Ferdinand was a grandnephew ofErnest I, Duke ofSaxe-Coburg and Gotha and ofLeopold I, first king of the Belgians. His father August was a brother of KingFerdinand II of Portugal, and also a first cousin toQueen Victoria, her husbandAlbert,Empress Carlota of Mexico and her brotherLeopold 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 ofSaxe-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]
The previous ruling prince of Bulgaria,Alexander of Battenberg, had abdicated in 1886 after apro-Russian coup, only seven years after he had been elected.[5] Ferdinand, who was an officer in theAustro-Hungarian Army, was elected Prince of autonomousBulgaria by itsGrand National Assembly on 7 July 1887 in theGregorian 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 gave 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 leaderStefan 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, fromRoman Catholicism toEastern Orthodoxy. However, this earned him the animosity of his Catholic Austrian relatives, and he wasexcommunicated byPope Leo XIII.
On 5 October 1908 (celebrated on 22 September), Ferdinand proclaimed Bulgaria'sde jure independence from theOttoman Empire (though the country had beende facto independent since 1878). He also proclaimed Bulgaria a kingdom, and assumed the title oftsar—a deliberate nod to the rulers of the earlier Bulgarian states.[6] However, while the titletsar was translated as "emperor" in the First and Second Bulgarian empires, it was translated as "king" under Ferdinand and his successors.[9] TheBulgarian Declaration of Independence was proclaimed by him at theHoly Forty Martyrs Church inTarnovo, and was recognized by the Ottoman Empire and the other European powers.[6] TheTarnovo Constitution was retained, with the word "prince" replaced by the word "tsar."
On a visit toGerman EmperorWilhelm II, his second cousin once removed, in 1909, Ferdinand was leaning out of a window of theNew 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 theKrupp's factory inEssen to French arms manufacturerSchneider-Creusot.[10] Another incident occurred on his journey to the funeral of his second cousin KingEdward VII of the United Kingdom in 1910. A tussle broke out over where his private railway carriage would be positioned in relation to theheir 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]
Like many other rulers before him, Ferdinand desired the creation of a "newByzantium", 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 oldByzantine Empire, which was quintessentiallyRoman 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. TheGreat Powers insisted on the creation of anindependent Albania.[6] Though theBalkan League allies had fought together against the common enemy in theFirst 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 ofVardar 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 theSecond 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 1913Treaty of Bucharest granted the Kingdom some territorial gains. The region ofWestern Thrace, giving access to theAegean Sea was secured.[6]
On 11 October 1915, the Bulgarian armyattacked Serbia after signing a treaty withAustria-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 orAustrian EmperorFranz 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, theOttoman 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:[16]
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 anotherFerdinand I, who was also Ferdinand's first cousin once removed.
To save the Bulgarian monarchy after multiple military setbacks in 1918, Tsar Ferdinandabdicated in favour of his eldest son, who became TsarBoris III on 3 October 1918.[17] 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.[17]
According to her memoirs, Ferdinand I was vehemently in love with Archduchess Louise of Austria, and proposed marriage to her, but she refused:
Let me assure you at once that I do not and could not love you, and should not be happy as your wife. I quite realise your worldly advantages, but you would never be able to give me real happiness. I'm sure you only want to marry me because I am an Austrian Archduchess; the word Archduchess stands for love in your vocabulary, and you have promised your ministers to return to Bulgaria betrothed to me. Well I shall not marry you. You'd better go to the Duke of Parma and ask him for my cousin, Marie-Louise.[18]
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 marriedPrincess Eleonore Reuss of Köstritz, on 28 February 1908.[20] 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.[21]
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.[21] In his later life, rumours abounded of Ferdinand's trysts with lieutenants and valets. His regular holidays onCapri, then a popular holiday destination with wealthyepicenes, were common knowledge in royal courts throughout Europe.[22]
Prince Ferdinand, who was a Coburg, was a cousin ofmy 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.”[23]
After his abdication, Ferdinand returned to live inCoburg, Germany. He had managed to salvage much of his fortune and was able to live in some style.[24] He saw his being in exile simply as one of the hazards of kingship.[24] 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."[25] 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 toSofia. TheKingdom of Yugoslavia immediately sent an ultimatum objecting to the move.[26]
However, he would live to see the collapse of everything he had held to be precious in life.[25] His eldest son and successor,Boris III, died under mysterious circumstances after returning from a visit toHitler 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 thePeople'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."[27]
In 1947, Ferdinand (then 86 years old) secretly married his 26-year-old assistantAlžbeta Brezáková inBamberg, Germany,[28] much to the displeasure of the members of his family. After his death, she returned to her homelandCzechoslovakia, 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 inBratislava, Slovakia in 2015.
Ferdinand died in Bürglass-Schlösschen on 10 September 1948 inCoburg, 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 inSt. 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 royalVrana Palace on the outskirts of Sofia, where Ferdinand I was buried.[29]
^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)
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