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King for a Week: The Strange Story of Otto I · Ridiculous History

0:00
Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
0:27
Speaker 1: back to the show Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always
0:30
Speaker 1: so much for tuning in. That's our one and only
0:33
Speaker 1: super producer, Max Williams. Give him a hand. Folks, they
0:38
Speaker 1: called me Ben. No, you and I started traveling again.
0:43
Speaker 1: I think we've You've had some adventures. I've got some
0:45
Speaker 1: on the way that I can't disclose quite yet. But
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Speaker 1: I don't think either of us has ever been to Albania. Now,
0:53
Speaker 1: I've been to Albany. Is that the same thing, Georgia
0:57
Speaker 1: or Albany New York. I haven't been Albany to New York.
1:00
Speaker 1: I've actually never been to Albany, New York or Georgia.
1:03
Speaker 1: I was lying, but that would definitely be more in
1:05
Speaker 1: like my you know, immediate region of travel. Albania sounds
1:09
Speaker 1: like a real, real exotic destination. Oh yeah, I I
1:12
Speaker 1: read the wiki travel articles for different countries all the time,
1:17
Speaker 1: and and expat forums, etcetera, etcetera. And Albania has an
1:21
Speaker 1: amazing unique history, kind of a crossroads between Europe and
1:28
Speaker 1: the rest of the world to the east, especially the
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Speaker 1: Ottoman Empire. It wasn't until November of nineteen twelve that
1:38
Speaker 1: Albania proclaimed its independence from the Ottoman Empire. And that's
1:44
Speaker 1: part of where our story takes place today, because it
1:48
Speaker 1: turns out you may not have heard of this guy,
1:50
Speaker 1: but Albania for a little less than a week had
1:55
Speaker 1: a king named King Otto the First and he was
1:59
Speaker 1: king for um about five days. Yeah, we don't want
2:03
Speaker 1: to spoil it, so let's like save the surprise for
2:05
Speaker 1: just a little bit further and go into the events
2:09
Speaker 1: that led up to this elaborate subterfuse that started in
2:12
Speaker 1: the autumn of nineteen twelve when the Balkan League's conquest
2:16
Speaker 1: of the Ottoman Empires European territories um started a massive
2:22
Speaker 1: international crisis UM that was going to cause lots of
2:26
Speaker 1: problems in Europe. Um. You know, in general, there could
2:30
Speaker 1: have been a massive European wide war that was triggered
2:34
Speaker 1: by this diplomatic crisis. Yeah, and as we know, there
2:38
Speaker 1: is going to be a not just European war, but
2:41
Speaker 1: a world war. It's on the way. Yeah, it's bacon
2:46
Speaker 1: in the oven as we speak. The crisis comes about
2:49
Speaker 1: because Serbia wanted to get access to the Adriatic Sea
2:54
Speaker 1: and Austria, Hungary was dead set against it. They were like,
2:58
Speaker 1: no way, Serbia, stay in your lane. And because of
3:02
Speaker 1: this dispute, Austria Hungary was on a It was coming
3:08
Speaker 1: into clear conflict not with just Serbia, but with Serbia's
3:13
Speaker 1: big daddy at the time, Russia. And then you know,
3:16
Speaker 1: the way that these wars happen, the way these big
3:19
Speaker 1: multiple state wars happen is because of those alliances between
3:23
Speaker 1: countries they for they create a domino effect. Right. It's
3:27
Speaker 1: like if you are a picture, if m Max and
3:31
Speaker 1: Noel and you listening along at home, ridiculous historian picture,
3:34
Speaker 1: the four of us are hanging out, we're having um,
3:38
Speaker 1: we're going bowling or something, and people in the next lane.
3:42
Speaker 1: One of them starts a fight with Max. I don't
3:44
Speaker 1: know why he would, he's the nicest guy. And then you,
3:48
Speaker 1: ridiculous historian and Noel and myself were like, hey, hey, hey,
3:52
Speaker 1: you mess with that guy, you messed with all of us.
3:55
Speaker 1: We're basically like the teenage muntant ninja turtles here. That's true.
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Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden, there's no d mark
4:00
Speaker 1: between the lanes anymore, and you're not bowling anymore. You're
4:02
Speaker 1: just kind of brawling at a bowling alley, which isn't
4:05
Speaker 1: very cute. That's just bad behavior, is what that is.
4:07
Speaker 1: And then all of a sudden, neighboring lanes get involved
4:10
Speaker 1: because they're like, we're totally screwing up our lane with her,
4:14
Speaker 1: you know, um, irresponsible behavior, and we're not gonna have that.
4:18
Speaker 1: Bowling is expensive. They got shoes this game. It's like, yeah,
4:22
Speaker 1: it's it's it's a real commitment. You know, you've got
4:24
Speaker 1: chicken wings probably getting cold now because you're not paying
4:27
Speaker 1: them attention because you're brawling with your labor. And that's
4:30
Speaker 1: not good for anybody. No, not at all in our
4:33
Speaker 1: bowling alley situation here. Uh, it's it's easy to trace.
4:37
Speaker 1: It's actually not a bad comparison because okay, Austria is
4:43
Speaker 1: beefing with Serbia. Serbia has the big brother, Russia, and uh,
4:48
Speaker 1: if Russia beefs with Austria Hungary, then Austria Hungary's boy
4:53
Speaker 1: Germany is gonna come in, and then Russia's pal France
4:57
Speaker 1: is gonna jump in as well, so the would lead
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Speaker 1: to catastrophe. On November twenty one, nine, Austria Hungary mobilized
5:08
Speaker 1: six army corps near Russia and Serbia. This was clearly
5:13
Speaker 1: a threat of the possibility of war. Oh yeah, but
5:17
Speaker 1: the Foreign Minister of Austria Hungary, uh, Count Burketold great name.
5:22
Speaker 1: I love a good count. Um. He had absolutely yeah,
5:28
Speaker 1: a curly mustache, you know then, you know, curly on
5:30
Speaker 1: the ends mustache. He had plans of his own. He
5:33
Speaker 1: wanted to support an independent Albania or a bid for
5:36
Speaker 1: an independent Albania. Also, guys, I went ahead and looked
5:40
Speaker 1: up what Count Burke told looks like, and yeah, he is, um,
5:43
Speaker 1: exactly what you'd think he would look like. Some stereotypes
5:47
Speaker 1: exist for reason. You can't really be a count unless
5:51
Speaker 1: you have some sort of outrageous appearance involving you gonna
5:55
Speaker 1: have some head accessories, you know, no question about it. Yeah,
5:59
Speaker 1: I don't know which one is better. There's the one
6:00
Speaker 1: with his military gear on, but it's also the one
6:03
Speaker 1: with just the top hat. And I kind of like
6:04
Speaker 1: the top at one top hat. Okay, that's when that's
6:08
Speaker 1: when the count's unwinded, you know, exactly again his leisure
6:12
Speaker 1: time and okay, so this gets a little complicated, um,
6:14
Speaker 1: in terms of just the interplay between all of these
6:17
Speaker 1: nations and and the various um UH motivations at work,
6:22
Speaker 1: but let's just try to simplify it a little bit.
6:24
Speaker 1: Burke Hold in his infinite monocle wearing wisdom, UM, he
6:30
Speaker 1: wanted to stop Serbia from getting access to the Adriatic Sea,
6:34
Speaker 1: and also he wanted to avoid that larger war that
6:37
Speaker 1: we talked about earlier. UM. In doing this, he wanted
6:40
Speaker 1: to support an independent Albania UM where Serbia and already
6:44
Speaker 1: staked a claim to that position on the Adriatic Sea,
6:48
Speaker 1: neighboring Montenegro and Greece. Also, in this arrangement, it would
6:52
Speaker 1: potentially lose parts of Albanian territory that they had claimed
6:58
Speaker 1: UM Montenegro in particular, UH, this would include UM some
7:02
Speaker 1: important UH strategic locations like the city of Scutari, which
7:08
Speaker 1: is where Turkish forces were already under siege by Serbian
7:12
Speaker 1: and Montenegrin forces. Okay, I think we kind of got
7:16
Speaker 1: the lay of the land in terms of like the
7:18
Speaker 1: way our risk board pieces are laid out ben what
7:21
Speaker 1: happens next. So this is clever on birked Old's part
7:31
Speaker 1: because now it's becoming kind of a proxy war. Right now.
7:36
Speaker 1: The issue isn't Austria Hungary directly fighting Serbia. Now we're
7:41
Speaker 1: supporting something. We're supporting Albania, and Albania looks good for this.
7:46
Speaker 1: They already had rebelled against the Ottoman Empire earlier that
7:51
Speaker 1: same year, and in as a result of their rebellion,
7:55
Speaker 1: the Ottoman Empire promised them a little bit more autonomy.
8:00
Speaker 1: And now the Albanians are threatened with the possibility of
8:05
Speaker 1: even more oppression by the Orthodox Christians in Serbia and
8:11
Speaker 1: Albanians are mostly Muslim at this time, so they say, Okay,
8:14
Speaker 1: forget about it. We're gonna We're gonna go for full independence.
8:18
Speaker 1: Autonomy is not enough. Uh. And just to be clear
8:22
Speaker 1: of folks, Serbia and Albania already had a well established
8:27
Speaker 1: history of conflict. We're talking about stuff like the First
8:31
Speaker 1: Balkan War. We're talking about earlier atrocities committed against the
8:36
Speaker 1: people of Serbia by both Turkish and Albanian forces. You
8:41
Speaker 1: can even read about this in the New York Times
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Speaker 1: from nineteen twelve December thirty one, last day of nineteen twelve,
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Speaker 1: where they say thousands of men, women and children were
8:52
Speaker 1: massacred during the Serbs March to the Sea as part
8:55
Speaker 1: of a deliberate policy to exterminate people of the Muslim faith.
9:00
Speaker 1: Wait a minute, wait anyway, exterminate all members of This
9:03
Speaker 1: is the first I've heard of this, Ben, what's the
9:04
Speaker 1: beef there? Well, the idea there is ideologically motivated, it's
9:09
Speaker 1: also resource motivated. The general Western consensus of this was that, uh,
9:16
Speaker 1: the Serbian forces were fighting dirty, using unjustifiable murder, and
9:23
Speaker 1: this of course would foreshadow later atrocities to come. But
9:27
Speaker 1: all to say, what you need to know about this
9:30
Speaker 1: is Count Berthold was definitely aware of this past enmity,
9:35
Speaker 1: and he was leveraging this again in a relatively complex
9:40
Speaker 1: geopolitical calculation to keep the Serbs from getting that see axis.
9:46
Speaker 1: And this is where we meet a guy named is
9:50
Speaker 1: Mail Kimality. Is Mail Comalley would be uh, the who
9:54
Speaker 1: would be the protagonist of this Albanian move for self
9:59
Speaker 1: determined nature. Is Mail Commallely was a former ottoman Um admin.
10:06
Speaker 1: Let's just call him that the ponds of our time.
10:08
Speaker 1: He was. He was a bureaucrat. He was the father
10:11
Speaker 1: of Albanian nationalism, which, if I'm not mistaken by nationalism
10:15
Speaker 1: typically you know, you you could look at on one
10:17
Speaker 1: hand as like patriotism, but it usually involves some sort
10:21
Speaker 1: of mothering and ideals of exterminating those that are different
10:26
Speaker 1: than us, or at the very least keeping them at
10:28
Speaker 1: arms length. Isn't that right? Yeah? Yeah, it's the idea
10:31
Speaker 1: of being of strongly identifying with one's own nation, and
10:36
Speaker 1: what you see is that nation's goal, especially to the
10:40
Speaker 1: exclusion of the interest of other nations. So like, if
10:44
Speaker 1: we were strong nationalists in a way that nationalism goes wrong.
10:48
Speaker 1: Let's say we wanted to do something that was very
10:52
Speaker 1: good for Maine, but it was very bad for all
10:55
Speaker 1: the parts of Canada connected to Maine. As nationalists, our
10:59
Speaker 1: resp bonds would be well, who cares, that's Canada, that's
11:02
Speaker 1: not us, go us. Other parts of Canada be damns. Yeah,
11:06
Speaker 1: Main is number one. Main uber Alis. So this guy,
11:11
Speaker 1: uh father of Albanian nationalism is male Kamali. He comes
11:15
Speaker 1: back from exile, he's been exiled and with some help,
11:20
Speaker 1: with a little bit of a boost, you know, assist
11:23
Speaker 1: from Austria Hungary Um, he convenes an assembly of Albanian
11:29
Speaker 1: nationalists at vli Um. Oh gosh, it's got the UM
11:35
Speaker 1: loud over the e Vloria. I don't know if I
11:38
Speaker 1: was saying that, right, it's got the um loud over
11:39
Speaker 1: the eat. So I'm thinking the e as an oo
11:41
Speaker 1: sound picturing. I'm picturing and picturing in my mind and
11:45
Speaker 1: trying to say the way the picture looks, but they're
11:47
Speaker 1: not quite adding up. But I will sally forth. Um.
11:51
Speaker 1: So they didn't really have much leverage in terms of
11:55
Speaker 1: actual control of Albanian territory besides that town that I'm
12:00
Speaker 1: picturing the word of in my mind, um right now.
12:03
Speaker 1: But on November nineteen twelve, the delegates of this council
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Speaker 1: declared Albanian independence. So that's sort of like, uh, that's
12:13
Speaker 1: that's what you don't know, what is that called overplaying
12:15
Speaker 1: your hand a little bit? Ben, You don't actually have
12:18
Speaker 1: much juice, you know, our suction in the situation, but
12:21
Speaker 1: you make an outrageous claim, hoping that maybe that in
12:24
Speaker 1: and of itself will be enough to convince people that
12:26
Speaker 1: you're like the person for the job, or that you
12:28
Speaker 1: know what you're talking about. Yeah, this is this is
12:31
Speaker 1: a tricky part of geopolitics, and it's one that I
12:35
Speaker 1: think people should talk about more often in public and
12:38
Speaker 1: in the mainstream. So if you want to succeed or
12:42
Speaker 1: if you want to declare independence. What makes your government legitimate.
12:47
Speaker 1: It's such a silly rule, but it's an important one.
12:50
Speaker 1: Your government becomes legitimate when other world governments say, okay,
12:54
Speaker 1: that's legit. So, for instance, take California here in the US.
12:59
Speaker 1: Californi is a state. It has an enormous g DP,
13:03
Speaker 1: like it's huge compared to other countries just that state alone.
13:07
Speaker 1: And if California tried to succeed, uh, it would it's
13:12
Speaker 1: legitimacy would hinge on the international community and on the US.
13:18
Speaker 1: So if other countries basically said, okay, we believe you California,
13:22
Speaker 1: you're a country now, then that would be like the
13:25
Speaker 1: number one steps. So that's what that's what Albania and
13:28
Speaker 1: Kamale are hoping to do here. Like you said, they
13:32
Speaker 1: form their government. They form their own national government. And
13:37
Speaker 1: this national government its representatives choose Comali as president, but
13:44
Speaker 1: a couple of legislative decisions by a legislature that has
13:47
Speaker 1: yet to be internationally recognized. They don't do much to
13:51
Speaker 1: dispel the facts on the ground, which is that the
13:53
Speaker 1: Serbian forces and their pals from earlier Bowling Alley example,
13:58
Speaker 1: are still occupying most to Albania, and they're not gonna leave.
14:02
Speaker 1: They're not gonna they're gonna be like, oh there was
14:04
Speaker 1: a vote, Oh my bad. All right, t t y
14:07
Speaker 1: l back to our own lanes. Times tend to resume.
14:11
Speaker 1: Are our bowls are separate bowls, you know, and put
14:13
Speaker 1: on blinders, uh to each other. No, that was not
14:16
Speaker 1: going to happen because the lane change had already taken place,
14:20
Speaker 1: and you can't walk that back that easily. I'm sorry,
14:22
Speaker 1: Chicken wings be damned. So in November Um the Serbs
14:26
Speaker 1: captured a an area called Darazzo Um and the Greek
14:33
Speaker 1: navy started to blockade that town of the one that
14:38
Speaker 1: I'm trying to picture better than i'm saying on December three.
14:41
Speaker 1: That's a big deal. If you can't, you can't that
14:43
Speaker 1: thing you're talking about ben about establishing like some sort
14:46
Speaker 1: of international connection, you can't do that for being blockaded, right,
14:50
Speaker 1: that's literally you know what a blockade is. It keeps
14:53
Speaker 1: you from exercising trade with anybody or receiving things. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah,
15:00
Speaker 1: it's the divide and conquer for sure. So their attempt
15:04
Speaker 1: to their attempt to declare independence at this point has
15:07
Speaker 1: only pushed the Serbs into further action. Austria. Hungarian forces
15:13
Speaker 1: are still up there near Serbia and Russia. The whole
15:17
Speaker 1: continent is waiting for the other monocle to drop. And
15:22
Speaker 1: if yes, if Russia, and if you got if you
15:25
Speaker 1: have two monocles, isn't that just a pair of glasses?
15:27
Speaker 1: It depends on if you have the little bridge right over,
15:31
Speaker 1: you could have a detachable glasses that become two separate monocles.
15:34
Speaker 1: That'd be a fun flex Maybe each one is a
15:36
Speaker 1: different strength. We're so far ahead of our time. Yeah,
15:39
Speaker 1: so the uh, the thing is, I mean, we're we're trying,
15:44
Speaker 1: we're joking a little bit, but this is a very
15:46
Speaker 1: very serious situation. It's scary, and we want to shout out.
15:50
Speaker 1: I want to shout out mental floss. Of course, you
15:52
Speaker 1: did some great work on this. What was the title
15:55
Speaker 1: of this one? The title of this one? How did
15:58
Speaker 1: you know? Ben? Pulling it up right now? World were
16:00
Speaker 1: one centennial Albania declares Independence was one of the articles
16:05
Speaker 1: for mental flaws that we have been looking at. And
16:08
Speaker 1: then another one was a New Albanian Crisis by Eric
16:11
Speaker 1: sass sas Master the Sasmin himself so yes, So here's
16:16
Speaker 1: what happens. Everybody knows that if Russia and Austria Hungary
16:21
Speaker 1: go to war with each other, all their allies, the
16:23
Speaker 1: other European great powers are going to be sucked in.
16:27
Speaker 1: And so these tensions continue to ratchet up until Austria
16:32
Speaker 1: and Hungary eventually agree on a compromise and all of
16:37
Speaker 1: the all of the big fish, the big dogs of
16:40
Speaker 1: Europe at the time, meet at something called the Conference
16:43
Speaker 1: of London, and they agree that the best way to
16:46
Speaker 1: smooth this out and avoid war is in fact, to
16:49
Speaker 1: create a new independent Albanian state. So problem solved. That's
16:54
Speaker 1: our episode. Thanks so much for tuning in. Promised deception,
16:59
Speaker 1: most foul, and and and and subterfuge, most elaborate. And
17:04
Speaker 1: I don't think we hinted circus performers yet, but we're
17:06
Speaker 1: gonna go ahead and drop that hint right now, sort
17:09
Speaker 1: of sword swallowers, let's do it. I think we're at
17:12
Speaker 1: that place right now. So I appreciate you um coming
17:15
Speaker 1: along with us for this very very uh inside baseball
17:19
Speaker 1: geopolitical portion of the episode. But here comes the fun stuff. Yes,
17:29
Speaker 1: here's the here's the fun stuff. Okay, so the Albanian
17:34
Speaker 1: situation is not settled at all. Uh, Serbia and Montenegro
17:38
Speaker 1: are like these guys, these fat cats over the Conference
17:42
Speaker 1: of London. They don't know what they're talking about. We're nationalists.
17:45
Speaker 1: We're not giving up our claims that easily. So they
17:49
Speaker 1: have decided in a secret pact with Greece to divide
17:53
Speaker 1: Albania into Serbian and Greek kind of the column spheres
17:58
Speaker 1: of influence. And they never the Serbian has never actually
18:00
Speaker 1: left Albania. They just said, oh, we're gonna like supervise
18:05
Speaker 1: the border, blah blah blah. And at this point, folks,
18:08
Speaker 1: you're probably saying, hey, um, this is Mail Kamali. Dude, Uh,
18:13
Speaker 1: he's not the guy you you guys mentioned at first,
18:16
Speaker 1: is he? He's a president, not a king. That's interesting
18:19
Speaker 1: that you say that, because now a new protagonist has
18:23
Speaker 1: entered our stage, an acrobat, a weird dude, which you
18:28
Speaker 1: know was always a compliment on our show. His name
18:32
Speaker 1: otto vite am I saying that right now? I think so?
18:36
Speaker 1: I think I think think Vita like bitch, like plea
18:40
Speaker 1: alf Deutsch. So the thing that's interesting about this and
18:43
Speaker 1: the reason maybe some of this sounds like convoluted gobbledygook
18:46
Speaker 1: is because a lot of these claims in these UM series,
18:50
Speaker 1: these these accounts of events following that proclamation of independence
18:54
Speaker 1: from Albania UH independence from the Ottoman Empire are kind
18:57
Speaker 1: of disputed. UM. And what we're telling today is one
19:01
Speaker 1: version of the story UH. And. In this version, the
19:03
Speaker 1: independence leaders chose UH their protector, or they essentially, you know,
19:10
Speaker 1: UH ensconced like a new leader, a temporary leader by
19:14
Speaker 1: the name of a person named Halim Adan, who is
19:18
Speaker 1: a Turkish prince. UH. And in this version of the story,
19:22
Speaker 1: Dan shows up in duriss Um, which was the Albanian
19:26
Speaker 1: capital at the time, UM, dressed in luxurious flowing robes
19:31
Speaker 1: and and silks and and adorned with fine incense and
19:36
Speaker 1: mur and and an oil sweet smelling perfumes, I assume,
19:40
Speaker 1: and of course was accompanied by a quite large valet
19:44
Speaker 1: real bruiser of a bodyguard. UM. He immediately declared amnesty
19:49
Speaker 1: UH for the prisoners of the conflict, declared a week
19:52
Speaker 1: of celebration UM, and he appointed all of these feuderal
19:58
Speaker 1: lords a place in his new cabinet. UM. Then he
20:02
Speaker 1: was presented with twenty five presumably virgin women for his Harem.
20:08
Speaker 1: Then it was everyone was really into this guy, and
20:10
Speaker 1: everyone was like, Okay, we like this guy a lot.
20:12
Speaker 1: It's very Prince Ali kind of situation. Um, And they
20:15
Speaker 1: decided they wanted to formally crown him king and they
20:18
Speaker 1: did that. He became king Otto five days. Yeah. Yeah,
20:23
Speaker 1: So here's the thing, and we're in a bit of
20:26
Speaker 1: a face off situation in a good way. So Otto
20:29
Speaker 1: Viti uh Delica said, weird, dude. He has spent most
20:34
Speaker 1: of his life kind of is what you would call
20:38
Speaker 1: a hobo, you know, kind of a carney. He's lion
20:41
Speaker 1: tam or. He's a magician. He has a nomadic existence.
20:45
Speaker 1: He's traveled across multiple continents. He speaks Turkish fluently. Uh.
20:50
Speaker 1: And he also loves telling a good story, like my
20:55
Speaker 1: old man. He will never let the truth get in
20:58
Speaker 1: the way of a good tale and he uh. He
21:02
Speaker 1: was a major in the Ottoman army in nine and
21:05
Speaker 1: as the Ottoman Empire was disintegrating Albania was becoming independent,
21:10
Speaker 1: they decided that the only way to really have security
21:14
Speaker 1: in the country was to crown a king, and Albanian people,
21:20
Speaker 1: again largely Muslim population, would not ever go for your
21:25
Speaker 1: garden variety Christian king of some denomination or another. They
21:30
Speaker 1: wanted a king was Muslim, So they said, what about
21:32
Speaker 1: this guy, this very striking figure that you just described,
21:37
Speaker 1: nol Halim a dean. Uh. That suggestion was made and
21:41
Speaker 1: people were on board, so the news was announced. They
21:45
Speaker 1: wanted this man a deemed to be King. Vitte is
21:48
Speaker 1: reading a story in a newspaper while he's living in
21:51
Speaker 1: Budapesh and he says, you know what, I look a
21:56
Speaker 1: lot like this guy. What what if I what if
22:01
Speaker 1: I just what if I just go? What if I
22:04
Speaker 1: just pull? Uh? Is it King Ralph? Vehicle that was
22:11
Speaker 1: very first and learned the name of the uh the
22:14
Speaker 1: very naught only named British delicacy spotted dick because they
22:19
Speaker 1: make it. They make a real to do of that
22:20
Speaker 1: in the movie King King King Ralph. UM. Yeah, so
22:24
Speaker 1: he's like, you know, I mean I've done it before
22:26
Speaker 1: after all, right, because um. One thing we didn't mention
22:29
Speaker 1: about his uh CV is that he actually um threw
22:33
Speaker 1: a similar subterfuge. UH. He was named the honorary chief
22:37
Speaker 1: of a Pygmy tribe in Africa, UM largely because he
22:41
Speaker 1: was able to wow them with magic tricks and all
22:44
Speaker 1: that good stuff. So maybe he wasn't necessarily lying. He
22:47
Speaker 1: was just they loved them so much that they made
22:49
Speaker 1: him an honorary chief. Why why not do it again,
22:52
Speaker 1: only this time maybe involving a little bit more deception.
22:55
Speaker 1: So he sets off, Yeah, yeah, he sets off. He says,
22:58
Speaker 1: you know what, I am fluent in Turkish. I'm gonna
23:02
Speaker 1: pretend to be the king of Albania, and uh let
23:07
Speaker 1: me let me just hop on it right, let me
23:09
Speaker 1: strike while the iron is hot. He sends out some telegrams.
23:14
Speaker 1: You know, picture picture this scene in Aladdin where it's
23:17
Speaker 1: like Prince Lie and so he's announcing his arrival. He dude,
23:25
Speaker 1: he literally rents an outfit that looks, you know, like
23:29
Speaker 1: the kaid you described, because a normal person couldn't afford
23:32
Speaker 1: to buy something of that caliber. He packed his bags.
23:36
Speaker 1: He uh is joined by his ride or die, a
23:39
Speaker 1: guy named Max Schlipsig. Schlipsig, who was a sword swallower.
23:44
Speaker 1: That's where that comes in. And at this time they
23:48
Speaker 1: arrive in the in the then capital of Albania, Durist,
23:53
Speaker 1: and he convinces the locals with his wonderful gift of
23:57
Speaker 1: gab that he is in fact Halim Dean he is
24:00
Speaker 1: crowned the new king the next week is amazing. He
24:04
Speaker 1: has an actual harem, which is very problematic thing, but
24:09
Speaker 1: he definitely makes use of it. He has military parades.
24:13
Speaker 1: He's kicking it in one of the top tier tents
24:16
Speaker 1: for royals. He decides to declare war on Montenegro because
24:22
Speaker 1: he can. Like how wild is his Wednesday and Thursday?
24:26
Speaker 1: You know, what would you call this guy? Chaotic? Evil? Okay, chaotic?
24:31
Speaker 1: He's chaotic? Something I don't is he? I don't think
24:35
Speaker 1: he's neutral though, if he's declaring war on Montenegro, just
24:38
Speaker 1: Willie Nilly for kicks, well, chaotic neutral is essentially the
24:43
Speaker 1: primary guiding force of that alignment. Oh God, put him
24:47
Speaker 1: a nerdy D and D monocle. Here is that they
24:51
Speaker 1: just follow the individual rules. It's like nationalism for one person.
24:56
Speaker 1: I see, Okay, I got it. So he's an army
24:59
Speaker 1: of one, uh, not worried about anybody else? That makes sense.
25:02
Speaker 1: I mean the whole thing. What does he think he's
25:03
Speaker 1: gonna get out of this other than a handful of
25:05
Speaker 1: days of like you know, King Ralph type behavior. Um.
25:09
Speaker 1: Obviously he was not aware of that incredible seminal Hollywood
25:13
Speaker 1: classic at the time, But like, did you think this
25:16
Speaker 1: was gonna keep going? I mean, surely the real Adele
25:19
Speaker 1: does seem I was gonna come. I'm sorry, I know
25:21
Speaker 1: that's not his name. That's just the name the John
25:23
Speaker 1: Travolta called Adina Menzel at the Oscars that one time,
25:26
Speaker 1: which you know, made everybody on the internet laugh for
25:28
Speaker 1: for weeks months even I continue to laugh at that joke.
25:32
Speaker 1: Hallem Adem, Yeah, that's right, it's not that far off.
25:35
Speaker 1: Did you think that guy wasn't gonna turn up? Like,
25:37
Speaker 1: I just don't understand what goes through the mind of
25:39
Speaker 1: a person like this. I mean, I guess it's it
25:41
Speaker 1: takes a different type to live that circus life and
25:45
Speaker 1: to just kind of, like you know, fly fly by
25:47
Speaker 1: the seat of of of one's pants in such a
25:50
Speaker 1: dangerous way like this seems like it would just result
25:53
Speaker 1: in him being executed, you know. Yeah, the new you
25:58
Speaker 1: have to wonder. I think he got caught up in
26:00
Speaker 1: the love of the improv here and the love of
26:03
Speaker 1: the con so, of course, a newly independent Albania, a
26:07
Speaker 1: new king. This makes international headlines, newspapers and telegrams spend
26:12
Speaker 1: a lot of ink on it. The word spreads quickly
26:15
Speaker 1: and the word eventually reaches Istanbul, and in Istanbul, this
26:20
Speaker 1: announcement is pretty confusing for the Sultan, because the Sultan
26:26
Speaker 1: knew his nephew Haleem a Dean was on vacation in Vienna,
26:31
Speaker 1: he physically was not in Albania. And eventually, eventually Vitta
26:36
Speaker 1: has to realize. Al Otto has to say, okay, maybe
26:41
Speaker 1: I jumped the gun a bit. So he and his
26:43
Speaker 1: pal and his pal the sword Swallower say okay, uh,
26:49
Speaker 1: this grift might not last as long as we thought.
26:51
Speaker 1: They raid the treasury, They flee the country, and they
26:56
Speaker 1: go to a place called Bari b a r I
27:00
Speaker 1: with some help from some members of the Harem, who
27:03
Speaker 1: apparently they have formed a fast friendship with. So uh yuh.
27:08
Speaker 1: There's many reasons that could have happened. You know. This
27:11
Speaker 1: reminds me of been. This reminds me of the reason
27:14
Speaker 1: that are the very crux of like most of the
27:17
Speaker 1: plots of like nineties sitcoms, Seinfeld in particular, like that
27:22
Speaker 1: all of these elaborate ruses and misunderstandings are only allowed
27:26
Speaker 1: to continue for as long as they do because of
27:28
Speaker 1: lack of like cell phone or like fast communications would
27:33
Speaker 1: Seinfeld problem, This would have deemed this whole ruse would
27:36
Speaker 1: have fallen apart instantly if someone could have just like
27:38
Speaker 1: you know, checked the guy's passport or like scanned his
27:42
Speaker 1: you know face and compared it with an actual picture.
27:45
Speaker 1: This is one of those situations that hinges on a
27:47
Speaker 1: lack of technology and the ability to confirm people's stories,
27:52
Speaker 1: because he stuck to it hard. He committed to the
27:56
Speaker 1: bit until beyond the bitter end. Because, as you said,
27:59
Speaker 1: ben Um, Vita and Schleipsig actually reigning the treasury. They
28:04
Speaker 1: made off with some cash. There was a bit of
28:06
Speaker 1: a heist element here, and then they fled the country
28:10
Speaker 1: to bari Um and several years later Vita, who is
28:17
Speaker 1: shockingly alive, shockingly alive Um, he tells he writes a book,
28:22
Speaker 1: or his daughter rather writes a book, and he contributes
28:24
Speaker 1: to this book, you know. In in the telling of
28:26
Speaker 1: this tale, his daughter quote Princess Elfrida Vita Um. She
28:33
Speaker 1: refers to her father in the book as quote the
28:35
Speaker 1: greatest adventurer of all time. He somehow managed to escape
28:40
Speaker 1: any kind of criminal charges or prosecution or any kind
28:45
Speaker 1: of seemingly um consequences whatsoever. Yeah, yeah, that's the that's
28:50
Speaker 1: the weirdest thing. He didn't more than just escape the consequences.
28:55
Speaker 1: He uh, he didn't get punished in any way. And
29:03
Speaker 1: people even today will say that this is just a
29:07
Speaker 1: tall tale. Uh, the old man may have spun because
29:12
Speaker 1: folks will in their defense, they will rightly point out
29:15
Speaker 1: that there's not a shred of local evidence to back
29:19
Speaker 1: up any part of his story. Furthermore, if you look
29:23
Speaker 1: at the historical record of the Ottoman Empire, there is
29:26
Speaker 1: no Prince Halleen, there is no ka Ze. Oh yeah,
29:30
Speaker 1: that was about bed out of my head. I think
29:33
Speaker 1: it makes me look too much time together. I was
29:35
Speaker 1: totally picturing that scene where you look at well, this
29:37
Speaker 1: is actually the second time. Second time this has been
29:41
Speaker 1: reference to the last few weeks between our various shows.
29:44
Speaker 1: But this is the part where at the end he's
29:46
Speaker 1: looking up at the board and he's just putting together
29:48
Speaker 1: stuff based on like words that are just like on
29:51
Speaker 1: like you know, Cathy cartoons that are pinned to a corkboard,
29:54
Speaker 1: you know, at the bottom of like a coffee mug. Yeah,
29:56
Speaker 1: and well it makes sense, right, but if you think
29:59
Speaker 1: about it, I mean the Albanians were so horrifically you know,
30:04
Speaker 1: um punked by this guy. That maybe and also this,
30:08
Speaker 1: this this whole prince situation was only meant to be
30:11
Speaker 1: kind of a stop gap or kind of remember they
30:14
Speaker 1: did not really have the upper hand, so this was
30:17
Speaker 1: all just kind of a farcet almost in a way,
30:20
Speaker 1: or their ability to kind of create a front that
30:23
Speaker 1: made it look like they had it under control more
30:26
Speaker 1: than they actually did. If I'm not mistaken, because the
30:29
Speaker 1: serbs were still breathing down their neck, right then, yeah, yeah,
30:33
Speaker 1: this is still I mean, that's the that's the opinion
30:36
Speaker 1: of it is supporters, right, is that the easiest way
30:42
Speaker 1: to say it is maybe they were embarrassed that they
30:44
Speaker 1: got played so hard, so they erased the evidence, of
30:48
Speaker 1: which happens. Countries and empires do erase stuff. That's part
30:52
Speaker 1: of the gig. Was one of Stalin's favorite things to do,
30:55
Speaker 1: is someone that like you know, looked at it run
30:57
Speaker 1: they would just he would just like literally cut their
30:59
Speaker 1: faces out of like all the photos that they were together.
31:01
Speaker 1: Why would you ever work for that guy? You know
31:04
Speaker 1: what I mean. It's like anyway, that's an episode for
31:08
Speaker 1: another day. But after all this does or does not happen.
31:14
Speaker 1: The funny thing is that Vita spends the rest of
31:17
Speaker 1: his life insisting on being called the former King of Albania,
31:23
Speaker 1: and the government of Germany capitulates to this insistence. He
31:28
Speaker 1: was able to have former King of Albania on his
31:32
Speaker 1: official German I d wait? Is that is that a thing?
31:35
Speaker 1: Can I get like a special line with some like
31:39
Speaker 1: you know, what do you call that honorific? You know?
31:42
Speaker 1: Like is that like sort of like the equivalent of
31:44
Speaker 1: getting like a vanity plate for I've never heard of
31:47
Speaker 1: this before. You can, it's a little different in the US,
31:50
Speaker 1: but you can't what you can do. There's a loophole
31:53
Speaker 1: where I'm not officially condoning, and I'm not officially saying
31:56
Speaker 1: it's surprisingly easy to do this. Again, I'm not officially
31:59
Speaker 1: say it is surprisingly easy to do this. You have
32:02
Speaker 1: to commit to the bit though. If you legally change
32:06
Speaker 1: your name to something that sounds like an honorific or
32:09
Speaker 1: a title, then it will be put on you know,
32:13
Speaker 1: your passport, your driver's license, your fishing license, your totem
32:18
Speaker 1: chip whatever. Is there any law against having more than
32:22
Speaker 1: one middle name, or having like multiple I No, I
32:24
Speaker 1: didn't think so right, So I could be like nol
32:27
Speaker 1: Christian cool guy McGhee brown, you know, I mean, if
32:33
Speaker 1: I if I wanted to go all the way with him.
32:34
Speaker 1: The only thing is, uh, I think I can't remember.
32:37
Speaker 1: The law might be state by state, but the main
32:40
Speaker 1: thing is a judge has to agree and think it's
32:43
Speaker 1: a serious thing. So you might have a tougher time
32:45
Speaker 1: if you're like, I'm gonna like if I went to
32:47
Speaker 1: court and said I'm gonna change my name to snake
32:50
Speaker 1: bite make fist punch, then I would need to, like,
32:54
Speaker 1: I would need to have a reason why. You would
32:57
Speaker 1: need to demonstrate bridle bad as that judge and then
33:02
Speaker 1: stock him one. He would he would just be like,
33:05
Speaker 1: I like the kind of this guy's jib snake bite,
33:08
Speaker 1: Mr mcfist punch it is, And then he would also,
33:10
Speaker 1: you know, probably send you to jail for contempt or
33:13
Speaker 1: assault at the least probably Yeah. But but with is
33:16
Speaker 1: it possible there may be a law I don't know yet,
33:19
Speaker 1: but there may be a law that says like, um
33:22
Speaker 1: Max can name himself anything you want, as long as
33:27
Speaker 1: it doesn't mean that he's impersonating a like it's not
33:31
Speaker 1: for identity theft or identity fraud. You know, probably there
33:34
Speaker 1: are there are rules against having swears and there too,
33:37
Speaker 1: I would imagine, yes, I would just imagine. I don't
33:41
Speaker 1: know for sure, right, um, which is why snake bite
33:45
Speaker 1: doesn't have a middle Namecock around and find out punch, punch, mcgilla, cutty, yes, bold, yes, Yeah.
33:56
Speaker 1: It's a long line. It's a tradition. So let us
33:58
Speaker 1: know if you have ever called to court and said,
34:01
Speaker 1: you know, something along the lines of your honor, I
34:04
Speaker 1: would like to change my name to viscount you know whatever,
34:08
Speaker 1: or duke blah blah blah. But that's that's what this
34:13
Speaker 1: guy did. That's that's what the German government let him do.
34:17
Speaker 1: So in a way, whether or not the story happened,
34:19
Speaker 1: he was successful. You know what else he did he died, Yeah,
34:24
Speaker 1: he did on August thirteenth of n anniversary of his
34:30
Speaker 1: possible coronation. So again, I want to make it real clear,
34:34
Speaker 1: if we had, like all the worry stuff that we said,
34:36
Speaker 1: all of that kind of boring geopolitics, that uh, this
34:40
Speaker 1: part may or may not be true because you know,
34:43
Speaker 1: things get lost in these kind of these these kind
34:46
Speaker 1: of conflicts, you know, details, Um, so I'd like to
34:51
Speaker 1: believe that this is true. Um Otto Visa definitely was
34:55
Speaker 1: a real person, so we know that much. That's sure
34:58
Speaker 1: that he died on August thirt of ben Do you know, Uh,
35:03
Speaker 1: put you on the spot here for a little trivia.
35:05
Speaker 1: Do you know what symbol the Albanian flag bears? I do?
35:10
Speaker 1: I do because I've been watching a lot of weird
35:13
Speaker 1: stuff involving Albania recently. It is an eagle, but it
35:18
Speaker 1: is an eagle that does not exist in the natural world.
35:21
Speaker 1: It's an eagle with two heads and it's kind of
35:24
Speaker 1: I think they're facing opposite directions, right, like one's facing left,
35:27
Speaker 1: one's facing right. Yeah. It's the symbol of fortitude, nationalism,
35:33
Speaker 1: and empire, and the two heads are said to represent
35:35
Speaker 1: the northern and southern portions of the of the country
35:39
Speaker 1: and something that's wrapped up in local folklore. The Albanian
35:43
Speaker 1: name for itself is uh, it's a weird, dude. It's
35:49
Speaker 1: got a que after an s h. How do you
35:51
Speaker 1: do that? Speria? I think um, which literally translates to
35:59
Speaker 1: land of the eagles. Um. They must really love Hotel California.
36:04
Speaker 1: That's their national song there. Yeah, yeah, that's the National
36:07
Speaker 1: band as well, um, all of whom speak of Albanian,
36:10
Speaker 1: all of the eagles and real big, real big, and
36:15
Speaker 1: they when they stop in that country. Um. But yeah,
36:18
Speaker 1: that's that's how we got for today, A nice, short
36:20
Speaker 1: and sweet, one very interesting, potentially tall tale situated amidst
36:26
Speaker 1: a very very real, uh story of a conflict. Yeah,
36:31
Speaker 1: and I you know what I'd love to hear from
36:33
Speaker 1: our fellow ridiculous historians. Will be other other stories of
36:38
Speaker 1: great acts of impersonation like this. This is this is
36:43
Speaker 1: a con He did hurt people, to be clear, because
36:46
Speaker 1: he stole the National Treasury or stole from it, so
36:50
Speaker 1: we can't condone it. But there's something I cannot help
36:53
Speaker 1: but admire about the uh, the ambition, the sheer audacity
36:59
Speaker 1: of the sort of can So let us know, let
37:02
Speaker 1: us know if there are other stories throughout history that
37:05
Speaker 1: seems similar. We'd love to hear about these rogues and
37:08
Speaker 1: ne'er do wells. In the meantime, Thank you as always
37:11
Speaker 1: for tuning in. Thanks so much to our one and
37:15
Speaker 1: only super producer, Max Williams, who is Johnny on the
37:18
Speaker 1: spot when it comes to looking up obscure members of
37:22
Speaker 1: the aristocracy. Thanks to Casey, pegram and and nol as
37:26
Speaker 1: always man, thanks to you. I feel like we can
37:28
Speaker 1: pull this off if it weren't for cell phones. I
37:31
Speaker 1: feel like we can pull something like this, You and I. Yeah,
37:34
Speaker 1: I can be your wing I could be your wingman. Yeah,
37:37
Speaker 1: we could have dual, dual wingman. I'll be the left
37:39
Speaker 1: head of the eagle, masking me the right, and you
37:41
Speaker 1: can be uh the the the impostor to the throne. Right.
37:47
Speaker 1: Just in case podcasting doesn't work out for us, what
37:50
Speaker 1: what country will we try for? We'll we'll have to
37:53
Speaker 1: talk about this off air because no spoilers, definitely not.
37:56
Speaker 1: We'll see you next time. Yeah. For more podcasts from
38:05
Speaker 1: My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple podcast,
38:08
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.