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Zar Ferdinand I von Sachsen-Coburg

Male 1861 - 1948  (87 years)    Has more than 100 ancestors and 33 descendants in this family tree.

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  • Name Ferdinand I von Sachsen-Coburg 
    Prefix Zar 
    Birth 26 Feb 1861  Vienna Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    Death 10 Sep 1948  Coburg Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Siblings 4 Siblings 
    Person ID I6319  Geneagraphie
    Last Modified 29 Aug 2000 

    Father August Ludwig von Sachsen-Coburg,   b. 13 Jun 1818, Vienna Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 26 Jul 1881, Schloss Ebenthal Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 63 years) 
    Mother Marie Clementine de Bourbon,   b. 3 Jun 1817, Neiully-sur-Seine Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 16 Feb 1907, Vienna Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 89 years) 
    Marriage 20 Apr 1843  St Cloud Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Family ID F2822  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Maria Luisa Pia Teresa de Bourbon-Parma,   b. 17 Jan 1870, Roma, Latium, Italia Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 31 Jan 1899, Sofia, Bulgaria Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 29 years) 
    Marriage 20 Apr 1893  Lucca, Toscana, Italia Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Children 
    +1. Zar Boris III von Sachsen-Coburg,   b. 30 Jan 1894, Sofia, Bulgaria Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 28 Aug 1943, Sofia, Bulgaria Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 49 years)
     2. Cyrillus von Sachsen-Coburg,   b. 1895   d. 1944 (Age 49 years)
    +3. Nadejda von Sachsen-Coburg,   b. 30 Jan 1899, Sofia, Bulgaria Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 15 Feb 1958, Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Deutschland Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 59 years)
    Family ID F2275  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 29 Aug 2000 

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    Link to Google MapsMarriage - 20 Apr 1893 - Lucca, Toscana, Italia Link to Google Earth
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    Pin Legend  : Address       : Location       : City/Town       : County/Shire       : State/Province       : Country       : Not Set

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  • Notes 
    • Aged 26 and a retired lieutenant of the Austrian Army, he was elected Prince of Bulgaria by the Great National Assembly in Turnovo on July 7th, 1887, after the abdication of Prince Alexander Battenberg.
      Upon his arrival in Sofia, he worked with the great Prime Minister of the day, Stefan Stambolov and his government; secretly supported by Austria and England, he managed to counter the opposition of Russia, which had been trying to prevent the Great Powers from recognizing him. His marriage to a Catholic, Mary Louise, daughter of Robert, Duke of Parma, in 1893, increased Russia's hostility. However, after the death of Tsar Alexander III and the murder of Stefan Stambolov in 1895, relations with St. Petersburg improved. Prince Ferdinand won the support of the new Russian Tsar, Nicholas I, by baptizing Boris, heir to the Bulgarian throne, in the Eastern Orthodox faith in 1896. Following the baptism, Ferdinand was officially recognized by Russia, and the other Powers. The Pope, Leo XIII, vehemently disapproving, promptly excommunicated the Prince. Some years later, Pope Benedict XV reinstalled him to the faith.
      Having stabilized Bulgaria's position, Ferdinand and his government pursued active domestic and foreign policies. During the late summer of 1908, taking advantage of the difficulties besetting the Ottoman Empire, he declared Bulgaria's independence and proclaimed himself Tsar of the Bulgarians on October 6th. During the following year, this too was recognized by the Powers.
      Prompted by the mood of his nation to liberate and unite Bulgarians still living under Ottoman rule, he exploited Turkey's problems (war with Italy since 1911), and entered into a secret treaty with Serbia in March 1912, followed by similar accords with Montenegro and Greece. He assumed supreme command of the Bulgarian army when the First Balkan War started. The spectacular successes of the victorious Bulgarian army kindled great ambitions in him and he supported his government to seek the full unification of the Bulgarian people.
      The second Balkan War started on June 16th, 1913 and ended with the crushing defeat of Bulgaria and the Treaty of
      Bucharest. The betrayal of Bulgaria by her ex-allies Serbia, Montenegro and Greece influenced Tsar Ferdinand to accept his government's policy decision to side with the Central Powers during World War I, which Bulgaria entered in 1915. The war ended in defeat for Bulgaria and Ferdinand abdicated on October 3rd, 1918 in favour of his son Boris III. He left the country on the same day and settled in Germany.
      King Ferdinand was known as a skillful diplomat and strong and gifted Head of State. His reign left a significant and lasting impact on the political, cultural and social life of Bulgaria. The progress of the fledgling Bulgarian State to a level where it was regarded as the strongest and most advanced Balkan country, was due in no small measure, to its first Tsar of modern times and his innovative spirit, which guided it into the Twentieth Century.
      ********************************************
      "POLITICS IS NOT A SCIENCE, BUT ART": these words of Bismarck, the Iron Chancellor of Germany, were often cited by Tsar Ferdinand in the presence of his sons, the crown prince Boris and Kiril of Preslav.
      Beauty was his only ideal. Unreliable. One could not count on him taking the same stand at six o'clock as at two o'clock or four o'clock," a diplomat very close to the second monarch of the Third Bulgarian State recalled. His description is a good starting point for the understanding of the two groups of historians who have been arguing over the life and deeds of Tsar Ferdinand for many decades now. His supporters and admirers point out that the German prince Ferdinand Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, born on 26 February 1861, had dreamt of the crown since his childhood, which involved a wealthy upbringing and the will to shoulder the burden of power. When in the summer of 1887 Prince Ferdinand arrived to Vidin, he was apparently full of ambitions to build a powerful state and to lay the foundations of a lasting Coburg dynasty. Second lieutenant in the Austro-Hungarian army, he was elected by the Grand National Assembly as monarch of Bulgaria and ascended the throne, vacated by Prince Alexander I, in a very different situation. The country was in an upsurge, hopes for the future pushing it ahead. Under Ferdinand, Bulgaria made considerable progress in many spheres: politics, economy, culture and defence. At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, Bulgaria was developing faster than any of its neighbors. Ferdinand's historic merit is that he did not stand in the way of that development, but in many ways encouraged the modernization of the country. In the beginning, Ferdinand I knew little about Bulgarians' situation and readily learned from Stambolov The son of Princess Clementine - King Louis Philippe of France's daughter - he displayed remarkable strength of character. With aristocratic upbringing and manners, fluent in several languages, he was a versatile politician and a skilled diplomat when faced political tensions. In 1908 his nose for diplomacy told him the time had come to declare Bulgaria's independence, changing his prince's crown for that of a tsar. A number of historians flatly condemn Ferdinand I as a ruler. It is telling that one book about the ruler by Steven Constant, is entitled Ferdinand the Fox, referring to his cunning, resourcefulness and, often, perfidy. Other opponents of the Coburg dynasty denounce his "personal rule" at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century as a violation of the principles of democracy. He actually did not establish an autocracy, but he did have complete control over the army, the foreign ministry and the appointment of cabinet ministers, thus holding the key elements of power in his hands and forcing politicians, diplomats and generals into submission. "Bulgaria was too small a state for his plans and ambitions. He had always hoped to be a ruler of European magnitude, equal to the Emperor of Russia, the Kaiser of Germany and the Queen of England... It was no confidence that he was aspiring after Constantinople...," writes the historian Ilcho Dimitrov about the range of Ferdinand's ambition. Ferdinand coveted the Byzantine crown. He came to Bulgaria without formal international recognition and had to fight fiercely for his self-assertion, never forgetting his great dream, in pursuit of which he gave up the attainable for the unachievable. In crucial historical moments Ferdinand's diplomatic patience deserted him. He failed to consult the government or the National Assembly about Bulgaria's entry into the Second Balkan War in the summer of 1913 and the alliance with Germany and Austro-Hungary during World War I. It was his desire for fame that fuelled his overinflated self-confidence and resulted in two national disasters in 1913 and 1919. Presumably, Ferdinand was seeking the best way to defend Bulgaria's national interests, and Bulgaria did score some victories in the First Balkan War in 1912- 1913. A memorable Bulgarian victory was won at Adrianople in the spring of 1913 when Turkey was brought to its knees and forced to give up most of its European territories. But again, uncontrolled willfulness prevailed over slow perseverance and impulsiveness over well-considered strategy. The history of the Balkan wars gives evidence of arbitrary decisions of the monarch, too Several months earlier he threw the Bulgarian army into bloody and hopeless fights at Catalca in Turkey. At the time of his abdication in the autumn of 1918, Tsar Ferdinand realized the irony in the words he had pronounced upon ascending the throne: "I have come here to stay!" This bitterness rankled him till his death in 1948.



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