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Ferdinand I of Bulgaria

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Ferdinand I (Ferdinand Maximilian Karl Leopold Maria; 26 February 1861 – 10 September 1948) was Prince of Bulgaria from 1887 to 1908 and Tsar of Bulgaria from 1908 until his abdication in 1918. Under his rule, Bulgaria entered the First World War on the side of the Central Powers in 1915.[1]

Ferdinand I
Фердинанд I
Ferdinand in 1912
Tsar of Bulgaria
Reign5 October 1908 – 3 October 1918
PredecessorHimself as Prince
SuccessorBoris III
Prince of Bulgaria
Reign7 July 1887 – 5 October 1908
PredecessorAlexander
SuccessorHimself as Tsar
Born26 February 1861
Vienna, Austrian Empire
Died10 September 1948(1948-09-10) (aged 87)
Coburg, Allied-occupied Germany
Burial
Spouses
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 1893; died 1899)​
  • ​
    ​
    (m. 1908; died 1917)​
  • ​
    (m. 1947)​
Issue
Names
German: Ferdinand Maximilian Karl Leopold Maria
HouseSaxe-Coburg and Gotha-Koháry
FatherPrince August of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha
MotherPrincess Clémentine of Orléans
ReligionRoman Catholic
Signature
Ferdinand in Bulgarian Field Marshal's uniform 1941

Family background

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See also: Bulgarian royal family

Ferdinand was born on 26 February 1861 in Vienna,[2] a German prince of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha-Koháry. He was the son of Prince August of Saxe-Coburg and his wife Clémentine of Orléans, daughter of King Louis Philippe I of the French. Princess Maria Antonia Koháry was a Hungarian Noble and heiress who married Ferdinand's grandfather, Prince Ferdinand of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. Ferdinand was raised in his parents’ Catholic faith and baptised in St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna on 27 February, having as godparents Archduke Maximilian of Austria and his wife Princess Charlotte of Belgium.[3] He grew up in the cosmopolitan environment of Austro-Hungarian high nobility and also in their ancestral lands in Hungary and in Germany. The House of Koháry descended from an immensely wealthy Upper Hungarian noble family, who held the princely lands of Čabraď and Sitno in present-day Slovakia, among others. The family's property was augmented by Clémentine of Orléans' remarkable dowry.[4]

Ferdinand was a grandnephew of Ernest I, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha and of Leopold I, first king of the Belgians. His father August was a brother of King Ferdinand II of Portugal, and also a first cousin to Queen Victoria, her husband Albert, Empress Carlota of Mexico and her brother Leopold II of Belgium. These last two, Leopold and Carlota, were also first cousins of Ferdinand I's through his mother, a princess of Orléans. This made the Belgian siblings his first cousins, as well as his first cousins once removed. Indeed, the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha had contrived to occupy, either by marriage or by direct election, several European thrones in the course of the 19th century. Following the family trend, Ferdinand was himself to found the royal dynasty of Bulgaria.[4]

Prince of Bulgaria

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The Nine Sovereigns at Windsor for the funeral of King Edward VII, photographed on 20 May 1910. Standing, from left to right: King Haakon VII of Norway, Tsar Ferdinand of the Bulgarians, King Manuel II of Portugal and the Algarve, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany and Prussia, King George I of the Hellenes and King Albert I of the Belgians. Seated, from left to right: King Alfonso XIII of Spain, King George V of the United Kingdom and King Frederick VIII of Denmark.

The previous ruling prince of Bulgaria, Alexander of Battenberg, had abdicated in 1886 after a pro-Russian coup, only seven years after he had been elected.[5] Ferdinand, who was an officer in the Austro-Hungarian army, was elected Prince of autonomous Bulgaria by its Grand National Assembly on 7 July 1887 in the Gregorian calendar (the "New Style" used hereinafter).[5] The throne had been previously offered, before Ferdinand's acceptance, to princes from Denmark to the Caucasus and even to the King of Romania.[6] The Russian tsar himself had nominated his aide, Nichols Dadian of Mingrelia, but his candidacy was rejected by the Bulgarians. Ferdinand's accession was greeted with disbelief in many of the royal houses of Europe; Queen Victoria, his father's first cousin, stated to her prime minister, "He is totally unfit ... delicate, eccentric and effeminate ... Should be stopped at once."[7] To the amazement of his initial detractors, Ferdinand generally made a good account of himself during the first two decades of his reign.[7]

Bulgaria's domestic political life was dominated during the early years of Ferdinand's reign by liberal party leader Stefan Stambolov, whose foreign policy saw a marked cooling in relations with Russia, formerly seen as Bulgaria's protector.

Stambolov's fall (May 1894) and subsequent assassination (July 1895) - probably not engineered by Ferdinand[8] - paved the way for a reconciliation of Bulgaria with Russia, effected in February 1896 with Ferdinand's decision to convert his infant son, Prince Boris, from Roman Catholicism to Eastern Orthodoxy. However, this earned him the animosity of his Catholic Austrian relatives, and he was excommunicated by Pope Leo XIII.

Tsar of Bulgaria

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Silver coin: 5 leva, Ferdinand I, 1894

On 5 October 1908 (celebrated on 22 September), Ferdinand proclaimed Bulgaria's de jure independence from the Ottoman Empire (though the country had been de facto independent since 1878). He also proclaimed Bulgaria a kingdom, and assumed the title of tsar—a deliberate nod to the rulers of the earlier Bulgarian states.[6] However, while the title tsar was translated as "emperor" in the First and Second Bulgarian empires, it was translated as "king" under Ferdinand and his successors.[9] The Bulgarian Declaration of Independence was proclaimed by him at the Holy Forty Martyrs Church in Tarnovo, and was recognized by the Ottoman Empire and the other European powers.[6] The Tarnovo Constitution was retained, with the word "prince" replaced by the word "tsar."

On a visit to German Emperor Wilhelm II, his second cousin once removed, in 1909, Ferdinand was leaning out of a window of the New Palace in Potsdam when the Emperor came up behind him and slapped him on the bottom. Ferdinand was affronted by the gesture, but the Kaiser refused to apologize. Ferdinand however exacted his revenge by awarding a valuable arms contract he had intended to give to the Krupp's factory in Essen to French arms manufacturer Schneider-Creusot.[10] Another incident occurred on his journey to the funeral of his second cousin King Edward VII of the United Kingdom in 1910. A tussle broke out over where his private railway carriage would be positioned in relation to the heir presumptive to the Austro-Hungarian throne, Archduke Franz Ferdinand. The Archduke won out, having his carriage positioned directly behind the engine. Ferdinand's was placed directly behind his. Realising the dining car of the train was behind his own carriage, Ferdinand obtained his revenge on the Archduke by refusing him passage through his own carriage to the dining car.[11] On 15 July the same year during a visit to Belgium, Ferdinand also became the first head of state to fly in an airplane. He awarded the pilot of the plane with a medal when they landed.[12]

Balkan Wars (1912–1913)

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Main article: Balkan Wars

Like many other rulers before him, Ferdinand desired the creation of a "new Byzantium", a desire that has to be interpreted as wanting to create a significant, essentially Christian, Balkan power, given that Bulgaria and Bulgarians had neither cultural, ethnic, historical nor linguistic affinity with the old Byzantine Empire, which was quintessentially Roman and, evolving through the centuries, Greek.[13] In 1912, Ferdinand joined the other Balkan states in an assault on the Ottoman Empire to free occupied territories. He saw this war as a new crusade declaring it, "a just, great and sacred struggle of the Cross against the Crescent."[14] Bulgaria contributed the most and also lost the greatest number of soldiers. The Great Powers insisted on the creation of an independent Albania.[6] Though the Balkan League allies had fought together against the common enemy in the First Balkan War, that was not enough to overcome their mutual rivalries. In the original documents for the Balkan League, Serbia had been pressured by Bulgaria to hand over most of Vardar Macedonia after it had conquered it from the Ottoman Empire. However Serbia, in response to the new Albanian state receiving territory in the north that it had expected to gain for itself, said that it would keep possession of the areas that its forces had occupied. Soon after, Bulgaria began the Second Balkan War when it invaded its recent allies Serbia and Greece to seize disputed areas, before being attacked itself by Romania and the Ottoman Empire. Although Bulgaria was defeated, the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest granted the Kingdom some territorial gains. The region of Western Thrace, giving access to the Aegean Sea was secured.[6]

First World War and abdication (1915–1918)

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Main article: Bulgaria during World War I
 
Emperor Wilhelm and Tsar Ferdinand in Sofia, 1916

On 11 October 1915, the Bulgarian army attacked Serbia after signing a treaty with Austria-Hungary and Germany stating that Bulgaria would gain the territory it sought at the expense of Serbia. While he was not an admirer of German Emperor Wilhelm II or Austrian Emperor Franz Josef I—whom he described as "that idiot, that old dotard of a Francis Joseph".[15]—Ferdinand wanted additional territorial gains after the humiliation of the Balkan Wars. This also entailed forming an alliance with his former enemy, the Ottoman Empire. This ranging of his country with the Central Powers made him a de facto supporter of Germany's war aims and was not well received by the Allies. Edmund Gosse wrote:

“In this war, where the ranks of the enemy present to us so many formidable, sinister, and shocking figures, there is one, and perhaps but one, which is purely ridiculous. If we had the heart to relieve our strained feelings by laughter, it would be at the gross Coburg traitor, with his bodyguard of assassins and his hidden coat-of-mail, his shaking hands and his painted face. The world has never seen a meaner scoundrel, and we may almost bring ourselves to pity the Kaiser, whom circumstances have forced to accept on equal terms a potentate so verminous.”

During the initial phase of World War I, the Tsardom of Bulgaria achieved several decisive victories over its enemies and laid claim to the disputed territories of Macedonia after Serbia's defeat. For the next two years, the Bulgarian army shifted its focus towards repelling Allied advances from nearby Greece. They were also partially involved in the 1916 conquest of neighboring Romania, now ruled by another Ferdinand I, who was also Ferdinand's first cousin once removed.

To save the Bulgarian monarchy after multiple military setbacks in 1918, Tsar Ferdinand abdicated in favour of his eldest son, who became Tsar Boris III on 3 October 1918.[16] Under new leadership, Bulgaria surrendered to the Entente and, as a consequence, lost not only the additional territory it had fought for in the major conflict, but also the territory it had won after the Balkan Wars giving access to the Aegean Sea.[16]

Personal life

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WWI-era portrait of Ferdinand I

Ferdinand married Princess Marie Louise of Bourbon-Parma, daughter of Robert I, Duke of Parma and Princess Maria Pia of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, on 20 April 1893 at the Villa Pianore in Lucca. Steven Constant describes this as a "marriage of convenience".[17] The marriage produced four children:

Marie Louise died on 31 January 1899 after giving birth to her youngest daughter. Ferdinand did not think about remarriage until his mother, Princess Clémentine, died in 1907. To satisfy dynastic obligations and to provide his children with a mother figure, Ferdinand married Princess Eleonore Reuss of Köstritz, on 28 February 1908.[18] Neither romantic love or physical attraction played any role, and Ferdinand treated her as no more than a member of the household, and showed scant regard.[19]

In his private relations, Ferdinand was a somewhat hedonistic individual. He enjoyed affairs with a number of women of humble position, siring a number of illegitimate children whom he then supported financially.[19] In his later life, rumours abounded of Ferdinand's trysts with lieutenants and valets. His regular holidays on Capri, then a popular holiday destination with wealthy epicenes, were common knowledge in royal courts throughout Europe.[20]

He was remembered in his cousin's memoir: "Prince Ferdinand, who was a Coburg, was a cousin of my father’s, and I remember the latter saying, when we got back to the hotel, that being the youngest of his family he was naturally looked upon as a fool, “ But,” said my father, “ for the fool of the family he has not done so badly for himself and I should not be surprised if he did not prove them all to be wrong.” He was always mocked at by his relations for covering himself with orders and decorations created by himself, and he was rudely nicknamed “ the Christmas-tree,”"[21]

Exile and death (1918–1948)

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After his abdication, Ferdinand returned to live in Coburg, Germany. He had managed to salvage much of his fortune and was able to live in some style.[22] He saw his being in exile simply as one of the hazards of kingship.[22] He commented, "Kings in exile are more philosophic under reverses than ordinary individuals; but our philosophy is primarily the result of tradition and breeding, and do not forget that pride is an important item in the making of a monarch. We are disciplined from the day of our birth and taught the avoidance of all outward signs of emotion. The skeleton sits forever with us at the feast. It may mean murder, it may mean abdication, but it serves always to remind us of the unexpected. Therefore we are prepared and nothing comes in the nature of a catastrophe. The main thing in life is to support any condition of bodily or spiritual exile with dignity. If one sups with sorrow, one need not invite the world to see you eat."[23] He was pleased that the throne could pass to his son. Ferdinand was not displeased with exile and spent much of his time devoted to artistic endeavors, gardening, travel and natural history. In 1922 the Bulgarian government gave former King Ferdinand I, who had been living in exile since 1918, permission to return to Sofia. The Kingdom of Yugoslavia immediately sent an ultimatum objecting to the move.[24]

However, he would live to see the collapse of everything he had held to be precious in life.[23] His eldest son and successor, Boris III, died under mysterious circumstances after returning from a visit to Hitler in Germany in 1943. Boris' son, Simeon II, succeeded him only to be deposed in 1946, ending the Bulgarian monarchy. The Kingdom of Bulgaria was succeeded by the People's Republic of Bulgaria, under which Ferdinand's other son, Kyril, was executed. On hearing of Kyril's death he said, "Everything is collapsing around me."[25]

In 1947, Ferdinand (then 86 years old) secretly married his 26-year-old assistant Alžbeta Brezáková in Bamberg, Germany,[26] much to the displeasure of the members of his family. After his death, she returned to her homeland Czechoslovakia, where she remarried and had a daughter. Being afraid of what the communist regime might do to her, she only told her daughter about her marriage to Ferdinand two years before her death. She survived her husband by 67 years and died in Bratislava, Slovakia in 2015.

Ferdinand died in Bürglass-Schlösschen on 10 September 1948 in Coburg, Germany, cradle of the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha dynasty. He was the last surviving grandchild of Louis-Philippe of France. His final wish was to be buried in Bulgaria. However, the Communist authorities in Bulgaria would not allow it, so he was buried in the family crypt in St. Augustin, Coburg.

On 29 May 2024, the remains of Ferdinand I of Bulgaria were transported from Coburg to Sofia by a military plane, which landed at Sofia Airport. They were transported from Germany to Bulgaria by a military aircraft in accordance with the decision adopted by the Council of Ministers. The coffin was taken down and carried by national guards and solemnly placed in a hearse which left for the royal Vrana Palace on the outskirts of Sofia, where Ferdinand I was buried.[27]

Honours

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Styles of
King Ferdinand I of Bulgaria
 
Reference styleHis Majesty
Spoken styleYour Majesty

Bulgarian

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Foreign

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Arms of Ferdinand I as knight of the Austrian branch of the Order of the Golden Fleece

Honorary military appointments

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General of infantry shoulder straps, сhef of 54th Minsk Infantry Regiment, 1902-1912

Ancestors

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ Stephen Constant, Foxy Ferdinand, 1861-1948, Tsar of Bulgaria (Sidgwick & Jackson, 1979).
  2. ^ Louda, 1981, Lines of Succession, Table 149
  3. ^ Archiv der Domkirche St. Stephan, Wien, Taufbuch 1860-1865
  4. ^ a b Constant, Foxy Ferdinand, 1861-1948, Tsar of Bulgaria (1979).
  5. ^ a b Finestone, 1981, The Last Courts of Europe, p 227
  6. ^ a b c d e Louda, 1981, Lines of Succession, p 297
  7. ^ a b Aronson, 1986, Crowns In Conflict, p 83
  8. ^ Constant, pp. 159-167.
  9. ^ Tsar at Encyclopedia Britannica
  10. ^ Aronson, 1986, Crowns In Conflict, pp 8–9
  11. ^ Aronson, 1986, Crowns In Conflict, p 7
  12. ^ "King up in Aeroplane: Ferdinand of Bulgaria First Monarch to Do It – Sons Fly Also" (Adobe Acrobat). New York Times website. 16 July 1910. p. 1. Retrieved 17 July 2010.
  13. ^ Aronson, 1986, Crowns In Conflict, p 86
  14. ^ Aronson, 1986, Crowns In Conflict, p 87
  15. ^ Aronson, 1986, Crowns In Conflict, p 126
  16. ^ a b Palmer, 1978, The Kaiser, p 206
  17. ^ Constant, 1986, ‘’Foxy Ferdinand’’, p 143
  18. ^ Aronson, p 85.
  19. ^ a b Stéphane Groueff, ‘’Crown of Thorns: The Reign of King Boris III of Bulgaria, 1918-1943’’, Madison Books, 1998.
  20. ^ Constant, Stephen Foxy Ferdinand, 1861–1948, Tsar of Bulgaria, Sidgwick and Jackson, 1979, pp. 96, 266.
  21. ^ Gleichen, Lady Helena (1940). Contacts and Contrasts. Butler & Tanner Ltd. p. 15.
  22. ^ a b Aronson, 1986, Crowns In Conflict, p 201
  23. ^ a b Aronson, 1986, Crowns In Conflict, p 175
  24. ^ Fendrick, Raymond (2 January 1924). "Ultimatum to Bulgars Sent by Jugo-Slavs". Chicago Daily Tribune. p. 1.
  25. ^ Aronson, 1986, Crowns In Conflict, p 202
  26. ^ Milan Vároš (March 2015). "Dve Slovenky: Vdova Po Cisarovi a Kralovi" (PDF). matica.sk. Retrieved 31 May 2023.
  27. ^ "Mortal Remains of Bulgarian King Ferdinand I Brought to Bulgaria from Germany". Bulgarian News Agency. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
  28. ^ a b c The Grand Master of the Bulgarian Orders - official website of H.M. Simeon II
  29. ^ State Gazette, No. 104, 21 May 1909
  30. ^ a b c "Ritter-Orden", Hof- und Staatshandbuch der Österreichisch-Ungarischen Monarchie, 1918, pp. 51–52, 55, retrieved 2 November 2019
  31. ^ Hof- und Staats-Handbuch des Königreichs Bayern (1906), "Königliche-Orden" p. 8
  32. ^ Jørgen Pedersen (2009). Riddere af Elefantordenen, 1559–2009 (in Danish). Syddansk Universitetsforlag. p. 469. ISBN 978-87-7674-434-2.
  33. ^ Staatshandbücher für das Herzogtum Sachsen-Coburg und Gotha (1890), "Herzogliche Sachsen-Ernestinischer Hausorden" p. 43
  34. ^ "Ludewigs-orden", Großherzoglich Hessische Ordensliste (in German), Darmstadt: Staatsverlag, 1907, p. 8
  35. ^ Italia : Ministero dell'interno (1898). Calendario generale del Regno d'Italia. Unione tipografico-editrice. p. 54.
  36. ^ "Image". kingsimeon.bg. Retrieved 10 May 2023.
  37. ^ "The Majesties attended the celebrations of the 900th anniversary of the Sovereign Order of Malta". The Majesties attended the celebrations of the 900th anniversary of the Sovereign Order of Malta - H.R.H. King Simeon II.
  38. ^ "The Royal family attended the reception on the occasion of the Day of St. John the Baptist, patron of the Order of Malta". The Royal family attended the reception on the occasion of the Day of St. John the Baptist, patron of the Order of Malta - H.R.H. King Simeon II.
  39. ^ "Journal de Monaco" (PDF) (in French). 31 May 1892.
  40. ^ Bragança, Jose Vicente de (2014). "Agraciamentos Portugueses Aos Príncipes da Casa Saxe-Coburgo-Gota" [Portuguese Honours awarded to Princes of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha]. Pro Phalaris (in Portuguese). 9–10: 9. Retrieved 28 November 2019.
  41. ^ "Rother Adler-orden", Königlich Preussische Ordensliste (in German), Berlin, 1895, p. 7{{citation}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  42. ^ "Foreign Pour le Mérite Awards: Foreign Awards During World War I". pourlemerite.org. Archived from the original on 31 October 2019. Retrieved 12 August 2020.
  43. ^ "Ordinul Carol I" [Order of Carol I]. Familia Regală a României (in Romanian). Bucharest. Retrieved 17 October 2019.
  44. ^ Sergey Semenovich Levin (2003). "Lists of Knights and Ladies". Order of the Holy Apostle Andrew the First-called (1699-1917). Order of the Holy Great Martyr Catherine (1714-1917). Moscow.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  45. ^ Alexei Popovkin (2012). "Visits of the Slavic Monarchs to Russia" (in Russian). Retrieved 7 April 2020.
  46. ^ Sveriges statskalender (in Swedish), 1940, pp. 903–904, retrieved 6 January 2018 – via runeberg.org
  47. ^ Kumanov, Milen (2015). Bulgarian-Turkish relations during the First World War (1914 – 1918) – A collection of documents (PDF) (in Bulgarian) (2 ed.). Sofia: Gutenberg. p. 516. ISBN 978-619-176-034-3.
  48. ^ Shaw, Wm. A. (1906) The Knights of England, I, London, p. 430
  49. ^ "No. 27774". The London Gazette. 14 March 1905. p. 2012.
  50. ^ "Prince ferdinand at Kieff". The Times. No. 36805. London. 27 June 1902. p. 7.

Books

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Ferdinand I of Bulgaria.
Ferdinand I of Bulgaria
Cadet branch of the House of Wettin
Born: 26 February 1861 Died: 10 September 1948
Regnal titles
Preceded by Prince of Bulgaria
7 July 1887 – 5 October 1908 		Proclaimed tsar
De jure independence
Vacant
Ottoman rule
Title last held by
Constantine II 		Tsar of Bulgaria
5 October 1908 – 3 October 1918 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Governor-general of Eastern Rumelia
7 July 1887 – 5 October 1908 		Proclaimed tsar
Bulgarian independence
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