Zog I of Albania

Born Ahmed Muhtar Bey Zogolli in 1895 to an aristocratic family in Ottoman Albania, he fought for Austria-Hungary in the First World War and plunged into Albanian politics soon after. He adopted the name Ahmed Zogu in 1922, became the youngest prime minister in Albanian history that same year, was driven into exile in June 1924, then returned with Yugoslav and White Russian backing to reclaim power. Elected president in January 1925 with dictatorial authority, he pushed through major reforms while suppressing civil liberties and tying Albania closer to Mussolini's Italy. In September 1928 the country became a monarchy and he took the throne as Zog I. He married Geraldine Apponyi de Nagy-Appony in 1938; their son Leka was born in 1939, the same year Italy invaded and overran Albania in a matter of days. Mussolini handed the country to Victor Emmanuel III, and Zog fled into an exile that never ended - England during the war, then France after the Communist government formally dethroned him in 1946. He died in Paris in April 1961 at 65, buried at Thiais Cemetery until his remains were moved to the royal mausoleum in Tirana in 2012.