Geraldine of Albania
| Queen Géraldine | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Queen Consort of Albania Countess Apponyi de Nagy-Appony |
|||||
Queen Geraldine on the day of her wedding
|
|||||
| Queen Consort of the Albanians | |||||
| Tenure | 27 April 1938 – 7 April 1939 | ||||
| Born |
6 August 1915 Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary, Empire of Austria |
||||
| Died | 22 October 2002 (aged 87) Tirana, Republic of Albania |
||||
| Burial | 26 October 2002 Mausoleum of the Albanian Royal Family, Tirana, Republic of Albania |
||||
| Spouse | King Zog I of Albania (m. 1938; d. 1961) | ||||
| Issue | Crown Prince Leka I of Albania | ||||
|
|||||
| House |
Apponyi (by birth) Zogu (by marriage) |
||||
| Father | Count Gyula Apponyi de Nagy-Apponyi | ||||
| Mother | Gladys Virginia Stewart | ||||
| Full name | |
|---|---|
| Géraldine Margit Virginia Olga Mária Apponyi de Nagy Appony |
Countess Géraldine Margit Virginia Olga Mária Apponyi de Nagy-Appony (6 August 1915 – 22 October 2002) was the Queen consort of King Zog I of Albania and the mother of Leka I, Crown Prince of Albania.
Geraldine was born in Budapest, Austria-Hungary, a daughter of Count Gyula Apponyi de Nagy-Appony (1873–1924). Her mother was Gladys Virginia Stewart (1891–1947), an American, daughter of John Henry Stewart from Virginia, a diplomat who served as American Consul in Antwerp, Belgium, and his wife Mary Virginia Ramsay Harding.
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 chilhood then passed on the chateau Oponice (present day Slovakia), Apponyi ancestral family possessions in Upper Hungary, which territory then belonged to Czechoslovakia (whose citizenship Geraldine gained and also learnt Slovakian language). 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.
...
Wikipedia