Tsar Ferdinand I of Bulgaria
Ferdinand I ruled Bulgaria for thirty years, declared its independence, took it into two wars on the losing side, and abdicated. Born in Vienna in 1861, he was a prince of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, a grandson of Louis Philippe of France, a serving Austro-Hungarian officer and a keen botanist with no connection to Bulgaria whatever. He was elected prince in 1887 by a Bulgarian assembly that had run out of candidates after its previous ruler was kidnapped and forced to abdicate by Russian officers, and after several more suitable princes had declined. Russia refused to recognise him for nine years, and Bismarck called the appointment a joke. He secured recognition in 1896 by having his infant son baptised Orthodox, which broke his agreement with his own Catholic family and with the pope. In 1908, with Austria annexing Bosnia and the Ottomans in revolution, he declared full independence and took the title Tsar. The Balkan War of 1912 went well: the Ottomans were driven almost to Constantinople by a Balkan league. The division of the spoils did not. He attacked his own allies in June 1913 without consulting his government, and Serbia, Greece, Romania and the Ottomans all fell on Bulgaria, which lost most of what it had won. He then joined the Central Powers in 1915 to recover it, and lost again. He abdicated in October 1918 in favour of his son and spent the next thirty years in Coburg with his butterflies. He died in 1948. Bulgaria's territorial ambitions and its record of backing the losing side both begin with him.
- Lived: 1861 CE – 1948 CE
- Nationality: Bulgarian
- Roles: tsar, monarch
