King Zog I of Albania rarely made public appearances. He only trusted his mother to make his food for fear of poisoning. The paranoid king only surrounded himself with his most loyal guards, who were also members of his tribe or his family.
It turns out, King Zog I may have been onto something, as he survived around 55 assassination attempts throughout his life. Amazingly, he wasn’t the only world leader who survived dozens of attempts to kill him.
Early Life And His Ascent To Power
King Zog I was born Ahmet Muhtar Bej Zogolli in 1895. As a young man, Zogolli helped his country fight for independence from the Ottoman Empire.
As a colonel in the revolutionary forces, he rallied 2,000 troops against the Turks in a remote area of Albania at the age of 17. His countrymen heard of the bravery, and Zogolli became a part of national politics. He then changed his surname to Zogu to make it sound more Albanian.
