Editing Zog I (section)

==Life in exile and death==

The royal family fled to [[Kingdom of Greece|Greece]]. Zog, speaking a few days after his arrival there, characterized Hitler and Mussolini as madmen facing "two fools who sleep": [[Neville Chamberlain|Chamberlain]] and [[Edouard Daladier|Daladier]]. Zog went on to declare, "We prefer to die, from the littlest child to the oldest man, to show our independence is not for sale." The world, aware that Zog and his entourage had carried off most of the Albanian treasury's gold, was not impressed.<ref>{{Cite journal |date=April 12, 1939 |title=The comments of King Zog |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=Fr8DH2VBP9sC&dat=19390412&printsec=frontpage&hl=en |journal=The Montreal Gazette |volume=168 |issue=87 |pages=8 |via=Google news}}</ref> After a short stay in Greece, the Zog party went to [[Istanbul]] in [[Turkey]], then fled through [[Kingdom of Romania|Romania]], [[Second Polish Republic|Poland]], [[Latvia]], [[Sweden]], [[Norway]], [[Belgium]] to [[Paris]]. Zog and his family lived a time in France and fled when the [[Battle of France|Germans invaded]]. Their escape from France was helped by [[Mehmed Orhan|Prince Mehmed Orhan Osmanoğlu]] from the [[Ottoman dynasty|Ottoman Imperial Dynasty]], who was [[aide-de-camp]] of Zog I.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Bardakçı|first=Murat|title=Son Osmanlılar – Osmanlı Hanedanının Sürgün ve Miras Öyküsü|publisher=Hürriyet|year=2006|isbn=978-6257231206|location=Istanbul|pages=24|language=Turkish}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2011-10-22|title=Oldest Ottoman to come home at last|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/oldest-ottoman-to-come-home-at-last-1534796.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220507/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/oldest-ottoman-to-come-home-at-last-1534796.html |archive-date=7 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|access-date=2021-11-02|website=The Independent|language=en}}{{cbignore}}</ref>

The royal family then settled in England. Their first residence was at [[The Ritz London Hotel|The Ritz]] in London. This was followed in 1941 by a brief stay at Forest Ridge, a house in the [[South Ascot]] area of [[Sunninghill, Berkshire|Sunninghill]] in [[Berkshire]], near where Zog's nieces had been at school in [[Ascot, Berkshire|Ascot]]. In 1941 they moved to Parmoor House, [[Parmoor]], near [[Frieth]] in Buckinghamshire, with some staff of the court living in locations around Lane End.<ref>{{cite web | url = http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search2?coll_id=7010&inst_id=58 | title = Naçi collection | date = January 2003 | work = AIM25, Archives in London and the M25 area | publisher = AIM25 | access-date = 27 January 2007 | archive-date = 4 December 2008 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20081204002713/http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search2?coll_id=7010&inst_id=58 | url-status = dead }}</ref>

[[File:Grave-Zog.jpg|thumb|200px|right|The grave of former King Zog I at the [[Cimetière de Thiais]] near Paris]]

In 1946, Zog and most of his family left England and went to live in [[Kingdom of Egypt|Egypt]] at the behest of [[King Farouk]]. In 1951, Zog bought the [[Knollwood estate]] in [[Muttontown, New York]], [[Long Island]]  but the sixty-room estate was never occupied; it quickly fell into ruin and Zog sold the estate in 1955. Farouk [[Revolution of Egypt|was overthrown in 1952]], and the family left for France in 1955.

He made his final home in France, where he died at the [[Foch Hospital]], [[Suresnes]], Hauts-de-Seine on 9 April 1961, aged 65, of an undisclosed condition.{{Citation needed|date=June 2020}} Zog was said to have regularly smoked 200 cigarettes a day, giving him a possible claim to the title of the world's heaviest smoker in 1929,<ref>{{cite web|title=King Zog|url=http://www.albanianroyalcourt.al/pages/kingzog|publisher=Albanian Royal Family|access-date=21 November 2016|archive-date=27 February 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180227190323/http://www.albanianroyalcourt.al/pages/kingzog|url-status=dead}}</ref> but had been seriously ill for some time. He was survived by his wife and son, and was initially buried at the [[cimetière parisien de Thiais]], near Paris. On his death, his son Leka was pronounced H. M. King Leka of the Albanians by the exiled Albanian community.<ref name=Geraldine-obit>{{cite news | url = https://www.economist.com/node/1429252 | title = Queen Geraldine of Albania: Geraldine Apponyi, a queen for 354 days, died on October 22nd, aged 87 | date = 7 November 2002 | newspaper = [[The Economist]] | department = Obituary | access-date = 18 April 2018}}</ref>

His widow, Geraldine, died of natural causes in 2002 at the age of 87<ref name=Geraldine-obit/> in a military hospital in [[Tirana]].