Vienna. These boys were the first people to cheer
their future ruler with "Rroft Mbreti" (Hail the King!), which
we heard so often after we got to Durazzo.
While the Prince was in Vienna we were the Emperor's
guests and given rooms at the Hotel Imperial, where we were
most comfortable; Royal carriages were put at our disposal and
 VIENNA - LONDON - PARIS 7

altogether this first experience of public life has nothing but

the most pleasant recollections for me. Count Berchtold, the
Minister for Foreign Affairs, gave a dejeuner in honour of the
Prince; this was quite interesting as we here met some of the
men that had played the most prominent part in the making of
Albania. Only one topic was discussed - Albania and nearly
everybody present had something pleasant to say about the
country. Only one man in the room did not have such a high
opinion of her and that was an Admiral who had been there
himself.
In the evening we went to dine at Schönbrunn, the
imperial palace near Vienna, with the Emperor Francis Joseph;
this was a rather unusual experience for me and it must be
admitted that I suffered somewhat from stage-fright. We were
received by the Master of the Ceremonies and the Prince was
immediately taken to the Emperor's private room, while the
other guests, including myself, were assembled in a large
drawing-room; all the others were wearing their best clothes,
elegant uniforms with glittering rows of decorations, but I only
had a dress coat which did not fit me and had been borrowed
for the evening from a friend, as I had at the last moment made
the painful discovery that I had forgotten my own in Potsdam;
I did not therefore feel as comfortable as I might otherwise
have done. My discomfiture was complete when I was taken
out into the middle of the room, where I had to remain, stared
at by everybody, with only one person, the German
Ambassador, to talk to. The latter assisted the Prince to present
me to the Emperor, when he came in some minutes later.
Speaking German, the Emperor made a few very friendly
remarks to me; but in my agitation I addressed him as "Your
Highness", a faux-pas which his kindly good nature no doubt
overlooked. My neighbour at dinner was Prince Luli Esterhazy,
the officer of the guard, and we got on so well that we fixed up
a supper together that night and went on to the cabaret
Tabarin where I was recognised and given quite an ovation,
where we remained until the early hours of the morning. Next
day the Prince visited the Spanish Riding School at the
8 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

Hofburg, where he was received by the Master of the Horse,

who showed us round and had some splendid horses put
through their paces for his benefit.
That night we left for Berlin by train; an Imperial carriage
had been put at our disposal and everything worked splendidly
till we reached the German frontier, where I had to take tickets
for twelve people in order to be able to retain our carriage; for
the first time I was shown here that the Prince, like all
prophets, was considered of little account in his own country!
We took one day's rest in Berlin; I went over to Potsdam and
completed my packing for the remainder of our tour and also
for Albania and on the next we left for England. On arrival in
London the Prince was met at the station by the King's Master
of the Ceremonies and driven by him to the Ritz Hotel, where
a suite of rooms had been reserved for him; after seeing to the
luggage I followed with a secretary from the German Embassy.
We were invited to lunch at Buckingham Palace, Lord Jack
Hamilton receiving us at the door; my Prince lunched tête-à-
tête with the royal family and I with the household. Hamilton,
who knew me, said that everybody was rather disappointed
when they saw me, as they had rather expected a bloodthirsty-
looking bandit, who would have given them a break from the
respectable routine of the court. When we left the Palace the
Prince was in excellent spirits, and soon knew the reason when
he handed me a red morocco case, which contained the
Insignia of the G.C.V.O. (Grand Cross of the Royal Victorian
Order)! I was green with envy, as I considered that I had
deserved the decoration just as much as he had.
We left for Paris in the evening and got there in the early
hours of the morning - too sleepy to take much intelligent
interest in our surroundings. As the Prince was getting out of
the railway carriage, there was a bright flash and loud report; I
presumed that he had been blown up by some wandering
anarchist and felt anything but comfortable; however to my
great relief I discovered that the perpetrator of this supposed
outrage was only an enterprising journalist, who had taken a
flash-light picture of him for the morning papers. We put up at
 VIENNA - LONDON - PARIS 9

the Hotel du Rhin, where the Prince was known and had
reserved accommodation. Later in the day the Prince went to
lunch with the President of the Republic; I was not invited,
which much annoyed me and injured my vanity, though it gave
me the opportunity of doing some real secretarial work, to
which I was already becoming quite unused. Our reception in
Paris was distinctly poor; we did not get a carriage at our
disposal and we even had to pay our own hotel bill; this last I
did with a very bad grace, as the German owner of the
establishment had stuck on his charges in the Prince's honour
as if he had already been a crowned head. We left Paris the
same evening and travelled through the night, getting to
Neuwied, the Prince's ancestral home, in time for a late
breakfast. We were put up by the Prince's two unmarried sisters4
at Monrepos, a large modern country house, situated on the
hill, overlooking the town of Neuwied and the Rhine valley.
I will conclude this chapter with a description of our visit
to the Russian Court, though this did not take place till after
the Prince had received the Albanian deputations, to which I
shall refer later. On 25 February the Prince and I left for Berlin,
en route to St. Petersburg. We reached Wirballen, the frontier
station, at midday and were received by a Russian colonel, who
showed us to the Imperial waiting room, where we had lunch,
while he attended to our luggage and passports. The remainder
of our journey we completed in a Royal saloon car, in which we
were made most comfortable. In the evening we had a slight
contretemps, which is worth narrating. Not being able to speak
Russian, we were rather handicapped in ordering our dinner
from the attendant, who spoke no other language; however we,
by signs, made him understand that we were hungry and left
the rest to his discretion; in due course he came to lay the table
and at 8 o'clock dinner was served. We fell on the first course,
which consisted of an ample Russian Zakuska, with a will, as we
were very hungry and did not know whether we were likely to
get anything else. Apparently the worthy waiter had received
instructions to do us well and in consequence served us a long
and excellently cooked dinner; not wishing to hurt his feelings,
10 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

we ate of everything valiantly, and our glasses never being

allowed to stand empty for a moment, we both got rather merry
and delayed getting up (was it the falling of the hour, or drink
that made our return to our sleeping compartments so
adventurous?).
At St. Petersburg we were met by Count Totleben, one of
the Czar's Aides-de-camp, who escorted the Prince to the
Winter Palace. In the meantime, being surrounded by a crowd
of gesticulating porters, whose language I did not understand, I
failed to notice the Prince's departure and found myself left
behind with the valet and luggage; I had no choice but to share
the servant's carriage to a back door of the Palace, where the
assembled footmen naturally enough took me for one of
themselves; luckily a German-speaking butler appeared on the
scene and took me to the breakfast room, where I found the
Prince and joined him for breakfast. Very handsome suites of
rooms were put at our disposal and also the Royal carriages.
The Prince lunched with the Czar at Tsarskoe Selo and I was
left behind to amuse myself as best I could and receive any
callers who might appear during my master's absence. From my
window I watched the troops changing guard and was much
impressed by their appearance; the men were very fine
specimens of humanity and in their winter great-coats looked
enormous. The whole ceremony could hardly have been
bettered, even by the Brigade of Guards, and the band was as
good a one as I have ever heard anywhere. In the evening a
dinner was given at the German Embassy in the Prince's
honour, a very fine "Palais" with splendid hall and reception
rooms; the Prince so enjoyed himself, that I thought he would
never leave at all; this was rather an important matter for me,
as I wanted to have a look round the town, which is famous for
its gipsy orchestras. After midnight a move was made and after
depositing the Prince at the Palace, Count Totleben and I were
free to sally forth into the night. My host, an enormous man
with a head like lion, could not have done more for me, but too
much sweet champagne and unlimited caviar rather spoiled my
evening and we went home rather earlier than planned.
 VIENNA - LONDON - PARIS 11

It was noticeable that Totleben spoke German almost as his

native tongue, but warned me that it was better to speak
French when there were people about, as the Germans were so
unpopular in Russia.
Next day we left St. Petersburg in the evening; at the
station several ambassadors were assembled to see us off and a
number of local Albanians also appeared on the scene; they
forced their way into the Royal Waiting Room, while nobody
was looking and, as they were unknown and unpleasant-
looking individuals, I had them ejected without any further
ado. We got to Waldenburg, the Schonburg's family place,5
after an uneventful two days' journey and so our preliminary
tour of the capitals was at an end; during this I had had my first
taste of public life and I enjoyed every minute of it.
 Chapter Three
. . . .

T H E A L B A N I A N D E P U T AT I O N

The day after our return to Neuwied from Paris, the 21

February, was the great long-looked-for day, on which the
throne of Albania was to be offered to Prince William of Wied
by a deputation consisting of representatives from all parts of
the country. The Albanians were to be received in state and
great preparations were made for their arrival; everybody was
arrayed in festive clothing and even I was made to conform to
the barbarous continental custom of wearing dress clothes in
the daytime; I did so under protest and even had my breakfast
so attired. Ending a night in a tailcoat is one thing, starting the
day in one is another!
I was then sent down to the station to await the arrival of
the deputation; there were plenty of cars and carriages ready to
take the Albanians to the Schloss and a curious crowd was
assembled outside the station to give them an ovation as they
drove by; so I had nothing to do but wait. On the platform I
noticed another personage in dress-clothes, who later on
turned out to be one of the Prince of Wied's officials,6 sent on
the same errand as myself; neither of us knew of the other's
mission and when the Albanians arrived, we tried to elbow
each other out of the field, each of us presuming the other to
be some sort of impostor. When the train drew into the station,
I soon spotted Castoldi's huge moustache - he was acting as
 THE ALBANIAN DEPUTATION 13

bear-leader to the deputation - and he introduced me to Essad

Pasha and the other notables. They were all wearing dress-
clothes and there was nothing about them to distinguish them
from ordinary Continental burghers; only their names sounded
exotic and, as a German paper very aptly remarked, reminded
one of patent soaps! Their appearance must have been a great
disappointment to the crowd, who were expecting comic-opera
brigands! I saw them all safely into the carriages and got into
the last one myself; and discovered that its occupants were not
deputies at all, but journalists, accompanying the party.
On arrival at the Schloss, the travellers were taken to a
reception-room, where they were in due course presented to
the Prince and Princess, who received them very graciously.
Essad Pasha then made a very fine speech, which none of us
understood, and when this had been translated by Ekrem Bey
Vlora, the Prince made a short reply in French - or German, I
forget which; this little ceremony over, everybody seemed very
pleased and the Albanians cheered their new sovereign. So
Prince William of Wied, a captain in the German army,
became "by the Grace of the Powers and the will of the people"
the "Mbret" (in Albanian)or King of Albania! The banquet
which followed was not wildly exciting, as my neighbours were
not very talkative and one of them showed his appreciation of
the dishes placed before him rather more markedly than is
usual in polite European society; however the wine was
excellent and by the end of the meal, even the strict
Mahommedan, Essad, had done justice to it. The Mbret, or
King, as I will hereafter call Prince William of Wied (for to the
Albanians he was King - not Prince, as is often erroneously
supposed), then returned to Monrepos and we accompanied
him; the Albanians followed us half an hour later and were
entertained there for tea. A cinematograph performance was
given for their benefit, but, though they pretended to enjoy it I
know that it bored them just as much as it did the rest of us.
During the performance I had to go back to the drawing-room
for something or other; to my surprise I found it occupied by
two persons I had not seen before; on discovering that they
14 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

were journalists, I informed Baron Malchus, a person of

authority in the Princesses’ household, who gave the intruders
a piece of his mind and drove them out of the house
ignominiously.
Next evening we left Neuwied for Waldenburg in Saxony,
Queen Sophia's old home; the town was gaily decorated and
the population had turned out "en masse" to witness our
departure. We started our travels badly, as Fräulein von Pfuel
felt so ill that I had to dose her with brandy in the waiting-
room while the King was inspecting the local veterans and
fire-brigade; her condition did not improve during the night
and when we reached Waldenburg next morning it was
discovered that she was suffering from measles. Our new hosts,
the Schönburg-Waldenburgs, the Queen's eldest brother and
family, are one of the petty princely families which flourish in
Germany and keep up a certain state, according to the
traditions of a bygone day, though they do not own more land
than an average Scottish laird. Prince Schönburg, who was
killed during the first weeks of the Great War, was most
amiable and, having seen British hospitality in our African
colonies, where he had shot big game, did everything to make
me feel at home under his roof.
The Albanian deputation reappeared here to pay its
respects to the new Queen's family and the festivities bore
much the same character that they had done at Neuwied. I
quite made friends with the redoubtable Essad, though, as we
could not understand each other in any language, our
conversation had to be confined to slapping each others' backs.
Essad Pasha makes a good impression on one; he is a square-
built man of medium height with a high, intellectual forehead
and piercing black eyes; his fifty years weigh lightly upon him
and his jovial, soldierly manner inspires confidence. Essad
Pasha was the head of the wealthy and influential family of the
Toptanis and was by far the largest landowner in central
Albania, where he could raise two or three thousand armed
followers at a few hours' notice. It is rather a curious fact that
most of his cousins were amongst his worst enemies and would
 THE ALBANIAN DEPUTATION 15

not have anything to do with him. He was a general in the

Turkish service and commanded the troops at Scutari, when it
was besieged by the Serbians and Montenegrins during the
Balkan war; his predecessor, Hassan Riza Bey, was murdered as
he was leaving Essad Pasha's house after a dinner party and in
Albania it is generally believed that one of Essad's followers, a
certain Osman Bali,7 committed the murder at his bidding. It
was generally believed that the Serbians had sent secret
emissaries to Hassan, offering £30,000 for the capitulation of
Scutari and that Hassan, being a good man, had refused the
bribe. Essad, with an eye on the main chance, is said to have
accepted the money and surrendered "with drums beating and
flags flying". What truth there is in the story, I am not in a
position to judge.
 Chapter Four
. . . .

TRIESTE - DURAZZO

We, the King, the Queen, two ladies-in-waiting and I left

Waldenburg on the 4 March, accompanied by servants and a
few dogs; one of these bolted at the station and had to be
brought on to the next station by motor-car. We all wondered
what the future had in store for us; we had read as many books
as we could find about Albania, but it cannot be said that we
had any real knowledge of the country that we were going to,
and it seems that the King and Queen knew little more about
it than we did though they had spent months in preparing
themselves for their new duties. When meeting the King in the
corridor next morning, both of us dolled up in the newly-
invented, rather dressy, grey Albanian uniform for the first
time, I said "Good morning, Your Majesty", to which he
replied, "We'd better go a bit steady with the "Majesty" at
present." We arrived at Trieste at 9 o'clock. At the station we
were received by the Statthalter, Prince Hohenlohe, a number
of other government officials, local dignitaries, the officers
commanding our international naval escort and a crowd of
Albanian residents. As the King left the train, a military band
struck up a weird and rather cheerful tune, which we were told
was the Albanian national anthem, and to this we marched
solemnly along the platform, at the end of which the King
inspected a very smart guard of honour, furnished by the 97th
 TRIESTE - DURAZZO 17

Infantry Regiment. The town was "en fete", houses were be-
flagged and the crowd was in a state of delirious excitement -
willing to enjoy every incident however petty. Our drive to the
quay was a triumphal procession and I never heard more hearty
cheering in my life. A motor-launch conveyed us over to the
Taurus, a 1,200 ton yacht put at the King's disposal for this trip
by the Austrian Admiralty; here several deputations were
received before we again went on land to pay a complimentary
visit to the Statthalter.
As his "Palais" was just opposite the quay, we went there
on foot and a way was cleared for us through the crowd.
However this closed in as soon as the King had passed, and it
was as much as I could do to keep up with the procession; the
crush was so awful that I got one of my spurs entangled in an
old lady's skirt and had to part company with it for a time. I did
not appreciate the humour of the situation and felt miserable at
the idea of having to appear in this semi-clothed condition, so
I was overcome with joy and gratitude when an Italian rough
handed me my treasure, as I was about to enter Government
House. I felt very flustered by this incident, so failed to get any
pleasure out of the visit and was glad when we were once more
safely installed on board.
Immediately after lunch the Comptroller of the
Household, von Trotha, appeared on the scene, having just
arrived from Durazzo whence he had come to meet us; he was
not in the best of humours as the Court Doctor, Berghausen,
had insisted on accompanying him. As Dr. Berghausen had not
been expected, there was no room for him on the yacht and he
was packed off to the French cruiser Bruix (one of our escort),
where accommodation was found for him. Being of a very
sensitive and nervous disposition, he considered that he had
been publicly slighted and from this time onward was
continually trying to pick quarrels with von Trotha, who very
wisely ignored him as much as possible. We visited the
Austrian flagship Tegethoff and our escorting cruisers early in
the afternoon and the King and Queen were much impressed
by the smartness of the Austrians and the cleanness of
18 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

everything on board; as also by the workmanlike appearance of

the British sailors on board HMS Gloucester, whose
commander, Captain Leatham8 took charge of the escorting
squadron. In the evening we weighed anchor and,
accompanied by the strain of bands and the booming of guns,
steamed out of the harbour, surrounded by our escort - along
the Istrian coast - into a still Adriatic night.
Our journey lacked interest until we sighted the Albanian
coast on the morning of the 7th March, near the mouth of the
Boyana River; here the captain of the Gloucester won
everybody's heart by signalling over a message of
congratulation to the Mbret. The Austrian officers were an
excellent lot of fellows and, knowing the coast well, were able
to point out any places of interest to the new ruler (though they
did not know much about the shooting possibilities in these
parts, the only thing that I wanted to hear about).
San Giovanni di Medua, of which I had so often read in the
papers, the third port of Albania, turned out to be a mere
village consisting of half a dozen white-washed cottages. The
coast here is quite pretty and the sea was dotted with curious-
looking fishing-smacks, manned by Albanians, wearing the
baggy trousers peculiar to this district, who had come out to get
a first glimpse of their new sovereigns. Most of the morning we
spent on the bridge, the King smoking peacefully, the Queen
enthusiastic about every rock in this romantic country; the two
ladies remained below with the two advisers as the breeze was
stiffening and they were not particularly good sailors. At about
midday the wind dropped and by the time we got round the
cape and headed into the bay of Durazzo, the weather was
absolutely perfect, as was only right and proper on such an
auspicious occasion.
Durazzo was at that time a small town of roughly 7,000
inhabitants, a large number of whom were gipsies; it lies on the
southern extremity of a strip of land, which being cut off from
the mainland by the swamps, is practically a peninsula. White
houses nestling close under the hill, against a grey-green
background, is the first we saw of the capital; a beautiful bay
 TRIESTE - DURAZZO 19

with a deep blue Southern sea and in the distant South, across
the water, Tomor with its snow-capped peak, the Fujiyama of
Albania. Little did we think when we looked at the town and
its peaceful surroundings that before three months were out the
Mbret would be forced to flee from it! The guns in the old
Venetian fort boomed out their salute, as also did the warships
lying in the harbour, and soon the busy little government
motor-boat was bringing the great men of the land to welcome
their sovereigns. (This motor-boat is said to have been one of
Essad Pasha's "jobs"; it cost the Albanian government 36,000
crowns and was certainly not worth more than 2,000 at the
outside.) Essad was of course one of the first to arrive on board
and welcomed the Mbret in a few well-chosen words, in the
name of the whole people; among his companions there were
some distinctly strange-looking individuals, though they were,
perhaps, all worthy and honourable men. Their oriental
salaams and national headgear clashed with the frock coats and
American boots that they were wearing. The Albanians are
great on outward and visible signs; so to show their
independence they discarded the old red Turkish fez and
invested a new-shaped thing without a tassel, a reddish grey in
colour, which was nothing like as smart as the older head-
covering. Essad Pasha was even wearing dress-clothes, to show
the King that one man at least in the country knew what was
the correct thing to do! The King had had a General's uniform
made for Essad in Potsdam, as he thought that this attention
would gratify the redoubtable chieftain, and in this he was
right; we had it handy and the Pasha came down to my cabin,
where he immediately donned it. He seemed very pleased with
his martial appearance and from that time onward always wore
uniform.
The whole party was conveyed to the rickety landing-stage
in launches; it was adorned with red carpets and bright
bunting; and the native gendarmerie in their dark green
uniforms lined the route that we were to take. The King and
Queen walked at our head, escorted by Essad Pasha, then came
von Trotha, the two ladies and I, while Castoldi and
20 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

Buchberger acted as rearguard; the market-square was crowded

to overflowing and the people cheered, applauded and cried
with joy! For five hundred years the Turk had ruled the country
and now at last Albania had a Mbret - and what a one! No
doubt the enthusiasm had been much augmented by stories,
which had been circulated amongst the simple mountaineers,
that a King would bring such prosperity into the country that
even the poorest peasant would own his flock of sheep; others
again had heard that bags full of Napoleons were going to be
distributed amongst them and had come from their distant
villages to be present at this interesting ceremony. The King's
height and soldierly bearing made a great impression on the
natives and no doubt many a crafty old brigand hoped that this
tall young ruler would lead his Skipetars (Albanians) on some
great sheep-stealing expeditions into Serbia and perhaps even
conquer that country before the year was out!
What a mixture of peoples and costumes was assembled on
the square to welcome us! Tall mountaineers from the north,
with long narrow heads and fair hair, the shorter wiry Tosks
from the South, whose sallow complexions and round heads
proclaimed the Greek or Turkish strain in their blood, and
lastly swarms of gipsies, many of them very dark skinned. Every
district had sent its contingent to cheer the new rulers and
their various national dresses added brightness to the scene.
Flowers were strewn in our path and somebody in the crowd
threw a couple of white pigeons in front of the Queen "for
luck", as we were told. She picked them up and the people
cheered themselves hoarse. A hundred yards or so brought us to
the Royal garden, a very pretty little garden full of trees, which
came right down to the seashore; the almond-trees were in
blossom and their delicate perfume filled the air. Then we went
up the steps of the Palace, a solid yellow house with green
shutters, a cool stone-paved courtyard in the middle of it.
However we had no time to examine our new home more
closely as deputations and official personages had first to be
received; everything seems jumbled up and I can only
remember that Dutch officers, Commissioners of Control and
 TRIESTE - DURAZZO 21

foreign consuls were brought up for presentation to the King in

endless succession, all in their best clothes and smothered in
decorations.
At last our arduous duties accomplished to everybody's
satisfaction, we were able to have our first look-round and start
our inspection of the house; the first floor contained the living-
rooms and on this were my quarters. As the house was rather
small I only got one room, next to the King's study, and had to
fix it up as bed-room and office combined; as it was triangular
in shape, this was quite a simple matter and the view from my
window compensated me for the lack of space. Certainly I was
no worse off than anybody else, and as my room was very
conveniently situated I had nothing to grumble about.
The King and Queen had sent all their furniture from
Germany, some of which was beautifully inlaid old stuff, I
believe of Dutch origin, so we were quite well off in this
respect. On the first floor there was a "throne-room", as we
called it, with a balcony overlooking the garden, and next to
this was a drawing-room through which one reached the
Queen's little boudoir. Then came a large, comfortable dining-
room, with a very pretty view on to one of the old Venetian
towers with the sea in the background; the other half of the
floor was divided off from our part of the house and was
occupied by the servants' quarters. The King's study was a snug
room with big black book-cases and gun-cupboards round it; a
large settee stood opposite the solid old work-table. As far as I
recollect, there were few pictures on the walls, as these were
reserved for the King's sporting trophies, which we intended
putting up at a later date. There was a broad passage all round
the inner side of the house, and in our half of it we divided this
up with curtains, practically converting it into three additional
living-rooms. The end one of these was furnished in the
oriental style with sofas, cushions and rugs and was used as a
sitting-room by the "entourage" when we were left to ourselves,
as it was just outside the dining-room, it took the place of a
lounge and in it black coffee was served after meals. The house
was clean and, though not large enough for a Palace, was bright
22 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

and comfortable. An excellent English butler, one of the old

school, and his German footmen had worked hard to get the
place ship-shape with the aid of numerous maids and 'dailies' of
various nationalities.
When we sat down to dinner that first evening, everybody
was in the best of spirits, as was only natural after the splendid
reception that had been accorded to us. The enthusiasm of the
population was indescribable and the King and Queen had to
keep reappearing on the balcony to show themselves to their
loyal subjects, who were cheering themselves hoarse in their
honour. Chinese lanterns illuminated the square and an Italian
brass band, which had been brought over from Bari for the
festivities, played popular tunes, though it must be admitted
that the music did not appear to have any charms for the native
element. After dinner I went for a tour of exploration in the
town and soon discovered the "Hotel" Clementi, the only
European hotel in Durazzo, where the Dutch officers and a few
other foreigners were celebrating the King's accession. This
"Hotel" was anything but luxurious, though the prices asked
were enormous. Simple fare was served at a long table, covered
with a dirty table-cloth, and the guests sat round it on kitchen
chairs and empty packing-cases; a couple of gaudy picture-
postcards decorated the walls and an oil lamp illuminated the
scene. To-night champagne was flowing freely, so I spent a
pleasant half-hour with the soldiers, diplomats, soldiers of
fortune and commercial travellers here assembled, all of whom
gave me a hearty welcome. As nothing else of interest was to
be discovered in the whole town, I soon returned to the palace,
where I found everybody resting after our strenuous day; it had
been a long and interesting day, this 7th of March, and as long
as I live I shall not forget it! It opened up a new life to us all, a
life of work and (we hoped) romantic adventure; Albania was
a wilderness and we were all to take our part in turning it into
a civilised country; would to God we had succeeded!
 Chapter Five
. . . .

SMALL BEGINNINGS

During the first few days at Durazzo the King and Queen
were kept fully occupied receiving deputations from all parts of
the country; as the court had no traditions, we were able to
invent our own ceremonial, which we made as simple as
possible. The King and Queen used to stand in the blue
drawing-room (throne-room) attended by the two ladies-in-
waiting, while von Trotha and I were kept busy looking after
the visitors, whom we drove into the room and out of it, as
occasion demanded. Most of these deputations were composed
of feudal chieftains, or headmen of the towns and villages,
supported by the spiritual representatives of their district -
Mahommedans, Roman Catholics and Greek Orthodox.
Occasionally some member of a deputation would be able to
make his little speech in French or Italian, but as a rule the
addresses and the general conversation had to be translated by
one of the local dignitaries, who always attended these
functions to act as interpreter. Some of the hardy mountaineers
that came to pay homage were about as fine-looking specimens
of semi-barbaric manhood as one could wish to see, and decked
out in their best clothes made a very fine picture. Though
unfortunately many of these patriots were not in the habit of
squandering their fortunes on soap, and had strengthened
themselves for this auspicious occasion with a mouthful of
24 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

garlic, their manners were naturally graceful and their bows

often as elegant as those of any courtier in Europe. Some of
them were splendidly arrayed, their short jackets one mass of
gold lace and embroidery. Around their necks they wore
massive silver chains of quaint workmanship, to which in
ordinary life revolvers were attached, but now were only
ornamental, as revolvers were not allowed to be brought into
the palace. Many a proud old brigand sported the medals that
his forefathers had earned during the old Turkish regime.
Though most of these chieftains were entirely untouched
by civilisation and some of them were certainly the most
bloodthirsty-looking ruffians I had ever seen, they had a
something in their bearing which stamped them as gentlemen.
The most noteworthy of these chieftains was Isa Boletin (1864-
1916), a native of Kosovo, in Serbian territory, who had spent
the whole of his life fighting. For quarter of a century he headed
one revolt after another against the Turks and finally, after the
Balkan War, when his own district became a part of Serbia, he
again found himself "agin the government" and retired to the
small but independent part of his native land, where he made
himself useful to Ismail Kemal Bey during the early days of
Albanian liberty. The Turkish government had conferred upon
him the rank of colonel, thus trying to flatter him into
submission, but Boletin was above such peccadilloes and
continued in the course that he had mapped out for himself. He
was one of the first to welcome the Mbret on his arrival, and
throughout his short and disturbed reign remained one of his
most loyal supporters. Though a strict Mahommedan himself,
he, like many of the Northern mountaineers, was very tolerant
and placed his country's interests before his religion. Another
interesting character was Dom Nikol Kachiori (1862-1917), a
Roman Catholic priest of Durazzo and formerly Vice-President
of Ismail Kemal’s Provisional government in November 1912,
who had done time under the Turks in various filthy prisons for
carrying on his national propaganda under the very eyes of the
authorities. As is to be expected, he welcomed the new
monarch with open arms and gave him his wholehearted
 SMALL BEGINNINGS 25

support; he became one of the leaders of the nationalist, or

democratic, party and played an important role in the town,
though his influence was not acknowledged in government
circles.
When deputations were not being received, the King used
to retire to his study for hours on end; Castoldi would be sent for
and they would remain together till dinner, presumably
discussing political questions. They were both reserved men and
nobody knew what their plans for the future might be. There
was much speculation as to what form of government would
eventually be adopted: autocracy - oligarchy - democracy – any
one of the three was possible, though for the immediate future
autocratic rule seemed to promise the best results. The
Nationalists, many of whom had lived abroad and made the
acquaintance of liberal institutions, were unanimously in favour
of having some sort of national assembly. Their most able
champion was a certain Faik Bey Konitza,9 a noble of the South,
who had spent several years in England and America; he spoke
English and French perfectly and was acknowledged to be one
of the most highly educated men in the country. In spite of the
aspersions cast upon his character by his many personal and
political enemies, I believe that he was thoroughly loyal to the
King. I know that he made himself very useful to me on several
occasions, by bringing me information that might have proved
most useful had it been acted upon by the authorities. He was,
however, not taken seriously and his opinions were not
consulted till all was already lost, and he then naturally enough
declined to express them.
At last it leaked out that the King had invited Turkhan
Pasha Premeti (died 1927), for many years Turkish ambassador
in St. Petersburg, to form the first Albanian cabinet and on the
14th March this venerable old man arrived at Durazzo; a tall
distinguished-looking figure, a narrow head, white hair and
beard, a long aquiline nose and high intellectual forehead,
these were the chief characteristics of this distinguished
diplomat. A grand-seigneur in every thought and deed, he was
however not the man to govern this turbulent little state,
26 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

where deeds, not words, were wanted to weld the various

warring factions into a united whole. Turkhan Pasha, though
an Albanian by birth, had spent forty years of his life in the
Turkish service; he had held important appointments in Crete,
Asia Minor and in the Diplomatic Service. His long career
showed a clean record for honesty, and this in an oriental
official is a rare virtue in itself. He was generally respected and
strongly recommended to the King, I believe by Roumanian
official circles. Another thing in his favour was the fact that
the great Essad had expressed his willingness to work under
him, and this, too, was an important consideration. (As a
matter of fact it seems probable that Essad knew more about
Turkhan Pasha than the King did, and thought that it would be
easy to influence him in the desired direction.)
After a few days' work the first cabinet was sworn in on the
18th March;10 this ceremony took place in the King's study, as
far as I remember, and I did not get the opportunity of watching
it. This first ministry was composed as follows:
Turkhan Pasha Premeti - Prime Minister & Foreign
Affairs; Essad Pasha Toptani - Interior & War; Aziz Pasha
Vrioni - Agriculture & Commerce; Mufid Bey Libohova -
Religion & Justice; Hasan Bey Prishtina - Post & Telegraphs
(Public Works); Dr. Tourtoulis Bey - Education etc.; Dr.
Adamidi Bey Frasheri - Finance.
The Nationalist party and many of the other amateur
politicians of Durazzo were not at all satisfied with this cabinet.
They objected to it firstly, because it consisted for the most part
of "foreigners", men who had never resided in the country and
knew little about it; secondly, because some of the ministers
could not even speak their own language, and business had to
be conducted in Turkish. Thirdly, it was thought that the
Mahommedan Essad-party was too strongly represented. There
certainly was some truth in all three objections: Turkhan
Pasha, Mufid Bey, Hasan Bey, Dr. Michael Tourtoulis,11 and Dr.
Adamidi had for many years been non-residents. The two first-
named had lived in Turkey, where Mufid was a well-known
lawyer until the Young Turks came into power, when he had to
 SMALL BEGINNINGS 27

retire from Constantinople; Hasan Bey's home was in the

Serbian town of Prishtina. The two doctors had settled down
in Egypt, in which country they are said to have had large
medical practices. Essad and Aziz Pasha represented the landed
gentry of central and southern Albania respectively and both
were men of importance in their own districts. Although it is
true Aziz belonged to the same class as Essad, and was also a
Mahommedan, it would not be fair to call him an Essad-man;
as landowners, they may have had certain views in common,
but in most matters they did not agree and, as a matter of fact,
Aziz Pasha was one of the greatest sufferers in the royal cause.
It was perfectly natural that these men should employ
Turkish as the official language, as it was the language they had
made their studies in and spoken all their lives. The Albanian
language was not standardised until 1908 and had never been
taught in the schools; it had been tolerated, but not encouraged
by the Turkish authorities, who looked upon it as a barbarous
dialect, wholly unintelligible to an educated person. I had
several enquiries from Gaelic societies, who claimed that the
roots of the Albanian language were of Celtic origin. Certain it
is that all the ministers, with the exception of the two doctors,
were Mahommedans, but they were westernised and quite
liberal in their ideas. To begin with not one of them belonged
to the Essad-party, though they soon fell under Essad's
influence.
It was also intended that Prenk Bib Doda (1860-1920), the
Prince or chieftain of the largest Catholic tribe in Albania, the
Mirdites, should have been given a position in the cabinet;
however this wily old chieftain would have nothing to do with
it and, soon after the King's arrival, retired into his mountains
in the north to wait and see what would happen next. One day
he told Essad Pasha the following story, by way of an
explanation of his conduct: "A fox and a cat one day made an
alliance, as they hoped that their joint intellects would prove
useful to both of them in their hunting expeditions; they set
out together and met a pack of hounds, who invited them to
join in with them. The cat, scenting danger, hastily climbed up
28 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

a neighbouring tree, but the fox, being over-certain of his

superior cunning, joined in with them. For a time they hunted
together, apparently the best of friends; but one day the
hounds, becoming tired of the tricky ways of their new
companion, turned on him suddenly and tore him to shreds;
the cat had never had any spoils of the chase, but it lived the
longest!" Prenk, like the cat, thought that discretion was the
better part of valour, and keeping out of Albanian politics
saved him from all the work, as well as from the unpleasant
experiences which Essad had to go through later on in the year.
The cabinet, once formed and sworn in, set to work with
a will and started its glorious career by giving away all the best-
paid appointments in the country to its political friends and, as
the Nationalists maintained, to Essad's retainers. The ministers
sometimes did not start their day's work till late in the
afternoon, and used to sit together in Essad's house till after
midnight, talking and drinking their coffee over innumerable
cigarettes. They did not do any serious work and, in fact, I
believe that they were incapable of doing any, though amongst
them were some of the best-educated and influential men at
the King's disposal. As one of the ministers once remarked "I
cannot make out what the Nationalists have got against me;
there is not a man in the country that can say anything bad
about me - except that I cannot read or write!".
From the very beginning, the cabinet was unpopular and
the mistrust shown towards it by the public probably damped
any ardour it may or may not have possessed when it took
office. Although Turkhan Pasha was nominally Prime Minister,
Essad lorded it over everything and his so-called colleagues
were afraid of him. The people soon got wind of this state of
affairs and, rightly or wrongly, considered that Essad was only
using the government to suit his own ends; Durazzo wanted the
King to rule, autocratically if necessary, and they objected to
Essad's "Tyranny".
 Chapter Six
. . . .

L I F E AT D U R A Z Z O

As soon as the cabinet had been formed the foreign

ministers and other diplomatic agents began to arrive from all
parts of Europe. The Roumanian Minister, Monsieur Burghele,
was the first to be received as this avoided the difficulty which
arose as to whether the Italian or Austrian representative
should come first; not an important question, one would
suppose, but at Durazzo a matter of supreme interest! As the
Mbret's Aide-de-camp had at this time not yet appeared on the
scene, I used to be sent in his stead to fetch the minister in a
carriage (borrowed from Essad Pasha, as our own had not yet
arrived from Germany) and an escort of mounted gendarmerie.
On the first of these performances, I was mounted on a local
pony; unfortunately for me it took it into its head to stop in the
middle of the road, before we had reached our destination.
Nothing would move it till some gipsies, who happened to be
passing by, took pity on me and, making a determined attack,
pushed me and my recalcitrant charger to the hotel by brute
force. Here Monsieur Burghele was already awaiting me.
Arrived at the palace, the minister and legation staff were
conducted into the throne-room, where the Mbret, attended by
Turkhan Pasha, received them. The Minister read out his
credentials, or something, in French and everybody then
assembled for lunch in the "yellow room"; the meal over, and
30 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

coffee having been served in the oriental room, the diplomats

were "processed" back to their hotel and, no doubt, all parties
concerned were glad to get back into comfortable clothes.
Monsieur Burghele's two subordinates were a Prince Michel
Sturdza,12 and Monsieur Ranette, both of whom were excellent
fellows and later on played a more important role than is
customary for such very junior members of the diplomatic
service.
The Italian, Austrian and other diplomatic missions were
received in a similar manner. The two former not only brought
their large staff but also a whole bevy of officers from the ships,
and others, just to show the people of Durazzo what great and
powerful countries they represented. These two legations found
fairly good accommodation in their respective consulates,
which were amongst the largest and most comfortable houses
in the town. The Italian minister came to Durazzo with the
reputation of being a very astute diplomat; his name was Baron
Aliotti and he had held positions in the embassies at Vienna,
Paris and Washington. The Austrian, Herr von Löwenthal, was
accompanied by his wife, and in their hospitable house I spent
some of my pleasantest hours at Durazzo. On his staff was Baron
Egon Bergen, an old friend of mine, who later became a
member of Dr Dolfuss's cabinet in Austria.
During these earlier days, too, the King and Queen had to
attend religious ceremonies held in their honour by the
different communities represented in the town. Of these the
Mahommedan, at which the Queen was not present, was by far
the most impressive; the Mufti was so moved by the solemnity
of the occasion, that his voice became quite shaky, as he spoke,
and tears gathered in his eyes. He even honoured his own
sovereign by praying the prayer usually only used for the Sultan
- a compliment, which augured well for the future! The "Te
Deum" in the Roman Catholic Church was quite an amusing
event, as the aged Archbishop (perhaps he was only bishop, I
don't remember) kept forgetting his cue and had to be kept up
to the mark by his second in command, Dom Nikol Kachiori,
who kept prompting him in an audible stage-whisper. This
 LIFE AT DURAZZO 31

event almost ended badly, as to everybody's astonishment, the

Austrian Minister had been allotted a place opposite the Court,
right up by the altar, while the rest of the diplomatic corps were
given places near the ministers in the nave. As soon as we got
home, Baron Aliotti asked for an audience and I believe that
he made serious representations on the subject. The Austrians
claimed that because their Emperor was the protector of all the
Roman Catholics on the Balkan Peninsula, they were entitled
to this privilege. What was finally done to pacify the
contending parties, I forget, but anyway everything was
smoothed over more or less to everybody's satisfaction and a
couple of days later the two rival ministers were seen walking
down the street together arm in arm, as if nothing had ever
happened to disturb their harmony. In this matter everybody's
sympathies were entirely with the Italian Minister, which gave
him a stronger position with the Court and Government than
he would have had if the incident had never taken place.
At the end of the month the horses, nine in number,
arrived from Austria; their landing was a matter of some
difficulty, as the landing-stage was rickety and awkward for
such an operation. A mare did succeed in falling into the sea,
which so frightened her that a foal was found in her stall next
morning. About this time, too, the Royal children,
accompanied by Fräulein von Pfuel, arrived by the Italian yacht
‘Misurata’13 and were received in state. The Crown Prince,
Carol Victor, known in Albania "Skanderbeg" after the
country’s fifteenth century national hero, was but one year old,
but had a splendid reception from the populace, though he did
not take any serious interest in what was going on; his sister,
Princess Maria Eleanora, was a precocious child of four. Their
stay in Durazzo cannot have been very pleasant for them, as
they and their English nurse hardly ever left the little garden in
front of the palace. The Princess, who married a Roumanian,
disappeared after the Second World War and the family, having
failed to get any news through the embassies in Bucharest,
appealed to me for help. A friend of mine discovered that she
had tried to escape from the country, had been caught and
32 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

condemned to 18 years imprisonment.14

By now we had settled down more or less comfortably and
our Court had been completed by the nomination of a
chamberlain, Sami Bey Vrioni,15 an Aide-de-camp, Major
Ekrem Bey Libohova and an Orderly Officer, Selim Bey Wassa.
Sami Bey, the son of Omar Pasha Vrioni (1839-1928), an
influential and highly respected landowner of Fieri, was a
cheerful little man of middle age and had sat in the Turkish
parliament for his district, in which he is said to have been very
popular. His figure having lost some of the charms of early
youth, he used to dread the Queen's long walks over the hills,
which he always alluded to as "le Sport" and altogether he was
not keen on any form of exercise or work. Though the son-in-
law of Essad Pasha, he did not take his part politically, but he
always thought that his father-in-law, in spite of all his faults,
was loyal to the King and doing his best for the country.
Ekrem Bey, whom as the reader will remember, I had
already met in Berlin was educated in Belgian military schools,
for a time under General Leman, the defender of Liége, and
distinguished himself on the Turkish side during the Balkan
War. Speaking French fluently, almost as his native language,
and having a good working knowledge of German and Italian,
in addition to Albanian, Turkish and a little Greek, he was a
great acquisition to the international Court of Durazzo. He was
good company, but very diplomatic, so that it was sometimes
rather difficult to make out what he was really thinking. He
was, perhaps, rather too nervous of hurting the King's feelings,
always insisting that von Trotha and I should tell him all the
unpleasant truths, but on the whole he gave the King good
advice and was thoroughly loyal to him. Selim Bey, who started
his career with six week's leave, belonged to a well-known
Roman Catholic family of the North. He was a well-educated
young fellow, speaking French, German and Italian fairly well;
educated in Constantinople, he had mixed a lot with foreigners
and was quite European in his outlook on life. He was the only
one of the new trio who was always ready to give one a helping
hand at one's work and, when I left, took over my office from
 LIFE AT DURAZZO 33

me. A year or two later he died of tuberculosis.

Servants also we had in plenty and sufficient variety:
Germans, Austrians, Albanians, British, Italian and an
Egyptian Arab; nobody can accuse us of not having had a
cosmopolitan household! In spite of the language and race
difficulties, the Court got on very well with itself and we were
just like a large family. As a general rule French and German
were the languages most spoken at Court, but Italian, Turkish
and Albanian had their innings when any more important
function took place in the Palace. The "cuisine" and cellar
were excellent; the cigars and cigarettes all that could be
desired, so we rejoiced in all home comforts and the blessings
of civilisation. The palace was an oasis in the desolation of the
wilderness, so it is not to be wondered at that we were happy
and contented with our lot! The climate was superb at this
time of the year, just like that on the Riviera.
We used to start our day at 9 o'clock; breakfast was served
in the dining-room, the King and Queen however having
theirs in their own rooms upstairs. At 10 o'clock I started my
ordinary secretarial duties, which kept me occupied till lunch.
Often I was kept so busy seeing people that I hardly found time
even to look through the morning's correspondence. At 2.30 I
again retired to my room, where I usually remained till tea,
which we had with the King and Queen in the passage-
drawing-room. After this they, or one of them usually went for
a walk and some of us were told off to accompany them; Sami
Bey and one of the ladies-in-waiting usually accompanied the
Queen. None of us appreciated this honourable duty, as the
royal promenades were too stately to be amusing; a squad of
gendarmes marched in front and one followed behind, while
the Queen's dog, which was the bane of our existence, yapped
all round one from the moment that the procession left the
house till it returned to it. When I was off duty, I used to go for
a good long walk over the hills, or have a gallop on the fields
behind the town. Dinner was at 8 o'clock and after that we
used to sit about till the King and Queen retired for the night;
sometimes we played chess or cards and on rare occasions had
34 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

some music. The Queen played several string instruments well

and had a large repertoire of old songs, which she sang with
great taste to her own accompaniment. Herr von Trotha also
played the guitar and had a good stock of German songs with
rousing choruses, so our musical evenings were quite enjoyable.
After everybody had gone to bed, von Trotha and I used to
foregather in the oriental room to discuss the gossip of the day
over a bottle of wine, and often we sat together till the early
hours making plans for the future and criticising our betters.
This was practically the only really peaceful hour during the
day and we used to enjoy it!
Every week the King and Queen went for two or three rides
and I usually accompanied them with Ekrem Bey, as I enjoyed
the gallop along the sands, in spite of the two royal police-dogs,
who were in the habit of biting the horses' legs, whenever they
got the chance. On these occasions we were always escorted by
a detachment of mounted gendarmerie, whose equestrian
antics were quite amusing to watch. One day I was riding one
of the team that I had bought in Austria, a fine strong bay,
when he bolted with me, to the great merriment of the rest of
the party, who knew that I was no great horseman. They were
less amused, however, when I managed to turn him and rode
back into their midst, when I succeeded in pulling him up. The
King had a good seat and the Queen was an exceptionally fine
horsewoman; her little chestnut mare was a perfect devil and
nobody but the Queen could manage her.
So the first two months passed quickly enough;
occasionally there was some slight alteration in our
programme, but everything was apparently bright and peaceful,
though already in April signs were not wanting that this peace
would not last for ever. Early in the month the first reports of
the serious aspect of the Epirote rising reached us from the
South; the rebels were driving our ill-trained and badly-
equipped gendarmerie before them with the assistance, it was
said, of Greek regular troops and had already advanced as far as
Koritza, from where they had however again retired.
 Chapter Seven
. . . .

APRIL

As was mentioned in the last chapter, the Epirote

movement gained ground during the month of April and
already in the early part of it news was received that the
insurgents were advancing all along the line. As my work was
at this time in no way connected with politics, I hardly knew
what the Epirote movement was about, or what started it.
However, it is certain that for some reason or other, the
Southern Albanians, or part of them, wanted some sort of
home-rule. At their head was a certain Zographos,16 and they
had the sympathies of Greece with them. The insurgents were
Orthodox Christians and objected to having anything to do
with the Mahommedans of central Albania or the Catholic
mountaineers of the north. I also remember hearing that a
compromise, a grant of some sort of autonomy, might have
settled the whole thing in the early stages; however no
compromise was ever arranged and instead of this the Mbret's
forces were sent down to restore quiet. It seems certain that
Greece did not respect our Southern boundary, which had been
fixed and guaranteed for us by that great and glorious Concert
of Europe, which has since so distinguished itself by its high
ideal and humane culture. However this most benevolent of
corporations was, as usual, divided against itself and this, of
course, prevented it from upholding what it had itself
36 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

established and guaranteed. In Durazzo horrible stories were

told of the cruelties committed by the rebels; whether they
were true or not, I do not know, but there was ample evidence
to prove that they were at least founded on solid fact. Whole
districts were said to have been laid waste and their inhabitants
put to the sword, but I believe that this was much exaggerated.
The Mahommedans, who had remained loyal to a man, were
the greatest sufferers, but the Kutzo-Wallachs17 were also
persecuted and many of their priests murdered.
Prince Sturdza, of the Roumanian legation, was sent down
to Northern Epirus to study the position and in due course sent
in an official report, the nature of which I am unfortunately not
at liberty to divulge. Von Trotha and I continually urged the
Mbret to send home the ladies and lead his nation in person
against the insurgents. However, our advice was not heeded
and we remained peacefully at Durazzo, pretending that the
Epirus question was not of supreme importance. Had the King
taken the field at the head of his men, the Greeks would
probably have been more careful about giving their support to
the enemy; the King would have strengthened his position
with his loyal subjects, and even had he failed and died in the
attempt, all Albania would have respected his memory!
There were also plenty of signs of discontent nearer home
than Epirus; the people of Durazzo were no longer enthusiastic
and had given up cheering the King as he rode down the main
street; people came to me daily with their tales of woe. The
general opinion in the town was that Albania was being turned
into a second Turkey; that none but Turks, or Mahommedans,
could get government employment and that the King could
never succeed in doing any good as long as the present ministry
remained in office. Most of these grumblers were Nationalists,
professional politicians more or less, or popular agitators who
did not know what they wanted and were therefore chronically
against all government, but I considered it my duty to report
everything to the King, as I was well aware of the fact that his
ministers and certain others of his entourage did not inform
him of anything unpleasant that took place in Durazzo, or of
 APRIL 37

what was the state of public opinion. Nothing ever happened,

and that was very disheartening to those that were trying to
help the King to make a success of the country!
As I could do nothing to mend matters and having plenty
of spare time on my hands, I took up the plan of introducing
sports and games into Albania. The idea for doing this was
given me by a young Englishman, who having come to Durazzo
for a few weeks on business, organised a race-meeting, which
was an enormous success. He staked out a course on the sandy
shore and the whole town turned out to watch the sport. The
King was present and his subjects were delighted at seeing him
in their midst. There were races for officers, European civilians,
for town dwellers and for peasants, who came in from the
surrounding villages, and the people of Durazzo were all
delighted with this novel amusement. So I set to work to form
a strong committee, consisting of Albanians and foreigners
from the legations; our first object was to encourage athletic
sports among the school children, hold meetings for them from
time to time and later on to introduce games, such as football
or hockey. Secondly we wanted to form a sporting club for the
grown-ups, with golf, tennis and pigeon shooting and regular
race-meetings at stated intervals. The scheme was well
supported and the King encouraged it in every way possible, but
the uncertainty of the political outlook and, later on, the actual
outbreak of the central Albanian insurrection prevented us
from doing anything to further the project. I believe that our
scheme would have worked very well, had we only managed to
start work in time, as the Albanians are quite a sporting people
and would certainly have taken at least to pony racing. Good
money prizes would have attracted the peasants from all over
the country, and the people of the various districts would have
got to know each other at the meetings.
On the 15th April a ship arrived, which had been
chartered by the Austro-Albanian Committee (which was
formed to foster friendly relations between the two countries)to
bring a large deputation to Durazzo; this was headed by Prince
Fritz Liechtenstein, whose brother was for many years Austrian
38 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

military attaché in London, and Count Harrach; on the day of

the Austrians' arrival they were received in audience by the
Mbret. Next night they gave a great banquet on board, at
which everybody of any importance in the town was invited;
the two ladies-in-waiting, Ekrem and I were sent to represent
the Court and most of the ministers were present. At dinner we
had to listen to long and wearisome speeches relating to the
old-established friendship between the two countries and the
commerce, which it was hoped would now spring into
existence.
Some days after this, one of our regular informants brought
us a long story about a conspiracy to kill the Mbret, which, he
said, had been discovered accidentally in an Egyptian cafe. It
was believed to be of Young-Turkish origin and several
Albanian Pashas were said to be implicated in it. As we never
heard any more about this, there may not have been a word of
truth in the whole story, but anyway it caused us quite a lot of
excitement, which was at this time not unwelcome. It was also
reported that the ‘Black Hand’18 had established a branch office
at Scutari and was about to commence business on an
extensive scale; Essad Pasha was to be one of its first victims
and the other ministers were to follow him. As the society was
said to be very loyal to the Throne and we were assured that the
King was not in danger of sharing his ministers' fate, we took
little further interest in its doings. In fact it caused us some
amusement, as we told Sami Bey that his name was on the list
and then sent him the inky impression of Selim Bey's hand in
an envelope; the servant, according to our instructions, told
him that a strange man, who spoke the Scutarin dialect, had
left the letter and gone away, without waiting for an answer. At
first Sami was taken in, but then he seems to have found out
the perpetrator of the crime, as I received the same hand during
the evening, with some threatening remarks added to it!
Towards the end of the month an Italian squadron,
commanded by the Duke of the Abruzzi,19 called at Durazzo; a
dinner was given at the Palace and next day we went to lunch
on board the flagship. The Duke made himself as popular with
 APRIL 39

us as he was with his officers and in fact everybody he meets

owing to his open, breezy manner. He took us round the ship
the "Regina Elena", including his stateroom, in which several
of his pin-up girls had been turned face to the wall, for fear of
shocking the ladies.
Some days later we visited the picturesque little town of
Kavaya, across the bay, and the Royal couple had a splendid
reception from the inhabitants, who turned out in thousands to
welcome them. A Mahommedan priest addressed the populace
from a first floor window and from what he said one would have
been led to believe that religious differences had ceased to exist
in Albania; he said that he spoke in the name of his own
community and in that of his Christian friends and fellow-
townsmen and assured the King that the people of Kavaya
would work together for their King and country like one large
family. (Not quite a month after making this touching speech,
our friend the priest was among the rebels, and all his loyal
followers with him!) For this visit, the Durazzo-Kavaya road
had been put into a more or less passable state of repair by Essad
Pasha; two rickety bridges had been made safe for wheeled
traffic and so we were able to drive the whole way in carriages.
On our way home we had an impromptu picnic, which, as our
European interiors were unable to face the food provided for us
at Kavaya, was perhaps the most pleasant episode of the day.
About this time, too, we visited Essad Pasha's political
stronghold, Tirana, which had been proposed as the King's
summer residence, or even as capital of Albania, but this
expedition is worthy of a short chapter to itself.
 Chapter Eight
. . . .

S T AT E V I S I T T O T I R A N A

On the 23rd April von Trotha and I, accompanied by the

Dutch Major Lucas Roelfsema, who usually commanded the
King's mounted escort, set out together towards Tirana with
the coachmen and the horses which the King and Queen were
to ride during their progress through the town. As we had a
long ride before us, we started in the cool of the morning, at
about 4 o'clock. Since this was a great occasion, we had to wear
our tight tunics and astrakhan "Kalpaks", not the most suitable
kit for a 42 kilometre ride on what turned out to be a very hot
day. Our instructions were to halt outside the town and there
await the arrival of the royal party, which was due at 11 o'clock;
as the others were using motor-cars, it was of course quite on
the cards that times would not be kept according to
programme.
It was a fine, fresh morning when we set out and we had
crossed the swamps and left the heights of Raspul behind us
before the sun rose. Without incident we arrived at Shjak, a
picturesque village some seven kilometres from Durazzo; we
crossed over the river there by the high wooden bridge and
rode through the narrow streets, which wore a festive
appearance and were already crowded with spectators, and
halted some miles beyond the town amidst beautiful
surroundings. Here we spent a pleasant half-hour eating the
 STATE VISIT TO TIRANA 41

breakfast, which we had brought in our saddle-bags, enjoying

the lovely morning; the sun was already beginning to make
itself felt and had in fact already begun to melt us, when we
decided to make our halt. Then we rode on, the sun getting
hotter and hotter with every mile; a "Kalpak" is a bad headdress
to ride in during the warm weather and we cursed the man who
had invented it.
At last, at about 10 o'clock, we saw the minarets of Tirana
in front of us and, after half an hour's ride along the baking
valley, came upon the gendarmerie detachment, which was
awaiting the King's arrival outside the town and was
surrounded by the usual crowd of children and sightseers. Here
we dismounted and lay down under a tree, from where we could
keep an eye on the road. We were rather stiff and absolutely
parched after the last three hours on a dusty road; luckily for us
an enterprising fruit-vendor had set up his stall near by, so we
bought some oranges and lay in the shade sucking them, like
Cockneys out for a holiday. We were much amused at the way
that the King's reception was being engineered; a well-known
Albanian politician and popular agitator, Dervish Hima, was
holding forth to the populace which had collected on the road,
telling them how to cheer, when to cheer and generally how to
behave at the King's arrival. He waved his arms and shouted
"Rroft!" time after time, getting the people to imitate him;
when he considered that his audience was more or less word-
perfect, and had held a final dress-rehearsal, he joined us under
our tree and rested from his labours.
Our betters were due to arrive at 11 o'clock in three motor-
cars; however the hour passed and nothing happened. At half
past we began to wonder why they were so late and at twelve
our wonder turned to anxiety, particularly as we knew that
there were several very dilapidated wooden bridges on the way,
any one of which might have been the cause of a disaster. We
were much relieved to hear a tooting in the distance half an
hour later and to see two cars coming slowly towards us along
the road. In due course they pulled up by us and discharged
their passengers; to our great astonishment the King's car not
42 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

only contained the members of his suite, but also Essad Pasha,
the worthy war-minister, who stepped out of the car all
wreathed in smiles. I must explain how the last-named came to
get a seat in the royal car, as this will show the reader more
clearly than anything else what manner of man Essad was. On
this occasion he certainly proved himself to be an "arrangeur"
of the first order. Essad Pasha was originally to have shared a
third car with Turkhan Pasha, who, as Prime Minister, would of
course have played an important part in the Tirana proceedings
and taken precedence of his powerful colleague. As may be
imagined, this would not have suited Essad's book at all, as he
was always very jealous of his position, most of all in his own
part of the country. Therefore, in order to appear before his
supporters as the King's right hand man, some "coup" had to be
devised to keep his rival out of the way during the state entry.
Together they saw the royal cars off and when these had left,
Essad's was brought out of its garage; on reaching the gate,
something is supposed to have gone wrong with the engine and
the chauffeur disappeared under the car to look for the cause of
the trouble. While all this was going on and the unsuspecting
Turkhan was quietly watching the performance, Essad managed
to slip away and jumping into a two-horsed carriage, which
"happened" to be standing round the corner, drove off at a
gallop in pursuit of the royal cars, leaving the unfortunate
Prime Minister to look after himself as best he could! Essad
caught up the King almost half way to Tirana - his horses half
dead, but his object attained!
When he rode through the town, he did so immediately
behind his sovereign - the one and only Essad Pasha - and the
Prime Minister was altogether out of it! (That poor old
gentleman followed us in due course and joined us after lunch,
when his presence was no longer resented.) Tirana is a
picturesque little town, half as big again as Durazzo; it lies in a
fertile valley and is surrounded by hills, with high mountains in
the East. To-day it wore a festive appearance and was full to
overflowing, as the peasants of the surrounding districts had
come in their thousands to welcome the Mbret (or had they
 STATE VISIT TO TIRANA 43

come to do homage to their feudal superior, King Essad?). On

all sides were detachments of "Militia", i.e. Essad's armed
followers, who pretended to keep order in the streets. This
militia, which consisted practically entirely of Essad's tenants,
with a sprinkling of retired brigands from the mountains, was
sent down to the Epirus some days afterwards, but did not show
any particularly martial ardour, and it is safe to say that none of
our other allies behaved themselves more discreditably. We
rode slowly through the crowded streets, being stopped every
few yards by deputations who made speeches and presented
addresses of welcome; the crowds appeared most enthusiastic
and an old-fashioned cannon boomed out a most impressive
salute (one shot every ten minutes, as it could not be reloaded
more quickly!). Tirana is almost entirely Mahommedan and
one saw hardly any women that were not veiled up to the eyes;
the sight of the unveiled Queen must have surprised and
shocked the highly correct and religious community of the
town! With all the pomp and dignity of Royalty, we wended
our way majestically through the crowded streets and up a
private road to Essad Pasha's villa, which stands on a hill
overlooking the town; here we dismounted and after being
regaled with light refreshment, sat down to lunch. What a
lunch it was! Words cannot describe the horrible appearance
and taste of the dishes, which were served in quick succession
by servants who did not look too clean; soup, meat and pudding
all tasted of mutton fat and all other imaginable nastiness. The
Queen managed to swallow some of the horrible mixtures set
before her and had the good taste to praise them, but the rest
of us were taking no risks and stuck to the coarse, tasteless
bread and mineral water. The annoying thing about it was that
the natives were visibly appreciating the meal, though in
deference to the European element they did not smack their
lips and otherwise express their satisfaction, as is customary in
Albania and other oriental countries. The black coffee after
lunch was an unmixed blessing as we were all of us pretty
hungry.
After this a general move was made to the school-house in
44 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

the town, where the next two hours were spent in receiving
further deputations from the surrounding districts and bodies of
Tirana worthies. On our way from the villa to the school-house
I witnessed a rather uncommon accident; as we were riding
along, I suddenly heard a piercing shriek just in front of us and
saw a child in the act of falling out of a first-floor window. The
child landed on the heads of a group of spectators, who were
also frightened out of their wits; however as if by a miracle
nobody was injured and the chief victim of the accident was led
away by her mother in a flood of tears.
For tea we adjourned to Abdi Bey Toptani's house,20 which
was run on more European lines. Our host, one of the most
respected men in the country, did not sit down at table with his
guests, and according to Albanian custom, waited on us in
person, taking the role of butler till the meal was over. Abdi
Bey was not on the best of terms with his cousin Essad, though
they were not openly at war with each other, and therefore kept
out of politics altogether till after his kinsman's fall, when he
was, much against his will, called upon to take a place in the
new cabinet. At 5 o'clock von Trotha and I were able to set out
on our homeward journey; Major Roelfsema joined us outside
and together we left the town along the white, dusty road,
which led to Durazzo. At first the exercise was quite pleasant,
but gradually our progress became slower and slower; night
came on and we had to keep the horses at a walking pace, as
they were tired and stumbled over every loose stone on the
road. We reached Durazzo at 11.30, half dead with hunger and
fatigue; the horses were thoroughly done up and poor
Roelfsema had to tramp the last few miles, dragging along his
pony behind him. It had been a long day for us; 84 kilometres
in the saddle, a broiling sun, much standing about during the
ceremonies in Tirana and practically nothing to eat since our
breakfast by the roadside; so we had every right to feel tired!
We found the ladies staying up to welcome us and were more
than grateful to them for the supper they had arranged for us;
we ate everything that came within our reach and, after a
gossip in the Oriental Room, over a last cigarette and glass of
 STATE VISIT TO TIRANA 45

wine, we stumbled off to bed and a ten hours' sleep.

The Tirana expedition was voted a great success and none
of us thought that exactly a month afterwards an insurrection
would drive the King out of his capital!
 Chapter Nine
. . . .

THE OUTBREAK OF REBELLION

It was now May and the state of Epirus had been going
steadily from bad to worse since the day of the Mbret's arrival,
so something serious had to be done to regain the affected
districts for the Albanian Crown. The Great Powers, who had
so generously fixed and guaranteed our frontiers, did not
consider it part of their duty or business to protect them; so
they left this difficult task to their unfortunate dupe, the Mbret
"by the Grace of the European Concert". The royal forces in
the South consisted of some 2,500 gendarmes under Dutch and
native officers and several thousand loyal Southerners, whose
local leaders were supposed to cooperate with the regular
forces. Attached to these irregular bands were a Captain
Ghilardi (late of the Austrian Army)21 and an American,22
both of whom did excellent work later on in the year with a
mixed detachment of native and Bulgarian "Komitadjis" (an
outlaw or brigand).
The Royal forces had put up a good fight but could no
longer hold their own against the Epirotes, whose troops were
not only superior in numbers to our own, but also better
equipped and organised by Greek officers, besides which they
had a certain number of fairly modern field guns at their
disposal. In Durazzo it was openly said that the Greek army was
assisting the Epirotes and that this was the reason that they
 THE OUTBREAK OF REBELLION 47

were so successful in driving us out of their country. Whether

this was true or not, I don't know, but it is certain that the
Epirote movement was engineered from Greece and received
more than moral support from the Greek Government. Many
of the insurgents killed or taken prisoner were wearing Greek
uniforms, minus the distinctive badges in most cases, and the
guns are also reported to have been of Greek origin. Anyway,
to make a long story short, our forces had to fall back, and
fighting almost continually, were gradually forced north by the
enemy.
The King and Council of Ministers had many a serious
debate upon this subject. Colonel Thomson,23 the second in
command of the Gendarmerie Mission, was of the opinion that
the only way of getting back the Epirus was by diplomacy. As
he had a shrewd suspicion that we were up against something
stronger than we could tackle with our small and ill-equipped
forces, he even went so far in backing his opinion that he
attempted to start negotiations on his own, when he was
Commandant of the Southern armies. The ministers and
advisers were of course indignant at this and Thomson was
recalled to Durazzo to explain his conduct. Essad Pasha, as
Minister for War, was opposed to any compromise with the
insurgents and assured the Mbret that the rebellion could easily
be put down by force of arms; he carried the cabinet with him
and it was decided to set to work in earnest!
The Government had purchased several thousand modern
military rifles in Italy, machine and mountain guns in Austria
and now thought itself strong enough to conquer the greater
part of the world. The Mahommedan population of central
Albania was to be armed and with this imposing new army
behind him, Essad Pasha hoped to sweep all before him; at least
he said that he would. Although Essad had been a general in
the Turkish army and ought to have known at least something
about soldiering, it never seems to have struck him that it
would be a good thing to put some sort of discipline into these
untrained hordes before starting out on his expedition. Essad's
position was becoming very unpleasant, as owing to his murky
48 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

past, everybody's hand was against him and everything he did

was doomed to failure owing to the active or passive resistance
of his enemies. Most astounding stories of his disloyalty and
double-dealing were whispered in the bazaars and cafes, from
where they were brought to the palace. Everything was done to
collect evidence to prove his dishonesty, but as far as I know no
really damning evidence could be found against him, though
everybody felt convinced that he was guilty. In this the Italians
must be excepted as they, to then end, believed Essad to have
been the victim of an Austrian conspiracy.
On the 8th of May he tendered his resignation on the
ground that his personal enemies made all government
impossible, while he remained in the cabinet. He told the King
that he knew all the stories that had been circulated about him
and that there was not a word of truth in any of them. He
offered to go abroad and to remain in America for three or four
years, to show the King his honest intentions, and added that
he had given the King his word to serve him loyally and that if
he had a thousand souls, they would all be at his sovereign's
disposal. At this interview Captain Castoldi was, I believe,
present and acted as interpreter. For some reason unknown, the
Mbret refused to accept the Minister's resignation and coaxed
and flattered him into retaining the office, which he was
willing to give up and everybody considered him unfitted for. I
have never understood why the King did not jump at this
opportunity of ridding himself of Essad, without offending the
great man. Considering the way he treated him only ten days
later, the King cannot have had any great liking for him!
So Essad remained at his post and the central Albanians
were armed. Long caravans of ponies left Durazzo for the
interior, laden with rifles and enormous quantities of
ammunition. Hardly had the arms and stores been distributed,
when rumours reached us that the very people we had armed
had unanimously refused to march South, or in fact have
anything at all to do with the whole expedition against the
Epirotes, "as they did not wish to kill their brothers!". Essad
Pasha sallied forth to visit the affected districts - Shjak, Tirana,
 THE OUTBREAK OF REBELLION 49

Kavaya, etc - and after a few days returned to headquarters. He

reported that the movement was not serious and had been
caused by the tactlessness of some minor officials and assured
the King that he had put everything in order, so that the people
were now willing to march.
As Essad, whatever else he may have been, was an
uncommonly clever man, he must have seen and heard enough
during his tour to show him what was happening in the
country, so it can only be presumed that he deliberately made a
false report to his royal master, for some reasons of his own. In
spite of his assurances that all was well, most disquieting news
kept coming in from the surrounding villages; on the 17th of
May the King received an urgent message from Shjak (only
about seven kilometres from Durazzo), asking for strong
reinforcements, as the town was surrounded by insurgents and
could not hold out if attacked. As Shjak was at this time
garrisoned by about 200 "Royal" men from Kruja, one of Essad
Pasha's strongholds, the telegram was not taken too seriously
and in spite of long discussions, nothing happened that night
and Shjak was left to look after itself as best it could.
Among our numerous informants there was one who
insisted that the Epirus expedition had nothing whatsoever to
do with the rebellion, but that this was due entirely to agrarian
causes. He told us that he knew for a fact that the peasants had
only awaited such an opportunity to throw off the yoke of their
oppressors, the beys, who owned the land and that they wanted
to get rid of "Essad's tyrannical government". As I was all along
certain that the Mbret was not being kept properly "au
courant" by his ministers, who, through ignorance of the real
state of affairs or some treasonable purposes of their own,
continued to paint the situation in a rosy hue, I worried him,
till he gave me his sanction to ride over to the insurgents next
day, to have a look at them and, if possible, to find out what the
trouble was about. Officially he had nothing to do with my
expedition, as he did not want to take any responsibility and
there was of course a chance of my getting into trouble. He
could not be sure that I would not commit some "faux pas",
50 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

which, if I went officially, might have caused the government

endless complications. So it was decided that I should go in
plain clothes; nobody was told of my intentions, as gossip was
the curse of Durazzo and it is always well to hold one's tongue,
till an experiment has succeeded.
 Chapter Ten
. . . .

A D AY W I T H T H E I N S U R G E N T S

It was about 7 o'clock on the morning of the 18th May,

when I set out on my little native pony to have a look at the
insurgents; the King and Queen had ridden out just before me
and I followed behind their escort, to make certain
arrangements with von Trotha, in case of accidents. Outside
the town we separated, the royal cavalcade keeping to the
right, close to the seashore, whilst I continued on the Tirana
road. As I jogged along, I wondered what was going to come of
this expedition and felt elated at getting the chance of doing
something out of the common. As a precaution I had taken an
automatic pistol with me and, though I did not intend using it,
whatever might happen, it gave me a wonderful feeling of
safety and self-confidence. (It must not be supposed that any
noble motives urged me not to make use of my pistol; the truth
is that I had never fired a shot out of it and therefore did not
wish anybody to see my lack of skill.)
The first stretch of the road leads across the Durazzo
swamps, which are fairly dry round here and overgrown with
high, thick scrub; then come the heights of Raspul and once
these are passed, the road again follows a valley, the greater part
of which is under cultivation. I kept my eyes open on the way,
expecting some signs of warlike activity, but everything
appeared to be perfectly peaceful and the peasants were at work
52 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

in their fields as usual. At Shjak I found a strong gendarmerie

detachment guarding the bridge over the river. The village was
full of armed men, the Kruja contingent, and the oriental street
life was going on as if there were no enemy within a hundred
miles of the place; however I noticed that the people appeared
to be very much surprised at the arrival of a solitary European.
At the Governor's house I found that eminently respectable
official, the officer in charge of the gendarmerie detachment
and some of the village notables, lounging out of a first floor
window. They could not understand how I had got through the
rebels' lines and I found it difficult to convince them that the
road to Durazzo was clear of insurgents and that the country
people I had met, were not even armed. A man, who spoke
Italian, acted as interpreter and through him the "Kaimakam"
advised me to turn back before it was too late; under no
circumstances was I to go any further, as "our scouts had seen a
strong rebel detachment on the main road, not ten minutes
walk from where we stood" and I would certainly be killed, or
at least taken prisoner.
As it was evident that the worthies of Shjak were in a
ridiculous state of panic and their information had so far
proved to be wrong, I did not take their warnings too seriously
and rode on. Somehow I felt that I would be as safe amongst
the rebels as amongst our own people in Durazzo. At the end of
ten minutes there was still no sign of any insurgents; the road
from here onward serpentines up a long hill and on the top of
this, some four kilometres from the village, I made a halt and
had a look at the fertile valley on the other side of it. Through
my field-glasses I soon spotted a strong detachment on the
road, some two kilometres off; it consisted of about 2,000 men,
most of whom were sitting about on the grass smoking, while
about two companies were drawn up in line and appeared to be
awaiting an order to move off.
As I did not appreciate the idea of riding into the midst of
them without invitation and could not make up my mind as to
what I was to do next, I just sat down by the side of the road
and waited to see what they were going to undertake. I had not
 A DAY WITH THE INSURGENTS 53

been here more than quarter of an hour, when two unarmed

peasants emerged from a side-path. I stopped and questioned
them as to whether they had seen any Komitadjis about. They
looked at me suspiciously and did not answer my question but
enquired first as to my nationality: was I Austrian or Serbian? I
explained to them that I was British and this seemed to please
them; the men's faces brightened up and their manner became
friendly.24 They now volunteered to personally conduct me to
the nearest Komitadjis, who they said were very worthy men
and friends of theirs.
On reaching a hollow, about a hundred yards from the
road, we came on the enemy's first picket; a sentry was posted
behind a hedge on the sky-line to watch the Durazzo road,
which could be seen nearly all the way, and his comrades were
lying about on the grass. They did not stand up to receive me
and were a murderous-looking lot of ruffians, all armed with
modern rifles, large knives or bayonets and revolvers of various,
mostly obsolete, patterns. Though their manner was not cordial
and their appearance altogether against them, they answered
my "Ngat jeta" ("Long life", the usual Albanian greeting) quite
civilly, so I dismounted, gave the pony to a boy to hold and sat
down with them in the shade. My knowledge of the Albanian
language is very limited, so we found some difficulty in
understanding each other; this difficulty was bound to crop up,
but I had not brought an interpreter with me, as I had by that
time already discovered that the Albanians are even more
suspicious of their own countrymen than they are of foreigners,
and the presence of an interpreter might have spoiled my
chances of hearing anything interesting. It must be admitted
that our conversation was not at all brilliant and had to be
limited to simple questions and answers, but I understood quite
enough to make me feel certain that these rebels were no army
of Essad Pasha's. In fact many of them appeared to be out for
his blood, as "they wanted to do away with him and all other
landlords, whose sole occupation was that of taking the
peasants' money and then beating them!". Of course they
unanimously condemned the ministry, which consisted of their
54 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

old oppressors and did nothing to protect the peasant interests.

From what they said, it was also evident that their religious
fanaticism had been worked up as they kept on repeating
"Mahommedans are good", "Turks are good", "Imams are good"
and suchlike. I also understood them to complain that the
schoolmasters were being paid higher salaries than the priests.
As we later heard that this was one of the insurgents'
grievances, it seems probable that I understood right. One man
considered Serbia the best country, but this appeared to be his
private view and was not supported by his comrades. I told
them who I was and that the King wanted to see his subjects
contented and happy; to my great surprise they did not disagree
with this at all and several of them murmured "Rroft Mbreti"
fervently. From this first picket, I was moved on to another and
then to a third and everywhere I was quite well received. I told
the men of the large forces and artillery at Durazzo and pointed
out the masts of some ships in the harbour, which could just be
seen through my field-glasses, assuring them that they belonged
to Italian men o' war. As a matter of fact the Italian destroyer
flotilla had put to sea in the early morning and had to be
requested to return, by a wireless message, later on in the day.
Although I knew this quite well, I thought it advisable to let
the insurgents think that we were well prepared for any
emergencies. We got on quite well with each other and my new
friends gave me some of their bread and cheese, both of them
the nastiest of their kind that I have ever tasted, and rolled
cigarettes for me, which they shoved into my mouth and lit. I
accepted everything that they chose to offer me and pretended
to be enjoying myself thoroughly, though when I went away
from the group for a moment I noticed that an armed man
remained close by me all the time, which made me feel a little
uncomfortable.
We arranged that a letter was to be written, which I was to
take back to the King, and a man was despatched to the main
body to find a scribe as none of the outpost company could
write. While the man was away, I kept my eyes open, trying to
see something more of the insurgents' preparations. Before very
 A DAY WITH THE INSURGENTS 55

long I discovered another detachment, not quite as strong as

the first that I had seen on the road, which was moving to the
right in the valley below me. This force was accompanied by a
long string of pack-animals and a bugler, who from time to time
gave vent to weird and brassy calls of his own. Altogether I
must have seen close on three thousand men during the day.
While we were awaiting the return of our emissary, two "Royal"
(Essad Pasha's Own) mounted gendarmes came our way; they
joined our group and conversed in the most friendly manner
imaginable with the enemy, with whom they appeared to be on
visiting terms. I was much surprised at this and wondered what
it all meant. Though the gendarmes knew who I was, they did
not salute me or show respect, but glowered at me till they left
us. It must be said to their credit that they looked a thousand
times more villainous than the insurgents.
As time was getting on and the messenger did not return, I
decided to make a move and told my friends to send the letter
to Durazzo on the next day. I promised them that I would hand
it to the King as soon as I received it. Shaking everybody
heartily by the hand, to ensure their not shooting me as soon
as my back was turned, I got on my pony and left them,
accompanied by one of their number. Now they all stood up
and saluted respectfully and so did all the other pickets that I
passed on my way back to the road; arrived here, my escort,
who seems to have been a sort of sergeant among his people,
took leave of me and wished me a pleasant ride home. I did not
stop to take the part of news-monger, when the worthies of
Shjak surrounded me on my return to their village, and rode
home at a jog trot.
It had been an interesting experience and, though I had
not succeeded in finding out the names of the leaders of
insurrection, I felt satisfied in my own mind that Essad was not
one of them; besides this it appeared that the rising was not
directed against the King's person, but against his ministry. I
decided that there were two principal causes for it - religious
fanaticism and agrarian discontent.
When I got back to the Palace, I found everybody in a great
state of excitement and the Mbret was so busy that he could
not see me for some time. When I made my report to him, he
did not appear to take the slightest interest in what I was telling
him, or thank me for my trouble. This was rather disheartening,
as I was under the impression that I had got some quite useful
information for him and done a good day's work.
 Chapter Eleven
. . . .

T H E C O U P D ’ É T AT - 1 9 T H M AY

The reason for everybody's worried expression and the

general state of nervous tension, I soon discovered to be the
following: when I had left the King in the morning and the
Royal cavalcade had kept close to the seashore on the sands, it
had met with a rather painful experience. As they were
galloping along quite peacefully, the officer in charge of the
escort suddenly noticed the glint of rifle-barrels on the top of
the Sasso Bianco (or White Cliff, a rocky hill which rises up
close to the sea, about half-way to Kavaya, some six kilometres
from Durazzo), some thousand yards, or so, in front. A halt was
made and then a few figures could be distinguished moving
about on the hill; there were only a few of them, but still! It
seems probable that these men belonged to the extreme left of
the line of pickets I visited during the day. After some
deliberation, it was deemed advisable to retire, so the royal
party turned tail and rode home at a good canter.
It is possible that, had they ridden on, without taking any
notice of the insurgents, or had the King ridden up to them and
spoken to them, the whole rebellion might have fizzled out and
so all the useless bloodshed might have been avoided! In
retiring as he did the King showed weakness; it is true that he
was only following the advice of the aide-de-camp, who was
supposed to know the ways of his countrymen, but all the same,
58 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

he ought to have taken the bull by the horns and attempted to

do something. Doubtless the insurgents presumed that they had
succeeded in frightening him and the tale of their victory
probably went the length and breadth of the country before
that evening. Essad Pasha was immediately sent for and cross-
examined; he still painted everything in rosy colours and
laughed at the incident. He did not believe that there was any
danger of a serious rising and made several palpably false
statements. Anyway the King's interview with him was so
unsatisfactory, that by the time that I got home in the
afternoon, nearly everybody was firmly convinced that Essad
was a traitor, and that Durazzo would be taken by his supporters
during the night.
No one listened to what I had to tell, as it was considered
quite certain that Essad was the root of all evil; only Castoldi
was interested in it, though he too was very disturbed that day.
Perhaps he knew what we only suspected: that Essad Pasha was
hand in glove with the Italian government, and he may have
been afraid that unpleasant disclosures might be made, if steps
were taken to break the Italians' protégé.
In the course of the evening things became rather mixed
and nobody knew what to expect next. Durazzo was divided
into two rival camps; nearly everybody was against the minister
for War and thought that he was going to undertake a coup de
main during the night, get possession of the town and force the
King to leave the country. The Italians and a small band of his
retainers supported him loyally, but were in the minority. At a
late hour we heard that Essad Pasha had ordered the Dutch
Commandant of the town, Major Johan Sluys, to hand over the
guns to an unknown new man, whom he had nominated as
Commandant of the artillery. When this news spread abroad, it
created a panic as people took this to be a sure sign that Essad
was going to play some hanky-panky during the night. As
Essad's nominee was an Italian by origin, the Austrians
naturally enough did not attempt to pacify the people, so the
feeling in the town became more and more nervous as time
went on. It was rumoured that Captain Moltedo, the officer in
 THE COUP D’´ETAT 59

question, was in Essad's pay and as the King had absolute

confidence in the Dutchman, he did not confirm Moltedo's
appointment.25 Essad Pasha and Major Sluys almost came to
blows over this incident.
To show how excited people were that night it is sufficient
to tell the following story, which was circulated after the above-
mentioned interview and believed by everybody, though
nobody knew who had started it and it seems incredible - even
for Albania! It is said that when Sluys visited Essad's house to
protest against Moltedo's appointment, Essad ordered one of
his retainers to put some poison into the major's coffee; the
man is supposed to have refused to do so, saying that he would
not mind shooting him, but that to poison a man was beneath
his dignity. Essad waited till the Major had left and then shot
his servant dead; as there were naturally no witnesses to this
domestic disturbance and no corpse was found on the premises
some hours later, the whole story was doubtlessly a fabrication.
As far as I remember the outcome of the King's decision to
support Major Sluys was the resignation of the Minister for
War, who felt himself slighted. Everybody was glad to hear that
the artillery would remain in reliable hands and flocked round
the popular Dutch officer. Our garrison at this time consisted of
about a hundred gendarmes, who however could not be entirely
relied upon, as they were mostly natives of the affected districts
and had joined the force before the King's arrival, when Essad
was still in the saddle. As a "precautionary measure", Major
Sluys armed about 150 Nationalists and other loyalists in the
town, thus raising our armed forces to roughly 250 men.
In the course of the evening a plot was formed to draw Essad's
fangs; as a matter of fact the plot was so neatly hidden, that the
proceedings later on in the night took quite a legal aspect.
In Albania it is customary for a gentleman to keep a certain
number of armed followers always handy, partly to protect him
from the emissaries of his enemies and partly to impress the
population with his power and importance. As Durazzo was
now supposed to be a part of Europe, most of the notables had
limited their number of their retinue to two or three men. Essad
60 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

however did not take part in this general demobilisation, but

kept a villainous-looking company of cut-throats; some at his
house and the main body in an old Venetian tower on the hill.
There were supposed to be about a hundred and twenty of them
altogether; quite an imposing force and certainly the most
warlike people in the town. As Essad was suspected of
harbouring treasonable designs, these men naturally
constituted a grave danger to the peace of the town. It was
therefore decided to disarm them and render them harmless;
Essad was to be charged with keeping a private army, which,
people said, was in itself illegal and should he offer resistance,
he was to be taken, dead or alive. The undertaking was planned
and organised by Nationalists and foreigners, most of whom
were in the service of the Albanian government. As things
turned out, I am glad to say that I had nothing to do with it,
though had I known anything about it, I would probably have
joined in, as I honestly believed that the King could do nothing
as long as Essad remained in the country. I spent the evening in
the house, looking after the Queen and the ladies-in-waiting,
who were staying up, as there was no doubt that something
exciting was going to happen during the night. The general
belief was, as I have already mentioned, that the town would be
attacked; this view I could not share, as I felt certain that the
rebels were not Essad's men, in spite of their friendliness with
the mounted gendarmes.
At about 11 o'clock I saw Faik Bey Konitza from my
window and called out to him to ask him what was happening
in the town; his answer: "Nothing yet!" was the first indication
we got that something was going to be undertaken by our
people. The King had a very busy time, as ministers and other
officials kept coming in to bother him; the Italian destroyer
flotilla arrived and the senior officer came to enquire what he
could do for us. A signal of distress was arranged with him, on
seeing which the ships in the harbour were to land
detachments, to protect the Palace. Worn out with worry, the
King seems to have gone to sleep in his study - anyway he did
not hear a gun being brought through the garden, right under
 THE COUP D’´ETAT 61

his window, at about midnight. The Queen, ladies, Ekrem and

I, still blissfully ignorant of what was going on all round,
amused ourselves as best we could and awaited developments.
When Sami Bey had ushered out the King's last visitor, he had
himself retired to his house in the town, as usual; as he was
Essad's son-in-law some of us thought his conduct very
suspicious and imagined that he had gone to Essad's house to
plot with him. As it turned out afterwards Sami, who did not
believe in his father-in-law's guilt or the probability of a night
attack, acted in perfectly good faith and spent the rest of the
night in innocent and refreshing sleep; even the firing of the
gun did not disturb his slumbers.
At last, at about three o'clock in the morning, a bey came
to tell us about the plot and warned the Queen that there
would probably be some firing later on, as he thought that
Essad would resist arrest; it was a chilly night and he was glad
to get a cup of coffee before setting out again to rejoin Major
Sluys. As dawn was breaking, we heard a couple of rifle shots in
the distance, which were followed by a fusillade; then there was
a loud report, which woke up all the innocents in the town and
rattled the window panes. So the gun was at work! A second
and third shot followed in quick succession and then
everything was still again. After the first shots I ran to the King,
who was much disturbed by the shooting and did not know
what was happening. I told him what I knew and he sent me to
signal to the ships from the top balcony; this was a wise
precaution, as we did not know whether the arrest would be
successful and, had Essad been victorious, there might have
been severe trouble in the town. Within a quarter of an hour
sailors were landed and took up defensive positions in the
garden and by the main approaches from the town. However
peace had already been restored and the first warriors were
returning from the "battle", to bring us the news of Essad's
surrender. In due course, Major Sluys who had been in charge
of the "arrest", arrived at the Palace to make a verbal report to
the King on the night's happenings; the following is roughly
what he said:
 "It was brought to my notice that Essad Pasha kept a large
body-guard of armed men in Durazzo. As amongst his retainers
there were men of notorious character, such as Osman Bali7,
and as Essad himself is suspected of attempting to overthrow
the Government; I, as Commandant of the town, felt it my
duty to break up the gang and demand its immediate surrender.
I ordered Essad's house to be surrounded and had a gun trained
on it from a suitable position behind the Palace; I called upon
Essad's men to lay down their arms and as they were about to
comply with my order, their master appeared on the scene and
asked me who had authorised me to give the order. When I told
him that I had given the order on my own responsibility, he
called upon his men to take up their arms again and prepare for
resistance. A shot was fired and in the ensuing volleys one of
our men was wounded. As I did not wish to endanger the lives
of our men, I ordered the gun to open fire. The first shot blew
a hole in the roof of the house and after the third, which burst
in Essad Pasha's bedroom, he had nothing left but to surrender."
Major Sluys now wanted to know what he was to do: was
Essad to be lodged in the gaol, on board the Austrian cruiser
which had been offered for this purpose, or what else was to be
done with him?
 Chapter Twelve
. . . .

ESSAD ARRESTED AND RELEASED

As the King had only heard of the plot against Essad after
it had already been carried out, he did not now know what to
do with him; he could not even make up his mind whether he
was to arrest him formally or not. He felt that the War Minister
had been wronged but was not strong enough to strike out on a
course of his own. Had no outside influence been brought to
bear on him, it is probable that he would have had Essad
brought to the palace as a free man; however outside influence
was brought to bear on him and after a lengthy discussion, it
was decided to send Essad on board the Austro-Hungarian
cruiser, "Szigetvar". The Austrian authorities had promised to
deliver him up, if called upon to do so by the King. Major Sluys
had hardly left the house when the King, urged by the Queen,
changed his mind, deciding to send Essad to the prison instead.
I was sent to notify the Major of the King's decision. On my
return to the palace I found that new influences had been at
work during my absence and that the original order was to be
carried out after all; so I had to get hold of Sluys whose remarks
about this continual change of plan were rather sarcastic. I did
not like the idea of sending a political prisoner onto a foreign
warship, as I was afraid of renewed Austro-Italian differences
on the subject; besides it struck me as rather irregular that a
political prisoner should be, practically, extradited and then
64 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

handed back to the authorities of his own country by a foreign

power. Of course it did not make any great difference to
anybody whether I approved or disapproved of the scheme!
At 9 o'clock an Austro-Italian naval detachment was ready
to escort me up to Essad Pasha's house, where I was to arrest
him and bring him back safely to the landing-stage. The
dragomen from the Austrian and Italian legations accompanied
me to act as interpreters and to see fair play. It was a most
unpleasant business and, as I was tired after my ride to the
insurgents on the previous day and a night out of bed, I did not
appreciate it at all, particularly as I thought it probable that
Essad's bodyguard, which had surrendered, but not yet been
disarmed, would open fire on us as soon as we got through the
great gateway, close to the house. As I was walking in front, I
felt anything but brave.
On arriving at the house, the two dragomen and I went up
to the door, more than expecting a volley to send us into the
next world; the Italian dragoman, I suppose, knew that we were
safe enough and was therefore not surprised when the door was
immediately opened to us. In the hall stood Essad and his wife,
with their retainers all round them - and the Court Doctor
Berghausen. What the latter was doing here we could not find
out; probably he had only come on some pretext, in order to
watch the arrest and join the procession, as he liked to appear
before the public as a person of great importance, he was much
annoyed that I would not allow him to accompany us down to
the landing-stage. Essad, who seemed to know what to expect,
was not at all surprised when I informed him that he was under
arrest and would have to accompany me down to the landing-
stage, where he would be handed over to the commander of the
Austrian cruiser. His wife, who was devoted to him, begged to
be permitted to go with him, and as this did not clash with my
orders, and appeared to be a reasonable request, I without
hesitation permitted her to do so. Essad's enemies afterwards
told me that he only took his wife with him as a protection; the
Albanians are very chivalrous and would hesitate to murder a
man in the presence of his wife. As I had reason to believe that
 ESSAD ARRESTED AND RELEASED 65

Essad's life was in danger, the Italian commander of the escort

and I took the couple between us. I did not want to take Essad
through the palace garden, and had intended going down to
the harbour through the town, the shorter way. However Essad
was very anxious not to go through the town and as I had no
definite instructions we took the garden route. Later on in the
day I discovered that three men had been posted at windows,
overlooking the road we were expected to take, and that Essad
would have been murdered had he walked into the trap. The
conspirators were very disappointed at the turn of events and
bore me some ill-will, saying that I had compromised the King
by bringing Essad through his garden. Probably Essad had
received a warning that he would not reach the harbour alive
if he went through the town; there cannot have been any other
reasons for his preferring the indirect route. We met very few
people on the way, as we were expected to pass through the
town, and the square in front of the palace had been cleared by
the police; as we reached this and crossed it to the landing
stage, the crowds assembled behind the gateway leading to the
town set up a howl, so I kept well in front of Essad, to prevent
anybody from taking a shot at him. I was criticised for bringing
him the way I did, but I am glad that I did so, as it is certain
that he would have been murdered, had we gone through the
town. At the landing-stage I handed him over to Captain
Schmidt of the "Szigetvar"; here Essad assured me that he had
been loyal to the throne throughout and that he was the victim
of an intrigue. From the time of his arrest till we parted
company he had behaved with great dignity and sang-froid
under most trying circumstances, so in spite of the fact that I
believed him to be a traitor, I had to admire his conduct and
feel sympathy for him in his fall. A launch was waiting for him;
he got in and so disappeared, officially at least, from the public
life of the Six Month Kingdom!
As he was leaving I noticed two of his retainers, who had
accompanied him with his hand-luggage, trying to get away
unnoticed in the crowd; I caught them up before they had gone
very far, arrested them and handed them over to the Palace
66 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

Guard, who transferred them to the congenial atmosphere of

the gaol. They were a couple of very nasty-looking blackguards
and as everybody connected with Essad was now suspected of
being a criminal, their disappearance may have saved them
from the vengeance of the mob!
During the day everything was upside down: ministers
quarrelled in the street, surrounded by riff-raff; the cabinet
resigned and the palace was strongly guarded by foreign sailors;
they stood about the passages and stairs for hours on end,
guarding the entrances and doors of half the rooms in the
house. Why they had been called in, or against whom, nobody
exactly knew and the Italians laughed at such elaborate
precautions! After a time it was considered sufficient for them
to take up the duties of the palace guards, who, though they
had behaved irreproachably all the time, were considered too
unreliable; so our corridors were evacuated and the house once
again belonged to us.
Essad's house was searched and several trunks full of
documents were taken from there to the police-station, where
they remained, I believe for ever afterwards without being
opened. Several other houses, belonging to Essad's friends,
were also searched and numerous arrests were made by the
over-zealous police; however no shred of evidence could be
found against anybody and most of the victims were released
later on in the day. In the afternoon great discussions took
place as to what we were to do with Essad, now that we had got
him; some proposed that he should get a fair trial, enthusiasts
wanted him to be brought back and hanged in the square, and
the Italians considered that he should be permitted to retire
from public life and to live in Italy. I personally proposed a
court martial composed of foreign officers serving under the
Albanian government; for instance von Trotha as president,
Major Sluys and I as members.
To our great disgust, we were told next day that the Italians
had prevailed and that Essad would be sent into exile, without
a trial. I was annoyed at this decision as I failed to see how the
Mbret had the right to send a man into exile, whose guilt had
 ESSAD ARRESTED AND RELEASED 67

not been proved. I told the King that he was hastening his own
downfall by allowing Essad to go abroad, from where he was
certain to take vengeance for the manner in which he had been
treated. I felt certain that Essad was guilty and wanted it
proved; in that case a court would have been justified in
sentencing him to death and so the whole matter would have
ended. As it was, the King's decision, which neither acquitted
nor condemned his late most powerful minister, made an
exceedingly bad impression on his loyal subjects; they
considered that the King had robbed them of their prey and
had allowed himself to be outwitted by the Italian diplomats,
who were generally believed to be Essad Pasha's allies.
At midday I was sent on board the "Szigetvar" to
communicate the Mbret's decision to the victim and also to
search his luggage and confiscate all documents in his
possession, a useless precaution, as a man of Essad's intelligence
would not have been fool enough to carry incriminating papers
about with him! According to my instructions to seize all
papers, I brought away three attaché-cases full, which were
sealed by him and delivered to the Mbret on my return to the
palace. One of my last official duties before leaving Durazzo in
August, was to return these cases, the seals unbroken, to Essad
Pasha's address in Italy; as they were never looked into, what
on earth was the use of having sent me to take them from him?
Essad also had to sign a promise that he would not attempt
to return to the country without the Mbret's permission to do
so, and that he would not in any manner, privately or publicly,
mix himself up in Albanian politics or intrigues against the
throne; this promise he signed without any hesitation. He
again assured me of his loyalty and said that the King would
regret his hasty action and recall him, when he would willingly
return to work for the good of his country. We parted friends
and Essad Pasha left for the Italian port of Bari in an Italian
ship late in the afternoon. I wonder whether he took it all so
well because he knew that the King would not be able to hold
out much longer and that he himself would soon be in the
saddle again?
68 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

That evening there was a new excitement in the town; in

fact half the population thought that the end had come! The
two hundred men of Kruja had arrived from Shjak; why nobody
exactly knew as they had received no orders to come to
Durazzo; it was generally believed that they were Essad's most
devoted followers and that they had come to wreak vengeance
on the town. Ekrem Bey Libohova took a very serious view of
this new complication and was of the opinion that the town
was really in danger as long as these warriors were at large, so,
in spite of their protestations of loyalty, they were locked up
overnight in the school house, strongly guarded by Nationalist
volunteers. Next morning they were released and, in spite of
the rather curious treatment that they had received, made a
loyal demonstration outside the palace, after which they were
allowed to leave the town unmolested and return to their
native district.
Although the Kruja men were safely under lock and key, it
was thought advisable to arm our servants; I took the matter in
hand, and putting von Trotha's secretary, a non-commissioned
officer in the German Foot Guards, in charge, I served out rifles
and ammunition to all the men-servants. Practically all of them
had served their time in the Austrian or German army, so they
ought to have known how to handle a rifle! However they
turned out to be a very second-rate lot of soldiers, as before I
had finished arming them one of their number loosed off a
round, the bullet burying itself in the wall, not far off the cook's
head. I cursed everybody heartily, told them not to load the
rifles or play about with them and went upstairs; hardly had I
joined the ladies when there was a second loud report, which
fairly made us jump. I ran downstairs again and found a group
of frightened retainers standing round the cook's assistant,
who, rifle in hand, was also shaking with fear and
astonishment; he had let off his round into the ceiling, just
underneath the corner where the ladies had been sitting. Von
Trotha now appeared on the scene in a most unpleasant
humour and gave the servants a lecture, in the course of which
they heard as choice language as they had ever done while they
 ESSAD ARRESTED AND RELEASED 69

were in the army. He then disarmed them all, with the

exception of the native "Kavasses", as their "protection"
appeared to mean the untimely death of one of us before the
arrival of an enemy.
This comedy was the last event of any interest during the
evening; we sat up late, expecting further alarms, as rumours of
threatening disturbances kept coming in, but nothing
happened and at a late hour we retired to rest and slept
undisturbed till next morning. Unfortunately the Essad
incident was now closed; the King made the grave mistake of
not having an immediate enquiry made into the whole matter.
Had an efficient commission been brought into existence, it is
probable that Major Sluys could have justified his action,
besides which the charges of treason against Essad might have
been gone into and perhaps proved to everybody's satisfaction.
As it was, the whole affair remained wrapped in mystery and
nobody to this day knows exactly how it originally came about.
On thinking the matter over quietly, I believe that foreign
influences deserve most of the blame, though at the time I was
under the impression that the plot was entirely of Nationalist
origin.
The Mbret's actions naturally enough led Essad's supporters
to believe that he had known all about the conspiracy against
his minister and had approved of the bombardment of his
house, and it is not to be wondered at that this made an
exceedingly bad impression in the country. The foreign press
had the same impression and eulogies were written about the
Mbret's "determination", in ridding himself of his unruly
minister. It was a bad affair, bungled from beginning to end and
did the King's cause a lot of harm. Had a proper enquiry been
made into the matter, it seems certain that everybody could
have been whitewashed, somehow, and in this case the Mbret
would not have lost so much prestige among his subjects.
 Chapter Thirteen
. . . .

2 3 R D M AY - F L I G H T

On the 21st May we got very bad news from the interior,
particularly from Kavaya and the surrounding districts; we
heard that the gendarmerie detachment had been driven out of
the town by the populace and that the local barber, or some
other individual of the same standing had set himself up as the
president of a new republic. The national flag was pulled down
and the Turkish one put in its place.
Next day still more disquieting news reached us from
Tirana and the governor there wired for reinforcements, as the
position was critical. Our garrison was very small, but after a
long debate with General De Veer26 the King decided to send
an expedition to Tirana. The Italian and Essad parties for some
reason or other thought that this expedition was sent at my
instigation; as a matter of fact I had nothing to do with it and
the first I knew about it was late in the evening, when the King
sent me to the general, to find out whether it had left! The
Dutch Captain Jan Sar was sent with a force of 50 gendarmes
and 100 Roman Catholic Malissori tribesmen from northern
Albania; attached to his force were two foreign sportsmen,
Prince Sturdza and the Comte de Pimodan, who were in charge
of one mountain-gun and one machine-gun.
When this detachment reached Shjak, the Malissori
suddenly informed Sar that they intended going no further, as
 23RD MAY - FLIGHT 71

they had been sent from the North to act as bodyguard to the
King and had no wish to leave their bones in central Albania,
where they might not even get a Christian burial. Besides, they
said that they were wearing their best clothes which they did
not intend to spoil for anybody! They were "fed up" and even
the entreaties of their leader, Simon Doda, who stuck to the
Dutchman like a man, would not move them. As the
Malissoris' conduct seemed inexplicable, a reason for it had to
be discovered - or invented. So we in due course heard that
they had been got hold of by Italian agents, who had told them
that they were being led into a trap; that the rebels would wipe
them out before they ever reached their destination. We never
found out whether there was any truth in the story, but to me
it seems not only possible but probable. Sar telegraphed to
Durazzo for further instructions, as he considered it madness to
attempt to push through with the remaining third of his men.
To his astonishment the General De Veer did not share his
views and insisted on his advancing, in spite of the smallness of
his force. General De Veer probably thought that the force
would find no resistance; so far there had been no actual
bloodshed and there was really no reason to believe that the
rebels would go to extremes. The expedition was meant to be a
demonstration and had no orders to attack the insurgents
without provocation. As Sar foresaw a catastrophe, he left the
mountain-gun at Shjak, thinking that the Malissori could be
relied upon to look after it for the present, particularly as there
were still a few gendarmes left in the village. He left in the early
hours of the morning, but did not get very far before the
insurgents attacked from all sides; his gendarmes put up a good
fight, but were quite unable to hold their own against the
superior numbers of the enemy. Sar hoped that the Malissori on
hearing the firing would come to his assistance, but as there was
no sign of them and his little band had suffered considerably, he
was forced to surrender, the rebels having crept round and cut
off his only line of retreat.27
This "unfortunate incident" certainly encouraged the
insurgents to try their skill at bigger game and so brought on
72 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

the attack on Durazzo, which caused the catastrophe of the

23rd May. On this day the Mbret lost most of his prestige, but
as the reader will see for himself when he reads what happened,
there was more in it all than met the eye and the unfortunate
Mbret could not very well help acting as he did! "Tout
comprendre, c'est tout pardonner."
On waking up on the morning of the 23rd of May, I heard
that Sar's Malissori had returned to Durazzo by themselves and
that the rest of the troops had been defeated at Shjak and
forced to surrender. The Malissori had left the gun at Shjak, as,
owing to the approach of large numbers of the insurgents, they
had retired in rather a hurry. On getting this news, I jumped
into my clothes and went up to the King (who was in his bath)
to inform him and receive his instructions; then I went out to
try to get further particulars for him. In the palace garden I met
the Italian Minister, who seemed very agitated and told me that
there were 8,000 fanatics on the way to attack the town. He
appeared to think that I was the cause of this and told me that
public opinion in Durazzo held me responsible for the sending
of the ill-fated expedition; he also insinuated that something
would happen to me if I did not leave Durazzo immediately and
warned me as a friend to get out of it as quickly as possible. As
an ordinary non-Albanian is not in the habit of having "things
happening to him", I was frightened, knowing that orientals
become very rough at times, when things are not going
smoothly. Besides, several people had already warned me that
Essad Pasha's friends bore me some ill-will for the part I had
played in his arrest, and ill-will is in Albania the first cousin of
blood feud; so really I had some reason to feel nervous! I walked
across the square with shaky knees and on reaching the old
Venetian tower behind the custom-house wiped the cold sweat
off my forehead, glad to be away from the crowd, which I
imagined would soon follow me and tear me to pieces. A clear
conscience may be an excellent thing in its way, but on this
occasion it did not give me any comfort. From the corner, by
the old tower, one could get an excellent view of the Tirana
road and the heights of Raspul, which an enemy coming from
 23RD MAY - FLIGHT 73

the interior would have to cross before attacking the town; so I

sat there looking across the water and the swamps through my
field-glasses. After a while I could hear firing in the distance,
an echo from the far side of the hills; then a few men came
trooping down the Tirana road. At first I hoped that they might
be some of Sar's men, but soon my hopes were shattered; the
firing came closer and closer, and further stronger detachments,
which could only be the insurgents' advance-guard, appeared
on the sky-line on both sides of the road. Our outposts were
soon driven in and fell back on the main line of resistance, near
the bridge, where about seventy of our men, commanded by a
young German ex-officer, Baron Gumppenberg, were holding
our right flank. Gumppenberg was originally a subaltern in the
German cavalry, which he left owing to some disagreement
with the authorities. He then joined the Turkish army, with
which he served during the Tripoli war and a part of the Balkan
war. At von Trotha's instigation, he was given a commission in
the Albanian militia and the gallant fight that he put up during
this first day of war with his irregulars did more than anything
else to save Durazzo. He was slightly wounded during the day,
but this did not prevent him from trying to charge the rebels,
estimated at 1,500 men, in the afternoon, when his men had to
cease fire for a time owing to lack of ammunition.
I reported my observations to the King and then returned
to my post, as there was nothing to keep me in the house for the
time being. At about 11 o'clock the artillery opened fire; one of
the Austrian guns had been unpacked and used against Essad's
house on the morning of the 19th and this was now at our
disposal. As the Austrian officers, who had come to instruct the
Albanians how to use it, were not allowed to leave their ship, I
believe for political reasons,28 we had to do the best we could
with volunteers. The first Albanian artillery was, as far as I can
remember, manned by Ekrem Bey Vlora, a couple of German
commercial travellers and an Austrian waiter; none of these
knew very much about gunnery and the result was that several
shells were badly fused and exploded over the town. However
they soon improved and at the end of the first hour were
74 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

dropping shells onto the insurgents' lines quite successfully.

Altogether we had about 250 men under arms; about 150
of these were in the firing-line under Major Roelfsema and
Baron Gumppenberg and the remainder were kept in reserve.
Several European civilians, who happened to be in Durazzo on
business, did more than their share in the work; particularly the
Austrians and Germans, who behaved very creditably all
through; a young Englishman, Mr. Walford,29 acted as galloper
to the General. Only the Italians were conspicuous by their
absence; though the town was full of them, they did not
attempt to take any part in its defence.
As I was returning to the palace at midday, I again met the
Italian Minister, who repeated his warning to me and this time
represented my danger as being so great that he advised me to
get away to the Italian warship in a boat, without even
returning to the palace to get my things. This second warning
was even more serious than the first and I found it necessary to
visit the butler for a glass of brandy to keep me going. I was kept
busy after lunch and nothing of interest happened till about 3
o'clock, when Baron Aliotti arrived at the palace; he now
informed the King that in his opinion the position had
deteriorated, that he would have to withdraw his naval
detachment, which, with the Austrian, was guarding the
palace, as he could not endanger the lives of the Italian sailors.
As I received him, Aliotti said he had come to save the King,
but that, as I had ignored his warnings, it was too late for me.
His advice was that the King, Queen and children should retire
to the "Misurata", as a massacre would probably follow the
insurgents' entry into Durazzo. The Austrian Minister was sent
for and, though he had seemed quite optimistic about
everything in the morning, he now shared his colleague's views
and also advised the King to escape, as quickly as possible.
Something must have taken place between the two ministers,
something that we knew nothing about, as I feel convinced
that Herr von Löwenthal did not himself see any reason for our
leaving the Palace and was against our doing so, even though
he officially had to support the Italian proposal.
 23RD MAY - FLIGHT 75

It has already been mentioned that the Mbret was not a

strong man, so one cannot be surprised to hear that he allowed
himself to be persuaded by the diplomatic representatives of
"Albania's godparents". What else was he to do? The chances
are that "something" would have happened to him, if he had
attempted to see the whole thing through, regardless of the
advice of the two most influential ministers! The worst devils of
International Politics were abroad that day - with a vengeance
- and no one could foresee what would happen next!
As a final coup de grace Aliotti snarled at me that, not
having taken note of his former warnings, it was now too late
for me to get away. Of course the continual warnings so
unnerved me that I was quite unable to give the King any
sensible advice, or do anything useful. This, I verily believe,
was their object. Had the Aide-de-camp or I only ridden out to
the bridge to look at things ourselves the flight might never
have taken place at all! For my part I must admit that I was
thoroughly shaken.
The King had to give way and that was the end of it; when
the ministers had made their departure and I was left alone
with him, the poor man was quite white and at his wits' end.
As he ordered me to arrange for a hasty departure, to get the
trunks packed and servants ready, there were tears in his eyes
and I was really sorry for him, particularly as he had always
been kindness itself to me and had done everything to make me
comfortable. He looked round the study and sighed "It seems
such a pity to have to leave all my old things here; why must it
be?" As I was not in a particularly cheerful state of mind myself
and did not want to let him see my emotion, I answered rather
abruptly "Well, it was bound to come sooner or later, so we had
better make the best of a bad job!" and left him, perhaps rather
taken aback by such impertinence.
After giving the necessary instructions to the servants, I
helped the King to pack some of his valuables and the Essad
Pasha papers, then going to my own room to pack my dressing-
case. I put in everything that I really valued, jewellery,
keep-sakes and about £50 of money and deposited it in the
76 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

passage outside my room. At that moment von Trotha came

along with two bags containing 40,000 francs in gold, part of the
Court funds, for which I had to find room in my dressing-case;
this, not having been light at any time, was now so heavy that
I could hardly lift, much less carry, it myself. I dragged it to the
foot of the stairs, where the other luggage was collected, and left
it there, telling one of the servants to keep his eye on it.
Word was sent to us, as far as I remember from the Italian
Legation, that we had better hurry up, as the rebels were
advancing rapidly and the landing-stage would soon be under
fire; a melancholy procession was formed and slowly we
marched across the square that had given us such a splendid
welcome some ten weeks before. Now all was silent and foreign
sailors lined the route! At the landing-stage launches from the
"Misurata" were awaiting us and soon afterwards we arrived on
board;30 the servants followed us in due course, with such
luggage as there had been time to pack, but my dressing case
was nowhere to be found! So the King fled to the ship and the
European press had its large headlines for the morning editions!
Before closing this chapter, it is only fair to mention the
fact that Sami Bey, the chamberlain, was the only one in the
palace who did not loose his head; he considered that the
King's flight was unnecessary and advocated his view so
forcibly, that there was no longer any doubt about his loyalty.
He predicted that the flight would make a bad impression all
over the country and begged us to do all in our power to
prevent it. Unfortunately he would not speak to the King
himself, being too shy to do so; but he wept bitter tears of grief,
poor fellow!
 Chapter Fourteen
. . . .

2 3 R D M AY - R E T U R N

It was quite pleasant to be on board a foreign warship, as

one at least felt safe from assassins' bullets; however our joy was
short-lived and before very long we were all sorry that we had
ever left the land. It was most depressing to see the Royal
Standard being lowered on the palace! As a matter of fact this
made a very bad impression on the defenders of Durazzo, who
had fought all day without any encouragement and were now
being left in the lurch by the very man they had been fighting
for. We sat about the deck, moping and were thoroughly
downhearted at this unpleasant ending to our adventure.
Several of us had hoped to remain here in Durazzo for the rest
of our lives, and now all our hopes were suddenly dashed to the
ground at one fell swoop! I looked after the servants and
luggage, hoping to find my dressing-case; however to my great
dismay nobody could tell me anything about it. I also
discovered that several of the servants, including the English
butler, had been left behind at the palace, so I asked the officer
in command of the ship to allow me to go back to fetch them
in one of his launches. This request he courteously, but firmly
refused, as his orders were to let nobody leave the ship for the
time being; he could not make an exception for me, as he
would be held responsible if anything went wrong. I was also
told that my going ashore was out of the question in any case,
78 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

as the insurgents were already in the town and the risk would
be too great.
Sentries with fixed bayonets were posted about the deck,
"to prevent undesirable refugees from trying to get on board".
In fact we were kept here whether we liked it or not! I was
absolutely furious at this and asked the captain whether we
were to consider ourselves his prisoners; his answer implied that
I could consider myself anything I chose, but that his
instructions were not to allow anybody to return to the town.
As arguing with the captain of a ship is not a profitable pastime
and never does any good, I retired to the boat-deck, where the
others were assembled, and from here watched what was
happening on land. We got a good view of the swamps and saw
our detachments apparently still holding their own round the
bridge; the firing had died down and, as far as I could make out
through my field-glasses, everything seemed to be in more or
less perfect order.
After a time it appears that a truce was called and
parliamentaries, headed by old Mehmet Pasha Dralla,31 went
out from the town to talk to the rebels. A motor car, flying a
huge Italian flag, scudded to and fro and, I believe, the
International Commission of Control also sallied forth to treat
for peace. We watched people coming and going and it was
damnable to have to sit still and take no part in the
proceedings. The King was always a reserved man and on this
occasion, as usual, had not told us what he thought of doing
next, so we wondered whether we would be taken to some
Italian or Austrian port, or whether the King intended going up
to Scutari, to try his luck in the North. Most of us hoped for the
latter, though the King perhaps was not so keen on restarting
his adventure, after the first reverse. I do not think that he had
any particular affection for his new subjects; at any rate he had
no reason to have any, as so few of them had given him a square
deal.
When we had been on the "Misurata" two hours, and had
finished our tea, Admiral Trifari, the senior Italian officer in
the harbour, came on board with "very important news" for the
 23RD MAY - RETURN 79

King. He remained closed with him in one of the saloons for

some time and when they came out together, the King was pale
and appeared to be rather agitated. The "important news" was
this: the insurgents had defeated us and had practically got
possession of the town; however they did not intend to sack it
if the King would receive their spokesmen in the palace and
treat with them, in person. When the King asked why these
spokesmen could not be brought on board the "Misurata", he
was informed that they had absolutely refused to come out on
the sea. The Mbret did not appear to be at all anxious to leave
the ship, as, having come on board in order to avoid massacre,
he did not appreciate the idea of putting his head into the
noose a second time. However the Admiral urged him to do so
and before long we, the King, Ekrem Bey and I were scudding
homeward in the Italian motor-boat. The sun had gone down
and altogether this was a most unpleasant trip, as we were
firmly convinced that we were being led into some sort of trap,
out of which we would probably not escape alive. On the
square we could distinguish armed figures, but were unable to
make out whether they were friends or foes; our hearts
throbbed and we expected to be fired upon the moment that
we set foot on terra firma. At the landing-stage a pleasant
surprise awaited us; instead of being surrounded by villainous
insurgents, we found ourselves welcomed by loyalists, who wept
with joy at the Mbret's safe return to the capital. On our way
across the square, one of them warned me to be careful, as "the
Italians were playing some low game", which remark was not so
very reassuring. Capitano Castoldi met us in the garden and at
our approach the Kavass, who was sitting at the gate with his
rifle across his knees, welcomed us with joy and led the way
into the house.
The electric light had been switched off at the main and we
had to find our way up the stairs as best we could in the dark;
as we could no longer make head or tail of anything and had
lost confidence in everybody, almost in ourselves, we kept our
Brownings ready for immediate action, expecting some evil-
disposed persons to leap at us out of the darkness. However in
80 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

this, too, we were disappointed, as all remained peaceful. In due

course candles were brought to us in the passage, outside the
King's study, stuck in empty beer bottles (Not very regal, I
admit, but the only candlesticks that could be raised for the
time being!).
Soon people came pouring in: Ministers, Control
Commissioners, officers and loyal beys, but nothing was to be
seen of the rebels' emissaries, though we were assured that they
might turn up at any moment. We had been here doing
nothing in particular for a couple of hours, when I heard
someone coming up the stairs; to everybody's great
astonishment it turned out to be Captain Sar, who had been
captured by the rebels that morning at Shjak! His captors had
released him on parole to come in to Durazzo and treat with the
Mbret on their behalf. They demanded a letter of amnesty for
their past offences, and in return promised not to attack the
town for the present; if Sar failed in his mission, or should break
his parole, the insurgents threatened to shoot all their
prisoners. The King immediately had a letter of amnesty
concocted and handed over to Captain Sar, who after telling us
his story, was sent back to Shjak in a royal carriage under a flag
of truce. It was further arranged that our motor car should be
sent there, also under the white flag, to bring in our wounded;
however this could not be done immediately, as our chauffeur
was still on board the "Misurata".
As the Italians, who appeared to know everything, at this
point assured the King that all danger was now past and the
town safe from further attack, I was sent on board to fetch off
the Queen, ladies and staff. The Queen was an exceedingly
plucky woman, but when she saw me arriving without her
husband, it gave her an awful shock. She was soon reassured
and more than delighted to be able to return to land and take
up the fight again. The royal children had been sent on board
the "Szigetvar" during the morning and did not return to the
palace till next afternoon.
When we got back, the lights in the house were again
working and my room was brightly illuminated; through the
 23RD MAY - RETURN 81

window we saw Castoldi by my desk, which rather surprised us,

as relations between him and myself had been rather strained
since the Essad "coup", in which he firmly believed that I had
been implicated. Besides this, we had had further
unpleasantness between us owing to some over-truthful remark
about some of his countrymen in Durazzo, which I had made in
an unguarded moment that morning.
We sat down to a cold supper, which had been prepared in
all haste, and a glass of champagne, the best tonic in the world,
soon raised our spirits; however our troubles were not yet over
and another blow was in store for us that night! The meal was
hardly over, when Ekrem Bey was called away; he came back
with a very long face and the unpleasant news that the Italian
and Austrian Ministers had decided to withdraw their
detachments. This was certainly most awkward, as the
gendarmerie were not to be trusted and they would be the only
men left to guard the palace, if the sailors were withdrawn; now
it was doubly awkward, having the ladies with us! So Ekrem
was sent off to the two Ministers and, after a lot of negotiations,
it was finally arranged that the Italians would give us a double
guard of 150 men, as the Austrian Minister absolutely declined
to furnish us with the usual detachment. The curious thing is
that the Austrians, in spite of their refusal, landed a
detachment with a machine gun, which remained by the
landing stage all night, ready for immediate action. We were
never able to discover what caused all the trouble that night,
but I was told by an absolutely reliable person in authority, that,
had the Austrians furnished us with the usual guard that night
this might have led to a catastrophe. Their detachment by the
landing stage was a precautionary measure, as it was thought
probable that a second flight would be forced upon us during
the night.
As the Austrians were very friendly disposed towards the
throne and always did all they could to give the poor Mbret the
support, which had been promised to him by the Concert of
Europe, I feel certain that they had some very serious reasons
for not giving us their usual detachment that night. In fact, my
82 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

personal opinion is that the relations between Austria and Italy

were so strained that the slightest incident might have brought
about a disaster. The ships in the harbour were kept ready for
immediate action and I know that the naval officers of both
countries were burning to get at each other's throats.
As arranged, we sent our car over to Shjak to bring in the
wounded; two Austrian naval doctors rigged up a hospital in
our "dependence", where the Doctor Berghausen, who had
already left the King's service, had lived. Everybody was worn
out and glad to get to bed, so it was not long before I found
myself alone. At about 1 o'clock the car returned, carrying
three or four of our men who had been wounded in the
morning; they all had serious injuries and we had some
difficulty in carrying them up the narrow stairs, but they were
brave and uncomplaining; one of them, a young Mirdite, whose
leg had been smashed by a dum-dum, even cracked jokes with
us as we lifted him out of the car. It was after 2 o’clock when I
at last turned in, absolutely tired out after the most unpleasant
day that one can well imagine.
I have tried to give an accurate account of what took place
and have not attempted to give any sort of explanation; the
reader must form his own opinion on the day's happenings.
Why we were made to flee to the "Misurata" we could not make
out; still less were we able to understand why we were hustled
back to the palace by the very people who had driven us out of
it. Certain it is that the King's prestige was gone for ever after,
and that from this day onward he was practically a dependent
of Italy and Austria!
I must still add a word about my dressing-case, which
disappeared for good. As Italian sailors kept off the crowd,
while the luggage was being transported from the palace to the
ship, it is practically certain that my bag was not stolen by any
ordinary individual. It did not remain in the palace; that also I
know. As it had my name on it and was very heavy, an outsider
might have thought that it contained documents; the Essad
papers were by some parties considered the most important in
our possession. To me it seems probable that some 'agent' was
 23RD MAY - RETURN 83

the culprit! What a disappointment to find no papers; maybe a

still greater personal satisfaction to find the store of gold coin.
 Chapter Fifteen
. . . .

END OF THE MONTH

In the last two chapters I have attempted to describe the

happenings on the 23rd of May, but it seems only fair to say a
few words in defence of the Mbret's conduct on that day. His
flight to the "Misurata" was adversely commented upon in
almost the entire foreign press and the King was depicted as an
arrant coward; not knowing the full facts of the case, Europe
took it upon herself to laugh at him. Everybody who was on the
spot and more or less knew what was going on, can testify that
his line of conduct was imposed upon him by a "force majeure"
and that he was in no sense a free agent.
The representatives of the Great Powers have tremendous
influence at small courts and can bring such pressure to bear on
a petty ruler, or his government, so that it is absolutely
impossible to hold out against them for any length of time.
They can adopt a tone which would be more suited to a cab-
shelter than to a council chamber; they can cajole, insult,
threaten, at their own sweet will, and in the end their word is
law. Might is right in international politics, as in everything
else! If the reader will bear this in mind, he will judge the King
less harshly; had he been a really great man, it is true, he might
have acted differently; but he was not a great man, had little
self-assurance and no practical training, and his position was
very precarious.
 END OF THE MONTH 85

The remainder of the month passed off uneventfully and

what happened during the next week or two can be told in a
few words. The International Commission of Control, which
only appeared on the scene when there was some serious
difficulty to be surmounted, went over to Shjak on the 25th
May to negotiate with the rebels; the Austrian member,
Consul-general Kral32 distinguished himself on this occasion,
haranguing the crowd in their own language, which he spoke
fluently but which most of his colleagues could not understand.
The result of this first visit was not unfavourable; the insurgents
received the Commission courteously and agreed to send us
back their prisoners and the guns they had captured from Sar's
force. The prisoners were returned next day, but the authorities
forgot to send over ponies for the guns; this quite annoyed the
insurgents, who did not see why they should keep the guns any
longer. As a matter of fact ponies were never sent to Shjak and
the result was that the rebels kept our guns, finally using them
against Durazzo. None of the leaders appeared on this, or any
other similar occasion, and the dummy spokesmen present at
the meeting had to refer everything to the "Great Ones" who
appeared to rule their flock with a rod of iron. It was never
discovered who these "Great Ones" were! The general
impression brought away by the Commissioners was that the
people had been worked up by Young-Turkish agitators; they
appeared to have no definite grievances, but wanted the old
Turkish regime back, which proposal no halfway educated
Albanian would ever have supported, or even tolerated.
It was very noticeable during these days that the insurgents
were on excellent terms with the Italians; motor cars used to
take out Italian officials and others to Shjak regularly, and it
was also remarked that the disloyal elements in the town kept
in close touch with various Italians, not wholly unconnected
with the legation. We started a sort of secret police to watch
political suspects, but, as most of its members were ardent
nationalists, with strong Austrian sympathies, we sometimes
found it very difficult to separate truth from fiction in their
reports. In spite of these little difficulties, we knew much of
86 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

what was going on in the town; however no arrests were made

for the present.
I was told on excellent authority that the Italian legation
had requested the King to dismiss both von Trotha and myself,
"as we had intrigued against Italian interests”. However the
King backed us up loyally on this occasion and refused to
accede to the Italian demand. The Italians in Durazzo showed
me that I was a "Persona ingrata" to them and rather ostracised
me until the outbreak of war in August, when there was not
enough they could do for me. I received several further
warnings to be on my guard, as the Essad party would never
forgive me for arresting their leader and then searching his
luggage. Von Trotha and Major Sluys were warned in a similar
manner; the former was now sent to Germany on a political
mission and the latter was allowed to retire to Holland for a few
weeks' leave in order to let things blow over. As I had not yet
got over my first fright, I got Mr. Lamb,33 the British member of
the International Commission of Control, to find out from
Baron Aliotti what reasons he had had for believing me to be
in danger and for advising me to leave the country. The latter
was rather taken aback and said that he had heard that the
Nationalists were displeased with me and wanted to remove
me, though he did not know any details. As the Nationalists
were the King's most loyal supporters and without exception
very friendly-disposed towards myself, I put the whole story
down as a down-right lie; without a doubt it was a diplomatic
method of preventing me from making myself useful to the
King on the 23rd. If so, it was certainly successful and all credit
is due to the wily diplomat who engineered it! Had I not been
frightened on that occasion, I would most certainly have ridden
out to see what was going on at the front, as I did regularly on
every subsequent occasion!
One evening, as I was on the point of retiring to bed, I was
informed that one of our wounded had died in the Court
hospital. As the ADC who was still up, did not care about the
job, although, being a Mahommedan and Albanian he could
have done it much better than myself, I had to arrange for the
 END OF THE MONTH 87

man's burial and to send for an "Imam" to pray by the body

through the night. The priest's price for a night out of bed was,
if I remember rightly, twenty francs; however it was money well
spent, as it did the King good among his Mahommedan subjects
to appear as the protector of their faith, particularly at a time
when the insurgents stated that the government was trying to
do away with the Mahommedan religion altogether!
Next afternoon I had to attend the funeral of a young
Austrian reserve officer, who had been killed in the fighting of
the 23rd; half his head having been blown away by a dum-dum.
As I represented the King, I had to walk immediately behind
the roughly made coffin; blood kept trickling through the
cracks onto the dusty road - great black drops! To me, as yet
quite unaccustomed to the horrors of war, this was a most
unpleasant duty.
Towards the end of the month the Commissioners of
Control again took up negotiations with the insurgents and
drove out to Kavaya, where they were quite well received. Now
the rebels would not have anything to do with the Mbret or his
government, as the story seems to have been spread amongst
them that my master was a blood-thirsty tyrant, who killed his
subjects for sport. A more ridiculous accusation is hardly
imaginable to anybody who knew the "Tyrant", who was as
gentle and kindly a man as ever breathed! However amongst
the ignorant peasants it was of course believed, and liberally
made use of by the unscrupulous agitators. Here the movement
appeared to be more fanatical than at Shjak and the Turkish
flag was flying on the more important houses in the town.
Negotiations were found to be impossible and the Commission
returned to Durazzo rather crestfallen.
After the Essad Pasha troubles the whole cabinet retired en
bloc and Turkhan Pasha formed a new one, in which one or
two of the original members were again included. Essad Pasha's
post as Minister of the Interior was filled by a new man, Akif
Pasha Elbasani, whom I believe to have been an honourable
man, though perhaps not a very able one; Monsieur Philip
Nogga34 took over the finances of the state, and Abdi Bey
88 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

Toptani became Minister for Agriculture; the other changes

were of minor importance.
After the eventful night of the 18th May, the "Cabinet
Royale" kept itself very much in the background and we hardly
ever saw either Castoldi or Buchberger; for some time already
they had not go on very well with each other and now they
spent most of their time in, or about, their respective legations.
This position being entirely ludicrous, the King decided to
dissolve this Privy Council, on the ground that it was no longer
considered a useful organ of government. Its two members were
thanked for "the great services that they had rendered the
country" and were decorated with the “Order of the Albanian
Eagle". We were all sorry for Buchberger, as he had always been
put in the shade by his more pushing colleague and we believed
that he had played an absolutely straight game and worked for
Albania's good throughout. Until the crisis of the 18th May, we
had great confidence in Castoldi's ability, but from that day his
manner suddenly changed, our relations became more than
strained and nobody missed him when he left. He was certainly
a strong man, an astute diplomat and pleasant companion, but
we all felt that he had not forgotten that he was an Italian and
had worked for his country's good more than for Albania's, and
this we looked upon as treason towards the King who had
trusted him implicitly. I say that we felt this; we had no proofs
and possibly we were mistaken.
On the night of the 29th, just as we were going to bed, two
shots rang out through the night; as they were fired at no great
distance from the palace, they caused a certain amount of
alarm. The two naval detachments (the Austrians had sent
theirs, as usual, after the night of the 23rd.) were called to arms.
From my window I watched the Italians at work; the men acted
quickly and well and put the main road leading into the town
into a state of defence within a few minutes, a most creditable
display. The only pity is that all these preparations were for
nothing; there was no riot or mutiny and it was eventually
discovered that the two shots had been fired at a stray dog by
one of the Dutch officers out of the window of his quarters at
 END OF THE MONTH 89

the Hotel Clementi. It appeared to me rather a foolish thing to

do in a town which was in a state of siege and under military
law! However no more was heard about the incident, so it must
be buried with the many other follies that became almost a part
of our existence in that out of the way corner of the world!
 Chapter Sixteen
. . . .

INTRIGUE AND REBELLION

On the 1st of June seven hundred Mirdites and Malissori

tribesmen arrived from Alessio,35 where Prenk Bib Doda Pasha
was supposed to be collecting a large army of tribesmen, which,
it was hoped, would overawe the insurgents and bring them to
their senses. Most of the men were armed with a rifle of sorts
and by far the majority of them had fairly modern weapons -
Mannlichers and Mausers. The more old-fashioned Martini
was also well represented, as its loud report made it popular
among the primitive tribesmen, who still believe in instilling
terror into their enemies by noise. All these warriors were
wearing their picturesque national kit, which however cannot
be described as very practical for war, as the baggy white
trousers make splendid targets for the enemy's sharpshooters.
Unfortunately the Albanian government could not afford to
put its soldiers into uniform; our forces cost us quite enough
money without that luxury!
This detachment was accompanied by the Bishop of
Alessio, a real fighting priest of the old school, who was
untiring in looking after and cheering on his turbulent flock.36
The nominal leader of this expeditionary force was Marco
Gioni, a cousin of Prenk's, who however had very little
influence with his men and preferred the cafe to the trenches.
On the same boat as our new garrison was also my
 INTRIGUE AND REBELLION 91

brother,37 who had come out from England to pay me a flying

visit. He had made friends with many of the notables on board,
conversing with them in a "lingua franca" invented on the spur
of the moment. His monocle made a great impression on the
simple-minded mountaineers, who had never seen such a
wonderful thing in their lives and greatly respected the owner
of what was probably a powerful charm! I got him a room at the
Hotel Clementi for a day or two, which he however had to
share with a stranger; as he did not care about paying 16 francs
a day for such inadequate accommodation, the King allowed
me to have a tent pitched for him in the precincts of the
palace, in which he was far more comfortable. As soon as he
heard that there was fighting in the air, he gave up all thoughts
of returning home and settled down to learn all he could about
the working of the guns. In the course of a few days he had
picked up quite a lot about it and was by general consent
admitted to be one of the greatest artillery experts in the town!
The King and Queen were exceedingly kind to him, for which
I was most grateful to them, and he spent what little spare time
he had in the palace.
The International Commission went out to Shjak again,
but this time the behaviour of the insurgents was barely
courteous and their attitude quite unconciliatory. Their
demands were now unacceptable, for they insisted that the
Mbret must leave the country and a Mahommedan Prince be
put in his place. Under these conditions, further negotiation
became impossible and all hope of making a compromise faded
away; so it was decided to put down the insurrection by force of
arms. Everybody thought that this would be a comparatively
simple matter and certainly nobody anticipated absolute
disaster!
A plan of campaign was worked out in the King's study,
which looked very well on paper and would probably have
worked admirably if our troops had been highly trained men,
instead of armed marauders. It was as follows: we were to
advance on the insurgents from all sides, surround their forces
and starve them into submission. It was hoped that bloodshed
92 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

would be avoided and that the insurgents would be cowed into

submission and lay down their arms and return to their homes.
In the north was Prenk Bib Doda with his Mirdites and
Malissori tribesmen; exactly how many men he had at his
disposal at this time we never found out, but I believe that the
government was paying for 5,000 to 7,000 men for some time,
though it is generally believed that the force assembled did not
ever reach so large a figure. In the north-east Ahmed Bey Mati
(later, King Zog38) had collected a force of some 2,000 of his
feudal retainers, with which he was to advance on Tirana, now
the centre of the disturbed area, after occupying Kruja. In the
east there was a smaller force of Loyalists, having its base at
Elbasan and there were two southern armies, one at Berat and
the other at Valona. All these forces were to work together and
according to plans would drive the rebels back and surround
them somewhere between Tirana and Shjak. What happened
to all these armies will be told later on, but the less said about
it the better, as unfortunately not a single one of them did
anything creditable.
It was decided at this council of war to send a couple of guns
to Valona; also one to Alessio to encourage Prenk Bib Doda as
it was thought that valour was not the strongest trait in his
character. Volunteer gunners were wanted and Prince Sturdza,
Comte de Pimodan and my brother were chosen; they were
accompanied by a few gendarmes and two or three American
Albanians, who acted as interpreters and made themselves very
useful. When the necessary preparations were completed, this
"battery" left for Alessio on an Italian tramp steamer.
During the first half of June there was only one incident
worth noting, which, though it seems unimportant enough
now, was very serious to us and almost caused very grave
complications. This is what happened: as was mentioned in the
last chapter, a sort of secret police had been organised as the
regular force, which we had inherited from the provisional
government, the ruling power in Albania before the King's
arrival, had proved absolutely incapable of fulfilling its
functions. As a matter of fact the most useful thing that the
 INTRIGUE AND REBELLION 93

regular police used to do, was to help foreigners with their

luggage, on arriving at Durazzo, for which they of course
received baksheesh. Our new police had for some weeks been
watching the movements of certain foreigners and on the night
of the 5th June they notified Colonel Thomson, the
commandant of the town, that they had noticed lamp signals,
which were being made from a house tenanted by Italians. At
least one of these was suspected of being a spy, or anyway in the
secret service of his government. The lamp signals were said to
have been noticed three nights in succession and it was also
asserted that answering signals had been made by the
insurgents on the heights of Raspul. Certain Morse messages
emanating from one of the windows in question were read by
officers on the destroyers in the harbour, and from the reading
it appears that some secret code was being used, though one
message was sent in the Italo-Albanian dialect.
Captain Jan Fabius, the most reckless and dashing of the
Dutch officers, together with several policemen and volunteers,
surrounded the suspected house and without further ado
arrested two of its occupants, both Italian subjects, regardless of
the consequences. A third, who was with them, managed to get
away through a window and make good his escape in the
darkness without being recognised; as the whole town knew the
trio in question, this third man's identity was an open secret.
Owing to the Italian Minister's intervention, he was however
not arrested and had the discretion to retire from Durazzo as
soon as he could get away.39
Hardly had the arrest been affected and Colonel Thomson
appeared on the scene, when Baron Aliotti and followers also
arrived. The Italian Minister protested against the arrest,
which had been carried out contrary to the Capitulation
Laws,40 which were still in force, but had apparently been
forgotten by the authorities in the heat of the fray. The Colonel
stood his ground and argued the matter out, claiming that some
clause in the Capitulation Laws permitted immediate arrest in
certain exceptional cases; he claimed that this was such a one
and defended the conduct of his subordinate. Apparently the
94 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

Minister did not consider the Colonel's opinion on this point

of very great importance and took an opposite point of view.
The result was that a long and wordy debate ensued, to the
great delight of the onlookers, who cheered on their respective
champions noisily; the Italians shouted, the crowd shouted and
the two opponents shouted, but finally the Colonel's voice rose
above the din and the victory for the time being was his! In
spite of the Italians' remonstrations, he insisted on searching
the house and seizing his prisoners' correspondence, though he
allowed his two captives to remain at large, on their minister's
undertaking that they would not attempt to escape from
Durazzo.
Unfortunately I was not present to witness this pleasant
scene, so cannot guarantee the absolute truth of the details;
however several independent witnesses all told me exactly the
same story, so I daresay that the account that I have given is
accurate enough.
This time the Italian Minister was really angry and
demanded Thomson's instant dismissal, or a formal apology
from him. During an "audience" he had with the Mbret on the
subject, he raised his voice to such a pitch, that we could hear
what he was saying right away in the Oriental Room, almost
the other end of the house. He failed absolutely in his object,
as the Colonel roundly refused to apologise; the wily Minister
of Justice also said that the King could not possibly dismiss
Thomson, as the Dutch Gendarmerie Mission had been
appointed by the Concert of Europe. In such a serious matter
the International Commission would have to be consulted and
would have to decide the case, as it saw fit. This was a good
point and gave the king time.
The Albanian Ministers and other officials begged
Thomson to apologise, to avoid all further trouble, but he
would not listen to them and maintained that he was in the
right; they pointed out to him that he should do so for the
King's sake, but the gallant Dutchman remained firm and only
replied "Volontiers je donnerais ma vie au Roi, mais jamais
mon honneur!". There were fifteen witnesses who were willing
 INTRIGUE AND REBELLION 95

to swear that they had seen the signalling during the night in
question, but in spite of such a lot of evidence, the case had to
be dropped and the Italians escaped without any further
molestation. From the foregoing pages it will be seen that, with
the exception of this little incident, nothing of importance
happened during the first half of June, though the air was heavy
with suspicion and treason and everything was preparing for
trouble. Every day brought its crop of sensational rumours and
Durazzo, on the whole, was not a haven of rest for anybody,
least of all for us at the palace!
 Chapter Seventeen
. . . .

T H E R E B E L S AT TA C K D U R A Z Z O

The 15th of June marked our one and only triumph over
the rebels during the whole of the rebellion and even this one
modest victory was nullified by the death of our gallant
commandant, Colonel Thomson. At about four o'clock in the
morning I woke up to find Turkhan Pasha shaking me violently
by the shoulder; he was very excited and quite annoyed at
finding me still asleep. "A fine soldier you are to be sleeping at
such a time" he said; "Get up and to work! You don't appear to
know that the insurgents have attacked the town in force and
have established themselves in some of the outlying houses. It
appears that they took the outposts by the Porta Romana by
surprise and overwhelmed them before they could offer
resistance; at dawn they made a general attack on our
positions."
I heard the firing right enough now that I was properly
awake and jumped into my clothes as quickly as possible. On
looking out of the window, as I was dressing, I noticed a few
stray bullets dropping on the square below, where they kicked
up little clouds of dust. The King himself appeared at the door,
as I was about to go to his room; he had been awakened by the
firing and wanted to ride straight away to visit the defences.
Turkhan Pasha joined me in persuading him not to do so for
the present and to let me go out first and bring him Colonel
 THE REBELS ATTACK DURAZZO 97

Thomson's report. As Ekrem Bey was not yet up, he could not
have accompanied the King immediately anyway, so the Mbret
gave way and sent me ahead. I ran down to the stables and
getting a saddle onto one of our small native ponies, rode across
the square and past the "douane" to our main position by the
petroleum magazine.
First I kept close to the sea, intending to cut across the
waste land, which stretches from here right up to the Tirana
road; however I found the ground too swampy and as bullets
were whizzing my way in a rather disconcerting manner, I
turned round and rode out through the town, where I was
under cover most of the way. The last three hundred yards or so
I had to gallop along a straight bit of road, which ought to have
been swept by the enemy's fire, but for some reason was not. At
the magazine we had two big trenches on both sides of the road;
they were manned by Mirdites and Kosovans, who were blazing
away ammunition for all they were worth; on the left a couple
of machine-guns were hammering away with monotonous
regularity. Here I found Colonel Thomson, whom I asked how
things were going; although he himself was standing in the
open behind the row of trenches, he told me to clear out as I
would get hit for a certainty. He told me to assure the King that
the position was perfectly safe for the present, though a number
of the insurgents had managed to get close to the trenches in
the long grass.
Our people were firing so heavily that one could not hear
the enemy's bullets and I therefore did not realise that there
was much danger in staying here. As I thought that it would
make a good impression on the men to see somebody from the
palace, I rode along the line cheering; our "Rroft Mbreti!" quite
drowned the "Allah il Allah!" (or words to that effect), with
which the insurgents kept up their spirits, and our men were
delighted. Then I turned to ride home; as I did so, a hail of
bullets followed me, hitting the road, the hedges and, in fact
everything except myself. I did not wait to see whether the
rebels' aim would improve, but dug my spurs into the pony and
galloped down the road for all I was worth, till, getting back to
98 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

the houses, I was under cover again.

This was the first time I had been under fire, but though I
am of a very nervous disposition, I felt absolutely no fear all the
time. I had a choky feeling in the throat, due to the excitement
of the moment, a sort of buck-fever (the scourge of the deer-
stalker), that is all, but I never dreamed of the possibility of
being hit. I was very much surprised at myself, as I had always
been afraid that I would not be able to stand the strain if I got
under fire, and turn tail at the critical moment.
On getting back to the palace, I found that the King,
contrary to our arrangement, had already left with Ekrem Bey
to visit the battery on the hill behind the barracks; so I had a
hurried breakfast and set out again. This time I turned to the
right by the doctor's house, now the Court Hospital, and over
the swampy ground beyond; I thought that I knew this well
enough, as I frequently came out here for an evening stroll;
however I soon found that what would carry me, would not
necessarily carry my pony! Suddenly the ground gave way
under us and the pony sank up to its belly in the bog; I went in
to nearly up to the knees, which was not at all pleasant, though
not as dangerous as it seemed; smothered in mud we managed
to scramble out safe and sound. From here I rode past the
Italian brickfields and climbed the hill behind them; I chose
this route, as every other was exposed to the enemy's fire and
here at least we were more or less under cover. As the hill is
very steep on this side and is devoid of any paths, I had to drag
the pony most of the way. Close to the top of the hill, I noticed
a gendarmerie detachment, which I immediately headed for;
when I came up to it, I found that the men were thinking only
of their personal safety and had taken up a safe position, from
which they could neither see nor shoot at anything; their
captain had been killed, apparently by a stray bullet, and I
could not induce them to go forward either by threats or
flattery. So I rode to the position they ought to have occupied
a few yards higher up and, dismounting, had a look round
through my field glasses. As I stood on the sky-line I must have
made a good mark, but not a shot was fired at me, nor could I
 THE REBELS ATTACK DURAZZO 99

see any signs of the enemy; as soon as the bold gendarmes

realised that there was now no danger in doing so, they decided
to join me, though they had at first begged me not to do so
myself! Carefully they crept forward, taking advantage of every
fold of the ground; from this new position they got an extended
field of fire; the rebels were supposed to be on the hill opposite,
but I did not see anything of them and all remained silent. I left
these heroic gendarmes, who had now started a steady fusillade
into the air to keep up their spirits, and rode on; in a few
minutes I came upon the extreme left of the main hill position,
where some Malissori were firing hard in the direction of the
enemy, though my personal belief is that they could not see
anything to aim at; anyway I could not see a thing myself and
our fire was not being returned. The Malissori told me that they
were running out of ammunition, so, having seen enough for
the present to satisfy me that there was no immediate danger in
this quarter, I turned homeward, in order to have cartridges
sent up from the store in the town. On the way I met the senior
Dutch doctor and Baroness Godin41, who had come up to look
after the wounded; it was from them that I first heard of
Colonel Thomson's death.
He had been hit in the jugular vein only a couple of
minutes after I had left him and had died almost
instantaneously. Though he was very popular among the
natives, there was not one attempt to go to his assistance when
he fell; Major Lucas Roelfsema and Mr. Arthur Moore, of the
Times, ran forward under a heavy fire and brought him under
cover. Moore was recommended for Dutch and Albanian
decorations on account of his gallant conduct on this occasion.
Roelfsema was now the senior Dutch officer in Durazzo and
took over command for the time being. After visiting the depot
to get ammunition sent out to the Malissori, I returned to the
palace to make my report. The King had not heard of Colonel
Thomson's death and the news came as a great blow to him, as
he had great confidence in his loyalty and ability. Everybody
was at breakfast, so I joined in and had a second sound meal,
for which I was quite ready. The King had only just returned
100 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

from the battery, where he had had quite an exciting

experience. Hardly had he arrived by the guns, when the
insurgents made a sudden flank attack from the hills and
poured bullets into the battery position; later I was told that the
Mbret had behaved very creditably whilst under fire, but that
Ekrem Bey, who was with him at the time, persuaded him to cut
short his visit and return home, as he had no right to endanger
his life. The impression made upon the people of Durazzo by
the King's appearance amongst them in the hour of danger was
excellent and he was cheered by high and low as he rode
through the streets.
After a short rest I went out again to see what was
happening beyond the barracks; at the foot of the hill, I left my
pony with an old gendarme and climbed up on foot, making for
the trenches, which had been dug on the top some days before.
The fire here was heavy on our side and apparently fairly
successful, as I saw quite a number of dead bodies in the valley
below us, where the insurgents had tried to advance; the enemy
answered our fire feebly and very few of our men were hit. I
went from trench to trench along the whole line of our
position, cheering the men on, till the whole valley resounded
with "Rroft Mbreti". As there appeared to be no danger in this
quarter, I returned to the hill over the barracks, where I sat
down for a time to watch our gunners at work. This morning we
had about six guns in action, and the shooting since the 23rd
had improved considerably owing to the arrival of fresh
volunteers, some of whom were reserve officers in the Austrian
or German artillery. The best shooting was made by two guns
over the barracks, which were run by an Austrian reserve officer,
who had come to Albania as a civil engineer, Herr Hässler. I was
with his battery, when he received the order to bombard a small
guard house on the Tirana road, some three hundred yards in
front of our swamp position; the first shot was a little high, the
second rather under the mark and the third hit it and exploded
properly. A whole crowd of insurgents, at least twenty of them
who had taken cover in the house, now dashed out of it,
running back towards their own lines for dear life. A couple of
 THE REBELS ATTACK DURAZZO 101

shrapnels were sent after them to keep them on the run and
several of them were laid out before they could reach safety.
Though I am not brutal on the whole, I must admit that these
few well-placed shots gave me great pleasures. Later it was
claimed that the man who shot Colonel Thomson, was in the
house and an old Martini rifle found in the ruins, which was
supposed to be the weapon which caused the Colonel's death,
was presented to the King as a souvenir. The rifle was shown to
visitors at the palace as a trophy and they were told the story
solemnly, though I fail to see how it could be claimed that just
this rifle was the one. Nobody saw from where the shot came
that killed Thomson. As a matter of fact there were at first even
rumours that he had been murdered by one of our own men (see
Note 23 for a different interpretation of Thomson’s death).
 Chapter Eighteen
. . . .

THE INSURGENTS REPULSED

After remaining for some time on the hill, I went down to

the barracks, where there were some more guns, manned by
Germans, and here also the shooting was quite satisfactory. I
had been here for a few minutes, when we suddenly heard shells
singing over our heads; one or two passed us and while we were
still wondering where they came from, one of them exploded
about fifty yards in front of us, on what we called the barrack-
square, though in reality it was only the grassy slope of the hill.
This sudden bombardment gave us rather a start, as we
naturally enough presumed that the enemy was using one of
the guns that they had taken from us and we knew that our gun
position was entirely untenable against artillery fire. Some
more shells passed over our heads without exploding and we
then discovered that a gun had been taken over to the other
side of the town by Captain Fabius and that he was now
bombarding the hills on our left rear, where a strong party of
the rebels had been sighted. As no further shells burst in our
vicinity, we felt a good deal more comfortable!
On our left front I heard a machine-gun banging away and
soon spotted it behind a hedge at the bottom of the hill; seeing
a Dutch uniform by it, I decided to visit it and rode off along
the road, which leads out of the town on this side and gradually
disappears in the dried swamp or pasture land. By the last hut
 THE INSURGENTS REPULSED 103

on the outskirts of the town, I tied up my pony, intending to go

across the field on foot; however while I was having a last look
round from here, before going out in the open, I saw our
machine-gun detachment suddenly retire with their gun, as if
the devil were behind them; at the same time the enemy, who
had worked his way round the foot of the hill, opened a heavy
fire on our men; they were also using a machine-gun, which
however was not visible. After some minutes I spotted the
insurgents' firing line behind a hedge and lining a sunken road,
about three hundred yards in front of us; two or three Malissori
were behind the house and I asked one of them to lend me his
rifle for a minute; however he would not let me touch it, and
nearly turned nasty, so I got on to my pony again and rode back
towards the barracks. Hardly had I left the cover of the house
and got back onto the road when the rebels caught sight of me
and turned their fire in my direction; the air was thick with
bullets and the little puffs of dust all round me showed me that
this was not a safe place to remain in, so I had a second hard
gallop back to safety. At the barracks I pointed out the
insurgents' new position and had a couple of guns turned onto
it; when I left, some minutes later the gunners were making
such good practice with shrapnel that the enemy did not risk a
further advance. As I found out later, the officer in charge of
the machine-gun that I had set out to visit was Captain Sar,
who, not having been able to see the rebel advance on account
of the formation of the ground, had only just managed to retire
in time to avoid being cut off.
By now the attack had been brought to a standstill all
round and in places the enemy was beginning to retire, so I
decided to return to the palace. I had however hardly got into
the town proper, when there was a sharp crack, as of a rifle,
within about twenty yards of me and a bullet whizzed past my
ear. By the sound I judged that the shot had been fired out of a
window, but I could not exactly locate from which one; there
happened to be no passers-by on the road at the time and I did
not see where the bullet hit. The incident gave me a start and
bearing in mind all the warnings that I had received on the
104 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

23rd of May and afterwards, I decided that it would be wiser for

me to trot through quiet, little frequented thoroughfares in
future, if I wanted to avoid unpleasant experiences; I felt
absolutely no desire to leave my bones in Albania!
The rest of the afternoon I had to stay at home, as there
was a certain amount of work for me to do; proclamations and
letters of thanks to the loyal chieftains had to be written and
altogether my time was fully occupied. As I had seen the best
part of the fight, I did not object to returning to my clerical
duties for a few hours.
Our guns were kept busy till after 5 o'clock, pounding away
at the retreating enemy, till he was out of range. The
insurgents, once they had started their retirement, seemed to
loose all discipline and cohesion, running away like a lot of
frightened sheep, hardly daring to look behind them. After tea
I went up to the guns again, in time to see the finish and then
had food and wine sent to the weary gunners, who deserved the
King's bounty after their hard day's work.
At about five o'clock there was a tremendous burst of rifle
fire from the swamp positions, which lasted for the best part of
quarter of an hour, and the guns also redoubled their efforts; of
course it was at once rumoured in the town that the rebels had
renewed their attack and this gave scaremongers the
opportunity of creating a panic; however this time it turned out
to be nothing but a touch of the comic. Two insurgents appear
to have been left behind by their comrades when these
evacuated their advanced positions, close to our line of
trenches. Suddenly they jumped up from their hiding places in
the long grass and, legging it for all they were worth, made for
the swamps; they waded through them as best they could, up to
the knees in the slime and water. Everybody opened fire on
these unfortunate individuals, so that bullets and shrapnel
lashed up the water all round them. Ten minutes it must have
taken them to get across; just as they reached terra firma, one
of them was hit and fell forward onto his face, one leg still in
the water; we all felt sorry that he did not escape, as he
deserved to do, after the ordeal he had gone through. Those
 THE INSURGENTS REPULSED 105

two fugitives cost us at least twenty shells and certainly ten

thousand cartridges; and with all this expenditure of
ammunition we had only succeeded in bagging one of them!
The evening passed off peacefully enough and the naval
doctors got to work on the wounded; they were assisted by
several Austrian and German ladies, one or two of whom had
shown the greatest bravery during the day, tending the
wounded in the trenches quite regardless of their own safety.
Late at night there was an alarm and firing recommenced
all along the line; it was however soon evident that the enemy
had not attacked in force and had only fired a few shots to
annoy us (as they frequently did from this time onward).
Though we had no more fighting that night there was still a lot
of work for us. At a late hour, the ship, which had been sent to
Alessio early in the morning for reinforcements, arrived with
about a thousand men from the north, under Major Henri
Kroon, the Dutch officer commanding the Northern
gendarmerie, who was to take Colonel Thomson's place as
commandant of Durazzo. Von Trotha and I were kept busy
superintending the debarkation and saw everybody safely
landed. The men were then drawn up on three sides of the
square and when all was ready, the King went out to inspect
them; it was now about one o'clock - a rather unusual hour for
a parade!
Our total losses during the day's fighting numbered some
forty officers and men, while the rebels left double that number
of dead on the field and their total losses were estimated at over
two hundred men. However the loss of Colonel Thomson was
more than deplorable, not only for his many friends, but for the
whole of Albania; he had made a name for himself in the
country and was without doubt the Mbret's ablest servant. It is
very sad to think that such a man should have lost his life in so
petty a cause! His body was transported from the Petroleum
Magazine to a tent in the yard in front of the Court Hospital.
Next day we temporarily buried him in the enclosure of the
central karakul. The whole of Durazzo attended the funeral, the
King walking behind the coffin, as chief mourner; the coffin
106 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

was carried by gendarmes and the foreign warships sent

detachments to escort it. A British naval chaplain from H.M.S.
Defence read the funeral service; everybody of note was present
and it was even rumoured that quite a number of the insurgents
had come into the town to pay their last respects to this gallant
Dutch gentleman.
The Defence had arrived at Durazzo that morning and
Admiral Troubridge42 was welcomed with open arms; the
presence of a British cruiser in the harbour gave us all a
wonderful feeling of safety, as we knew that, as long as she
remained with us, we would not suffer from a second episode
like the one that we had experienced on the 23rd May. Who
knows whether, if a British warship had been at Durazzo that
day, the Albanian experiment might not have succeeded?
Admiral Troubridge was now the senior naval officer in the
port; he often came on land, always accompanied by his flag
lieutenant and an orderly and his burly figure, sunburnt face and
snow white hair made a great impression on the simple native
mind; the gipsies thought that he was some sort of potentate and
looked upon him with great respect. When there was a night
attack, the Admiral was usually to be found on shore and the
presence of his armed boats did much to do away with panics in
the town; we became great friends and he often looked me up in
the evening to hear the local news and smoke a cigar in the
palace garden, before retiring to his ship for the night.
 Chapter Nineteen
. . . .

A N U N S U C C E S S F U L S O RT I E

The Durazzo garrison having won such a decided victory

over the vastly superior numbers of the insurgents, the people of
the town now thought that the position was saved and that the
rebellion would fizzle out in the course of a few days. A council
of war was held at the palace and it was decided to attack the
rebels on the heights of Raspul and push them back to Tirana;
it was hoped that they would not show fight, lay down their
arms, and go home quietly. We felt particularly enterprising, as
the reinforcements from the north must have brought our
garrison to over three thousand men; the exact number I have
forgotten. Unfortunately we did not know that the insurgents'
spirit was quite unbroken, and that they had turned the heights
of Raspul into a very strong fortified position; as no patrols were
ever sent out and we did not credit the enemy with any military
organisation, nobody knew that they had dug trenches all over
the place, from which they were able to sweep the ground over
which we would have to advance.
It was agreed that we were to make a sortie before sunrise
on the 18th of June, advancing in perfect silence and awaiting
dawn under the hill, close to where the rebels' front line was
supposed to be; the enemy was to be taken by surprise and it
was hoped that the attack would have an immediate and
decisive result. The majority of our leaders felt quite assured of
108 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

success though, as far as I can remember, Major Kroon, who

had gained his military experience in the Dutch East Indies,
was not as sanguine as the others, because he knew from
experience how unreliable irregular troops are apt to prove
themselves in an attack.
The plans were kept very dark, as it was feared that the
rebels, who had many sympathisers in the town, might get wind
of them and take precautionary measures to frustrate them. In
fact our plans were kept so quiet that I had almost forgotten all
about the scheme, when the valet woke me on the morning of
the 18th with the intelligence that our main body had already
left the town and that stragglers were streaming out on their
way to Raspul.
It was about 8 o'clock, so, according to the book, the attack
ought to have been over by now and the pursuit of the enemy
in full swing; so I was more than surprised to hear that the
battle had not even started. It was not till afterwards that we
heard that the attack had started six hours late, owing to petty
quarrels amongst the chieftains and the laziness of their men,
who did not turn up in time at the appointed places of
assembly. From my window I could see the Kosovans advancing
along the seashore with a huge Albanian flag, which they
planted some hundreds of yards beyond the bridge, in order to
indicate their position to the artillery, which was to support
them. This detachment, which was commanded by Isa Boletin,
had the task of guarding our right flank against any surprise
counter attack that might be made from the direction of Sasso
Bianco and Kavaya. The remainder of our force, consisting
mainly of Mirdites and Malissori, was sauntering out along the
Tirana road in groups, talking and smoking as if going out for a
day's holiday in the country. As the native chieftains did not
like any interference from the Dutch gendarmerie officers and
were under the impression that they knew all that there was to
be known about fighting, no scouts or advance-guards had been
sent ahead to reconnoitre the ground and locate the enemy's
exact position.
As may be imagined, these slovenly methods courted
 AN UNSUCCESSFUL SORTIE 109

disaster; suddenly our men found themselves under heavy fire

and, as they could not see from where it was coming, were
unable to reply to it. There was a general stampede for cover, in
the course of which several of our men got knocked over. As
soon as order had been restored and the rebels' position
ascertained, we returned the fire and the Mirdites gradually
worked their way forward in open order. The artillery at
Durazzo supported them, but, as the range was rather too far,
the fire was not very effective; to remedy this, two guns were
brought forward, one as far as the bridge and a second one some
six hundred yards beyond it on the Tirana road.
The foreign volunteers tried to lead on the Mirdites, who
now showed too much caution, and seven of them charged up
the hill to within two or three hundred yards of the enemy's
position, where they found some cover and had a rest; however
the bold hillsmen would not follow them, so getting no
support, they were reluctantly compelled to retire. It is worth
mentioning that one of these volunteers, an Austrian reserve
officer, had been shot through the shoulder during the night of
the 15th and was carrying his arm in a sling; a very sporting
effort, worthy of the highest praise!
During the first half of the morning, I was kept fully
occupied indoors, so could not take part in the attack; however
later on I again managed to get out and got more than my share
of the fun! At about 11 o'clock, when our attack was at its
height, the leader of the Mirdites, Marco Gioni, cantered back
to the town and pulled up at the Ordnance Depot, where he
asked for vaseline to be sent out to his men, who, he said, could
not carry on without it, as their rifles were beginning to jam
with the heat. There was no vaseline at the depot, so he
continued his journey and finally fetched up at the palace,
where we were all far too busy to see him. Tired by his long ride
and the heat of the day, he retired to the nearest cafe to drink
beer, a far more congenial occupation than fighting and one in
which he excelled; he was a good Christian, was Marco, not a
total abstainer like the poor Mahommedan insurgents, whom
he despised!
110 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

Not so long afterwards, he returned to the palace again and

asked for an audience as he had some very important news for
the Mbret which wanted immediate attention. He told the
King that he had received a message from one of his chiefs that
a certain gendarmerie officer, Abdullah Effendi, who was in
charge of the gun on the bridge, had turned traitor and was
firing into our own men, who had already suffered considerable
losses. Needless to relate, Abdullah Effendi was a
Mahommedan; as a matter of fact he was one of the
Dutchmen's most reliable and willing native subordinates and
colleagues - one of the few that they had real confidence in.
The King told me to go out and see what was happening and
take any necessary steps, should Marco Gioni's report prove to
be correct; of course I was only too pleased at the order,
particularly as rather disquieting rumours were beginning to
come in from the front. A messenger informed us, just as I was
leaving, that our attack had come to a standstill and that we
were barely holding our own at the foot of the hill; only now
was it realised that the enemy had fortified himself and that his
machine-guns made a frontal attack almost impossible!
So once again I mounted my little pony and rode out; en
route I met crowds of reserves still leaving the town on their way
to the fight and also a number of wounded and others, who had
done enough fighting for the day and were going home to rest
from their labours. With regret I noticed that by far the majority
of the returning soldiers belonged to this latter category.
On the outskirts of the town a red-cross station had been
rigged up by some Albanian doctors, who were assisted by
foreigners and several of the educated townspeople; on this
occasion a number of Italians were doing very good work
among the wounded. As a matter of fact the Albanian Red
Cross ought really to be called the Red Star, as this was the
symbol adopted by the government, both the Cross and
Crescent having been objected to by one section of the
population or the other.
Taking cover behind the petroleum magazine I noticed
Admiral Troubridge's flag-lieutenant, Bridgeman, and several
 AN UNSUCCESSFUL SORTIE 111

others who had come out here as spectators. I galloped up the

road, on both sides of which lay dead donkeys, killed by
accident on the 15th, which, as the weather was very hot, did
not tend to improve the atmosphere. By the bridge I found
Abdullah Effendi and for some minutes watched him at work.
He was not firing at the Mirdites, as had been stated by Marco
Gioni, and to me it appeared that his aim was, if anything, just
as accurate as that of the foreign volunteers; he set his fuses
correctly and his shells burst in the right place. As other reliable
people were with him, I felt perfectly satisfied that the charge
brought against him was unfounded. Perhaps it had only been
made because Marco Gioni, as a good Christian, mistrusted
everybody that did not share his own religious beliefs.
As I was about to return home, to tell the King that
everything appeared to be in order, Isa Boletin came cantering
up from the front and shouted something to us in Albanian;
what he said was interpreted to me by the gendarme officer
now holding the bridge, who spoke a few words of French. He
asked that somebody should be sent out to the advanced gun
and have it brought back immediately, as the insurgents had
made a determined attack on our left flank and were driving
back the Kosovans. A mounted gendarme, who happened to be
on the spot showed no inclination to ride out as his horse was
tired, so I undertook the job myself.
 Chapter Twenty
. . . .

A D E C I S I V E D E F E AT

From the bridge onward the road leading across the swamps
is raised a couple of yards above the general level of the
surrounding land; on the right of it, looking towards Raspul,
there are a number of low mounds of sand, overgrown with
long, coarse grass and grey-green reeds. On the outward journey
I saw the Kosovans, who were holding this broken ground and
formed a sort of protecting screen for this, our only line of
communication; they only got up for a moment to fire and then
lay down again under cover. What they were shooting at, I
could not see, but the bullets, which continually buzzed over
showed that a hidden enemy was returning the fire.
Occasionally a man ran back and took cover behind the
embankment on which the road was built, opening fire again
over the heads of his comrades in front. Further on I met
crowds of Mirdites, who were streaming back from the left and
centre of our position; some of them were wounded, but the
great majority of them were running like two year olds, or
frightened sheep, hardly daring to look behind them. To prove
their loyalty to the Mbret, they muttered "Rroft Mbreti", as
they passed me, but nothing on earth would induce them to go
back to the fight! When I arrived at my destination, I found
Major Kroon with half a dozen German and Austrian
volunteers, who were working their gun quite calmly, though
 A DECISIVE DEFEAT 113

the insurgents were now not more than three or four hundred
yards away and had opened fire on them just before my arrival.
I delivered Isa Boletin's message to Major Kroon, who ordered
an immediate retreat; it took the amateur gunners some time to
take their gun to pieces, pack it onto ponies and save the
ammunition; however they managed to get back to the bridge
without loss, though the rebels had by that time come up so
close that they had to keep them at bay with their automatic
pistols. (This may be slightly exaggerated as my informant,
though a very plucky soldier, was of rather an imaginative turn
of mind.)
As soon as the message had been delivered, I galloped back
to the bridge; this was not exactly pleasant, as the rebels,
having driven back the Kosovans from their advanced
positions, now gave me a very warm time at pretty close range.
They were advancing in skirmishing order among the sand-
hills and blazed away at me for all they were worth; they were
not much over a hundred yards from the road, but thanks to
their extraordinarily inaccurate shooting I got through all right
to the bridge. It seems almost like a miracle that the gun-team,
which followed me some minutes later, did not lose any men or
ponies! At the bridge, to which the Kosovans had fallen back,
I told Isa Boletin that his message had been delivered and that
the gun was on its way back; from here I galloped back to the
barracks, where I pointed out the insurgents' new position to
the gunners. They did not know that the rebels had advanced
on the right, as the Kosovans, when they retired, forgot to bring
the flag with them; so the gunners naturally enough thought
that our people were still holding the advanced positions and
that everything was in order. As a matter of fact the rebels were
now round our flag; we opened fire on them with our guns and
very soon saw that the fire was effective.
I think that it was partly due to our fire that the rebels did
not annihilate our retreating force, now a dejected crowd of
fugitives. The insurgents had made acquaintance with our
artillery on the 15th, and did not attempt to advance after we
had got the guns to play on them.
114 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

I returned to the palace and reported everything to the

King, who, on hearing of the Mirdites retirement, sent out
Selim Bey Wassa to try and stop the rout. Selim was sent in
preference to anyone else as he was supposed to have a certain
amount of prestige among the tribesmen, as his family claimed
descent from the powerful Kastrati clan;43 as he was a thorough
sportsman, he was delighted at this chance of distinguishing
himself and I am certain did his best to turn the tide. However
he could do nothing with the Mirdites, who made every sort of
feeble excuse for running away and continued to run till they
were well inside our second line of defences; they were
thoroughly downhearted, but promised Selim that they would
return to the fight later in the day, after they had had some
refreshment and rest.
I changed ponies and rode round the hill positions to see
that all was in order there, in case of our being counter-
attacked in the rear; to my great astonishment, I found many of
our trenches quite empty and altogether not one quarter of the
officers or men at their posts. I hurried back to the town and
got hold of the Bishop of Alessio, who had more influence than
anybody else over the northern mountaineers and asked him to
help me get the men back to the trenches. He got to work with
a will and by coaxing and cursing them alternately, he
succeeded in getting his turbulent tribesmen to return to the
sectors that had been allotted to them. This, too, was only just
done in time, as when I was doing a second round of those
position, to make certain that the Bishop's exhortations had
born fruit, the insurgents attacked us from the hills beyond.
There was a heavy fusillade along the whole line and, as our
trenches were now fully manned, the attack was easily repulsed.
The losses were practically nil in this quarter and I do not
believe that we inflicted any serious losses on the enemy.
Probably this attack was only meant to annoy us and the
insurgents may have had no intention of pushing it home; still
it was a good thing they found us well prepared to receive them!
As I got back to the town some Italians came rushing in
from the brickfields, close to the sea; they appeared to be panic-
 A DECISIVE DEFEAT 115

stricken and kept shouting that thousands of rebels were

congregated on the hills where I had just been, and were
coming into the town. As I knew that there was no truth in
this, I gave the noble workers a piece of my mind and
threatened them with the most terrible penalties, should they
attempt to spread their lie in the town. In spite of my threats,
they or some other evil-disposed persons managed to spread
rumours of all sorts, for which there was no sort of foundation,
as the better elements amongst the garrison had taken up their
defensive positions again and were keeping off the rebels. On
account of the guns the enemy did not make a serious counter-
attack from the swamp side, as I have already mentioned, so our
position was quite safe! The right practically came to a
standstill soon after midday, as the rebels remained fairly
inactive and our men were too disheartened to attack them a
second time.
It was never discovered what caused the panic amongst the
Mirdites in the morning, just as they were on the point of
succeeding in the attack. They explained that they had been
told, by whom they could not say, that we had been surprised
by the rebels in the rear and that the town was in danger of
falling into their hands. Another story was that the
Mahommedan soldiers, left behind at Durazzo, had mutinied
and were attacking the palace, as the foreign guard had been
withdrawn. The attack in our rear only took place some time
after the stampede of the Mirdites, as has already been shown,
and the other rumour was equally unfounded, the
Mahommedans having behaved fairly well throughout; as a
matter of fact it was thanks to them that the Mirdites managed
to make good their escape. Who started all these rumours was
never found out, but it seems certain that they were spread for
a purpose and succeeded in causing a senseless panic at a
critical moment, when cool heads might have succeeded in
taking the insurgents' trenches. The Austrian party in the town
naturally enough took this opportunity of laying the blame on
the Italians, who were always suspected of intriguing with the
rebels and were consequently cordially disliked by the loyalists.
116 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

The end of it all was that Marco Gioni suddenly found

himself very unpopular, not only with the government, but also
with his own men, some of whom threatened to punish him
"for his treason". The Mirdites laid the blame for their defeat to
his incapacity as a leader and also claimed that he had not paid
them the money that had been promised them by the
government. As we did not want to have a murder committed,
it was found advisable to send him home on leave; in fact I
never saw his face again!
In the afternoon the insurgents gradually retired to their
entrenched position on the hill and we pursued them with
artillery fire till they were out of effective range. The British
and Italian naval doctors rigged up hospitals, the former taking
possession of a mosque, while the latter installed themselves in
the Italian school; splendid work was done at both hospitals and
the population has every reason to be grateful to the untiring
zeal of the parties concerned. The Austrians at the Court
Hospital continued their good work there and worked in perfect
harmony with their foreign colleagues, with whom they were
on the best of terms. The French, German and Russian ships’
doctors also offered their services, which were however not
accepted, as we had enough medical assistance without them.
During the day we lost at least one hundred and fifty men,
killed and wounded, but this estimate is probably below the
mark; all our hospitals were kept busy for some time afterwards
and between sixty and eighty dead were buried in a heap
beyond the bridge. Unfortunately they were badly buried and
at night the foxes got at them, scraping away the earth; the
result was most unpleasant for anybody passing that way; as the
spot was between our own lines and the insurgents', only
parliamentaries had to pass it. The insurgents' losses were
probably much lighter than our own, as their trenches
protected them when we attacked, and their retreat was so
orderly that our artillery did them comparatively little damage.
They left very few dead on the field, as far as we know, and only
about half a dozen wounded, who were brought in to Durazzo
on stretchers, or by carriage. Among these wounded who fell
 A DECISIVE DEFEAT 117

into our hands was a Mahommedan priest from Shjak, who

turned out to be a person of some importance and one of the
local leaders of the revolution. He was brought to the Court
Hospital in a dying condition, but the skill of the doctors saved
his life and he remained there strongly guarded till the feast of
Ramadan, when the King released him and gave him a free
pardon. It was an eyesore to me to see his cunning face leering
out of the hospital window, as I would like to have seen him
hanged as a traitor, as he had deserved! However I daresay that
the King's policy of trying to put him on his honour was the
better.
Our defeat was decisive and everybody knew it; we were
disheartened and felt that the insurgents were one too many for
us. One thing is certain and that is that for the remainder of our
stay at Durazzo we were practically prisoners there, and that it
was unsafe to walk much further than our own trenches. For
the ladies this was particularly annoying, but they took it
philosophically; altogether they showed just as much courage
as the men - if not more!
It gives me pleasure to relate that the only person in the
house whom nothing could move was the English butler, who
remained dignified whatever happened. One day when
rumours were current that the rebels had got into the town and
the guns on the hill had opened fire on them, I met the butler
in the passage. He stopped me and asked me whether I had
heard the news. "They tell me the rebels have got into the
town!" He was sick of the continual shooting and panic, so
added "Well, I don't care, let 'em come if they want to, but
these scares do delay dinner so!"
 Chapter Twenty-One
. . . .

AN ARMISTICE ARRANGED

After our lesson of the 18th, we did not undertake any fresh
military adventures for a few days; however the insurgents
would not leave us in peace and used to let off a few rounds at
us after dark, to which our men regularly replied with a fearful
fusillade, which cost the government a heap of money, without
helping us in any way. About the only thing that was hit during
these noisy battles was the air; on one occasion only did we
succeed in hitting a donkey, though I believe he too belonged
to our side!
On the 20th of June I happened to go over to the Austrian
legation for tea; looking across the swamps from its spacious
balcony, I saw a carriage with a white flag on it and a whole
crowd of people collected round it on the Tirana road, by the
heights of Raspul. I could not imagine what this assembly
signified, so sent out a servant to try and find out about it in the
town. He soon returned with the information that a deputation
had been sent out from the town to treat with the rebels and
try to arrange an armistice with them. As I had heard nothing
about this deputation's being sent out, I went home
immediately and reported the matter to the King; he had only
just been told it by Akif Pasha, when it was already too late to
stop it. The King was much annoyed at so important a step
having been taken without his consent, but as Akif Pasha, now
 AN ARMISTICE ARRANGED 119

Minister of the Interior, in whose loyalty he had absolute

confidence, had given his support to it, he did not view it with
alarm.
I begged the King to have nothing to do with it, as to me it
seemed cowardly and wrong to conclude any sort of armistice,
which would only be local and would enable the insurgents to
throw their forces against Prenk Bib Doda's army, which was
now supposed to be but two days march from Shjak. It must be
remembered that we had no direct means of communicating
with any of our armies, so that they would advance and attack
the rebels during the truce; this would have instituted a serious
breach not only of European, but also of native morals and
would have had the most serious consequences. How a man
like the King, trained as a soldier, an officer in the German
army, could not see what a cowardly and despicable thing we
were proposing to do, I fail to understand.
Of course the ministers and certain others, who preferred
their creature comforts to their honour, may have brought
forward plausible arguments to get the King's consent; but still,
he ought never to have given in to them! I did my best to
convince him, but failed. Von Trotha did not take the slightest
interest, as he had long ago given up all hope; his one and only
ambition was to get out of Durazzo without sullying his honour.
Time after time he used to tell me that the King ought to go
before he was removed by force, as he had proved himself quite
unfit for his post. Poor von Trotha, who, as I have already
mentioned, was an honourable and rather quick-tempered
martinet, could not stand the continual shilly-shally which
characterised the Albanian government. Of politics he may
have understood very little, but this armistice he felt as a jab at
his honour and he was so furious about it that he walked about
like a bear with a sore head for days afterwards.
A forty-eight hours truce was arranged, which was
sufficient to enable the insurgents to make their preparations to
meet our northern armies, while they were safe from attack in
front of Durazzo. It was only Prenk's caution (or was it his
trickery?) which saved his army from absolute disaster. The
120 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

Dutch officers, from whom the negotiations had been kept

secret, were naturally enough besides themselves with
indignation and wanted to resign "en bloc"; they were disgusted
at the whole affair and absolutely sick of Albania, as they were
never given a fair chance of showing their worth and were
always left in the dark about everything until the last moment.
Major Kroon, who was a very solid, level-headed man,
managed to quiet his subordinates down again, as he saw how
disastrous their resignation would be to the country's welfare
and he wanted them to stay at their posts, whatever happened,
for the honour of their country.
On the 22nd of June, Coronation Day, the British colony
at Durazzo, consisting of about three people, went to lunch on
board the "Defence" with Admiral Troubridge. One of our
number was Miss Durham,44 who had come to Durazzo from the
northern mountains, to help in nursing the wounded at the
British hospital. Except when I got away to a ship for a few
hours, I was practically always in harness and liable to be called
away at a moment's notice. Everywhere I went I kept my eyes
and ears open, in order to be able to help the King, to whom I
was still very much attached. Even while I was dressing, people
used to come and see me about all sorts of things, the majority
of which did not really concern me at all, and once or twice I
had to get up out of bed at night and work even during sleeping
hours.
For instance on the morning of the 23rd I was woken up at
2.45 a.m. by the Kavass, about an hour after I had turned in. He
announced the arrival of Monsieur Gurakuchi, Under-secretary
for Education,45 and the Comte de Pimodan, both just returned
from Slinza, a coastal town about 25 miles north of Durazzo,
the northern army's new base, with important messages from
Prenk Bib Doda. We had had no news from the north for
several days, so I had them brought to my room. I found that
they wanted to return to Slinza early next morning, so I had to
wake up the King and send for Major Kroon, whose presence
was absolutely necessary. Plans were discussed and orders
written till about half past five, when our visitors left us and we
 AN ARMISTICE ARRANGED 121

again retired to bed for a few hours rest. As I found it hopeless

trying to get to sleep with the sun streaming in through the
windows, I got up and went for a good long ride before
breakfast, visiting all our trenches on the way.
Two days later the armistice was prolonged; this was much
criticised, not only by the old objectors but also by Monsieur
Nogga, the Finance Minister, who had just returned from a visit
to Prenk's army, which he considered was quite strong enough
to advance further and tackle the insurgents. Nogga was the
one man in the cabinet who knew what he wanted and really
worked, but he certainly was untiring in his efforts to help the
Mbret through his difficulties. Without him nothing would
ever have been done at all! He was here, there and everywhere,
doing everybody's work for them; of course, when things went
wrong, he was blamed for everything. Had there only been
several Noggas in the cabinet, we might have done better!
On the 25th there was a stir in the town, as it was noticed
that the insurgents had dug a new trench this side of Sasso
Bianco and people swore that they could see a gun in it. As I
had long ago given up believing anything I heard, I went out
myself to see what truth there was in this; first to the advanced
position by the bridge and then back to the battery, but, though
my glasses were about the best in the town, I failed to see any
signs of a gun in the new trench or anywhere near it. I tried to
convince people that there was nothing to be alarmed about,
but in spite of my efforts, everybody expected the town to be
bombarded during the night.
That evening the Queen's youngest brother, Prince Gunther
Schönburg-Waldenburg(1887-196046), arrived by the Austrian
Lloyd steamer Baron Bruck. After the others had gone to bed, I
stayed up with him till daybreak, explaining the situation to him
according to my point of view, and I think that he sympathised
with me. As he was such a close relative, I could speak openly to
him about matters, which could not be discussed with an
outsider, and asked him to point out to the King some of the
things, which could be remedied; things that only a member of
the family could point out without giving offence.
122 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

The rebels now expressed their desire to negotiate "with a

British officer", so Colonel Phillips,47 in so-called command of
the international force based on Scutari, who happened to be
at Durazzo on a flying visit from Scutari, went over to Shjak.
The rebels were barely courteous to him and so unreasonable in
their demands, making a Mahommedan Prince a "sine qua
non", that nothing came of this conference and Colonel
Phillips returned, disgusted.
One evening I went to dinner on board the German cruiser
Breslau, which escaped from the Adriatic at the beginning of
the war, fled into the Dardanelles and was then added to the
Turkish navy under the name of Midilli. Here I met several
officers from the Defence, and none of us thought that a short
six weeks would see us all tearing at each others' throats! It is
worth mentioning that the British and German naval officers
seemed to get on better with each other than they did with
anyone else and one frequently saw them about together, the
best of good friends.
The hot weather, as well as the continual work and worry,
were now beginning to tell on everyone's nerves and tempers,
so that quarrels and differences of opinion became of frequent
occurrence. I myself was in anything but a tranquil frame of
mind, as I knew that my brother was walking into the
insurgents' trap with Prenk Bib Doda's army. To my great relief
he turned up safe and sound on the 30th June, after an absence
of nearly a month, and I was proud of him, when I found that
his name was on the top of three lists of recommendations for
a reward for his services.
 Chapter Twenty-Two
. . . .

P R E N K B I B D O D A P A S H A’ S A R T I L L E R Y

As was mentioned in an earlier chapter, Prenk Bib Doda's

army was first assembled at Alessio and was to march on Shjak
and Tirana from the north, thus freeing Durazzo. It will also be
remembered that three Europeans had been sent up to support
his army with a mountain gun. Arrived at Alessio, the gunners
found Prenk's forces assembled in and around the town, doing
nothing in particular. Major Kroon was at this time trying to
put some sort of order into the bands of irregulars, of which the
army was composed, and making preparations for an early
advance. At Alessio the water supply was very inadequate, the
climate feverish and altogether the place was not suited for a
military camp; there was a good deal of sickness among the
troops and sanitary arrangements there were non-existent.
Unfortunately an early start was out of the question as,
although large quantities of supplies had been bought by the
government, none had as yet arrived and there was even a
shortage of arms and ammunition. The volunteers were furious
at the delay and at the lack of organisation that they found.
Matters became worse when Major Kroon was called to
Durazzo, on the death of Colonel Thomson, and an Albanian
officer, Shefket Bey, took his place.
As my brother did not care about sitting still, kicking his
heels, he set to work to recruit some Mirdites and train them as
124 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

artillerymen; he picked out twenty-five men who appeared

suitable and started work by making them give him their "besa"
(i.e. their oath to serve under him loyally). He would only take
them under this stipulation, as he wanted to have his men well
in hand and an Albanian very rarely goes back on his word of
honour. He found the men very intelligent and quick to learn,
but had the greatest difficulty in teaching them the most
elementary form of discipline. For instance they failed to see
why they should not smoke on parade, salute or do the ordinary
gun-drill. In spite of their unruly ways, my brother did wonders
with them, which is much to his credit as he had never served
in the army, his only military experience having been gained in
the band of the Eton volunteers.
At last the day for the general advance arrived and the
army left Alessio in high spirits; it was probably about 2,500
strong, large numbers of the Mirdites who had become tired of
waiting having deserted. To the great dismay of the gunners,
the army only advanced at the rate of barely five kilometres a
day and already bands of Malissori were detaching themselves
from the main body to maraud the villages that lay on the line
of march.
The gun was looked upon as a sort of fetish and had to be
kept well in front in order to terrify any enemy that might be
met. My brother's eyeglass was also a mysterious thing of awe,
nobody being quite certain as to whether it was a part of the
gun or connected with black magic; so to be on the safe side,
the "English officer" was treated by everybody with the greatest
respect. It may be that this respect was also partly due to the
fact that my brother could lift parts of the gun, which any two
of the natives found difficult to manage. Though the Albanians
are such a well set up, hardy race, they appear to be physically
weak, particularly in the arms; all the hard work at Durazzo was
done by the gipsies, who are puny to look at, but can carry
enormous weights on their shoulders.
After two or three days' march they reached Ishmi, about
20 miles north of Durazzo, and the same distance to the south
of Alessio; a small market town, lying on a hill from which
 PRENK BIB DODA PASHA’S ARTILLERY 125

there is a splendid view of the surrounding country. The town

is built round an old citadel. It had been reported that the
rebels were holding this position in force, so a few shots were
fired with the gun and our army advanced in open order,
keeping up a searching fire, which was feebly returned by a few
isolated rebels, who however retired before the approach of
such an imposing host. Here my brother had some trouble with
one of the over-cautious leaders who wanted him to open fire
on a group, which my brother had watched for some time and
knew to belong to our main body. Sturdza had applied to his
minister for a few days leave, but his undiplomatic activities
were discovered, and he was recalled and severely reprimanded.
About this time Prince Sturdza was recalled to Bucharest and
de Pimodan, acting as messenger between Durazzo and Prenk's
army, my brother was left alone with the gun. A German
commercial traveller who had done good work at Durazzo in all
three fights but had now made his presence there undesirable,
and an Austrian ex-soldier, were now sent up to help him.
Some days after their arrival, scouts reported that the
insurgents had been discovered at a place called Malkuts,
where they had taken up a strong position in an old tower,
overlooking the valley. The gun was sent forward to bombard
them and smash up the tower; the former could not be done, as
there were no rebels to be seen, but the tower was destroyed.
Thirteen shots were fired at it at three and a half kilometres
and of these nine hit it; quite a successful morning's work for a
person who had never fired off a gun before! The infantry did
not go to inspect the damage done, as it was possible that some
rebels might still have been hanging round the scene of the
bombardment. In fact, it was not quite safe, so no more was
done and the gun was taken back to Ishmi, where the victory
was celebrated by the rest of the army. Unfortunately, it turned
out that Malkuts was a friendly village and that the shelling of
their tower had naturally hurt their feelings.
One evening there was some firing between the opposing
outposts and the rumour immediately went round that the
enemy was advancing in force and that the camp would be
126 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

attacked during the night. At a late hour there was some more
firing, but nobody seems to have actually seen any insurgents at
all! However the unpleasant rumours were quite enough to
terrify Prenk's gallant army, which had by now dwindled to
seven hundred fighting men, as "all the rest had gone to drive
the cattle"; this good old custom is still kept up among the
Albanian mountaineers and plays by far the most important
part in the native warfare. There was a general stampede and
by midnight the gunners, who had not received any
instructions, and knew nothing of an impending retirement,
found themselves left to their own devices. There was nothing
for it but to clear out as quickly as possible, and this they did
without any undue delay.
So the three Europeans and the twenty-five Mirdite
gunners who, having given their besa, had so far remained loyal
to my brother up-saddled and trekked through the night. On
the way they saw no signs of the rebels, though it was of course
nervous work going through the enemy's country without a
proper escort. It was a dark night and in fording a river, they
lost a pony in the quicksand; this was their only misadventure
and next morning they arrived at Slinza, where they found the
gallant army assembled once more and full of beans.
My brother was by this time heartily sick of the Albanian
methods of fighting and, as he was more than suspicious about
the bona fides of the whole expedition, he made up his mind to
return to Durazzo with his gun, fearing this might be taken from
him by force. He was going to get this on board a rowing-boat,
when a chieftain came up and stopped him from doing so. My
brother told him that he was taking the gun back to the Mbret,
to whom it belonged, but the old warrior only became
threatening in his manner and answered "We'll see who the
gun belongs to!". As it was no use arguing with him my brother
went to Prenk Pasha in order to get his assistance. Prenk
received him courteously, as always, but informed him that he
would not be able to leave, as the insurgents had occupied some
flats commanding the mouth of the river and would certainly
not allow him to pass through. As my brother had seen some of
 PRENK BIB DODA PASHA’S ARTILLERY 127

Prenk Bib Doda's boats, loaded with ammunition, going down

the river without being in any way molested, he disregarded the
yarn about the rebels and told the Pasha that he wished to
leave instantly and would not mind taking the risk of having to
run the gauntlet. So, much against his will, Prenk had to agree
and give him his support; no further obstacles were put in his
way and he in due course got his gun on board a small sailing
vessel. Five of his Mirdites accompanied him, while the
remainder of them were left behind with the ponies, as these
had to be taken round to Alessio and from there to San
Giovanni di Medua, whence they were shipped some days later
on an Italian steamer. When they had got the boat into mid-
stream, the Mirdites suddenly decided that they were too tired
after their night march to do any rowing, no doubt considered
infra-dig by the clansmen. My brother did not attempt to argue
with them, but jumped out of the boat and, wading in the water
up to his armpits, pulled it along behind him with a rope. This
move had the desired effect, as the Mirdites, thoroughly
ashamed of themselves, asked him to get back into the boat
and, taking up their oars, gave him no further trouble. At the
mouth of the river, they found the government steamer
Herzegovina and returned to Durazzo on her.
For the remainder of my brother's stay in Albania, his
Mirdites followed him about like faithful hounds and when he
left for England they came to the landing-stage to see him off,
and asked him to appoint their commander until he returned,
which, they hoped, would be before the next battle. Though
my brother did not give these fellows either presents or extra
pay, their loyalty to him was really genuine, and when he left
they transferred their allegiance to myself. Those simple
brigands were not as bad as they were painted, and certainly far
better than the half Turkish middle classes of the towns, who
think that they are civilised because they know a smattering of
one of the Western languages and have learned both oriental
and European vices! I liked the brigands!
 Chapter Twenty-Three
. . . .

THE KING’S POWER BROKEN

It has already been touched upon in a former chapter that

the government formed a plan to surround the rebels and force
them to surrender; we accompanied the northern army
commanded by Prenk Bib Doda in the last chapter, up to its
arrival at Slinza. After this no more was heard of it as an
attacking force and it retreated gradually towards the north.
The enemy harried it and, as far as I can remember, the town
of Alessio, which was almost entirely Roman Catholic and a
loyalist stronghold, was for some time in danger of falling into
the insurgents' hands.
A detachment of volunteers which had come from Scutari,
now left Prenk's army, as everybody was fed up with his
incapacity as a general. Some of these Scutarins came down to
Durazzo, where they were welcomed with open arms and, being
mostly better educated men than our local talent in central
Albania, were given the opportunity of making themselves
useful in the police.
The remainder of Prenk's army, after reinforcements had
been sent to the capital, dispersed, a few small detachments
being left on guard, in case the rebels should have attempted to
attack the Mirdita. The Pasha himself came to Durazzo where
he was needed by the King on account of his influence with the
Mirdites, who were not always easy to handle and occasionally
 THE KING’S POWER BROKEN 129

threatened to leave us "en masse".

We must now see what happened to the other armies, of
which such great deeds had been expected; their shameful tale
is quickly told. The north eastern army, under young Ahmed
Bey Mati (later King Zog), consisting of about 2,000
Mahommedan Matians, at first advanced rapidly from its
mountains without meeting with any resistance from the
enemy and occupied the ancient hill-capital of Albania, Kruja.
Ahmed Bey took the town by surprise and, as far as I remember,
without having to fire a shot; later he again evacuated it, but it
is not quite clear whether this step was really necessary or only
a political manoeuvre. The army advanced on Tirana, occupied
a strong position overlooking the whole Tirana valley and sat
tight there. No attempt was made to attack the insurgents and
the Matians remained inactive for some time, while their
leader tried to come to terms with the enemy and occupy the
town without any bloodshed. The story went round that the
insurgents offered to make Ahmed Bey President of their
proposed Central Albanian Republic, if he would come over to
their side, but that he absolutely declined to consider the
proposal, as he had given his besa to the Mbret and did not
intend breaking his word. This north-eastern army cost the
government a lot of money, which was wasted as it did nothing
all the time. After a few weeks of waiting, it retired to its
mountain fastnesses, taking with it all the rifles and
ammunition which had been served out to it by the King's
government. Public opinion at Durazzo charged Ahmed Bey
with treason and certainly his conduct did appear rather
curious; however I personally believe that the explanation he
gave was perfectly plausible, and that was that his forces had
been so weakened by desertion that he did not feel strong
enough to attack the insurgents' headquarters. His men mostly
sympathised with the rebels, the Matians being the most
fanatical Mahommedans in the country, so it is not surprising
that they deserted whenever they got the chance to do so. As
Ahmed Bey, too, was a very strict Moslem, it is greatly to his
credit that he remained at least outwardly loyal to the throne.
130 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

The eastern forces, consisting partly of regular

gendarmerie, were beaten in one or two minor engagements
and driven back towards Elbasan, which the insurgents
succeeded in taking by a coup de main. Here two Dutch officers
fell into the enemy's hands and when I left Albania, they had
not yet been released.48 So the eastern army disappeared from
the scene of action having achieved nothing; part of it even
changed sides and helped the insurgents actively!
The southern main army advanced from Valona; it
consisted chiefly of Laps,49 the greatest plunderers in Albania;
this force marched through the Busekie (? Muzakia), a rich
agricultural district inhabited by friendly people, stealing
everything that came in its way. After bombarding a small rebel
position with a mountain gun and advancing up to the Semeni
river, the army was itself attacked by the enemy, who had
waited for a chance when it was split up into marauding bands.
The royal forces were taken entirely by surprise and after losing
the artillery and a large number of killed and wounded retired
to Valona by the shortest route. The peasants, whose villages
they had pillaged during the advance, now rose in their rear
and punished them during the retreat, throwing in their lot
with the regular rebels, though they really had nothing in
common with them. Valona itself was threatened for some
time, but the rebels took no serious steps to take it as they
probably knew that Italy would not permit them to occupy the
town. So the southern main army also disappears from the
scene as an attacking force; it remained in and round Valona
for some time and in August sent some detachments to
reinforce the garrison of Durazzo.
The second southern army, which was supposed to advance
from Berat, did not get very far and sat tight. Its leader, Aziz
Pasha Vrioni, who had been in the first cabinet as Minister for
Agriculture and Commerce, was mishandled and narrowly
escaped being shot by his own men. His army was in a state of
anarchy and the various elements of which it was composed
started fighting amongst themselves; some went over to the
enemy, others tried to advance, but the majority ran back to
 THE KING’S POWER BROKEN 131

Berat, closely followed by the insurgents. At Berat, where some

reinforcements had arrived from the south, a determined stand
was made; during the defence of the town some old British ships'
guns, presented by Lord Nelson to the ‘Lion of Janina’,50 were
used from the citadel. They were loaded with black powder and
antique stone cannon balls, wrapped up in newspapers; they
made a terrible noise, which gave confidence to the garrison,
though it must be supposed that they did no great harm to the
enemy. As far as I remember, Berat was taken by the rebels after
pretty severe fighting and the remnants of the garrison, amongst
whom were Captain Ghilardi and Mr. Spencer (see Notes 21
and 22), managed to make good their escape.
The insurgents swept everything before them, right down
to Koritza, where the remnants of the Berat garrison helped to
strengthen the loyalist forces; here they had one or two guns to
support them. A determined stand was made and the insurgents
were twice repulsed with heavy losses. Furious at their failure,
they called upon the Epirotes to assist them, promising to hand
over the town to them. A third combined attack was made and
the enemy being now far too strong, the town was forced to
capitulate. Part of the garrison got away in time to avoid
surrender and thanks to Ghilardi and the American, Spencer,
the guns and machine guns were saved; these two with a band
of southern volunteers made their way back to Valona with the
artillery intact. This was a very fine achievement, as their way
ran through the enemy's country and they had to fight their
way through the insurgents before they got back to civilisation.
The Dutch officer, who had been at Koritza with them, got
back to Valona some days earlier. The two volunteers
complained bitterly about the underhand manner in which he
had left them in the lurch, stating that he had changed into
plain clothes and made his escape at night, without telling his
companions anything about his intention. What truth there
was in these assertions, I am not in a position to judge, as no
questions were asked and in Albania charges were so often
made, which on closer investigation, could not in any way be
substantiated.
132 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

The foregoing account of the central Albanian campaign,

which was spread over three months, June, July and August, is
unfortunately very inaccurate, as reliable news was very scarce
at Durazzo and most of our information came through more or
less irresponsible adventurers and bandits, some of whom, I feel
certain, allowed their imaginations to run wild. According to
some reports our armies consisted of unlucky heroes, and
according to others only the scum of the people was on the
King's side and only fought for pay. I don't suppose we ever
heard the truth and nothing but the truth! So the reader of this
must be content with the few scraps of information that I am
able to bring him, which however are quite sufficient to show
that the King's forces were defeated all round by the insurgents,
who throughout showed themselves far better soldiers than our
own people. Of course this last is probably due to the fact that,
being good Mahommedans, the majority of them had done
their military service in the Turkish army and had learnt how
to fight in the Balkan War. It also seems certain that they were
led by Turkish and other Balkan officers, who understood the
Albanian character better than our own Dutchmen and
volunteers, most of whom came from northern Europe. When
Austria declared war against Serbia, we heard that about
twenty Serbian officers, who had been fighting against us,
returned to their own country.
Our whole plans failed utterly and absolutely, but,
whatever else can be said against the Mbret and his
government, neither can be blamed for this failure, which was
mainly caused by treason, bad discipline in the irregular armies
and the incapacity of the native leaders. Altogether we must
have had about 10,000 men in the field for a few weeks -
sometimes more and sometimes less. What the insurgents put
against us, we never found out, though it was estimated that
they had about 15,000 men under arms during July and August.
When they attacked Durazzo in June, they are supposed to have
had 5,000 men round the town, but my personal belief is that
all the figures given are much exaggerated. As we had quite a
number of guns and machine guns and the rebels had no
 THE KING’S POWER BROKEN 133

artillery at all to start with, we ought to have put down the

insurrection easily and our defeat was not only defeat, but
absolute disgrace!
The account of our military operations would not be
complete without a brief mention of the Royal Albanian Navy;
as everything else in the Six Month Kingdom, its career was
short and inglorious. When the government decided to put
down the insurrection and made its military preparations in the
north, south, east and west, it also chartered a small steamer
from an Austrian shipping company, the Herzegovina, which
was at first only used as a transport. After a time a mountain
gun was taken on board and mounted in the bow; there was
great competition among the volunteers as to who should get
the post of naval gunnery officer and several of them claimed
the newly created post; it was finally given to Herr Hassler,
whom we knew as a reliable man. One day the "fleet" put to sea
with orders to bombard Kavaya; this it did and the experiment
was repeated on several further occasions, though it is believed
that practically no damage was done to the town. The end of
the Albanian navy was very tragic. The good ship Herzegovina
had been sent out as usual to bombard Kavaya; unfortunately
she was brought in rather too close to the land and got stuck in
a sandbank. The rebels, who had entrenched themselves on the
seashore, opened fire and riddled all the deckhouses with
bullets. The gunners were well protected by sand-bags, but the
remainder of the ship's company had a most unpleasant quarter
of an hour, before the ship was got off the sand and out of rifle
range. The Austrian owners were apparently people of
unwarlike disposition; anyway they objected to our using their
ship as a man o' war, so the Albanian navy had perforce to
disappear into the obscurity, whence it had come!
 Chapter Twenty-Four
. . . .

THE BEGINNING OF THE COLLAPSE

In the last chapter I gave a condensed account of the war

news that kept reaching us daily during the last two months;
the remainder of the story of the Albanian Kingdom; its
gradual collapse and sudden ending, will occupy the rest of
these pages.
In the early part of July we received the report of a speech
made by Sir Edward Grey in the House of Commons, in the
course of which he stated that Great Britain would on no
account send any troops to Albania, but that there was no
objection to any other of the powers doing so, if they thought
fit to intervene on the Mbret's behalf. I had all along urged the
King to appeal to Great Britain for help, as I thought that she
at any rate, would remember that she had duties towards the
child of her creation, so I was much astonished and pained at
Sir Edward Grey's statement. No doubt the King was not a
strong enough man to cope with the situation without the
assistance of the European Concert. The Powers were quite
justified in not having a very high opinion of him, but still he
was doing his best and trying to keep his government clear of
any undue foreign influence. This was no easy matter as the
Austrians and Italians never ceased intriguing for power. The
King was blamed for everything that went wrong and was made
a scapegoat of by the Great Powers, who had unanimously
 THE BEGINNING OF THE COLLAPSE 135

promised their support. Now they refused to give it him; for

instance the Epirus question was entirely beyond the King and
ought to have been settled by the Concert of Europe. The
powers behaved most discreditably, with the exception of
Austria, who, if only for selfish reasons, would have been
willing to help us, but was unable to do so, owing to the Italian
jealousy.
During the early part of the month several small incidents
took place at Durazzo, which though petty in themselves, were
quite exciting at the time. So on the 5th of July it was reported
that about 100 insurgents were crossing the swamps in open
order; of course this news caused a stir in the palace and my
brother, who was with me at the time, rushed off to his gun, on
the hill behind the barracks. Imagine his surprise and
disappointment, when the line of skirmishers turned out to be
a flock of wild duck, having a morning's outing on the lagoon!
During that evening a Kosovan man went off his head,
barricaded himself into a house behind the palace and
threatened all passers-by with his rifle. A police officer came to
us to inform us that it would probably be necessary to shoot the
man. I urged him to do his best to avoid bloodshed and take the
man alive, as there was always the danger of a blood-feud
starting over a sudden death. Finally the lunatic was captured
alive and shoved into the common gaol, there being no more
suitable accommodation for him in the town, which never rose
to the dizzy height of possessing a lunatic asylum of its own! On
the following night, at about 10 o'clock, two shots were fired in
the prison, not more than a hundred yards from my window,
and the prisoners set up a great shout. I went out to see what
had happened and met Baron Biegeleben, who had been
installed practically as Chief of Police, and now arrived on the
scene with a number of armed followers. Of course everybody,
now always prepared for the worst, presumed that the prisoners
had revolted. However it was soon discovered that the two
shots had only been fired by the sentry on guard to call for help,
as the mad Kosovan, who had been imprisoned on the previous
night, had set fire to his bedding; this was easily put out and the
136 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

remainder of the night passed peacefully.

On another occasion one of the gendarmes in the trenches
had words with a Kosovan and shot him through the head, to
enforce his argument; this again might have caused inter-tribal
trouble! Luckily the gendarme too turned out to be a Kosovan,
so the incident passed off without serious consequences; the
murderer was not even arrested, but remained at his post. 24
hours later, just after 10 o'clock at night, he suddenly left his
trench without any warning and, taking his rifle with him,
disappeared in the darkness, making for the enemy's lines. His
companions opened fire on him, to which he replied as soon as
he reached cover and the result of it was that the fusillade soon
became general on all sides and only ceased when messengers
brought the news that the rebels had not been seen anywhere.
On the 7th of July a small Roumanian company of
volunteers arrived at Durazzo; the men wore a self-invented but
serviceable uniform, and were commanded by a Captain
Cristescu of the Roumanian army. This Roumanian company
was the first more or less disciplined body of men in the King's
service and made a very good first impression. On the same ship
were several Austrians, who had come out to take part in any
fighting there might be; among these was Conte della Scala, an
artillery officer, who made himself useful in organising the hill-
positions, though he did not get any scrapping, as he had hoped
to do. In spite of these reinforcements and the loyal messages
received from all parts of the country, von Trotha and I clearly
foresaw the end approaching rapidly; in this we were not alone,
as the great majority of the foreign diplomats shared our views.
Turkhan Pasha had been sent abroad to try to get help from one
or other of the Powers; in the capitals of Europe, where he was
known and esteemed as an honourable man and distinguished
diplomat, he was well received. His reports to the King were
very optimistic and the King and Queen still hoped that some
good would come of his wanderings. Nothing that von Trotha
or I said was taken seriously and when we spoke out our minds,
which we did not infrequently, the Queen appeared to resent it;
we received many a rebuff, but did not allow ourselves to be put
 THE BEGINNING OF THE COLLAPSE 137

off by anything and continued telling the King the unpleasant

truths, which the other members of his Court kept hidden from
him, as much as they were able. Persons most likely to know
the truth told me time after time that the Powers were
disappointed in him and would do nothing to help him, as they
considered that he had proved himself unfit for his position.
Though it may be considered bad form to tell one's employer
all the uncomplimentary things that are said about him, I
considered it a part of my duty to do so; perhaps it was taken
amiss! Though the Queen disliked me, my regular
correspondence with the King until the time of his death shows
that, though he may not have appreciated my pessimism at the
time, he fully realised that I had always done my best for him.
Everybody knew that our funds were running low, but I
knew that which they did not, namely that the International
Commission of Control would not help us in raising any more,
when ours were finished. Of course I imparted my information
to the King, but he could not believe its truth and kept on
hoping that money would turn up from somewhere or other!
There was nothing I could do to improve matters and it was
frustrating to have to watch the Kingdom decaying before my
eyes. In the town, where the people had bowed low at the very
mention of the King's name, the unfortunate Mbret was now
nicknamed "Burghermaster of Durazzo", and later even given
the unflattering designation of "the Houseowner". One day one
of the foreigners in the Albanian service alluded to him in this
way in my presence, which much annoyed me, as he ought to
have known better; he was a sensible fellow, he apologised for
his want of tact.
As things were steadily going from bad to worse and I still
believed that a few hundred Europeans would be sufficient to
scatter the rebels, if properly led, I wrote to an Austrian
sculptor, Mr. Gurschner,51 who had on several occasions offered
to bring out a certain number of volunteers. With the King's
consent, I wrote to him privately, pointing out to him that we
were in want of men; however I told him that all the men were
likely to get in return for their services was lodging - in the
138 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

trenches - and very coarse food. Gurschner, being a very

energetic man, set to work with a will and besides appealing for
volunteers in the Austrian press, opened a recruiting office in
Vienna. The police of course had to sit up and take notice and
the office had to be closed almost immediately. Large numbers
of men had volunteered, but there was very little money
available for their equipment and journey to Durazzo; a couple
of small detachments reached us, not a hundred men in all, and
the remainder were prevented from leaving Austria. Gurschner
himself very nearly got into trouble with the Austrian
authorities for trying to enlist men for a foreign power and as
far as I remember he was, or just escaped, being arrested for this
offence. About the middle of the month he appeared on the
scene at Durazzo, where he remained for a few weeks. He got
heartily sick of the place and returned to Vienna there to
design an Albanian war medal; this however was never
finished, as the Austro-Serbian war broke out and the artist had
to join the army as a reserve officer.
One day the King, without the knowledge of his temporary
Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mufid Bey Libohova, had a
conference with the foreign ministers accredited to his Court
on the Epirus question;52 Mufid Bey took great offence at this
quite unintentional slight and, being rather hot-tempered, sent
in his resignation the same evening. Though Mufid was loyal to
the throne and one of the most able ministers, he had a large
number of enemies and we had received warnings that his life
was in danger as long as he remained in office, so the King was
not sorry at his decision to leave Durazzo a few days later. If I
remember rightly he took up the post of Albanian Diplomatic
Agent in Rome, which was vacant, owing to the disappearance
of Dr Adamidi Bey Frasheri, who had been appointed some
time earlier.
Several days after this rather unpleasant incident, a great
meeting took place at the palace, presided over by the Mbret
and attended by notables from all parts of the country.53 The
general situation was discussed and high-sounding speeches
were made by some of those present; everybody expressed
 THE BEGINNING OF THE COLLAPSE 139

loyalty to the throne and hope for the future of Albania.

However, nothing was done and things dragged on in the same
slipshod way as before. About this time too Ahmed Bey Mati
(Zog) issued a manifesto in the name of 150,000 Albanian
Mahommedans; in this he pointed out that the rebels were only
a very small minority in the country and that the bulk of the
Mahommedans were loyal to the Mbret and willing to march
to his support. He also mentioned that the rebellion was the
work of foreign agitators and that no respectable Albanian
should have anything to do with it. This cheered up the King
and Queen, who still hoped to pull things through, or at least
pretended to, though everybody else knew that their stay in
Albania was absolutely bound to come to a conclusion in a
short time.
Ahmed's manifesto was closely followed by a very curious
counter-proclamation issued by the rebels, I believe, at Berat.
After a certain amount of personal abuse directed against the
King they called upon all patriotic Albanians to join them, as
the insurrection had the support of the Triple Entente, and was
bound to succeed in driving out the "foreign tyrant". Those in
a position to judge said that the proclamation was well-worded
and doubtlessly the work of a highly cultured person, probably
a diplomat. This was the only time we heard anything about
the Entente, though all along I felt that Italian influences were
at work among the insurgents. That the neighbouring Balkan
nations assisted them in every way, in order to keep Albania in
a state of anarchy, seems extremely probable. However I do not
pretend to be a politician, so I may be entirely wrong!
 Chapter Twenty-Five
. . . .

T H E E N D O F J U LY

During the month of July a very close relationship sprang

up between the King and Monsieur Ranette of the Roumanian
legation. Ranette, though quite a young and very junior
diplomat, used to come and see the King sometimes for hours
on end, and sit with him in his study to discuss the situation
with him.
Ranette was firmly convinced that everything could in
time be settled peacefully, but how this was to be done, none of
us were ever told; though he did not give one the impression
that he was a man of action, he showed his self-confidence by
going out to Kavaya and interviewing the insurgents, when
these had refused to treat with the Mbret's government. As was
to be expected, this intimacy caused a certain amount of
jealousy and annoyance among some of the other diplomats,
whose claim to get a hearing was much greater than that of
Ranette, and there was a good deal of grumbling about it.
It seems certain that Monsieur Ranette did nothing really
useful as far as the making of peace was concerned, but it was
undoubtedly due to his work that Roumania began to take
more interest in our affairs and sent us a certain number of
soldiers and money. About the middle of the month, a second
detachment of Roumanian volunteers arrived at Durazzo, so we
now had almost a weak battalion of them at our disposal.
 THE END OF JULY 141

One thing Ranette succeeded in doing, which indirectly

did the King's prestige a lot of harm, was to bring a certain
Monsieur Kristo Mexi to the Court. Now Mexi was a banker,
or retired banker, of Albanian origin, who had lived in
Roumania for many years and had a very good position in that
country. Unfortunately he was not so highly thought of in his
own country and everybody was furious when the King
appointed him as a Privy Councillor. The usual unproved
charges were brought against him and a number of people went
so far as to assure us that he had in his youth done time in Berat
gaol for fraud. Von Trotha took an interest in this matter, but
try as he could, no record of the imprisonment was to be found
at Berat or any other town in Albania; so it must be presumed
that there was no more truth in this story than there was in
most of the others that one heard almost daily about some
person or other. In spite of the abuse heaped upon him, Mexi
held his ground and conferred with the King daily, and when I
left Durazzo he was still coming to the palace regularly every
morning. Probably we never noticed the insults that were
heaped upon him, or regretted the fact that the Albanian
members of the Court would have nothing to do with him and
would not even shake hands with him! In their dislike for him
they went so far that they would not even announce him to the
King; so I usually had to do it for them, though it was not really
my business.
On the 17th of July the King rode out to inspect the
defences, accompanied by officers and some of the more
notable volunteers. I was at first rather offended that he did not
take me round with him on this occasion, as I was the only
member of his suite who had taken any part in the fighting;
besides which I was the only one who knew all our positions,
none of the others ever having done the complete round of the
trenches, as I did almost daily. As it turned out afterwards, I did
not miss much by being left behind, as, when the King was
inspecting the artillery position, there was quite a scene
between some of the volunteers and the Dutch gendarmerie
officers. The former delivered an uncalled-for criticism of the
142 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

Dutchmen's arrangements, which was naturally enough

resented by the latter and altogether the King was placed in a
very awkward position.
The next night there was a dinner party at the palace, at
which, if I remember rightly, the three admirals were present.
Anyway I distinctly recollect that Admiral Troubridge was one
of our party. Some time after dinner, as the guests were about to
take their departure, a heavy fusillade started all round the
town; the party broke up quickly enough and I dashed to the
Petroleum Magazine to see what the trouble was about. As I
was wearing my full-dress tunic, which was rather tight, this
night manoeuvre was not particularly pleasant and to make
matters worse, I stepped onto a dried bog-hole in which I sank
almost up to the armpits. It was a terrifying experience, but I
managed to worm myself out under my own steam. This attack,
as all the others, turned out to be nothing of any account; after
firing a few volleys at us from a safe distance, the insurgents had
retired, there being, of course, no losses on either side.
On the 18th July, the German Minister von Lucius told
von Trotha that the King ought to retire gracefully before the
powers, who had lost all faith in him, requested him to do so.
As our old friendly relations with the King were disappearing,
we found it rather hard to give him any unasked for advice; it
was noticeable that both he and the Queen now only spoke to
von Trotha and myself officially and hardly ever drew us into
more private conversations. The Court was no longer the
happy family it had been and our position was not a pleasant
one. Naturally we were still expected to do all the work, as the
Albanians were looked upon as ornaments only; however they
got all the sweets!
The disorder in Durazzo was something awful, as the
following example will show clearly enough. Twelve obsolete
Austrian mountain guns, which were either a present from the
Austrian government or sold to us for a purely nominal sum,
arrived on the 20th, were partly unpacked and remained in the
square with all the ammunition belonging to them for a couple
of days; at the end of this time some person in authority took
 THE END OF JULY 143

the trouble of having a look at them and discovered that all the
breech-blocks were missing and the guns useless for the time
being. Of course no serious steps were taken to find them, as it
was far simpler to say that they had been stolen and thrown in
the sea by the Italians, or that they had doubtlessly been left
behind in Austria!
I had very little secretarial work to do at this time as the
Mbret was far too busy to attend to his private affairs, so I got
him to appoint me as a sort of Inspector-general of the forces,
just to act as a check on the Dutch and other officers, some of
whom were in a high state of inefficiency, whilst others spent
their time quarrelling amongst themselves - not a useful
occupation in a besieged town! My first duty was to try to find
out what had happened to the lost breech-blocks. I spent the
greater part of the afternoon riding round from one place to the
other to make enquiries; at the custom-house they knew
nothing about them, so I went on to the military store and,
being unsuccessful here, to the police station. Nowhere had
they been seen and I returned to the palace, my mission
unfulfilled. A few minutes after my arrival, a telephone message
came through from the stores that the missing blocks had been
discovered there after all, the boxes in which they had arrived
having been put away in the back of the shed with the harness
by mistake.
As I was doing a round of the trenches that evening and
was inspecting our picket at the bridge, heavy firing started in
the town; thinking that the troops had mutinied, I galloped
back for all I was worth, hoping to get through to the palace
somehow. As I got near the town, I saw men shooting about the
streets in a most disconcerting manner and must admit felt
anything but happy. On coming up closer I discovered to my
great relief that they were only firing into the air, or
thereabouts; then I remembered that this was the eve of the
feast of Ramadan and that the faithful welcome it with a feu de
joie. As our noble warriors did not appear to be very particular
as to where their shots would eventually lodge, I took my pony
into a neighbouring cafe, in which we remained till the
144 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

fusillade was over.

In the market square I found one of our foreign volunteers,
an Austrian, surrounded by policemen, soldiers and townfolk,
whom he was haranguing volubly; he was in a frantic state of
excitement and kept yelling "Help - Murder - Revolution!"
The crowd was doing its best to pacify him and trying to
explain the national custom of shooting at the setting sun;
however the worthy Austrian could not understand a word
they said, and nearly fell round my neck when he saw me. I
managed to satisfy him that there was no immediate danger
and returned to the palace without any further incidents.
On the occasion of the feast of Ramadan, the insurgents
sent a note to the foreign ministers, demanding the immediate
removal of the Mbret, whom they described as a bloodthirsty
tyrant, a lunatic and therefore quite unfit to govern. Failing
this they threatened to level Durazzo to the ground and put its
inhabitants to the sword; this note did not exactly add to the
gaiety of the feast, but was not taken too seriously, though a
certain number of agitators rushed round the town, as usual,
spreading false rumours and scares.
Admiral Troubridge often came on shore in the evening
and had a smoke with me in the garden; he quite realised how
precarious was the King's position and foresaw that the Mbret
would not be able to hold out much longer. His one hope was
that he would retire in time and so avoid being driven out of
his palace at a moment's notice. Like everybody else in the
town, he could not understand why the Queen kept the two
children in Durazzo during the summer as the town is notorious
for its malarial fevers, and he would have been willing to give
them a passage to Roumania or anywhere else on HMS
Defence. During the next few days nothing of interest
happened; the weather was very hot, but in spite of it, I spent
half the day in the saddle, visiting the trenches, stores and
hospitals. The rest of my time was taken up with my clerical
and other duties, so I had as much work as one could wish for.
Every night we sat up on the balcony enjoying the cool sea
breezes, which were very refreshing after the stifling heat of the
 THE END OF JULY 145

day. Unfortunately the evenings were usually disturbed by

alarms and hardly a night passed without the rebels firing a
volley or two at us before retiring to rest.
As there was no prospect of anything of real importance
happening at Durazzo in the immediate future, the King
decided to pay a visit to Valona, where the loyal Tosks were
certain to give him a warm welcome.
 Chapter Twenty-Six
. . . .

T H E K I N G V I S I T S VA L O N A

At midnight on the 25th of July, the King, Queen and suite

went on board the Misurata, which was to take us down to
Valona; only von Trotha was left behind to look after the
household and as a protection for the children, in case of any
unforeseen trouble at Durazzo. As there were not enough
cabins to go round, Ekrem Bey Libohova and I shared the small
sitting room between us; as it was very stuffy in there, I
remained on deck and went to sleep in a comfortable chair. I
woke up at about two o'clock in the morning, as we were
leaving the harbour and found that I was drenched to the skin,
a very thick fog having come on while I was asleep. It was
almost impenetrable and the ship's officers had to keep their
wits about them in picking their way through the harbour, in
which there were, besides the usual merchant craft, quite a
number of men o' war of various descriptions. Our departure
had not been made public as it was feared that it might be
misconstrued and cause a panic; it was for this reason that we
left in the dead of night when nobody was about to see us.
When we woke up next morning, we found ourselves close
to land and soon after breakfast the Misurata entered Valona
harbour. On our right lay the rocky island of Saseno, which
protects the bay from the Easterly winds. The bay is sheltered on
all sides; the hills come right down to the sea and in one place
 THE KING VISITS VALONA 147

the hills might almost be termed mountains; they are grey and
forbidding and remind one of the volcanic crags on the Asiatic
side of the Red Sea, though here the lower slopes are cultivated.
The harbour is large and safe and if it were in the interests of any
power to do so, Valona could be turned into a second Hong-
Kong and made practically impregnable from the sea side. The
town of Valona, which lies some way back from the sea could
also be defended quite easily from the land side, where there are
rows of hills, forming natural ramparts to protect it.
The foreign sloops in the port fired a Royal salute, which
awoke a thousand echoes among the hills and died away across
the waters. Hardly had we dropped anchor, when the
Governor, followed by one or two deputations, came out in his
rowing boat; the oarsmen were wearing scarlet sweaters, which
looked very bright in the morning sun and added gaiety to the
scene. Among the deputations was one composed of Orthodox
ladies; these being practically the first specimens of their kind
and sex that I had seen in Albania, where most of the upper
classes hide their womenfolk, we naturally took more interest
in them than in the frock-coated dignitaries of the town.
By the landing-stage huge crowds of enthusiastic Tosks
were assembled and here too the Commandant of the town and
other officials welcomed the sovereigns. The American
volunteer, Mr. Spencer, whom the King had commissioned to
furnish a guard of honour for this occasion, had drawn up his
men, consisting to a great extent of war-worn veterans, on
three sides of the square. The King inspected them and
expressed his satisfaction at their smart appearance. They were
not as picturesque as our northern mountaineers, having
discarded the national Fustanella54 for a more serviceable khaki
uniform, but they appeared to be more disciplined and it is
certain were on the whole more highly educated (Many of
them could read and write!). We were all surprised to find the
late Court doctor attached to this guard of honour; with his
imposing tropical helmet and Mauser rifle slung across his
shoulder, he looked a very bold warrior, but in spite of his
martial aspect and pretended importance, he was quietly
148 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

ignored by everybody.
The inspection over, the King and Queen got into a
carriage which had been raised from God knows where to take
them into the town. The crowd unharnessed the horses and
men took their place, dragging the carriage along the dusty
road, which crosses the marshy plain. The King and Queen
were all right, but the unhappy suite was not so well cared for
and was left standing disconsolately in the market square. As a
matter of fact we were nearly trampled under foot by the
enthusiastic mob and did not appreciate the idea of a two mile
walk, which seemed the only alternative to remaining here at
the harbour the rest of the day. At last a two-horse vehicle,
occupied by four or five well nourished notables approached us;
Ekrem Bey stopped it, made the occupants get out and
commandeered it for ourselves; it was about the most
ramshackle old thing I ever saw and the half starved nags could
hardly drag it. Our progress was slow, but this did not disturb us,
as it gave us all the more time to study our surroundings.
The port is separated from the town by a stretch of low
lying, park-like land, which was dried up by the sun and grey
with dust, though it is a swamp during the winter months. Over
the grass the crowds followed us on foot, on horseback, any way
they could, jumping small ditches on the way, or falling into
them, to the great delight of their neighbours. The funniest
sight of the lot were two well-fed and elderly citizens of Valona,
who were sharing a poor little twelve-hand pony, which was
continually making frantic efforts to rid itself of the double
burden. The dust was something awful, but did not check the
enthusiasm of the Valonese, who seemed to have gone off their
heads with joy.
This enthusiasm was, I verily believe, perfectly genuine, as
the Tosks understand what patriotism means, in its larger sense,
while the northern mountaineers are more loyal to their clan
chieftains than to their country, and too ignorant to have any
very high political ideals. It must also be remembered that
Albanian independence was first proclaimed here at Valona by
Ismail Kemal Vlora,55 so it is only natural that the Valonese,
 THE KING VISITS VALONA 149

who considered themselves the founders of the Kingdom, gave

their Mbret such an enthusiastic reception.
At last, smothered in dust, we arrived at the Vloras' family
mansion, where the King established his headquarters for the
day. We were received at the door by Ekrem Bey Vlora, who is
already known to the reader, and other members of his family.
The house itself is large and roomy, rather larger than the
Palace at Durazzo and it would certainly have made a better
Royal residence, if a little money had been spent on it. Owing
to the anarchy prevailing in Albania, Ekrem's father, who was
now Albanian minister in Vienna, had thought it advisable to
remove most of the valuables from the house, so there was very
little furniture left in it now and in fact only one wing could be
used for the reception. There was nothing worth mentioning
about the house; there were few pictures on the walls and the
only one I noticed was a large oil painting, representing Ferid
Pasha, the owner's brother, who was for a time Grand Vizier in
Constantinople and now lived a retired life in Egypt.56
A certain number of people were assembled to be presented
to the sovereigns and, as soon as we had made ourselves
halfway presentable, deputations began to arrive. Then
followed the usual dull ceremonial, which was so boring that it
is not worth describing. The only point worth mentioning
about these deputations is, that the spokesmen were
unanimous in emphasising the atrocities of the Greek and
Epirote bands, which had devastated the Northern Epirus. A
deputation of Bektashi Mahommedan monks57 told the King
how the Greeks had burned their monastery and laid waste the
surrounding country; it was touching to see these venerable old
men appealing to their young Mbret for advice and assistance.
They showed such childlike confidence that he would be able
to put matters right, not only for them, but for the whole
country! Here in Valona one really had the feeling that the
Albanians were not all brigands, as they are supposed to be, but
thinking men with national ideals and political aspirations!
After the most horrible tales of woe, some of which were
probably based on fact, the leader of a deputation would smile
150 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

and murmur "Rroft Mbreti", which was fervently seconded by

his followers, as if the King's welfare were all that really
mattered.
A number of Albanian gendarmerie officers were presented
to the King, who spoke to the few who had distinguished
themselves in the fighting against the Epirotes and the central
Albanian insurgents. With these was Captain Ghilardi, who
had done such good work all along. After an endless series of
deputations had been received in audience and sent away with
words of encouragement, the company assembled for dinner.
This was a European meal, served as well as can be expected
under the circumstances; our hosts, however did not take part,
but waited on their guests in person, having their dinner, when
everybody else had finished. From the time of our arrival, large
crowds had collected outside the gates and kept cheering, to
which the King and Queen had to respond by appearing on the
balcony again and again, to thank them for the ovation. As this
was a busy day, we were not given much time for coffee and
cigarettes after the meal and soon had to set out again, to have
a look at the town and its immediate surroundings, as well as to
allow the loyal people of Valona to make their sovereigns'
closer acquaintance.
 Chapter Twenty-Seven
. . . .

VA L O N A

In the last chapter I omitted to mention the following

rather unpleasant incident, which took place during the
morning. When the gendarmerie officers arrived to be
presented to the King, they were accompanied by Ghilardi and
Spencer, which was only natural and proper, as these two had
acted as officers for months past and had seen a lot of fighting
in the Epirus, besides which, Spencer had been ordered to raise
a bodyguard for the King's visit to Valona. Major Sluys, more or
less commandant of the town, for some reason unknown to us,
did not allow Spencer to enter the house; it was known that the
two were not the best of friends, as Spencer had criticised in
rather strong language the conduct of the Dutch officers, who
are said to have left him in the lurch during the retirement
from Koritza.
In spite of Major Sluys' objections, Spencer managed to
slip through the police cordon and into the house; he got as far
as the waiting room on the first floor, from where he sent a
messenger to fetch me. I found him in a great state of
excitement and indignant at the manner in which he had been
treated. While I was with him, two gendarmes appeared in the
room to arrest him. I ordered them to stand back and await
further instructions from me and approached the King to ask
him what I was to do; the latter, without hesitation, ordered
152 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

Spencer to be admitted. When I returned to the waiting room,

I found it empty, but heard a "fracas" going on downstairs. It
appeared that as soon as I had left Spencer, Major Sluys had
arrested him, in spite of my interference. Spencer had resisted
arrest and in the course of the struggle had been thrown, or
bustled down the stairs in a very rough manner by his captors.
Now I found them assembled in the hall, surrounded by a host
of serving men and soldiers, who had run together to watch the
sport. I told the Major to release his prisoner instantly; I was
furious at his high-handed action and asked him whether this
was his idea of treating an officer, also pointing out to him that
Spencer was an American and anyway not under his
jurisdiction. Sluys, though he remained cool outwardly, was
very truculent and most unwilling to give up his captive. He
informed not only me, but the public at large, of the fact that
Spencer was not only not an officer, but the biggest liar, boaster
and coward in the country and had done nothing but flee
before the enemy on every occasion that they appeared. As I
knew that this was not true and had Ghilardi on the spot to
disprove this, and in fact knew that Spencer had done very
useful work, I entirely lost it and told Major Sluys one or two
home truths that cannot have pleased him to any great extent.
I advised him not to insult any of the foreign volunteers, as
some of them had behaved far more creditably than one or two
of the Dutch officers, who were drawing high salaries for their
services, while they were drawing none. As a parting shot I
mentioned that I was going to write a report on the Dutch
gendarmerie mission, which would contain some unfavourable
criticism on some of its officers. This last was not at all to the
Major's liking, and no wonder! The Dutch officers were
receiving enormous salaries while serving in Albania, and some
of them at least did not want to lose the remunerative little
billets they held there. It was an unfortunate occurrence, this
difference of opinion, and unfortunately did not end here, but
caused further unpleasantness later on.
The victory for the moment was mine and the onlookers
were delighted that I had gained my point; more especially as
 VALONA 153

Major Sluys appears to have succeeded in making himself

disliked by the Valonese, though he had been one of the most
popular men in Albania when he had taken up his post there.
In fact, at that time, owing to the important part he had played
in the Essad "coup", he had been looked upon as one of the
liberators of Albania. However, now his position was decidedly
weak; owing to differences with the civil authorities, he had
resigned his post some days earlier and an Albanian
commandant had been appointed in his place. As soon as the
King's visit to the town was announced, he had changed his
mind and reappointed himself as commandant. Rather a
curious state of affairs in a country not six hours from European
civilisation! Owing to the mystery still surrounding all these
transactions, the Major was not invited to the King's luncheon
and, as all the other notables were present, this must have been
rather galling to him; altogether it was not a pleasant day for
him!
Well, to go on with the story! After lunch we went out to
have a look at the town and to impress the population. The
King, Ekrem, Selim and I were mounted by our host and a
carriage was provided for the Queen and the two ladies in
waiting. Our escort consisted of half a dozen fine looking
Southern chiefs, wearing the national costume and a
detachment of Spencer's khaki-clad Tosks. As we rode through
the town, we were soon surrounded by an enthusiastic crowd,
which accompanied us through the streets. As our progress
threatened to be brought to standstill altogether by so much
loyalty we put the horses to a trot and so escaped, though a
certain number of the younger men were not to be shaken off
so easily and ran along beside the horses through the gaily
decorated streets and out into the country! On the hills behind
the town thousands of refugees from the ravaged districts were
encamped and the woods seemed to be teeming with them.
Men, women and children came rushing down to us from all
sides to get a better view of the King and, in spite of the fact
that these unfortunates had lost everything they possessed,
they showed no less enthusiasm than their more fortunate
154 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

brothers of the town. The road was shockingly bad and the
Queen's drive cannot have been much of a pleasure,
particularly as the horses continually jibbed and had to be
dragged along bodily by the crowd - quite a picture it was!
On our return to the "Palais Vlora", we were given fruit
syrups and crushed ice, a national drink in southern Albania,
which was excellent and much relished by us, as we were again
half choked with the dust. As there was no work to be done for
the present, I was taken to the Haremlik, to visit the ladies of
the family, who had so far not appeared on the scene, according
to the best traditions of the Mahommedan world. This visit has
nothing sensational about it; the ladies, all of whom were well-
educated and able to speak several languages, which is a good
deal more than is often the case in England, received me, just
the same as any European ladies would have done and there
was nothing whatsoever to remind one of imagines as a harem,
except in the name. After all the native dignitaries, with the
exception of a few members of the Vlora family, had left, the
ladies came over to the other part of the house, to be presented
to the King, and they remained with us until we left.
In Albania the ladies are kept secluded, as in Turkey, but
this appears to be done chiefly for show, to keep up
appearances, and they do not seem to be particular when
foreigners are concerned and do not mind being seen by them.
For instance the Aide de Camp's wife stayed in the palace, as
the Queen's guest, for several months and was never veiled in
the house; she was quite one of us, as long as no other
Mohammedans were about. However she was not even allowed
to go into the garden without a veil, and when we gave a
dinner at which Albanians were present, she did not appear till
they had gone. In the mountains the women go about unveiled,
like the Arab women, who are very strict Mahommedans all
the same. The veiling was, I believe, a purely Turkish national
custom or fashion which gradually spread to the whole
Mahommedan world.
After tea we left the town of Valona amidst a cheering
populace. Close to the quay the King and Queen inspected the
 VALONA 155

hospital of the Dutch gendarmerie mission, which was well-

situated, close to the sea and in perfect order; the Dutch
surgeon in charge of it did splendid work in it and his patients
were full of praise for him.
From here we went back to our faithful Misurata; we left
the harbour at about 5 o'clock, witnessing a most glorious
sunset, which was followed by an oriental starlit night. After
dinner we stayed on deck, little groups of two and three were
formed and, at peace with the world, we rested from our
labours. That night we were again very optimistic, as the
enthusiasm of the Tosks had made a great impression on us; we
hoped that after all we might succeed in doing the impossible
with the help of the loyal southerners!
Sailing close to the coast all the time, we saw the fires of
the rebels, camped on the shore, close to the mouth of the
Skumbi river, and, after a very pleasant voyage, arrived at
Durazzo in the early hours of the morning. Everybody was tired,
so the party soon broke up, everybody feeling a good deal more
hopeful after all we had seen and heard at Valona.
Unfortunately, things are not always what they seem; Valona
did not help us as we had hoped and only a few months
afterwards was occupied by the Italians, who will not give it up
again now that they have their hands on it. It is invaluable to
them, as in conjunction with Otranto, it turns the Adriatic
into an ‘Italian Lake’, thus preventing the Austrians from
becoming a Mediterranean Power.
 Chapter Twenty-Eight
. . . .

THE LAST MONTH

The King's visit to Valona was the last interesting event

that took place, while I was in Albania and the rest of my
experiences can be told in a few words. Our life remained much
as it had been during the last six weeks and I had plenty of work
to keep me busy, though my functions as private secretary did
not bother me much, the King being far too harassed to be able
to attend to his private affairs.
The greater part of my day I spent making tours of
inspection, often doing two rounds of the positions during the
day, to see that everything was in order. At this time we had a
lot of sickness among the men and there were hundreds of cases
of malaria, dysentery and other ailments in the trenches. The
native doctors, who spent their time trying to find soft
government billets, were far too lazy to attend to them, so I
made it my business to make them do so, like or no like! I used
to commandeer a doctor and take him round the positions;
some of the Roumanian volunteers had to accompany us with
stretchers and medicines and so I saw that something was done
for our men, who would otherwise have been left unattended
where they were. The Queen organised an Albanian hospital,
where there was room for a certain number of patients, but not
enough for them all, so a good many of them had to be lodged
in private houses in the town.
 THE LAST MONTH 157

As secretary of the Order of the Eagle of Albania, I also had

a certain amount of work, as lists had to be prepared for the
King, who decorated people almost daily, usually with the
lowest class, a bronze medal "for gallantry in the field". As it
was found to be quite impossible to decorate only the deserving
soldiers without offending all the rest, the plan was adopted of
decorating all the wounded, irrespective of merit, and this
worked fairly well. The Albanians loved their medals and even
wore them on their nightshirts; it is a pity that the King did not
bring a larger supply of them, as I believe that he could have
increased his popularity enormously by distributing them more
freely.
There was rather an echo of the Valona incident between
Major Sluys and myself; though it sounds ridiculous enough
now, it was most unpleasant at the time. One morning General
de Veer came for an audience with the King, as he often did,
and, as usual, was shown into the waiting room, next to my
office, where Sami Bey entertained the more notable visitors.
Hearing that he had arrived, I went over to him with the
intention of reporting Major Sluys' strange conduct in regard to
Spencer. The General did not get up, when I entered the room,
and refused to shake hands with me, when I went up to him. I
was more than surprised at his rudeness, as we had always been
on excellent terms with each other, and felt much annoyed, as
Sami Bey was present to witness the insult. I asked the General
the reason for his behaviour and he spluttered out some reply,
which I failed to catch. As he was bubbling over with
indignation and could not be brought to reason, I left him, with
a few well-chosen words, which exactly expressed my feelings,
but were perhaps not quite as parliamentary as one would
expect to hear in the King's waiting room. Later I discovered
that the General was so angry, because I had told Sluys that I
was going to write a report on the Dutch gendarmerie mission;
as he himself was thoroughly inefficient, this is not really
surprising. Nobody in Durazzo could have said much good
about him as a soldier, or bad as a man.
Mr. Lamb of the Commission of Control tried to pacify him
158 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

for me, but he was quite childish in his wrath and refused to
apologise for his rudeness. It was a most unpleasant situation for
me, as his age prevented me from taking sterner measures and
an "affair of honour" was to be avoided under all circumstances
for the King's sake. So we remained au froid and, though
having to come in contact with each other very frequently, did
not know each other for the rest of the time.
The news of the murder of the Austrian Archduke Franz
Ferdinand on 28 June 1914 made a deep impression on the
Court, but none of us thought that it would ever bring on
anything more than strained relations between Austria and
Serbia. Some thought that it would simplify the accession
difficulty in the dual monarchy, which was bound to arise on
the death of the aged Emperor. The Archduke Francis
Ferdinand was not universally popular in the Austro-
Hungarian Empire and it was only the manner of his death that
brought him the sympathies of the people.
When we heard that Russia and Germany had started
mobilising, von Trotha was delighted, as in this he saw a
chance of retiring gracefully from the Court of Albania,
without giving offence to the King and Queen. On the 1st of
August he left us, though the German Minister von Lucius had
not received any official information about a general
mobilisation; he was accompanied by his secretary and five
other menservants, who were German army reservists. Their
sudden departure made a big hole in our establishment and we
were now left with only three indoor men-servants, the English
butler, the King's old German valet, who only belonged to the
Landsturm and the Queen's Arab servant, Hassan. Sami Bey,
who ought really to have succeeded Trotha by right of seniority,
was not keen on work and understood little or nothing about
book-keeping, so I undertook the difficult task of running, or
trying to run the shrunken household. My first duty was to
pacify the women servants, who came to me en bloc to give
notice; the majority of them wanted to leave by the next boat,
as "they were afraid of staying on, now that the men had gone",
and it was as much as I could do to “blarney” them into staying
 THE LAST MONTH 159

with us for the time being at least. I believe that they had a
second attack of nerves not long afterwards, but the Queen
pacified them on that occasion.
During the last days of July signs were not wanting that war
was in the air; the most notable was the manner in which the
international fleet melted away. First the small Russian cruiser
Askold left in the dead of night, without giving any notice to
anybody; nobody knew where she had gone, but the
commander of the French cruiser "presumed" that she had gone
to Brindisi to coal. The French left us in the same mysterious
manner a couple of nights later and was in due course followed
by HMS Defence, which had to leave one evening at short
notice. The Breslau and Austrian ships left a few days after this
and our friends, the Italians remained as our sole protectors, the
ancient Dandolo taking the place of a more modern vessel.
They saw the end approaching rapidly and did not bother the
King in any way, or take any advantage of their supreme
position in Durazzo to further their own ends. They knew that
Valona, like a ripe plum, would drop into their hands when the
time came, so they could afford to be generous and wait.
Another curious thing that happened in the second half of
July, which now seems rather suggestive. Having heard from an
absolutely reliable source that Messrs. Ehrhardt, the second
largest gun manufacturers in Germany, had a few guns of
medium bore in stock, the Albanian government made
enquiries through an agent, as it was thought that with a 10 or
15 cm. gun we would be able to bombard the insurgents'
headquarters at Shjak and perhaps even at Kavaya from the hill
behind Durazzo. Messrs Ehrhardt now informed us that they
were sorry to say they had no unsold guns of medium bore in
their factories. Of course, our original informant may have
been mistaken, but it does not seem probable, as he was in a
position to know. It is more likely that the German
government had already warned the larger manufacturers not
to allow any more munitions of war to leave the country.
One evening we had a tremendous scene in the palace;
Turkhan Pasha, who, after his tour round Europe, had a very
160 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

black and faithful servant, whom he had bought as a boy in

Constantinople, over twenty years ago. One day Turkhan
wanted to dress for dinner and was unable to do so, as his
servant was missing; the old gentleman was very anxious about
him and afraid that he had met with some accident. After
making enquiries all over the place, it was at length discovered
that he had been arrested for some treason and lodged in gaol!
When Turkhan heard of his unhappy valet's fate, he nearly had
a fit. He sent for the Chief of Police and his protests being of
no avail, he went to the King and threatened him with his
immediate resignation failing his man's release.
The only evidence against him seemed to be that he had
been seen about in the company of a suspicious character, and
that he had waved his white handkerchief during a walk on the
hill behind the barracks, close to the chief gun-position. Some
people even asserted that he had signalled messages over to the
insurgents. As a matter of fact the poor black had never served
in the army and so it is most unlikely that he knew anything
about signalling, besides which it was found that he could
neither read nor write; so it is evident that he was the victim of
a mistake or an intrigue. Anyway the King had him released
and restored to his master, who was dreadfully upset by the
incident, which he believed was a put up job to discredit him
in the eyes of the King. Turkhan's loyalty to the throne was
always questioned by some of the ultra-nationalists and it is
possible that they decided to get hold of the man and get
incriminating evidence against his master through him.
We began to have quite a lot of trouble with the garrison,
which cannot be wondered at, when one remembers that it
consisted mainly of irregulars. Many of the Mirdites kept
leaving us in small detachments, and not a few sold the rifles
that had been served out to them on their arrival in Durazzo.
One could buy rifles of the most modern patterns from five to
ten francs a piece! On the 2nd of August a few Malissori had a
little dispute in the main street, in the course of which, as was
at that time customary in the Balkans, one or two shots were
exchanged; terrible rumours were immediately put into
 THE LAST MONTH 161

circulation by interested parties and the usual panic followed,

as the population was becoming so hysterical that it believed
every ridiculous yarn that was told them.
On the same day Mr. Lamb and General de Veer went over
to Shjak to negotiate with the insurgents for the release of the
two Dutch officers, who had fallen into their hands at Elbasan,
but as far as I can recollect they were not successful. In the
evening most of the Austrian and German volunteers, who had
formed the backbone of our resistance, left Durazzo, to join
their respective armies. They were most enthusiastic and made
a great demonstration outside the palace, cheering and singing
German patriotic songs. On landing in Italy they tried the same
sort of thing, but the police at the port of Bari had to protect
them from the crowd, who did not appreciate their allies'
warlike sentiments. The King decorated all the foreign
volunteers, as well they deserved; bronze medals were not
expensive and gave great pleasure. The officers were given the
fourth and fifth classes of the order, according to their rank,
and those that had particularly distinguished themselves in the
field got small crossed swords attached to their decorations.
Two days later the officers of the Dutch gendarmerie
mission were recalled by their government and left with a
certain number of volunteers, who, not belonging to the first
reserve, had remained behind to await developments.
When there were rumours of war in the air and I found
myself as the only person left to do the work; I told the King
that I would be willing to remain with him, if I could get leave
off any mobilisation in England, as I did not want to leave him
in the lurch at the very last. I did not believe in the possibility
of war and thought that, even if one should break out, there
would still be plenty of time for me to rejoin my regiment after
the break-up of Albania, which I knew could not be delayed
many weeks. So the King telegraphed to Sir Edward Grey,
through Mr. Lamb, and I was ordered to remain at my post until
further notice.
Our war news was contradictory in the extreme, as we had
to rely mainly on Austrian official telegrams and Italian local
162 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

papers, all of which were very unreliable. We read of bloody

engagements which never took place and of victories that were
never won. It was a bad time for us altogether; as the Austrian
Lloyd had suspended its service to Durazzo, we were no longer
able to get our regular supplies from Trieste and had perforce to
buy rather inferior goods in the South of Italy. Our head chef,
though a German reservist, was luckily not by nature a great
warrior, so was quite agreeable to staying on with us on the
strength of a doctor's certificate which I obtained for him that
he was not fit for service.
The state of the country was becoming more and more
chaotic and I repeatedly advised the King to give up his thorny
throne. As things were absolutely hopeless, I also proposed to
the King that we should at least drink up the good wines we
had in the cellar and leave the inferior sorts for our successors.
Unfortunately this brilliant idea was treated with scorn and so
it came to pass that many of the King's most excellent hocks
remained un-drunk.
Every night the insurgents fired volleys, just to keep us
awake, and occasionally honoured us with a feeble night
attack, which always ended in noise and smoke, without
hurting anybody on either side. On one occasion, by way of a
change, they fired two shots at us with one of the guns they had
captured, but failed to hit the town, which it must be supposed
was what they were aiming at.
After the departure of the Dutch officers a Committee of
Defence was formed, consisting of a few Austrians who had not
yet been called to the colours, a Roumanian officer and two or
three native chieftains. They worked very hard to strengthen
our position, though we were becoming weaker every day,
owing to the desertion of the tribesmen; these were suffering
considerably from the heat and the unsanitary conditions in
the trenches and, considering that they had served quite long
enough for the time being, made everything an excuse to return
to their homes.
On the 13th of August the Albanian Government had no
cash left and I was ordered to supply the money for paying the
 THE LAST MONTH 163

troops out of the Court funds. I did this with a very bad grace,
as I knew that what we had left was barely enough for our own
requirements. Owing to this and other difficulties which had
arisen, I handed the keys of the safe over the King a couple of
days later.
Everybody urged the King to leave, while there was still
time, but he would not listen to anybody, not even to the
German Minister, who certainly took an interest in his welfare.
He would not understand that he was played out and that his
own men would turn on him as soon as his money came to an
end; but of course he still hoped in a vague sort of way that
money would be forthcoming from somewhere! How he could
believe such a thing surpasses my understanding, considering
that he knew the Italian standpoint well enough and it was not
likely that Austria, a chronically impecunious country in times
of peace, could possibly afford to send him gold at such a time.
The King must have been about the most optimistically
inclined person in the world, or have had more reserve energy
than one would have been led to suspect. He was absolutely
alone in his optimism and one must give him the credit that is
due to him for holding out for weeks and months after
everybody had advised him to give it up as a bad job and leave!
 Chapter Twenty-Nine
. . . .

GOODBYE TO DURAZZO

For some time past I had been becoming dissatisfied with

the manner in which I was being treated. Already before the
outbreak of war, the King and Queen had been noticeably cool
in their conduct towards von Trotha and myself. When Trotha
left Durazzo on the 1st of August I missed him very much, as we
had been on excellent terms with each other all the time and I
now found myself left with nobody to discuss things with.
Selim Bey, who was a very cheery boy, had been sent north on
some errand and was absent till the day I left. Ekrem Bey and I,
though we were always on good terms, very rarely exchanged
confidences. Sami Bey used to retire to his own house as soon
as he had finished his duties, and I therefore did not see so
much of him. The royal coolness towards myself became so
marked that everybody at Court noticed it and talked about it.
The climax of this tension was reached one night at dinner
when the Queen, in the course of a political lecture on the
European War, in which I had taken no part, said: "Everybody
knows that the English soldiers are quite bad". I nearly choked
with indignation, but said nothing, and the King tried to
change the subject, looking most uncomfortable. Afterwards,
when I got him his after-dinner cigar, I asked him whether I was
to take the Queen's remark as a hint that I was no longer
wanted and assured him that I would be ready to leave by the
 GOODBYE TO DURAZZO 165

next boat, if that were the case. He was very apologetic and said
it was all a mistake, or words to that effect, so, honour being
satisfied, I let the matter drop. On this occasion the King once
again behaved very well, seeing that I was quite in the right.
What was the cause of the coolness, I cannot imagine and
nobody else could think of any possible explanation. Perhaps I
had been too outspoken or it is possible that somebody had
intrigued against me, not an unheard of occurrence at Court.
Surely the following unfortunate incident cannot have been
the cause of it all! One day we were sitting together in the
Oriental Room and happened to discuss the Queen's "regal"
manner of treating people; in the course of the conversation I
remarked that she had no more reason to be haughty than I
had, as the only reason that my border-raiding ancestors had
not annexed her family's petty principality, was the fact that
there was not enough booty to be found in it. At this point
somebody looked round the corner of the passage and
discovered that the Queen was sitting there with her work-
basket. Perhaps she heard our conversation and disapproved of
the tone; certainly it was an unfortunate occurrence, which,
with a little more care, might have been avoided!
Practically nothing now remains to be told but what led to
my retirement from the arena. It had been arranged that the
children were to be sent to Germany, as at last it was realised
how precarious our position at Durazzo had become; they were
originally to have been accompanied by Fräulein von
Oidtmann. On the 20th of August Fräulein von Pfuel informed
me just before dinner that she had been told to pack her
belongings and leave with the children on the 22nd of August,
as the position was so uncertain that women would only be in
the way. At the same time the Queen told her that I was going
to be dismissed too, though she did not give any reason for this.
I was very pleased that at last my advice was being followed and
that both ladies were being sent away out of danger; for months
past I had considered that Durazzo was no place for them, as
one could hardly go half a mile outside the town without the
risk of being shot at. However I was much surprised to hear that
166 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

I too was going to be got rid of, and very angry that this should
be discussed publicly before I had been told about it.
I waited for the King to say something to me on the subject
after dinner, but as he did not make any attempt to do so before
retiring into his study, I followed him and asked him straight
out whether it was true that he intended dismissing me. He was
anything but at his ease and at first would not give me a clear
answer. However, at last he said that he was thinking of
dismissing me, as things could not go on here in this way, and
he was certain that I wanted to go to the front and that I held
different political opinions to his. In fact he seemed hard-
pressed to find some reasonable pretext, but could not invent
one on the spur of the moment. I had expressed my willingness
to remain with him to the end and had got leave to do so only
three weeks earlier; secondly I had rarely, if ever, expressed any
opinions on the European War, except to him privately, always
having avoided political conversations for fear of giving
offence. One evening, it is true, when left alone with the King
on the balcony, I told him that I thought that the German
government had gone mad. I may also have pointed out to him
that Germany had lost the war on the day that Great Britain
had joined in, but I believe that he did not think much
differently himself, as he had a very real idea of her power! As
has already been mentioned, I was fed-up with the way I had
been treated recently and this sudden dismissal seemed to be
the last straw!
I tried not to show the irritation that I felt and only
remarked that I was exceedingly sorry if I had given offence to
anybody, as I had all along done my best to further the King's
interests and had worked myself to death for him. He answered
in a half-hearted sort of way, that he had been quite satisfied
with me, but that all the same it was better for me to leave.
The King was speaking generally and I do not believe really
wished me to leave at once, but I was annoyed by his seeming
ingratitude and expressed my intention of leaving on the same
day as the royal children. Since I left Durazzo and had the
opportunity of reading of certain developments there after my
 GOODBYE TO DURAZZO 167

departure, I have begun to think that the King may have had
the following motive for dismissing me.
Although the Albanian government had declared its
neutrality in the European conflict, bands were being formed
against the Serbians before I left Durazzo. The government
knew of this and did not attempt to put a stop to the
movement; in fact it secretly supported it and one of the ex-
ministers, Hasan Bey Prishtina, became one of its leaders. I
believe that the King was not in favour of this policy, but was
not strong enough to put his foot down and arrest the leaders.
Perhaps he decided to get rid of me, as I might have reported
any further warlike preparations to the British Government.
After resigning, I left the King thoroughly huffed and
retired to the Oriental room to sulk with the others. By and by
I regained my temper and remembered some of the many
kindnesses done to me by the King; for instance, how it had
never been thrown in my face that I had lost the 40,000 francs
of Court money on the 23rd of May and how the King had
immediately made good my personal loss on that occasion. On
thinking things over, I decided that there was nothing to
prevent me from escorting the children to Germany and so
rendering the King a last parting service. I went back to the
study and proposed this to him; he jumped at the idea, as
travelling on the continent might have been none too pleasant
for the ladies alone. He was however uncertain about my being
able to procure the necessary safe-conducts.
Next morning I went to see the German minister, with
whom I was on excellent terms in spite of the war, and he told
me that there would be no difficulty in giving me a safe-conduct,
which would see me safely in and out of Germany. The Austro-
Hungarian minister also telegraphed to his government to allow
me to pass through the Tyrol there and back and, on receiving a
favourable reply, he too was able to furnish me with the
necessary document. During the day I did my last round of the
trenches and said goodbye to my friends, who were much
surprised at my sudden departure; the rest of my time I had to
spend packing, as the German valet had been replaced by an
168 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

Albanian, who had once been a bottle washer in some hotel in

America and knew nothing about clothes, packing, or anything
else connected with a valet's various duties.
Before we left on the 22nd, the King called me into his
study and presented me with the Order of the Eagle of Albania
(with crossed swords), the Accession medal and a signed
photograph of himself, on which he had written "In
remembrance of joint labours". He could not possibly have
been more charming than he was and thanked me warmly for
all I had done to help him, adding that he would welcome me
back, should things take a turn for the better.
In fact I felt so softened towards him, that I thought of
putting my pride in my pocket and remaining at Durazzo till
the King himself was forced to flee; that this was bound to
happen in the course of a few weeks I felt absolutely certain. He
also gave me an excellent testimonial, in which he gave the
European War as the cause for my leaving his service, so we
parted the best of friends, which makes his subsequent conduct
towards me all the more inexplicable. On this last day, too, the
Queen was again quite friendly towards me (the ladies in
waiting thought it was because I was leaving).
The Italian minister had all arrangements made for our
journey as far as the Austrian frontier and also gave me a letter
of recommendation to the Italian Minister in Munich. To
everybody's surprise, we found that Captain Conte Andreoli of
the Italian legation, was going to escort us as far as Ala, the
Austrian frontier station. The King was very liberal in my
travelling expenses, so with plenty of cash and the Austrian
and German safe-conducts in my pocket, I looked forward to a
pleasant and instructive journey. Unfortunately, I did not take
a certain diplomat's warning when he told me that I could trust
a Kaffir's safe-conduct, or even an Austrian, but that the
German Government did not understand the meaning of the
word "honour" and would probably break its pledge towards
me! I thought that I knew the Germans better than he did and
had confidence in them.
After tea we left Durazzo, the two royal children, two
 GOODBYE TO DURAZZO 169

nurses, the ladies in waiting, the chef, whose conscience was

beginning to prick him, and I. On the Italian ship, which was
to convey us to Bari, we were met by Conte Andreoli. Looking
across at the palace, we saw the King and Queen on the
balcony waving to us and we felt sorry for them; they had
hoped for so much and, in spite of continual work and worry,
had attained nothing! We had had an interesting time here, in
this dusty sun-baked Durazzo, with its white-washed hovels and
dark, ragged gipsies! I had dreamed of remaining here and
making a career and now it was rapidly disappearing in the
dusk. The three lonesome poplars by the seashore, our favourite
evening walk, we saw for the last time and then they too
vanished in the gloom! We were all of us very depressed and
occupied with our own thoughts, so it was not a cheerful meal
we sat down to that night by any means. "Partir c'est mourir un
peu.": that is what we all thought on closing this most
interesting chapter in our lives. So it came to pass that I
disappeared again into obscurity, whence it had pleased the
Mbret to call me for a few brief months.
 Epilogue
. . . .

H U M P T Y D U M P T Y H A D A G R E AT F A L L

In the foregoing pages I have tried to give an account of my

experiences in Albania, so the book ought really to end with
my departure from Durazzo. However I am adding this short
epilogue, as the reader may be interested to hear how
disastrously the whole adventure ended for all parties
concerned in it.
As I was the first to suffer, I will tell in a few lines what fate
had in store for me. Our journey through Italy and the Tyrol
may be skipped, and only mention be made of the fact that we
arrived in Munich late on the 26th of August, and that the
children continued their journey to Waldenburg on the
morning of the 28th. My mission being now accomplished, I
decided to leave for Bari, where I had left my luggage, next
morning, intending to return to England from Italy. I had been
exceedingly courteously treated by the Austrian and also by the
Bavarian authorities. Complying with the regulations then in
force for foreigners, I reported myself to the police. A second
safe-conduct, ratifying the original one, was procured for me by
the Italian minister from the Bavarian foreign office and was
countersigned by the military authorities; so I thought that I
was absolutely safe and that no difficulties would be put in my
way. However I was soon undeceived. The police did not know
what to make of me and sent me on to the military
 EPILOGUE 171

headquarters with a plain-clothes detective. At the

"Generalkommando", the officer in charge examined my
papers and seemed quite satisfied. I was on the point of leaving
his office a free man, when he said that I was at liberty to travel,
if I could state as an officer and gentleman that I really
intended to return to my duties at Durazzo. Having already left
the King's service, I was of course unable to give my word that
I would do so and could only protest against any new
stipulations being made. However protest was useless and I had
to give parole not to leave Munich for the present. I was
otherwise absolutely free and able to communicate with the
King; I informed him of my predicament telegraphically and
asked him to recall me, as I would then be allowed to go. I
followed this up with a letter, in which I wrote him the full
facts of the case and pointed out to him, that I would be able
to leave on receipt of a wire from him. The days passed and I
wrote one letter after the other asking for help; but no reply
came, though I know for a fact that some, if not all, of my
communications reached their destination.
When I spent a day with the King - now the ex-King - in
Vienna in 1937, he explained to me that my recall had been
made quite impossible by the German legation, who had been
urging him to get rid of me as soon as the war started, as it was
thought that I could raise the northern clans, among whom the
devoted work of Miss Edith Durham had done much to create
a pro-British feeling, which might have counter-acted their
hatred for the Serbians. The German authorities could not
understand the King's silence and more than one German
officer expressed his condemnation of the manner in which I
had been treated, not only by the German government, but
also by the King, when a line from him would have saved me.
The Germans did not molest me, but in spite of their
expressions of sympathy, I woke up one morning to find myself
a prisoner-of-war; a most surprising position for a person who
held two German letters of safe-conduct! Besides, I had been
sent to Germany by a German Prince, which I could prove by
his written instructions.
172 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

In due course I was interned and remained a prisoner until

July 1916, in spite of nearly fifty applications for release. At
long last I was exchanged and at the end of three months' leave
was given a job at the War Office and did not get to the front
till January 17th 1917.
According to letters that I have received from members of
the late Court and others, the end of the Albanian Kingdom
came suddenly. One night, some two or three weeks after I had
left, the insurgents fired a few shells into the town, by way of a
warning and then sent an ultimatum, demanding the Mbret's
immediate departure from his realm, failing which they
threatened to wipe out Durazzo. The till being empty and all
hope of obtaining further funds having been abandoned, the
King gave up all hope and, to avoid the risk of further
bloodshed, decided to leave the country.58
As many exiles have done before him, he fled to
Switzerland and took up his abode at Lugano, where he
remained for some weeks. Later he returned to Germany, where,
after some difficulties, he managed to get back into the army.
I hear that the King and Queen had to leave practically all
they possessed at Durazzo, as their departure was more hurried
than majestic. They put the palace and all their belongings
under the protection of the Italian government and the latter, it
is said, handed everything over to Essad Pasha, who once more
appeared on the scene as soon as the King had left the country.
The same informant has written me the following rather
amusing story, which shows that Essad had a sense of humour.
The King sent orders to have all his things returned to
Germany. For a long time he got no answer; at last some large
packing cases arrived from Durazzo and it was hoped that they
would contain the first instalment of household goods; on
being opened it was discovered that they were full of
newspapers, the children's toys and fire wood! An explanation
was asked for and Essad is said to have answered very politely
that he wanted everything else himself and that he had chosen
this method of taking his revenge for the bombardment of his
house.
 EPILOGUE 173

Most of the King's ministers and other supporters had their

properties destroyed or confiscated, and a large number went
into exile, for a time, at least. Among these loyalists there were
some honest, decent men, and it is sad to think that they too
had to suffer for their loyalty to the throne! As to the
unfortunate country itself, nobody can predict what is going to
become of it; only one thing is certain and that is that the King
will not go there again!
Often I think of the interesting time I spent in Albania and
wish that I could get back there! It is an awful pity that the
Albanian experiment failed; though the natives have many bad
qualities, there is a lot of good in them.
Had the Great Powers sent a really strong man and given
him their whole-hearted support, things would have turned out
differently and the Albanian nation could have been saved
from the avidity of its neighbours. The King was a broad-
minded, generous man, but he was weak and could never make
up his mind about anything; the people knew this and did not
respect him. His kind-heartedness they took for weakness and
his cautiousness they put down to fear. However his kindly
character made him friends and had the Powers helped him,
according to their undertakings, he might have pulled through.
However the almighty Concert of Europe behaved disgracefully
and failed to carry out any of its obligations; the Powers created
the Kingdom, but as soon as they discovered that the Concert
was a very doubtful quantity, they got tired of their new toy and
put it aside. It is more than doubtful whether all the Powers at
any time intended the Kingdom to be a success and I am under
the impression that several of them were covertly hostile from
the very beginning. It is certain that the Austrians intrigued for
power, but they, at least had no designs on Albanian territory,
like the Italians, Greeks, Serbians and Montenegrins. The
Austrians wanted an independent, strong Albania with
sympathy for the Austrian Empire, which would form a useful
ally against the Serbians in case of war and for this reason they
did everything in their power to support the King. I believe
that the Austrians were our only real friends. Poor Albania!
 N OTES

. . . . .

1 Libohova, who was born in 1882, was to have a long career in

public life. In January 1931, as Court Chamberlain to King Zog
during a visit to Vienna, he was shot in the leg during an
assassination attempt on the King. He was generally very pro-
Italian, and served as Prime Minister for two brief periods in 1943
during the Italian occupation of Albania. He died in Rome in
about 1950. Vlora was born in Valona in 1885 into one of
Albania’s most powerful and wealthy families, died in Vienna in
1964. He, too, had a long career in public life, and was generally
pro-Austrian. He wrote his memoirs in German
(Lebenserinnerungen, which were published in Munich in 1973).
2 Konak is the Turkish word for a large house
3 Dr Gjergi Pekmezi (1872-1938) was later appointed as dragoman
to the Austrian legation in Durazzo
4 These were Princess Louisa, born in 1880, who took a
considerable interest in her brother’s adventure in Albania, and
Princess Elisabeth, who was born in 1883 and was an invalid for
most of her life.
5 Waldenburg, about 30 miles south of Leipzig, then in the
Kingdom of Saxony, was the home of the family of William of
Wied wife, Princess Sophie Schonburg-Waldenburg.
6 This refers to William’s elder brother, Frederick, 6th Prince of
Wied (1872 -1945), the head of the family.
7 Bali was Essad’s chief agent and the assassination referred to here
took place in Scutari on 30 January 1913. Bali himself was
assassinated in Tirana in September 1926 (J Swire, Albania - The
Rise of a Kingdom, London, 1929, page 473)
8 Eustace La Trobe Leatham was Captain of HMS Gloucester from
January 1909
9 For Faik Bey Konitza (1876-1942), see Faik Konitza, Selected
176 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

Correspondence, edited Bejtullah Destani (Centre for Albanian

Studies, 2000)
10 17 March 1914, according to J Swire, Albania- The Rise of a
Kingdom (page 200)
11 Hasan Bey Prishtina, born in 1873, was previously a Member of
the Ottoman Parliament; he was a well-known leader of
Albanians in Kosovo. He died in 1933. Dr Michael Tourtoulis, an
Orthodox Christian who married a French woman, came to
prominence by organising Prince Fuad of Egypt’s unsuccessful
campaign for the Albanian throne in December 1912. Lord
Kitchener knew him in Cairo, and commented on his
chameleon-like qualities (FO371/1891). In 1920, he was one of
the four Regents of Albania.
12 The Sturdzas were an aristocratic Moldavian family; Prince
Michel had a long career in the diplomatic service, and in 1940
was appointed Foreign Minister of Roumania in the first cabinet
following the resignation of King Carol II. He continued as
Foreign Minister to the Roumanian government in exile in 1945,
and was energetically anti-communist. He gives a brief
description of his time in Albania in his memoirs, The Suicide of
Europe (Boston, 1968, page 13-14))
13 The Misurata was a yacht put at the King's disposal by the Italian
Government; she had originally belonged to the Turkish Navy
and had been captured by the Italians during the Tripoli War.
14 See Introduction, page xx. Reports sent to the Foreign Office in
London stated she was sentenced to 15 years hard labour.
15 Sami Bey Vrioni (1876-1947) later played a part in the post-war
reconstruction of Albania, serving as Minister of Agriculture in
December 1918. He remained a monarchist, loyal to William of
Wied (Swire, Albania, pages 285 & 443)
16 Christaki Zographos, a former Minister of Foreign Affairs for
Greece, declared himself Prime Minister of the “Provisional
Government” of Epirus at this time
17 This refers to the nomadic Vlach people of southern and central
Albania, whose language was Latin and similar to Roumanian
18 “Black Hand” was an extreme nationalist movement in Serbia,
led by army officers
19 Prince Luigi, Duke of Abruzzi, was born in 1873, a grandson of
King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy. He was a well-known explorer
before the First World War, and after the war developed banana
plantations in Somalia. He died unmarried in 1933. (See
Introduction, page xxxiv)
 NOTES 177

20 Abdi Bey Toptani (1864-1942) served as Minister of Finance in

Kemal’s first cabinet in November 1912; he was William of
Wied’s Minister of Agriculture and Commerce in May 1914, and
was one of the four Regents, representing the Sunni Moslem
community, in 1920 (Swire, Albania).
21 Leon Ghilardi was an adventurous soldier from Croatia, who
became a close friend and advisor of King Zog. A huge, bearded
man, he was a much admired figure in Albania until he was killed
in revolt at Fieri in 1935 (see D R Oakley-Hill, An Englishman
in Albania, Centre for Albanian Studies, 2002, page 79-80)
22 This almost certainly refers to Harold Sherwood Spencer, who
was born in Wisconsin in 1890. In 1918 he was the main witness
for the defence in an extraordinary case of criminal libel, R v
Pemberton Billing, in which Spencer claimed he had been an
ADC to King William in Albania in 1914, and that the king
showed him a “Black Book” containing the names of 47,000
leading Englishmen who were homosexuals or perverts. Spencer
fought bravely in Albania in 1914, but was shown to be a liar and
mentally deranged in 1918.
23 Colonel Lodewijk WJK Thomson (born 1869) of the 12th
Infantry Regiment of the Dutch Army was the ablest of the
Dutch officers in Albania in 1914. Commissioned in 1888, he
served first in the Dutch East Indies and then as an observer in
the Boer War. He was elected Liberal MP for Leeuwarden in
Holland, sitting in parliament between 1905 and 1913. He was a
military observer at the siege of Janina, northern Greece in 1912,
before being sent to Albania in November 1913 as second in
command under General Willem J H de Veer. According to the
most detailed analysis of the circumstances surrounding
Thomson’s death on 15 June 1914, he was probably killed by an
unidentified Italian sniper, not by Moslem rebels (Gorrit T A
Goslinga, The Dutch in Albania, Rome, 1972, pages 42-45)
24 Heaton-Armstrong adds a foot-note: “The British were very
popular in Albania as the people still remember the time when
we occupied the Ionian Islands, which we later handed over to
Greece. The Corfiotes were very satisfied under British rule and
it is said were exceedingly sorry when the British left the island;
from there this sympathy spread to the mainland.”
25 Heaton-Armstrong adds a foot-note: “Enquiries were afterwards
made as to Captain Moltedo's antecedents and it was then
discovered that he was a very efficient artillery officer, who had
for some years served in the Congo.”
178 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

26 General Willem J.H. de Veer, of the 3rd Regiment of Field

Artillery in the Dutch Army, was the commanding officer of the
15 strong Dutch mission to Albania, appointed by the
Conference of Ambassadors in London on 29 July 1913. Aged 56,
he arrived in Valona on 10 November 1913, and left Albania on
7 August 1914 (Goslinga, The Dutch in Albania)
27 A different version of this incident is given in other sources, such
as Edith Durham, Twenty Years of Balkan Tangle, pages 264-5;
Swire, Albania, page 211-21, who partly relies on Prince Sturdza’s
account; Constantine Chekrezi, Albania Past and Present, page
150, and The Dutch in Albania, page 32. All these accounts
assert that Sar, thinking he was about to be attacked by a small
group of armed Moslems, ordered his men to open fire first. This
was treated as a serious violation of the besa (Albanian for peace
oath or truce) given by King William on his arrival in Albania,
and justified the start of the rebellion.
28 Heaton-Armstrong adds a foot-note: “The Austrian Minister
made it quite clear to the King that he would gladly allow the
officers to come on land, on receiving a written request from him;
however, though their services would have been very valuable,
the King would not ask the Austrians for this favour; Austro-
Italian jealousy would probably have caused complications.”
29 William Walford was a businessman in Durazzo; he also manned
the Austrian gun on this day, according to Swire, Albania, page
213
30 According to Swire, Albania, page 213, the royal family was
taken aboard the Italian warship “Victor Pisani”. Swire was
apparently told this by William in correspondence in the 1920s.
According to Goslinga, The Dutch in Albania, page 34, the Duke
of Abruzzi, who commanded the “Misurata”, hoisted the royal
standard and sailed away from the coast as soon as the royal
family was aboard.
31 Mehmed Pasha Dralla, a Kosovan, was a leader in rebellion
against the Turks in July 1912, and served as Minister for War
under Ismail Kemal in November 1912
32 Auguste Kral was later appointed Civil Administrator of
northern Albania under Austro-Hungarian occupation in 1916
33 Harry Harling Lamb, born in 1857, had a long and distinguished
career in the British consular service, serving as Vice-Consul in
Scutari 1886-1894, then in Constantinople and Salonika, before
being sent to Albania as the British representative of the
International Commission of Control in Valona in 1913. He was
 NOTES 179

knighted in 1919 and died in 1948.

34 See Introduction pages xiii and xviii for Akif and Nogga.
35 Alessio is now Lezhe, a town near the coast of north Albania
36 He was Monsignor Louis Bumchi, a delegate to the Paris Peace
Conference after the First World War, and one of the four
members of the Regency Council appointed by the Albanian
government in 1920: Swire, pages 285 and 313.
37 John Dunamace (“Jack”) Heaton-Armstrong : see Introduction,
pages xxi to xxxiii.
38 Ahmed Bey (1895-1961), the future King Zog, is called Mati here
because he was chief of the Mati, a Moslem clan, whose territory
lay to the north-east of Tirana. On about 10 May 1914 Ahmed
had an audience with King William to discuss setting up a
National Assembly. However, he had a quarrel with his kinsman,
Essad, and Ahmed retired from court (Daily Mail, 30 May 1935).
39 The three men were Colonel Mauriccio, Captain Moltedo and
Professor Chinigo : Swire, Albania, page 216.
40 These dated back to the Ottoman government, and provided
diplomatic immunity.
41 Heaton-Armstrong adds this foot-note: “Baroness Amelie Godin
was a Bavarian authoress, who has visited Albania for several
years and has written about the country and its people in several
chatty books. She spoke the language fluently and had an
intimate knowledge of the Albanian character. She made herself
very useful to the Austrian doctors in the Court hospital,
interpreting for them and helping them to nurse the wounded.
During the fights she showed the greatest pluck and looked after
the men in the firing line. As she was known to be very
Austrophile, she was not popular with the Italians, whom she
cordially hated. Of course she was suspected of being an Austrian
spy and her enemies even accused her of being in the Greek
service. Though the King and Queen had reason to be grateful to
her, she was very rarely seen at Court.”
42 The long and distinguished career of Rear-Admiral Ernest
Charles Thomas Troubridge CB, CMG, MVO(1862-1926)is
described in The Dictionary of National Biography. For his role
in the Serbian campaign of 1915, see CEJ Fryer, The Destruction
of Serbia in 1915, (East European Monographs, 1997)
43 The Kastrati were one of five large Catholic tribes in northern
Albania; their territory lay just to the north of Scutari, on the border
with Montenegro (Edith Durham, High Albania, Chapter 3)
44 See Introduction page xxviii for her report to the Foreign Office
180 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

in London made the following day

45 Louis Gurakuchi, a Catholic, was an important figure. He was the
first Principal of the Normal School in Elbasan in 1909, and
served twice (in November 1912 and December 1918) as
Minister of Education. Although a constitutional monarchist, he
was a supporter of Fan Noli, and was Minister of Finance in his
short-lived government in 1924. He was assassinated in Italy on
2 March 1925 (Swire, Albania)
46 Heaton-Armstrong adds this foot-note: “A very cultured,
studious type. Owing to the death of his brother he became head
of the family and owner of the estate. But after the Second World
War he lost everything to the East German Communists and
eked out a living first as interpreter at the Law Court in Hanover,
then as a French master at a school in the USA, finally returning
to Salzburg, where we met again a short time before his death.”
47 For Phillips, see Introduction, page xxviii
48 These were Captain Hugo J Verhulst and Lieutenant Hendrik G
A Reimers, who were released by the rebels on 19 September
1914 (Dutch in Albania, page 50)
49 The Laps were an Albanian tribe in the south-west of the
country, around the port of Saranda, who had a warlike
reputation
50 The “Lion of Janina” was the nickname given to Ali Pasha, born
in 1740, the warlord who ruled with great harshness over Epirus,
Thessaly and southern Albania between 1789 and his death in
1822.
51 William Gurschner designed King William’s flamboyant military
uniforms and medals. Of the 1,000 men who originally enlisted
under Gurschner, only 150 accompanied him to Durazzo, where
they arrived on 4 July, according to Dutch in Albania, page 48
52 This meeting took place on 11 July in the palace at Durazzo
53 This almost certainly refers to a delegation of 15 “notables” from
Valona and the surrounding area, led by Ismail Kemal, who
returned to Albania on 30 June. Kemal wrote that King William
“seemed incapable of making an observation or putting a
question arising from his own personal thought. While I was
explaining the different ways that might be adopted to get him
out of his difficulties, he never once asked me how I thought of
putting them into practice.” (Memoirs of Ismail Kemal Bey, page
384)
54 The Fustanella is a white pleated kilt, worn with leggings
55 see Introduction, page ix
 NOTES 181

56 Ferid Pasha Vlora (born 1859) was Grand Vizier of the Ottoman
Empire 1903- 1908. At the start of his reign King William invited
Ferid to form his first government, but he declined (Swire,
Albania, page 200)
57 The Bektashis were a Moslem sect, widespread throughout
central and southern Albania, noted for their tolerant and
generally pro-European views. Their adherents were mainly
converts from Christianity, and they incorporated many
Christian practices and traditions into their worship.
58 Valona surrendered to the rebels on 31 August. The next day, the
rebels fired a few shots into the royal palace at Durazzo and
demanded the King leave immediately. William’s first plan was to
go to Scutari and continue the fight there, but this was
abandoned. On 2 September, William summoned his ministers
and the three remaining members of International Commission
of Control (from Austria and France, under the presidency of the
Italian member, Count Carol Galli), and handed over control to
them. On 3 September, King William and Queen Sophie locked
up the palace, and embarked on the Italian ship “Misurati”,
bound for Venice (Denkschrift, pages 27-29)
 S ELECT B IBLIOGRAPHY AND S OURCES

. . . . .

NATIONAL ARCHIVES, LONDON:

ADM1 8386/210 & ADM1 8387/221 (Reports of Admiral
Troubridge, June-July 1914)
FO320 3 & FO320 4 (International Commission of Control,
1913-14)
FO371 1757 to FO371 1848 (Turkish Empire, 1913)
FO371 1885 to FO371 1896 (Albania, 1914)
FO371 128966 (Disposal of effects of late Madame Bunea in
Roumania 1957)
FO881 10492 (Affairs of Albania, October to December 1913)
FO881 10594 (Affairs of Albania, January to March 1914)
IR104 24 (International Commission of Control)
British Documents on the Origins of the War, 1898-1914, edited G P
Gooch & H Temperley (vols 9 to 11, HMSO, 1926-1938)

SOMERSET RECORD OFFICE, TAUNTON:

Papers of Hon. Aubrey Herbert : DD/HER

PUBLISHED SOURCES
Almanac de Gotha (various editions)
Bridge, F R, Great Britain and Austria-Hungary, 1906-1914: A
Diplomatic History (London, 1972)
Burgoyne, Elizabeth, Carmen Sylva, Queen and Woman (London,
1941)
Burke’s Landed Gentry of Great Britain (various editions)
Burke’s Royal Families of the World (vol 1 Europe and Latin America,
London, 1977)
Burke’s Royal Families of the World (vol 2 Africa and the Middle
East, London, 1980)
Chekrezi, Constantine A, Albania, Past and Present (New York, 1919)
184 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

Crampton, R J, The Hollow Detente: Anglo-German Relations in the

Balkans, 1911-1914 (London, 1979)
Dako, Christo A, Albania: The Master Key to the Near East (Boston,
1919)
Dillon, E J, “Albania’s Tribulations and Colonel Phillips”, “Albanian
Characteristics”; “Benighted Condition of the Albanian People”;
The Contemporary Review (vol 56, Jul-Dec 1914)
Durham, M Edith, Twenty Years of Balkan Tangle (London, 1920)
Durham, M Edith, Albania and The Albanians, Selected Articles and
Letters, 1903-1944, edited Bejtullah Destani (Centre for Albanian
Studies, London, 2001)
Ex-Kaiser William II, My Memoirs, 1878-1918 (London, 1922)
Faik Konitza Selected Correspondence, edited Bejtullah Destani
(Centre for Albania Studies, London, 2000)
Fischer, Bernd Jurgen, King Zog and the Struggle for Stability in Albania
(Columbia University Press, 1984)
FitzHerbert, Margaret, The Man Who Was Greenmantle (London, 1983)
Goslinga, Gorrit T A, The Dutch in Albania (Rome, 1972)
Gottlieb, W W, Studies in Secret Diplomacy (London, 1957)
Helmreich, Ernest Christian, The Diplomacy of the Balkan Wars,
1912-1913 (Cambridge, 1938)
Herbert, Aubrey, Ben Kendim: A Record of Eastern Travel, edited D
MacCarthy (London, 1924)
Jelavich, C & B The Establishment of the Balkan National States, 1804-
1920 (Seattle, 1977)
Kondis, Basil, Greece and Albania, 1908-1914 (Institute for Balkan
Studies, vol 167, 1976)
Konitza, Faik, Albania: The Rock Garden of Southeastern Europe and
other Essays (edited GM Panarity, Boston, 1957)
Maclehose, Olive, Records of A Scotswoman, Katherine Stuart
Macqueen, A Memoirs and Account of her work (Glasgow, 1920)
Marie, Queen of Roumania, The Story of My Life (3 vols, London,
1934-5)
The Memoirs of Ismail Kemal Bey, edited Sommerville Story (London,
1920)
The Memoirs of Ismail Kemal Vlora and his work for the Independence of
Albania, edited Renzo Falaschi (Tirana, 1997)
Pavlowitch, Stevan K, A History of the Balkans 1804-1945 (London,
1999)
Perspectives on Albania, edited T Winnifrith (London, 1992)
Pribram, A F, Austria-Hungary and Great Britain, 1908-1914 (Oxford,
1951)
 SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY AND SOURCES 185

Puto, Arben, L’Independance Albanaise et la Diplomatie des Grandes

Puissances, 1912 -1914 (Tirana, 1982)
Rankin, Lt-Col. Reginald, The Inner History of the Balkan War
(London, 1914)
Ruvigny, Marquis of, The Titled Nobility of Europe (London, 1914)
Skendi, Stavro, The Albanian National Awakening, 1878-1912
(Princeton, 1967)
Stavrianos, L S, The Balkans since 1453 (New York, 1958)
Sturdza, Prince Michel, The Suicide of Europe: Memoirs of Prince
Michel Sturdza, former Foreign Minister of Rumania (Boston, 1968)
Sulliotti, A Italo, In Albania Sei Mesi di Regno Da Guglielmo di Wied a
Essad Pascia (Milan,1914)
Swire J, Albania - The Rise of a Kingdom (London, 1929)
Swire J, King Zog’s Albania (London, 1937)
Vego, Milan N, Austro-Hungarian Naval Policy, 1904-14 (London,
1996)
Vickers, Miranda, The Albanians: A Modern History (London, 1995)
Vlora, Ekrem Bey, Lebenserinnerungen (2 vols, Munich, 1973)
Who Was Who, 1916-1928; 1929-1940; 1941-1950
Wilhelm, Furst von Albanien, Prinz zu Wied, Denkschrift uber
Albanien (privately printed in Berlin, 1917)
Woods, H Charles, The Cradle of War (Boston, 1918)
Zavalani, T, History of Albania (typed manuscript)

NEWSPAPERS
The Times
The Daily Mail
Le Figaro (21 March and 28 April 1913)
Literary Digest, 1913-1914
Illustrated London News, 1913-1914
The Spectator (3 May 1913)
 I NDEX

. . . . .

No reference is made to the Mbret Bektashi Moslems xviii, 149, 181

(King William), to the Author, to the Berat 92, 130-1, 139
town of Durazzo (Durres) or the Berchtold, Count, Austro-Hungarian
Austrians and Italians, as they are Foreign Minister 7
mentioned on almost every page of the Berger, Baron Egon 30
book. Berghausen, Court Doctor xxiv, 17, 64,
82, 147
Abruzzi, Duke of xxxiv, 38, 176, 178 Bethmann-Hollweg, Theobald von,
Abdullah, Effendi 110-111 German 'Reichkanzler' 4
Akif Pasha, - see under Elbasani Biegeleben, Baron 135
Albanian Eagle, Order of xxvii, 88, Billing, Pemberton 177
161, 168 "Black Hand" Society 38, 176
Albanian Navy, Royal 133 Boer War 177
Albanian Red Cross (Red Star) 110 Boletin, Isa 24, 108, 111, 113, 123
Alessio / Lezhe 90, 92, 105, 121-25, Bosnia xxxv
127-28, 179 Boyana, River 18
Alessio, Bishop of, - see under Bumchi "Breslau", German cruiser 122, 159
Aliotti, Baron, Italian Minister in Bridgeman, Flag-Lieutenant 110
Durazzo 30-31, 74-75, 86, 93-94 Brindizi 159
Ali Pasha, "Lion of Janina" 131, 180 "Bruix", French cruiser 17
America, United States of/Americans Bucharest xix, xx, 31, 125
25, 92, 168 Buchberger, Baron, Austro-Hungarian
Andreoli, Captain Conte 168-69 Vice-Consul 4, 6, 20, 88
Armstrong, Sir Thomas xxii Bulgaria xxxiii, xxxv
Armstrong, Colonel William xxii Bull, Sir William xxx
Askold, Russian cruiser 159 Bumchi, Mgr. Louis, Bishop of Alessio
Austro-Albanian Committee 37 90, 114, 179
Aziz Pasha, - see under Vrioni Bunea, Jon xx
Bali, Osman 15, 62, 175 Burghele, M., Roumanian Minister in
Balkan Pact, Conference of xix Durazzo 29
Balkan Wars (1912-1913) ix, 15, 24, Capitulation Laws 93, 179
73, 132 Carol I, King of Roumania xii, xiii
Bari, Italian port of, 22, 67, 161, 170 Carol II, King of Roumania xix, 176
Baron Bruck, Austrian Lloyd steamer Carol Victor 'Skanderbeg', Crown
121 Prince xi, xx, 31, 165-66, 168, 170
188 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

Castoldi, Captain Fortunato 4, 6, 12- xxii-xxiii, xxx-xxxiv, xxxvi, 14, 164,

13, 19, 25, 48, 58, 79, 81, 88, 94 166-68, 170-72, 176, 178-79
Chekrezi, Constantine xxxiii FitzHerbert, Margaret xxxii
Chinigo, Professor 179 Francis Ferdinand, Austro-Hungarian
Ciano, Count, xx Archduke 158
Clementi Hotel, Durazzo 22, 89, 91 Francis Joseph, Austro-Hungarian
Committee of Defence 162 Emperor 6-7, 158
Connaught, Prince Arthur, Duke of x Frasheri, Dr. Adamidi Bey 26-27, 138
Constantinople 27, 32, 149, 160, 178 Fuad of Egypt, Prince 176
Coppet, Mrs Eileen xx Galli, Count Carol 181
Cristescu, Captain 136 George VI, King of England xxxi
Croatia 177 Ghilardi, Captain Leon 46, 131, 150-
“Daily Chronicle” xxvii 152, 177
“Daily Express” xxiv Gioni, Marco 90, 109-111, 116
"Daily Mail" xv, xix, 1 Gipsies 18, 20, 106, 169
“Daily Sketch” xxvi Gmunden, Austria xxi
"Dandolo", Italian cruiser 159 "Gloucester", H.M.S., British cruiser
Dardanelles, the 122 18, 175
"Defence", H.M.S., British cruiser Godin, Baroness Amélie 99, 179
xxviii, xxxiv, 106, 120, 122, 144, 159 Greece/Greeks ix-x, xv, xxv, xxxiii-
Doda Pasha, Prenk Bib, Prince of the xxxvi, 20, 34-36, 46-47, 149, 173,
Mirdites xxvii-xxviii, 27-28, 90, 92, 178-77
119-123, 125-28 Grey, Sir Edward, British Foreign
Doda, Simon, Leader of the Malissori Secretary ix, xxiv, xxxiii, xxxvi, 134,
71 161
Dralla, Mehmet Pasha 78, 178 Gumppenberg, Baron 73-74
Durham, Miss M. Edith xvi, xxviii-xxx, Gurakuchi, Louis 120, 180
120, 171 Gurschner, William 137-38, 180
Dutch East Indies 108, 177 Hamilton, Lord Jack 8
Dutch Gendarmerie Mission xiv, xxxiv, Hanover 180
21-22, 46-47, 70, 88, 93, 105, 120, Harrach, Count 38
130, 161-62 Hässler, Herr 100, 133
Egypt xxxi, 27, 38, 149, 176 Heaton, Mary xxii
Ehrhardt, Messrs 159 Heaton-Armstrong, Bertha xxx-xxxi
Elbasan 92, 130, 161, 180 Heaton-Armstrong, Bertha (formerly
Elbasani, Akif Pasha xviii, 87, 118 Zois-Edelstein) xxi
Elisabeth, Queen of Roumania, xii-xiii Heaton-Armstrong, Griselda Nonee
Elliot, Sir Francis xxv xxxi
Epirus/Epirotes xv, xxv, 34-36, 43, 46- Heaton-Armstrong, John Dunamace
49, 135, 138, 149-151, 176, 180 (“Jack”) xxi-xxiii, xxvii-xxviii, xxxi-
Esebeck, Baron 1 xxxii, 91-92, 122-27, 179
Essad Pasha, - see under Toptani Heaton-Armstrong, Suzanne Laura
Esterhazy, Prince Luli 7 xxxii
Fabius, Captain Jan 93, 102 Heaton-Armstrong, Thelma Eileen
Fantanele, Moldavia, xii, xix (formerly Scott) xxxi
Fieri 32, 177 Heaton-Armstrong, Thomas Michael
First World War (1914-1918) xvi-xviii, Robert xxxi
 INDEX 189

Heaton-Armstrong. William Charles Liechtenstein, Prince Fritz 37

xxi-xxii Liége 32
"Herzegovina", Government transport Löwenthal, von, Austro-Hungarian
steamer 127, 133 Minister in Durazzo 30-31, 74
Herbert, Aubrey xiv-xv, xxix, xxxii, Lucius, von, German Minister in
xxxv Durazzo 142, 158
Hima, Dervish 41 Lugano, Switzerland 172
Hitler, Adolph xx, xxxi Lushnja, Congress of xviii
Hobhouse, Charles (Postmaster MacQueen, Katherine Stuart xxiv-xxv
General) xxx Malchus, Baron 14
Hohenlohe, Prince 16 Malissori xxvi, 70-72, 90, 92, 99, 103,
International Commission of Control 108, 124, 160
xiv, xxiv, 20, 78, 80, 85-87, 91, 94, Malkuts xxvii, 125-126
137, 157, 179, 181 Maria Eleanora, Princess xi, xx-xxi, 31,
Ionian Islands 177 166-68
Ishmi xxvii, 124-125 Marie, Queen of Roumania xvii
Janina 177 Mati/Matians 92, 129, 179
Jena University xv Mauriccio, Colonel, 179
Johnson, George xx Mexi, Kristo 141
Kachiori, Dom Nikol 24, 30 Michael, King of Roumania xx
Kaffirs 168 "Midilli", Turkish cruiser 122
Kastrati clan 114, 179 Miercurea Ciur, Roumania xxi
Kastriota, George ('Skanderbeg') 31 Mirdites xxvii-xxviii, 27, 82, 90-92, 97,
Kavaya 39, 49, 58, 70, 87, 108, 133, 108-109, 111, 114-116, 123-28, 160
140 "Misurata", Italian yacht xvi, 31, 74,
Kitchener, Lord 176 76-80, 82, 84, 146, 155, 176, 178,
Konitza, Faik Bey 25, 60, 176 181
Koritza 34, 131, 151 Moltedo, Captain 58-59, 177, 179
Kosovo/Kosovans x, xx, 24, 97, 108, 'Monrepos', Neuwied 9, 12-13
111-113, 135-136, 176, 178 Montenegro/Montenegrins ix-x, xvi-
Kral, Auguste, Austro-Hungarian xvii, xxxiv,15, 173, 179
Consul-General 85, 178 Moore, Arthur 99
Kroon, Major Henri 105, 108, 112, Munich xix-xx, 168,170-71
120, 123 Nationalist Party 25-26, 28, 36, 59-60,
Kruja 49, 52, 68, 92, 129 68-69, 86
Kutzo-Wallachs 36, 176 Neuhoff, Baron Theodore von xvi
Lamb, Sir Harry xxiv, xxvii, xxvii- Neuwied xi, 9, 12-14
xxviii, 86, 157, 161, 178-179 Nicholas II, Czar of Russia 10
Lancashire Fusiliers xxiii Nogga, Philip xiii, 87, 121, 179
Leatham, Captain Eustace La Trobe 18, Noli, Fan xxxii, 180
175 Oidtmann, Fräulein von, Lady-in-
Leman, General 32 Waiting 4, 16, 169
Laps 130, 180 Paris Peace Conference 179
Libohova, Ekrem Bey 3, 32, 34, 38, 61, Pelesc Castle, Roumania xii
68, 79, 81, 97-98, 100, 146, 153, Pekmezi, Dr. Gjergj 6, 175
164, 175 Pfuel, Fräulein von, Lady-in-Waiting 4,
Libohova, Mufid Bey 26, 138 14, 16, 31, 165
190 THE SIX MONTH KINGDOM

Phillips, Colonel George Fraser xxviii, Schönbrunn Palace 7

122, 180 Scutari / Shkoder / Skodra xvi, xxviii,
Pimodan, Comte de 70, 92, 120, 125 15, 38, 78, 122, 128, 175, 178-179,
Poincaré, Raymond, President of the 181
French Republic 9 Selim Bey, - see under Wassa
Porta Romana, Durazzo 96 Semeni, River 130
Potsdam xi-xii, 1-5, 7-8, 19 Serbia/Serbians ix-x, xvi-xvii, xxxiv,
Premeti, Turkhan Pasha, Albanian 15, 20, 24, 53-54, 132, 138, 158,
Prime Minister 25-26, 28-29, 42, 87, 167, 176, 179
96, 136, 159-160 Shaefer, Colonel William xiv
Prenk Bib Doda Pasha, Prince of the Shjak 40, 49, 52-55, 68,70-71, 80, 82,
Mirdites - see under Doda 85, 87, 91-92, 117, 119, 122-123,
Prishtina, Capital of Kosovo 27 159, 161,
Prishtina, Hasan Bey 26-27, 167, 176 Sinaia, Roumania xii, xix
Privy Council ('Cabinet Royale') 88, Skanderbeg, - see under Kastriota
141 Skumbi, River 155
Ranette, M. 30, 140-141 Slinza 120, 126, 128
Raspul, Heights of 40, 51, 72, 93, 107- Slovakia xxxi
108, 112, 118 Sluys, Major Johan 58-59, 61-63,, 66,
"Regina Elena", Italian flagship 39 86, 151-153, 157-158
Reimers, Lieutenant Hendrik G 180 Somalia 176
Rhine, River xi-xiii, 9 Sophie, Queen of Albania xi-xvii, xix,
Riza Bey, Hassan 15 xxiv-xxv, xxix-xxx, 13-14, 16-23,
Roelfsema, Major Lucas 40, 44, 74, 99 30, 32-34, 40, 43, 51, 60-61, 63, 74,
Roumania/Roumanians xii-xiii, xvii, 80, 91, 121, 136-37, 139, 142, 144,
xix-xxi, xxxiii, xxxvi, 26, 29, 31, 36, 146, 148, 150, 153-154, 156, 158-
136, 140-141, 144, 156, 162, 176 159, 164-165, 168-169, 172, 175,
Russia/Russians ix-xi, 9-11, 116, 159 179, 181
St. Petersburg 9-11, 25 Spencer, Harold Sherwood 131, 147,
Salonika 178 151-153, 157, 177
Salzburg 180 Sturdza, Prince Michel 30, 70, 92, 125,
Sami Bey, - see under Vrioni 176, 178
San Giovanni di Medua 18, 127 Sunni Moslems xviii, xxxv, 177
Sar, Captain Jan 70-71, 73, 80, 85, Swire, Joseph xix-xx, 178
103, 178 "Szigetvar", Austro-Hungarian cruiser
Saranda 180 63-65, 67, 80
Saseno Island 146 "Taurus", Austro-Hungarian yacht 17
Sasso Bianco 57, 108, 121 "Tegethoff", Austro-Hungarian flagship
Saxony 14, 175 17
Scala, Conte della 136 Thessaly 180
Schmidt, Captain 65 Thomson, Colonel Lodewijk xiv, 47,
Schonburg-Waldenburg family xii, 11, 93-94, 96-97, 99, 101, 105-106, 123,
14 177
Schonburg-Waldenberg, Prince "Times, The" 99
Gunther 121, 180 Tirana xxviii, 39-45, 48, 51, 70, 72, 92,
Schonburg-Waldenberg, Prince Alfred 97, 100, 107-109, 118, 123, 129,
xx 175, 179
 INDEX 191

Toptani, Abdi Bey 44, 87-88, 177 Wied, Prince Frederick of 12, 175
Toptani, Essad Pasha xiv-xvii, xxvi, Wied, William, 5th Prince of xi
xxxiv-xxxvi, 13-15, 19, 26-29, 32, Wied, Princess Elisabeth of 175
38-39, 42-44, 47-49, 53, 55, 58-69, Wied, Princess Marie of xi
72-73, 75, 81-82, 86-87, 153, 172, Wied, Princess Louisa of 175
175, 179 William II, German Emperor (Kaiser)
Toptani family 14 xiii-xiv, xxxvi, 1
Tosks 20, 145, 147, 153, 155 Winter Palace, St Petersburg 10
Totleben, Count 10-11 Wirballen, Russo-German frontier
Tourtoulis Bey, Dr. Michael 27-27, 176 station 9
Trapp, George von xxxi Young Turks 26, 38, 85
Trieste 16-17, 162 Zeite, Germany xx
Trifari, Admiral 78 Zographos, Christaki 35, 176
Tripoli War (1911-1912) 73, 176 Zogu, Ahmed Bey, of Mati (later King
Trotha, Major von xxiv, xxix, 4-5, 17, Zog) xviii, xxxvi, 92, 129, 139, 175,
19, 23, 32, 34, 36, 40, 44, 51, 66, 68, 177, 179
73, 76, 86, 105, 119, 136, 141-142,
146
Troubridge, Rear-Admiral Ernest
Charles Thomas xxviii, xxxiv, 106,
110, 120, 142,144
Tsarskoe Selo, Russia 10
Tubingen University xx
Turkey, Sultan of ix, 30
Turkhan Pasha, Albanian Prime
Minister, - see under Premeti
Valona/Valonese ix, xiii, xvi, 92, 130-
131, 145-157, 159, 175, 178-181
Veer, General Willem de 70-71, 157,
161, 178
Velden, Austria xxi
Verhulst, Captain Hugo J 180
Verlazi, Shefket Bey 123
“Victor Pisani”, Italian warship 178
Victor Emmanuel II, King of Italy 176
Vlora, Ekrem Bey 3, 13, 73, 149, 175
Vlora, Ferid Pasha 149, 181
Vlora, Ismail Kemal Bey ix, xiii-xiv,
xxxii, 24, 148, 177-178, 180
Vrioni, Aziz Pasha 26-27, 130
Vrioni, Omar Pasha 32
Vrioni, Sami Bey 32-33, 38, 61, 76,
157-158, 164, 176
Waldenburg xxx, 11, 14, 16, 170, 175
Walford, William 74, 178
Wassa, Selim Bey 32, 38, 114, 153, 164
West Yorkshire Regiment xxviii