The life of Queen Geraldine has Ruritanian echoes worthy of the pen of Anthony Hope. A great beauty and a figure of quiet dignity, she was chosen by King Zog from a photograph and became engaged within 24 hours of being presented to him. But hardly had she produced a long-awaited heir before she was forced to flee her country.

Queen Geraldine was the elder daughter of Gyula (Julius) Apponyi de Nagy-Appony, a Hungarian count with a large castle, estates and a town house in Budapest, but no great fortune. Her mother was Gladys Steuart, daughter of John H. Steuart, the US Consul in Antwerp. Through her mother, Queen Geraldine descended from Isaac Stearns, whose other colourful descendants include President Richard Nixon (Queen Geraldine’s eighth cousin once removed), and the Mormon leader Brigham Young. After her father’s death, her mother remarried and went to live in France.

She was raised in Budapest by her uncle and guardian, Count Charles Apponyi. She learnt shorthand and office administration. She emerged as a debutante, and in 1935 took part in a tableau vivant between the scenes of a charity performance of La Bohème. Her character was described as “White Rose” and a picture of her appeared in the newspapers captioned “the White Rose of Hungary”.

Mussolini wanted King Zog to marry an Italian, but he was determined to marry a girl from Central Europe, so escaping a political union. His envoys scoured the Continent for suitable candidates. One of his sisters showed the King the photograph of “The White Rose” and in December 1937 she was summoned to Albania.

With a small new wardrobe and a chaperone, she made her way to Durazzo and was driven to Tirana. The next day her hair was done and she attended the King’s New Year’s Eve Ball with 3,000 other guests. She entered the illuminated palace and walked past walls covered with ancient costumes and crossed swords. Feeling like Cinderella, she was escorted into the great hall. King Zog came in, presented her with a glass of champagne and told her: “Don’t drink this until the midnight hour.” A cannon then boomed, the lights went out, the hall was lit by candles. She drank her toast.

Fortunately, Geraldine was drawn to the King, deeming him a man of “maturity and authority”. She claimed to have fallen for him immediately. The next day she received an anonymous heart of 100 red roses on her breakfast tray, followed by his proposal of marriage. She accepted and the King said: “Well, that’s enough for one afternoon.”

In the weeks before the wedding, the Fascists tried to undermine Geraldine’s image, suggesting that she was poor, would not work for Albania and had a different religion. (He was Muslim, she was Roman Catholic.) But the Albanians took her to their hearts and the King bought her a trousseau and many jewels. They were married in a glittering ceremony at Tirana on April 27, 1938; Hitler sent a Mercedes as a present, Mussolini promised a yacht, and Admiral Horthy, Regent of Hungary, gave them a coach and pair. She proved a devoted wife.

Zog was a colourful character, 20 years Geraldine’s senior. His family came from Zogaj, a mountainous region of Kosovo. Albania had a monarchy only briefly. It gained its independence from Turkey in 1912, and although many candidates were proposed to rule in a land of brigands and blood-feuds, Queen Elisabeth of Romania (“Carmen Sylva”) found a reluctant but ultimately successful candidate in her nephew, Prince William of Wied. He became Prince of Albania in February 1914, but left the country the following September, without renouncing his rights. Zog, or Ahmed Zogu as he was then known, was the next King, rising from being Commander-in-Chief of the Albanian Forces in 1921 (aged 26) to Prime Minister in 1922.

Primarily a warrior, Zog was involved in many frays. He was driven from Albania in 1924, but before the year was out, had returned with 3,000 men, quelled a rising and become dictator. He established complete control and in 1928 the National Assembly proclaimed him Mbret, which he interpreted as King.

Over the following years, Albania was rescued from poverty as Zog reorganised every aspect of his country, from education and the language to the banks, freedom of religion and the cessation of polygamy. He introduced an internal air service, moved the capital to Tirana and established trading links with Italy. His dependency on Italian finance put him into Italy’s debt.

When, in 1934, he resisted this, Mussolini sent a fleet into Durazzo harbour and he capitulated. Even on the day of his wedding, Count Ciano was applying political pressure.

Queen Geraldine had only one year in Albania. The King was alarmed when the Nazis achieved Anschluss with Austria, realising that Mussolini would set his eyes on Albania next. Would-be assassins were spotted in the capital, and some admitted that they had been ordered to kill the King and his now pregnant bride. King Zog mobilised his forces and resisted all Mussolini’s demands, bribes and imprecations.

On April 5, 1939, their son, Leka, was born in the palace at Tirana. The foreign envoys visited the palace to pay their respects, the Italian Minister, Count Jacomini, informing the King that two tank divisions were arriving on the orders of Mussolini. Although still drowsy from the birth, Queen Geraldine realised that enemy aircraft were flying overhead and King Zog told her she had to leave. Three days after the birth, she fled with her baby, travelling on a mattress in the back of a Chrysler. It was a hazardous journey. She suffered a haemorrhage, but the safe haven of Florina in Greece was reached.

King Zog soon joined her, thus losing his kingdom for ever. A Constituent Assembly proclaimed King Victor Em- manuel III of Italy King of Albania.

Queen Geraldine’s health was gravely threatened, but they continued their journey through Istanbul, Romania, Poland, Sweden and Norway and finally to France, where they made a temporary home. On the declaration of war, they retreated, making their way from Bordeaux to Liverpool, with the blessing of King George VI.

On the journey they almost lost their suitcases, in which were the possessions they had rescued from Albania — indeed all their worldly wealth.

They spent the war years in England, variously in London, Ascot, and finally in a rented house in Frieth, near Henley. Here they lived with an entourage of 40 and King Zog toyed with the idea of buying control of The Times.

Queen Geraldine dropped into the local pub to buy cigarettes. After the war, King Farouk invited them to Egypt, and they settled in a villa in Alexandria. All was well while Farouk reigned, but after his departure the Egyptian Government imposed fiscal restrictions on them. They were forced to sell their gold at a low rate, and in 1955 they moved to Cannes in the South of France. Here they eschewed jet-set life, though they were occasionally spotted walking along the seafront, followed by two large bodyguards.

King Zog was already in bad health. In March 1961 he fell gravely ill and Geraldine nursed him without rest for five weeks. He died in a clinic in Suresnes, Paris, on April 9, and she retreated, exhausted, into a nursing home.

Crown Prince Leka was proclaimed King in exile in the Hotel Bristol in Paris. Later he settled with his mother in Madrid. King Leka married an Australian in 1975. He remains the focal point of loyalty to a great number of exiled Albanians.

Thereafter, Queen Geraldine led a quiet life, writing her memoirs for a British Sunday paper in 1961, and augmenting her finances by the occasional sale of jewels. She visited Britain several times and enjoyed playing golf in Spain.

Queen Geraldine of Albania, widow of King Zog and Queen Consort in Albania for a year between 1938 and 1939, was born in Budapest on August 6, 1915. She died on October 22, 2002, aged 87.