Albanian Royalty. He received notoriety as the Prince of Albania, then in 1961 at the death of his father, he became King Leka I, while in exile. Born the only son and rightful heir of King Zog I of the Albanians and the half-Hungarian and half-American Roman Catholic queen consort, Countess Geraldine Apponyi de Nagyappony, he was called Crown Prince Skander at birth. Two days after the prince's birth, his father was forced from the Albanian throne and into exile with Mussolini's fascist invasion, which was supported by Victor Emmanuel III of Italy. This meant the prince spent his childhood in various locations around Europe but finally settling in England, spending World War II from 1941 residing at St. Katharine's Parmoor House. After the war, Albania was under the Communist government, hence the Royal family relocated to Egypt for a time. His education was at various private boys' schools in England and Egypt, Aiglon College in Switzerland studying Oriental languages, and economics at the College of Sorbonne in Paris, France. After attending The Royal Military Academy of Sandhurst, he graduated as an officer and was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in the British Army. He was an excellent student graduating with honors before becoming a successful businessman in the import-export industry. Although he survived life-threatening bouts of pneumonia and other respiratory problems as a child, he grew into a nearly seven-foot-tall man. After his father's death in 1961, he was proclaimed "King of Albania" by the convened Albanian National Assembly-in-Exile in a ceremony in Paris on April 15, 1961. In 1967 he visited the United States twice seeking political support. In 1975, he married in a French civil ceremony Susan Cullen-Ward, a divorced Austrian art teacher. Later, a religious ceremony in Spain was performed. The couple resided in Spain as a welcomed guest of King Juan Carolos until the king learned the that Leka had an arsenal of weapons and trained body guards, thus he was asked to leave Spain. Leka's reasoning for this zealous protection prove to be warranted when his plane was overtaken unsuccessfully with gunfire at a West African airport. Even with body guards and guns within his reach, there were other attempts on his life, but reasoned that his father survived over fifty assassination attempts. After leaving Spain the couple found refuge in Rhodesia then South Africa where his only child, a son was born in 1982. He eventually returned to Albania. Using a passport issued by his own Royal Court-in-Exile, which listed him as the King of Albania, he was permitted to enter Albania for only 24 hours in 1993 for the first time since he was an infant. During the April of 1997 Rebellion in Albania, he returned and was greeted, depending on the source, by 1,000 to 2,000 supporters. In an election that followed, the return of monarchy was rejected by a 2/3 vote, thus he left the country in June after violence erupted. With the reasoning "the people have the right to vote, but the government has the right to count the votes," he proclaimed the election did not represent the people but the government in Albania. Although not present at his trial, he was tried, found guilty of crimes against the government, and sentenced to three years in prison but he was not in the country to serve the sentence. For nearly fifty years in an attempt to change the Albanian history, the Communist government removed all the history of monarchy from school textbooks. He was pardoned in March of 2002 and Parliament asked the royal family to return. After being diagnosed with lung cancer, his wife died in 2004 with heart failure. In February of 2006, he announced he would be withdrawing from political and public life; his health had declined greatly with cardiac problems. After his death, the Albanian government declared a National Day of Mourning with all institutional flags lowered. He had a military funeral with the four religions of the nation represented: Sunni Muslims, Catholic, Bektashi Muslims, and Albanian Orthodox leaders. Originally, he was first buried in the plot next to his wife and mother in Varrezat e Sharrës, the large public Sharra Cemetery in Tirana. Later in 2012, they, along with his father and his grandmother, were interred in the Mausoleum of the Albanian Royal Family , which had been destroyed during the World War II and Communist-ruled years, but had recently been rebuilt. He is survived by his only son Leka II, and of 2021, Leka II has no heir.