New King
On April 7, 1939, Italian forces landed at Durrës and several other Albanian ports. Albania had been close to Italy for years, but King Zog I still refused Mussolini’s demands for tighter control. The Italian army met some resistance, mostly around Durrës, though it was small and poorly equipped compared to the invaders. Within a few days the Italians controlled the country, and Zog fled to Greece with his wife and their newborn son. The invasion was meant in part to answer Germany’s recent takeover of Czechoslovakia, since Mussolini wanted a conquest of his own to show that Italy was an equal partner.
On April 12, 1939, an Albanian assembly voted to offer the crown to Vittorio Emanuele III, who was already King of Italy and Emperor of Ethiopia. As a result, Albania and Italy were joined under one crown, and the title became King of the Albanians. The assembly was not really independent, and Italian officials, led by a lieutenant-general in Tirana, ran most of the government. Albania’s army and foreign affairs were folded into Italy’s, as well. Rather than rule from Albania, Vittorio Emanuele III stayed in Rome and visited only occasionally.
His reign was short and never settled. In May 1941, a young Albanian named Vasil Laçi fired shots at him during a visit to Tirana. The king was not hurt, and Laçi was executed. Resistance groups grew as the war went on, and after Italy surrendered in September 1943, Germany occupied the country and the Albanian crown effectively ended. Basically, he held the title for about four years and never had much authority over it.
Note
The stamps on the second and bottom two rows show Vittorio Emanuele III of Italy as the new king of Albania. The text on all of them say, Mbretnija Shqiptare, the Kingdon of Albania. I haven’t seen these stamps for sale yet. It’ll be a while before I get them.
Contains 22 spots: own 0 – 0 unused, 0 used.
Stamp Details
The table below lists information about the stamps shown on this page of Lighthouse’s stamp album. For more details about a particular stamp, click on its description. That will take you to the related web page of Colnect.
spot |
own |
catalog |
subject |
description |
comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
16 |
1q (dec 1939) |
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17 |
2q (dec 1939) |
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18 |
3q (dec 1939) |
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24 |
50q (aug 1939) |
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37 |
1q (jul 1942) |
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19 |
5q (sep 1939) |
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20 |
10q (aug 1939) |
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21 |
15q (aug 1939) |
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22 |
25q (aug 1939) |
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23 |
30q (aug 1939) |
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25 |
65q (dec 1939) |
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26 |
1f (nov 1939) |
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27 |
2f (nov 1939) |
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28 |
3f (nov 1939) |
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29 |
5f (nov 1939) |
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30 |
Vittorio Emanuele III |
5q (apr 1942) |
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31 |
Vittorio Emanuele III |
10q (apr 1942) |
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32 |
Vittorio Emanuele III |
15q (apr 1942) |
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33 |
Vittorio Emanuele III |
25q (apr 1942) |
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34 |
Vittorio Emanuele III |
65q (apr 1942) |
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35 |
Vittorio Emanuele III |
1f (apr 1942) |
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36 |
Vittorio Emanuele III |
2f (apr 1942) |
Footnotes
Spot refers to the postion of the stamp on the album page (e.g., 3.2 indicates row 3, position 2).
Amt. is an abbreviation for the face amount of the stamp.
Own indicates the stamp status: ✓ for unused; ✗ for used or canceled; ⭑ signifies I ordered one; ; ✨ indicates it was bought recently; ✠ means an auction bid is pending; and ◎ is used, and it costs too much for unused.
To search by catalog number, go to the search box and enter it in the catalog number box. However, it’s a bit broken; I need to fix it.
