Wied, Prince of Albania

Wilhelm Friedrich Heinrich, born 26 March 1876, became sovereign of the newly formed Principality of Albania on 7 March 1914. Albanians called him mbret — king — though foreign diplomats stuck to "sovereign prince." His actual reign lasted until 3 September that same year: six months on a throne in a country he barely knew, during a Europe sliding toward war. He left, but the title didn't formally end until 31 January 1925, when Albania declared itself a republic. He died in 1945, thirty-one years after his single summer as a Balkan monarch.