Prince Ferdinand of Bulgaria was a tough sell. His mother, the
daughter of a French king, had set him up with a suitable prospect for a
wife, in this instance an Austrian Arch-Duchess. Doing as he was told,
Ferdinand declared his love and proposed marriage while seated on a park
bench. The Arch-Duchess could see through the fog of insincerity and
nearly laughed in Ferdinand’s face. This effeminate, preening,
sybaritic, self absorbed monarch in resplendent clothes, jacket adorned
with bejeweled stickpins, could be interested in only one thing –
improvement of his status as a European Prince. She rightly guessed
that, for romantic interest, his attentions were set on young men, and
not a woman, Arch-Duchess or otherwise. Perhaps it was the painted
fingernails that gave it away. Or the custom made fine chamois leather
gloves he wore – indoors. At any rate, Ferdinand struck out. Big time.
Although
Ferdinand I (1861-1948) eventually entered into a
marriage of convenience with a rich Italian princess (Maria Louisa of
Bourbon-Parma, who bore him four children), his penchant for young men
was well-known throughout his life. Ferdinand's regular holidays on the
Italian island of Capri, then a famous haunt for wealthy gay men, were
common knowledge in royal courts throughout Europe.
Ferdinand was born in the opulent
Palais Coburg* (photos at end
of post) in Vienna, Austria, as the Duke of Saxony. He later became
Prince of the Koháry (Hungarian) branch of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, a ruling
house dynasty of central Europe. You may recall that Prince Albert,
husband of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom, was born into this
family. Ferdinand, from an immensely wealthy and well-connected noble
heritage, was the grandson of King Louis Philippe I of France, the
nephew of Ferdinand II of Portugal, cousin of both Queen Victoria and
Leopold II of Belgium and second cousin of King Edward VII of Britain –
not to mention being the nephew of Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria.
Ferdinand was given a military upbringing, but showed no aptitude for
it. He was much more literary, interested in jewels, clothes and,
indeed, those young blond men. Queen Victoria, his most prominent
relative, greeted his 1887 accession as Prince Regent of Bulgaria with
disbelief. She stated to her Prime Minister, “
He is totally unfit, delicate, eccentric and effeminate ... he should be stopped at once.”
Emperor Franz Joseph I of Austria was no fan, either. When Bulgaria and
Russia affected a reconciliation in 1896, Ferdinand’s infant son Boris
was converted from Roman Catholicism to Eastern Orthodox Christianity,
the dominant religion in Bulgaria and Russia. In fact, the Bulgarian
constitution required it (not to mention that Russian Tsar Nicholas II
was the godfather of Boris). Franz Joseph was outraged and successfully
petitioned the Pope to excommunicate Ferdinand. Ferdinand's wife, who
was not consulted in the matter, was so horrified that she left Bulgaria
and returned to her father in Italy, but she got no sympathy there,
either. Her father ordered her to return to Bulgaria to her loveless
marriage and ever domineering mother-in-law, who detested her.
Well, there you have it. One big happy family.
Sofia’s population was a paltry 11,649 at the time it was taken by
Russian forces during the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878). Sofia was
declared the capital of an autonomous Principality of Bulgaria in 1879,
and by the time Ferdinand arrived eight years later, the population had
increased to nearly 19,000. Things were tough in Bulgaria in 1886.
Twenty-nine year old Alexander I of Battenberg, the first non-Ottoman
ruler of the newly autonomous state, had just been forced to abdicate at
gunpoint in Sofia and was exiled to Austria. When the Bulgarian
delegation set out to find a new leader for their country, it was no
easy task. Their country was young, poor and stunted by difficult if not
impossible political complications. They courted Ferdinand mostly
because he was from a well-connected ruling house that would mean, if he
were put on the throne, their fledgling nation would be tied to nearly
every crown dynasty of Europe – plus he was available.
Ferdinand’s imagination started spinning out of control as he dreamed of
a triumphal entry onto Bulgarian soil dressed as a dashing monarch.
This idea was sparked by the arrival of a splendid military uniform
replete with medals, epaulets, sashes and effusive gold trim, delivered
to Ferdinand by the Bulgarian delegation in Vienna, playing deftly to
Ferdinand’s lifelong bent for ostentation, pomp and show. The guy loved
his fancy clothes.
Bear in mind that Ferdinand was not the first choice as Prince Regent of
Bulgaria. Not even close. He was a rather effeminate 25-year-old
bachelor who obsessed over fashion, jewelry and flowers (violets were
his favorites) – with no experience as a soldier, ruler or diplomat.
However, every other European prince, duke, and assorted noble who was
approached wanted no part of their political intrigues and turned it
down, even the neighboring King of Romania. Ferdinand mulled it over and
stalled, awaiting the approval of Europe’s great powers, but the
impatient Bulgarian National Assembly went ahead and elected him
in absentia
– and Ferdinand ultimately accepted their call. Bulgaria had its giant
neighbor Russia breathing down its neck and needed a man on its vacant
throne post haste. As it played out, Central Europe would never be the
same.
Ferdinand's handsome eldest son Boris (right), who would eventually succeed him at age twenty-four, as
Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria.
To the amazement of his initial detractors, Ferdinand made a success of
his reign until the political complexities leading up to WWI. Ferdinand
ruled over Bulgaria for 33 years (1887-1918), first as Prince Regent,
then as Tsar, after Bulgaria secured its complete independence from the
Ottoman Empire in 1908. He re-established the royal dynasty of Bulgaria
with legitimacy, since he could trace his ancestry back to medieval
rulers of Bulgaria, who used the term Tsar instead of King. Thus
Ferdinand's son Boris became the first Bulgarian monarch born on
Bulgarian soil in a thousand years. On October 5, 1908, Ferdinand
declared Bulgaria's independence while proclaiming himself Tsar (see
above photo taken on proclamation day). He then went on a building
spree, ordering the construction of many prominent and architecturally
distinguished buildings still seen in Sofia today.
His ambitious and very rich mother, Princess Clementine of
Bourbon-Orléans, was both the daughter of a king (Louis Philippe of
France) and the mother of one. She set about making over the rather
tatty nation her son was ruling. She built hospitals, orphanages, and
the like as proof of filial affection. For her son’s birthday, she built
a railway line connecting Bulgaria to the rest of Europe. She was a
force of nature who completely dominated her husband and children.
Ferdinand was her favorite son, and she habitually spoiled him rotten.
During Ferdinand's state visit to Paris in 1910, his first as Tsar of
Bulgaria, the Parisians were effusive in their welcome. The president,
prime minister and other leaders greeted the arrival of his train with a
royal gun salute and loud cheers from the crowds lining the route from
the station to his quarters at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, where
his apartment was furnished for the occasion with items from the palaces
of the former French kings, notably Louis XIV and Louis XV. Every item
in his bedroom had belonged to his grandfather, King Louis Philippe,
including a vase with the portrait of his mother as young Princess
Clémentine. At a speech in Ferdinand's honor at the Hôtel de Ville (city
hall), the royal connection was illuminated by the words, "While we bow
respectfully before the Tsar of Bulgaria, we also honor in his person
the gallant son of our beloved France." Ferdinand swooned. When he drove
through the grand boulevards of Paris, enthusiastic crowds cheered,
"Long live the King!" It almost seemed as if the monarchy had been
restored to France.
Ferdinand, however, turned out to be a genius at politics, playing the
Great Powers against each other for almost 20 years, earning him the
moniker “Foxy Ferdinand”. At the same time, he played arbiter to his
country’s parliament and essentially did as he pleased, despite being
merely a constitutional monarch. He even managed to gay up negotiations
in the years prior to the First World War. As he expertly courted both
major blocs, each of them included in their delegations a strapping
young blond chauffeur who would take the Prince out for a drive into the
woods between all these tiresome negotiations. Similarly, they
invariably engaged their youngest, handsomest representative when they
were seeking favors or concessions from Ferdinand. Worked like a charm.
In Proust's great novel
A la Recherche du Temps Perdu, the author
incorporated his impressions of Ferdinand during the time of the Tsar's
triumph in Paris. When a duchess was asked by Ferdinand if she was ever
jealous, she replied, "Yes, sir, of your bracelets." In the same book
it is explained that the turnaround in relations between arch enemies
Kaiser Willem and Tsar Ferdinand to forging an alliance in WW I was due
to the fact that they shared strong homosexual proclivities.
Ferdinand’s first missteps emerged when he championed the 1912 formation
of the Balkan League, consisting of Bulgaria, Serbia, Greece and
Montenegro, with a goal of dismembering Turkey. Thus the First Balkan
War of 1912 came about. Despite finishing up on the winning side,
Ferdinand's territorial ambitions were stunted when his allies could not
agree on sharing the Turkish spoils in Bulgaria’s favor. Thus an
alliance was formed by Greece and Serbia against Bulgaria, and later
Turkey and Romania joined them. From this atmosphere the Second Balkan
War arose in 1913, with disastrous results for Bulgaria. Ferdinand’s
people suffered a ruinous humiliation. Worse, when a young Bosnian Serb
assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914 as payback for Austria’s
annexation of Bosnia six years earlier, the stage was set for WWI.
Bulgaria tried to maintain neutrality but ended up a member of the
Central Powers, consisting of members of the Austria-Hungarian and
Ottoman Empires and Germany. In 1915 Bulgaria declared war on Serbia;
days later the U.K., Montenegro, France, Italy and Russia declared war
on Bulgaria. Unfortunately, this put Bulgaria on the losing side of the
war. WWI shattered the monarchies of the Central Powers, overthrowing
Kaisers, Emperors and Sultans alike. When it was all over, only one
throne was left standing – and to preserve it Ferdinand abdicated to his
24-year-old son, who became empowered as Tsar Boris III of Bulgaria on
October 3, 1918.
Fortunately, Ferdinand had other pursuits to fall back on. A true
polymath, he distinguished himself as an author, botanist, entomologist
and philatelist – and a world class homosexual philanderer. But we need
to back up a bit. When his first wife died giving birth to their
fourth child, Ferdinand's indomitable mother stepped in to raise the
children. After his mother died, to satisfy dynastic obligations and to
provide his children with another mother figure, Ferdinand married
Eleonore Caroline Gasparine Louise (in photo at right), an East German
Princess, on February 28, 1908. It was another marriage of convenience,
and she knew what sort of relationship she was getting into. Most
assume the marriage was never consummated. Ferdinand even demanded
separate bedrooms for himself and Eleonore during their honeymoon as
guests of King Carol I of Romania. It was no surprise that Eleonore
remained neglected by Ferdinand throughout their marriage.
Ferdinand was ever the master of ostentation and self promotion.
Addicted to luxury motorcars, he ordered a Mercedes that took the
factory three years to build. Known as the
Royal Mercedes, it
boasted an interior of rosewood and mahogany set with inlaid floral
designs of ivory and gold. This Mercedes was the first car ever built
with an ashtray, which Ferdinand had requested, and it was considered
the most expensive automobile ever built at the time. Note the custom
radiator cap fashioned in the shape of his Bulgarian royal crown.
Ferdinand was known for his pugnacious behavior. When visiting German
Emperor Wilhelm II, his second cousin, in 1909, Ferdinand was leaning
out the window of the palace in Potsdam when the Emperor came up behind
him and slapped him on the bottom. Ferdinand demanded an apology, and
the Emperor complied; however, Ferdinand exacted revenge by awarding a
valuable arms contract he had intended to give to the Krupp's factory in
Germany to a French arms manufacturer instead. Industrialist Friedrich
"Fritz" Krupp had often crossed paths with Ferdinand on the isle of
Capri, where both men pursued underage males for sexual gratification.
On a happier note, during a visit to Belgium in 1910 Ferdinand became
the first head of state to fly in an airplane, making sure photographers
were there to record the event. But I digress.
On his journey to the funeral of his second cousin, British King Edward
VII in 1910, a dispute over protocol erupted about the placement of
Ferdinand’s private railroad car (above) in relation to that of Archduke
Franz Ferdinand, heir to the Austro-Hungarian throne. The Archduke won
out, having his carriage positioned directly behind the engine, with
Ferdinand's placed second. The dining car was the third coach from the
front, and Ferdinand stubbornly refused the Archduke access through his
own carriage to the dining car. Ferdinand wore a flamboyant silk turban
on the day of Edward VII’s funeral, while other assembled crowned heads
shared their disdain at Ferdinand’s ostentation in calling himself a
Tsar. As well they gossiped about the fact that he kept a Byzantine
Emperor’s full regalia, designed by a Parisian theatrical costumer,
against the day when he might reassemble the Byzantine dominions beneath
his scepter. The man loved his clothes! Nine kings, Ferdinand among
them, led the funeral procession. After them came five heirs apparent,
forty more imperial or royal highnesses, seven queens and a scattering
of special ambassadors from uncrowned countries. Former President
Theodore Roosevelt attended as a special envoy of the United States.
Together they represented seventy nations in the greatest assemblage of
royalty and rank ever gathered in one place, and the last of its kind.
After his forced abdication in 1918, Ferdinand lived a life of luxurious
exile in Coburg, Germany. He commented, “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.” He was
pleased that the throne had passed to his son, and Ferdinand was not
made despondent by exile, spending most of his time devoted to pleasant
artistic endeavors, gardening, travel and natural history. He died of
natural causes at age 87 in 1948 at the Bürglaß-Schlösschen ("little
palace", photo above), a dynastic residence of the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha
ruling house in Coburg, thirty years after abdicating his throne to his
son. Tsar Ferdinand I's unusually long life spanned important world
events, from the U.S. Civil War to the French commune of 1871 and on
through two devastating world wars. Ferdinand’s 18th-century “little
palace” still stands opposite the State Theatre in modern day Coburg,
but is today used as a municipal building where weddings take place.
The rear garden is the largest and most popular Biergarten in Coburg.
Tragically, Ferdinand outlived both his sons. His eldest son and
successor, Boris III, died under mysterious circumstances*** after
returning from a visit to Hitler in Germany in 1943. Boris III's son,
Simeon II, succeeded him as Tsar (at age 6) only to be deposed by the
Soviets in 1946, ending the Bulgarian monarchy that Ferdinand had
re-established. The Kingdom of Bulgaria was succeeded by the People's
Republic of Bulgaria, under which Ferdinand’s sole surviving son, Kyril,
was executed. Amazingly, after the fall of the Soviet Union,
Ferdinand's grandson Simeon II returned from exile in Spain in 1998 and
resumed the role of leader of the nation upon taking office as Prime
Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria. During his time in power, from
July 2001 until August 2005, Bulgaria joined NATO and the European
Community (full membership in the EU did not occur until 2007). The
royal Vrana Palace buildings and grounds on the outskirts of Sofia were
returned to Simeon and his sister in 1998. Simeon and his wife, who
donated most of the acreage back to the city for use as a public park,
to this day reside in the hunting lodge on the property. At age 74
Simeon is today one of the last living heads of state from the World War
II-era, the only living person who has borne the Bulgarian title
"Tsar", and one of the few monarchs in history to have become a head of
government through democratic election.
