Geraldine of Albania (born Countess Géraldine Margit Virginia Olga Mária Apponyi de Nagy-Appony; 6 August 1915 – 22 October 2002) was Queen of the Albanians from her marriage to King Zog I on 27 April 1938 until King Zog was deposed on 7 April of the following year.
Geraldine was born in Austria-Hungary into the noble Apponyi family. Her family fled to Switzerland in 1918, when the monarchy of Austria-Hungary was abolished. They returned to Hungary in 1921. However, after her father Gyula died in 1924, her American-born mother Gladys took Geraldine and her two siblings to live in Southern France. Later, Geraldine was educated at a boarding school in Austria. She met King Zog in 1938, and they married shortly afterwards.
The Italian invasion of Albania cut short Zog's reign. During World War II, Zog and Geraldine lived first in France and later in England. Later on, they would live in France again and in Egypt. After her husband died in Paris in 1961, Geraldine took the title Queen Mother and asserted the rights of her son Leka, Crown Prince of Albania, to rule. She and Leka fled successively to Spain, Rhodesia, and South Africa. Geraldine was allowed to return to Albania in 2002, and she died that year aged 87.
Early life
Geraldine was born in Budapest, Austria-Hungary, a daughter of Count Gyula Apponyi de Nagy-Appony (1873–1924), Grand Marshal of the Hungarian Court, who both came from monied families of the New World, specifically Virginia, Maryland and North Carolina.
When Geraldine was three, the Empire of Austria-Hungary collapsed, and the Apponyi family went to live in Switzerland. In 1921, they returned to the Kingdom of Hungary which was stable under Regent Miklós Horthy. However, when Geraldine's father died in 1924, her mother and their three children (Geraldine, now nine, Virginia, and Gyula) went to live in the resort of Menton, in the south of France. When the Countess married a French officer, her Hungarian in-laws insisted that the children be returned to Hungary for their schooling. The girls were sent to the Sacred Heart boarding school in Pressbaum, near Vienna. Geraldine's happy childhood then continued at the chateau Oponice (Appony), the Apponyi family's ancestral possessions, in present-day Slovakia; at the time, it was part of Czechoslovakia, whose citizenship Geraldine gained, and she lived there until 1938. Her family's fortune spent, Geraldine earned a living as a shorthand typist. She also worked in the gift shop of the Budapest National Museum, where her uncle was the director.
Royal life
Geraldine was introduced on New Year’s Day 1938 to King Zog I of the Albanians, who had seen a photograph of her. She visited the Albanian Kingdom and within days the couple were engaged to be married. Known as the "White Rose of Hungary", Geraldine was raised to royal status as Princess Geraldine of Albania prior to her wedding.
thumb|left|Queen Geraldine pictured with [[Zog I of Albania|King Zog and his sisters in exile in Sweden]]
On 27 April 1938, in Tirana, Albania, Geraldine married the King in a ceremony witnessed by Galeazzo Ciano, envoy and son-in-law of Il Duce and Prime Minister of Italy, Benito Mussolini. In 2001, Geraldine returned from South Africa to live in Albania, She was buried by the Central House of the Army with full honors, including a funeral oration at St Paul's Cathedral, on 26 October 2002, and interred in the Sharra cemetery, Albania, in the "VIP plot". She was later reburied in the Royal Mausoleum in Tirana.
On 5 April 2004 her grandson, Leka, Crown Prince of Albania, accepted the Mother Teresa Medal awarded to her posthumously by the Albanian government in recognition of her charitable efforts for the people of Albania. Leka's daughter Geraldine (born 22 October 2020 at Queen Geraldine Maternity Hospital in Tirana, on the 18th death anniversary of Queen Geraldine) was named in her honor.
On , a statue of Queen Geraldine was inaugurated in Tirana. Designed by sculptor Sándor Kligl, the statue was donated to the City of Tirana by the Hungarian Embassy.
Honors
- 50px Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Fidelity (26 April 1938).
- 50px Mother Teresa Medal [posthumous] (5 April 2004).