Charles Burgess Fry of Albania

Zeldar155

Banned
WI C. B. Fry accepted the throne of Albania? He takes the name Charles I of Albania. Because of his nationality, and legacy as a cricket champion in the UK, the British decide they should at least make sure that the Albanian Monarchy is stable and protected. What are the implications of this? Will Italy still invade in 1939 like OTL?
 
Funny how this should pop up while I'm actually living in Albania. After all it was this little tidbit of foreign trivia that got me interested in Albanian History and ultimately led to me deciding to do my dissertation on it (results of which are yet to be ascertained).

First, I think it's crucial to know why the Albanians asked C.B Fry to become King of Albania. No, it wasn't because they were cricket maniacs, rather they were looking for an English Gentleman with an annual income of 10,000 pounds. Though Fry himself didn't have this kind of income, his Indian friend Ranjitsinhji was quite wealthy and willing to fund him. The ultimate idea behind choosing such a man was that the King's annual income would provide the necessary funds to get Albania "off the ground". After Fry refused in OTL several other offers were made including one to Lord Inchape in 1921.

Now, some have doubted the veracity of Fry's tale of being offered the Albanian throne. For a long time I counted myself among them, given the cricketeer's penchant for telling tall tales. However going over his autobiography I came across the passage in which he describes the offer and though he doesn't give exact names he states that the man making the offer was "the nearest replica of W.G. Grace I've ever seen". This inclines me to believe Fry's story as the Albanian representative in Geneva at the time of the offer was none other than Fan Noli who indeed bears a striking resemblance to W.G. Grace. It might be a bit of a stretch but it's enough evidence for me to believe it.

Anyways, let's say Fry is more amiable to Noli's request and agrees to become King of Albania. Charles isn't a very Albanian name but for the time being let's assume he keeps it as per the OP. However the next part of the OP I have trouble with. Though Fry's nationality and legacy as a cricket champion would no doubt play a role in influencing Britain's relations towards Albania, I don't think it's enough to get Britain to invest the necessary capital to "prop-up" Albania as it were. It would take a lot more time, effort, and capital than the British were willing to expend on such a small and strategically unimportant (to British interests) region. At most British aid will probably come in the form of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company being offered a monopoly over the Albanian oil supplies due to Fry's influence (In OTL Zog pushed for this but balked at APOC's lowball offer thinking he could get more and with said subsidy break free of Italian interest...)

So having established that Fry is pretty much on his own with the exception of a possible offer from the APOC for Albania's limited oil supplies, we now get to the real problem. Namely, that Fry is stepping into a world of pain. Not only does he not speak the language, but he is stepping into a highly complex and bloody political situation. Albania at the time has no real economy to speak of and is highly fragmented along clan lines with deep cultural divides. Assuming the veracity of his association with Noli, Fry is going to have considerable difficulty breaking free of being viewed as Noli's puppet. Also, as an Englishman his attitudes place him on the extreme left of 1920's Albania which will make him incredibly unpopular among the major landowners if he tries to implement some kind of land reform. Furthermore, there is the issue of Kosovo and Albanian irredentism to deal with, what's going to be his policy regarding the large portion of "Greater Albania" currently under occupation by Yugoslavia/Greece? Either way he's going to make some pretty serious enemies.

Finally one needs to take into account foreign attitudes, namely those of Italy and Yugoslavia who will both likely be backing their own candidates to rule Albania and depose Fry. Yugoslavia wanting to keep Albania quiet and suppress any issues with Kosovo, and Italy wanting to secure a strategic point in the Balkans.

With his liberal agenda, inability to set a domestic/foreign policy independent of Fan Noli, lack of foreign support, and large numbers of enemies coupled with his political inexperience. I don't see things ending well for Fry. In all likelihood he's deposed fairly early on by someone like Ahmed Zogu if not Zogu himself. Best case scenario...he makes it out of the country alive.

That being said I think a different 1920's in Albania could have all kinds of interesting possibilities. Perhaps the pro-Italian faction gains dominance after overthrowing Fry leading to an earlier Italian domination of the country and earlier annexation (without a strongman like Zog to beat back Italian demands Albania would've buckled far earlier IMO). If Fry does escape back to Britain perhaps after Italy joins WWII (assuming a limited butterfly net) Fry is used to form a government in Exile with Fan Noli to encourage the Albanian resistance?
 
Really? Well atleast Fry might get a deal with the Anglo-Iranian Oil company, this could have some economic growth in Albania? Hmm, Albania falling even earlier to the italians because of king Fry wasn't what I expected...

Yeah...unfortunately there's no easy fix for Albania's economic woes...the more things change the more they stay the same it seems....:(

Before we even get to the political problems (main thing IMO) let's deal with the economics of the situation. Would Albania be better off economically under C.B. Fry? Of course, this almost goes without saying. Albania was an economic basket case during the interwar period, almost anything is better than OTL. Assuming Fry continues to be subsidized by Ranjitsinhji for his rule the annual income of 10,000 pounds will certainly be welcome. The question is how effectively will it be used? Corruption was and remains a HUGE problem in Albania. With Fry not knowing the language and relying on translators etc. with no firm base of support (like a tribe etc.) it's going to be almost impossible to crack down on corruption within the bureaucracy and government. I think a good portion of that annual income is going to be lining the pockets of everyone and anyone that can get their hands on it.

Now we get to the oil rights. In OTL King Zog attempted to sell these rights in order to get a stream of finance independent of fascist Italy and in so doing break away from their attempts at economic colonization. However for his entire reign Zog remained ignorant of the true value of Albania's oil resources...and not in the good way. Frankly, he thought that Albania's oil resources were far superior to what they actually were. Now true enough Albania's oil resources have been developed in the past by Italy, Germany, and the Hoxha regime but all of these attempts were born out of a lack of alternatives due to war/ideology. Simply put the Albanian oil deposits aren't large enough or of a high enough quality to merit their development. Even today with oil prices being as high as they are, Albanian oil has been largely left alone, it's just not profitable.

Now the APOC made an offer for Albania's oil rights but Zog was appalled at it's size. It was hardly what he needed to break away from Italy. Ultimately, he accepted the Italian government's offer which was much higher (purposely so to continue their economic colonization of Albania) in the hopes that he could buy more time to figure something else out.

Now in TTL, Fry might be a bit more pragmatic and accept APOC's deal (thoroughly angering the Italophile faction). This small sum plus his annual income is certainly much better than what Albania had in OTL but a good chunk of it's going to be wasted. Furthermore it might provide the government with enough capital for them to create a semblance of a real economy given enough time. If Fry was astute enough and could survive the politics of the region during the period Albania might be a good deal stronger come 1939.

But that's the problem with this scenario, I just don't see any evidence that Fry's politically astute enough to make a serious go of all this. To say that Fry's over his head in this scenario is an understatement. The man has absolutely no experience in governing whatsoever, no knowledge of the country, it's culture or politics, or language. Furthermore the man has little actual connection to the country other than pride. If worse comes to worse I don't really see him sticking around.

Add to this the cutthroat nature of Albanian politics during the period (numerous assassinations/assassination attempts. King Zog had something like 27 assassination attempts in his short career and many of these times he actually traded fire with the gunman himself!) and Fry's likely attachment to Fan Noli and the Liberal Vatra party and you've got an ugly recipe. Though it's true that these men did succeed in overthrowing the conservative government in 1924, they themselves were overthrown and kicked out of the country 6 months later after trying to institute a comprehensive series of reforms. Essad Pasha and other conservative types aren't going to be pleased at all and neither will the Italians. Furthermore I really don't think much if any help is going to be forthcoming from Britain to prop him up.

Had he accepted Noli's offer, I give Fry's reign as Karli i Parë (Charles the First in Albanian) 6 months, roughly the same amount of time as Noli's government had in OTL. After arriving he'd probably set up court in Durrës and attempt to bring all the various factions in to create a semblance of a government, amend the constitution etc. Initial euphoria over a king and foreign recognition plus some good campaigning by Noli will probably get the Vatra party enough seats to from a government. However they're going to be heavily contested. Some of the conservative factions may even have to be exiled from the country. As time progresses, resistance to the liberal agenda of Fry and Noli builds before some kind of coup forces them to flee the country/ or exiles/kills them. But depending on what comes afterwards...things could be quite interesting.


Karli I? I'm glad that there was an albanian equivalent, Charles did look rather out of place in Albania.

Still...Karli isn't an Albanian name rather it's a foreign name that's been "Albanianized" to make sure it works with their grammatical system (almost all names have to be able to end in a vowel). Burgess on the other hand sounds a good deal like "Bujar" which means generous and given the rationale behind Fry's selection it makes sense. Though Fry himself probably would go with Karli.
 
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