William, King of Albania

Valdemar II

Banned
How would the rule of King William Friedrich Heinrich of Wied, if WWI hadn't happen, had been? Would his Christian faith had been a problem?
 
How would the rule of King William Friedrich Heinrich of Wied, if WWI hadn't happen, had been? Would his Christian faith had been a problem?

I think it would have been. Imagine a Muslim being chosen Prince of Bulgaria!

Not only was he Christian, wasn't he Protestant as well? I'm not sure who would have ever thought that was going to work. It wasn't just that he was Christian, he was imposed on them by the Powers, so it seemed to the Albanians like foreign domination. They had barely tolerated the Ottomans, and they were disproportionately represented in the government - there was no way they were going to live under some German prince.
 
I do not think that religion could have triggered problems. Many Albanians are also Catholic or Orthodox Christians.

And even on the "foreign power" problem, I am not so sure...

Albania has been under Italian control, without revolting nor having problems.
 
Albania has been under Italian control, without revolting nor having problems.

Gulp. When? Albania has always been a serious problem for occupiers. It's 70% Muslim. A few Catholics and Orthodox are not going to be enough to support a Protestant prince.

Besides, we have only to look at the actual historical example of William's reign, which was a total disaster and disintegrated almost instantaneously.
 
Gulp. When? Albania has always been a serious problem for occupiers. It's 70% Muslim. A few Catholics and Orthodox are not going to be enough to support a Protestant prince.

Besides, we have only to look at the actual historical example of William's reign, which was a total disaster and disintegrated almost instantaneously.

Coming late to this thread, but...

Albanians are not particularly devout Muslims (or anything else). Most of them cheerfully drink beer and rakia, and almost nobody wears the veil. And they're very tolerant; when Benedict was elected Pope, church bells rang all over Tirana.

Wilhelm's reign was a disaster, sure enough, but for reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with religion. And when he arrived in Albania, he was welcomed by adoring crowds, and all the leading notables of the country -- Muslim, Catholic, whatever -- lined up to swear loyalty to him.

Don't make assumptions about Albania based on Turkey or other countries in the region. Albania is... unusual.


Doug M.
 
Coming late to this thread, but...

Albanians are not particularly devout Muslims (or anything else). Most of them cheerfully drink beer and rakia, and almost nobody wears the veil. And they're very tolerant; when Benedict was elected Pope, church bells rang all over Tirana.

Wilhelm's reign was a disaster, sure enough, but for reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with religion. And when he arrived in Albania, he was welcomed by adoring crowds, and all the leading notables of the country -- Muslim, Catholic, whatever -- lined up to swear loyalty to him.

Don't make assumptions about Albania based on Turkey or other countries in the region. Albania is... unusual.


Doug M.

Isn't this because of the decade long Atheo-Communist rule.
 

Leo Caesius

Banned
Don't make assumptions about Albania based on Turkey or other countries in the region. Albania is... unusual.
It's also not a good idea to make assumptions about a group in the past based upon its current behavior. In any case, AHP's one of the few people truly well-read and well-versed on the Balkans here, and happens to be part Albanian, IIRC.
 
It's also not a good idea to make assumptions about a group in the past based upon its current behavior. In any case, AHP's one of the few people truly well-read and well-versed on the Balkans here, and happens to be part Albanian, IIRC.

He's still wrong. No offense.

[Wilhelm's Protestantism? Feature, not bug. The Albanians wanted a Christian Prince, but not a Catholic one.]


Doug M.
 

Leo Caesius

Banned
Well, we could make assumptions contradictory to yours based upon the behavior of the Albanians themselves in NY and NJ, and they wouldn't be any less wrong.
 
I'm sorry, but that last post made no sense to me.

As to the particular question of Wilhelm, this isn't really a matter of factual dispute. The Albanians wanted a prince who was (1) foreign, so that he wouldn't favor any local faction; (2) Christian, but (3) not Catholic, and (4) not associated with any of their neighbors (i.e., Austria or Italy).

They made these views known to the conference of ambassadors in London, which drafted the London Accords in the autumn 1913. The Accords thus included the following articles:

"1. Albania is constituted as an autonomous, sovereign and hereditary principality by right of primogeniture, guaranteed by the six Powers. The sovereign will be designated by the six Powers...

"3. Albania is neutral; its neutrality is guaranteed by the six Powers...

"7. The sovereign is to be nominated within six months."

Wilhelm was nominated in November 1913, as a candidate acceptable to everyone and not obnoxious to the two Powers most interested (Italy and Austria-Hungary). The Albanians weren't offered a choice, but pronounced themselves satisfied -- they'd asked for a Christian prince, but without Catholic or Austrian connections, and Wied seemed like a decent enough stick. The Albanians quickly "elected" a commission, led by Essad Pasha, which formally offered Wilhelm the crown in February 1914.

So, while AHP does indeed know a lot about the Ottoman Empire -- he's schooled me at least once, and I deserved it -- he's just wrong about this. Wilhelm was welcome in Albania, at least initially, and the locals had no problem whatsoever with his religion.

-- So why did he fail? His secretary -- an Irishman! -- gives this assessment:

"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 put down to fear...

"Had the Powers helped him, according to their promises, he might have pulled things through. However, the almighty Concert of Europe behaved disgracefully and failed ot carry out any of its obligations; the Powers created the Kingdom, but... got tired of their new toy and put it aside."

Zajir, no, the atheo-Communist rule doesn't have much to do with it. Albanians have been multi-religious for a long time, and the local brand of Islam has always been quite mild.


Doug M.
 
The Fort Dix Six: four are ethnic Albanians, one Jordanian, and one Turk. (Clearly this shows Turkey is a land of slavering Islamist terrorists.)

One defendant (Albanian) has pled to a minor weapons charge and is off the case. The other five have been awaiting trial for over a year now; no trial has been scheduled. A number of holes have appeared in the government's case; it's starting to look like another one of /those/ terrorism cases, you know?

"Glib" is not the first word that comes to mind.


Doug M.
 

Leo Caesius

Banned
The Fort Dix Six: four are ethnic Albanians, one Jordanian, and one Turk. (Clearly this shows Turkey is a land of slavering Islamist terrorists.)

One defendant (Albanian) has pled to a minor weapons charge and is off the case. The other five have been awaiting trial for over a year now; no trial has been scheduled. A number of holes have appeared in the government's case; it's starting to look like another one of /those/ terrorism cases, you know?

"Glib" is not the first word that comes to mind.
I am merely demonstrating the value of anecdotal evidence. It would appear that I have proven my point.
 

Leo Caesius

Banned
Wilhelm's reign was a disaster, sure enough, but for reasons that had absolutely nothing to do with religion. And when he arrived in Albania, he was welcomed by adoring crowds, and all the leading notables of the country -- Muslim, Catholic, whatever -- lined up to swear loyalty to him.
Alright, I don't really have much of a dog in this fight, but I decided to pursue it further to determine whether what you had said was correct and whether AHP was simply wrong, as you insist. The truth be told, there doesn't appear to be much on William of Wied, but 2005 saw the publication of a volume entitled The Six Month Kingdom: Albania 1914 by Duncan Heaton-Armstrong, and edited by Gervase Belfield and Bejtullah D. Destani at the Centre for Albanian Studies. I presume that this is the book from which you drew your quote from Duncan Heaton-Armstrong, William of Wied's Irish secretary. What the editors of the book have to say substantially confirms your observations - for the first three months of King William's six month reign.

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 country were entirely lost sight of" and William was greeted as the "Savior of Albania."

Then they diverge from your presentation of the situation.

As the unity of the 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 realize how different Albania was to its Balkan and east European neighbors, 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 symbolizes the agony and difficulty the new nation was experiencing in deciding its true identity [...] in this sense, the main theme of the reign of William of Wied was civil war.
Now, the question becomes whether what the editors of this volume have said is broadly accurate, or whether you have reasons to doubt their conclusions, because I've having severe difficulties reconciling the two accounts.
 
2005 saw the publication of a volume entitled The Six Month Kingdom: Albania 1914 by Duncan Heaton-Armstrong, and edited by Gervase Belfield and Bejtullah D. Destani at the Centre for Albanian Studies. I presume that this is the book from which you drew your quote from Duncan Heaton-Armstrong, William of Wied's Irish secretary. .

Half right. I have the earlier edition of the book (ISBN 99927-659-4-1) which includes only Heaton-Armstrong's original text plus a short (~2 page) introduction by editor Albert Rakipi.

This makes a difference, because the passage you quote isn't from Heaton-Armstrong. It's an editorial interpolation by Belfield and/or Destani. And this matters, because Heaton-Armstrong himself makes no mention, ever, of Islam being a problem for Prince Wilhelm.

If anything, the opposite:

"The nationalist party and many of the other amateur politicians of Durazzo were not at all satisfied with [Wilhelm's] cabinet. They objected to it firstly, because it consisted for the most part of men who had never resided in the country and knew little about it; secondly, because some of the Ministers could not even speak [Albanian] and business had to be conducted in Turkish; and thirdly it was thought that the Mohammedan Essad Party was too strongly represented." -- Chapter VI

"[The] King and Queen had to attend religious ceremonies held in their honor by the different communities represented in the town; of these the Mohammedan... 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 honored the new sovereign by praying the prayer usually only used for the Sultan -- a compliment, which augured well for the future!" -- Chapter VII


Then there's an amusing sequence where Heaton-Armstrong visits the insurgents against the government:

"[They] unanimously condemned the ministry, which consisted of their old oppressors and did nothing to protect the peasants interests. From what they said, it was also evident that their religious fanaticism had worked out [sic] as they kept on repeating "Mohammedan are good"... "Imams are good" and suchlike...

"I told them... that the King wanted to see his subjects contented and happy; to my great surprise they did not disagree with this, and then they murmured "Rrofte Mbreti" ["Long Live the King"] fervently...

"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." -- Chapter XI.

The quote also mentions '"Ottomanized" Sunni Moslems many of whom were descendants of refugees from Bosnia in 1878'. Two things.

One, there was indeed a community of Moslems from Bosnia. To some extent, there still is... one can meet Albanians today who will jokingly call themselves "Bosniqi", because a great-great-grandfather came from Bosnia after the 1878 annexation. This group is completely assimilated today, and has no sense of being anything but Albanian, but in 1914 they were still much more distinct -- many were still speaking Turkish and refusing to learn Albanian.

More importantly, this group was and is /small/ -- maybe 1% or 2% of Albania's population. Much smaller than either the Orthodox or Catholic communities. So, when the editors refer to 'descendants of refugees from Bosnia', they're talking about a group that was (1) small, and (2) not ethnic Albanian.

Also, while the Bosnians were no doubt inclined to be suspicious of Christians, they also provided at least one Cabinet Minister to Wilhelm's Cabinet! This makes sense when you realize that, while the Bosnians were more fervent Muslims than most Albanians, they also tened to be more educated and sophisticated -- many of them were not peasants, but landowners and merchants who had retreated with the Turkish armies, fearing the new Austrian regime. So, paradoxically, this group was more "nationalist" than many Albanians, in the sense that they wanted a strong central government (as opposed to an anarchy of warlords, which would be vulnerable to predation by neighboring powers).

Two, I suspect when the editors say "on the doorstep" they are referring to Tirana -- today the capital, in 1914 a large fortified town. Tirana is just 20 miles inland from Durazzo (Wilhelm's capital) but in 1914 it was a different world: Heaton-Armstrong mentions how backward and "Turkish" it was, compared to the relatively "European" Durazzo, and how most women still went veiled. In May 1914 Tirana surprised the King by turning against him, leading to a siege of Durazzo; this was later resolved by an armistice, but the result was the permanent crippling of the King's young government.

However, Heaton-Armstrong makes it clear that Tirana's turn was not because of religion. He mentions in passing that "they insisted the Mbret must leave the country, and a Mohammedan prince be put in his place", but he clearly doesn't think this was the real motivation. Rather, he believes Tirana rebelled because the King had dismissed Essad Pasha. Essad Pasha was the most powerful warlord in the country, and Tirana was his base; Tirana joined the rebellion just days after he was sacked. Heaton-Armstrong connects the dots, and in fact goes to some trouble to point out that earlier (when Essad Pasha was still part of the government) Tirana had been effusively loyal to the King.

Finally, Heaton-Armstrong's book is not the only firsthand account! Wilhelm himself wrote his memoirs in 1917: Denkschrift über Albanien, "Memorandum on Albania". An excerpted version of the Denkschrift can be found here:

http://www.albanianhistory.net/texts/AH1917.html

-- it's only about half of the original text, but it gives the high points.

Prince Wilhelm agrees with Heaton-Armstrong that the "Muslim" rebellion was really a stalking horse for the ambitions of Essad Pasha:

"With these armed men, [Essad] went back to Tirana where he owned much land, hoping undoubtedly to use his growing influence to take over Albania himself. He was the only man in independent Albania who possessed a self-contained army, which was comparatively strong for Albanian conditions. It was with these troops that he gained control of all of central Albania. He made great use, in this connection, of his large estates in Tirana and the surrounding region and thus of his many local followers, as well as of his personal wealth and Montenegrin money. All the rest of the nobility in Albania despised him...

"In order to encourage his men to attack the Albanian government in Vlora, in the sphere of which there were almost only Muslims, he told them that the Vlora government was intent upon a Christian sovereign, whereas he would ensure them that a Muslim sovereign would be brought to Albania."

The 'Muslim sovereign' in question was unquestionably Essad himself. And while he never did quite claim the crown (he was assassinated in Paris just after WWI), his nephew Ahmed Zogolli did, reigning for a dozen years before WWII as King Zog I.

As it turned out, Zog was anything but an ideal Muslim prince. He was a hard-drinking, womanizing Ataturk-style secularist who swore his oath of office on the Bible as well as the Koran and then proceeded to comprehensively ignore both. He abolished the veil, broke the power of both Muslim and Christian clergy, closed monasteries and madrassas, and took a Hungarian-American Catholic for his wife. By all accounts he was quite similar to his uncle, who was also clever, treacherous and ambitious without being religious in the least.

So, I would say that what the editors say is /not/ accurate; King Wilhelm's problems were because of over-mighty and treacherous subjects, lack of strong support from the Powers, and his own weakness, with religion playing at most a very secondary role as a tool in the hands of his rivals. But you have access to the same sources I do; if you're interested, check them out, and draw your own conclusions.


Doug M.
 
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